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Get the most out of your Chromebook with noise cancellation and these other hidden Chrome OS 92 features
Improve your Chrome OS experience by enabling all this extra functionality
Chrome OS 92 has finally rolled out to Chromebooks following a week's delay, and it's packed with goodies like a brand new emoji picker and a clipboard manager for tablets. We've been digging into the new update and pulling up even more features that should help you get the most out of your Chromebook. Here are a few advantageous but experimental features we've found that you can take advantage of today.
Chrome OS 92 is rolling out to Chromebooks with a huge focus on communication
Featuring a brand new emoji picker, eSIM support, and more
There's no denying that Google has had a rough couple of weeks following its recent attempts to fix Chrome OS. After a brief delay, the company is now jumping back on track and announcing the next major update for Chromebooks — two weeks after Chrome 92 launched for mobile and desktop platforms. Chrome OS 92 sweetens the user experience with a sprinkle of new features; here are all the important bits Google announced today.
This Chromebook would make a perfect first laptop for your kid, and it's super affordable right now
Today only, you can get it for over 50% off at Best Buy
Acer's a well-established name in the Chromebook market. With its newest Tigerlake Chromebooks tearing through even the heaviest desktop apps, it's getting increasingly clear that the company is betting big with its hardware. As more institutions turn to Google's platform to bring millions of students online, Acer's Chromebook 512 is a no-brainer play by Acer to expand even further into the booming education market. And for today only, you can get this super-affordable Chromebook at Best Buy for a mere $130 — over 50% off its $280 price tag.
Google is working to fix a surprising oversight in the Chrome OS media app
Seriously, how did Google forget about this?
The media app on Chromebooks has been around forever — or at least since Google launched its operating system over a decade ago. Historically it's been a bit rudimentary; just about the only thing you could do back then was actually view your photos, with no built-in editing abilities. Now a recent UI overhaul and new annotation tools suggest that Google hasn't forgotten about this app entirely, but even with the newfound attention Google somehow neglected to address one exceptionally frustrating usability issue — until now.
There's no stopping Chromebooks from dominating the world
Despite a slowdown in PC growth, Chromebook sales continue to surge
Chromebooks have proven to be terrific machines for students — or really, just about anyone working from home these days. Chromebooks have seen tremendous sales over the past year, with whopping 275% year-on-year growth in the first quarter of 2021. While growth has now slowed, Chromebook sales continue to do strongly in Q2 2021.
An upcoming Chrome test fills its homepage with even more useless clickbait
There's no hiding from the Discover feed
Read update
Google is no stranger to pushing its popular Discover feed across its various platforms and products. You can even find it in Chrome's new tab page on Android these days, with its curated news feed based on your interests. Discover was first introduced in Chrome 54 and has received iterative updates to make it more prominent. It isn't finished, though, as it looks to make Discover even more visible in Chrome while in turn sacrificing usability.
Snag our favorite Chromebook with this epic deal
Acer's award-winning Spin 713 refurbs are 33% off for a limited time
Chromebooks have never seen so much growth as they have since the global pandemic brought the world home, and for good reason: they're fast, reliable, and secure — all for a low price. Acer is one of the most committed Chromebook manufacturers out there, and its Spin 713 from last year is still one of the hottest Chrome devices on the market today, offering terrific bang for your buck with its premium specifications and cheap price. Right now, you can snag an Acer-certified refurbished unit on eBay for just 7.49 — about 33% off its $630 sticker price.
You probably never thought you'd be making goofy GIF selfies on your Chromebook, but here we are
Google is bringing a GIF maker to your Chromebook's camera
GIFs have ruled the internet for the past three decades, and while other image file formats offer more colors and better compression, they just can't touch GIF's trump card: animation. People use these eye-catchy animations everywhere, whether expressing their mood, or reacting to a meme on platforms like Instagram or Twitter. If you're tired of using the same GIFs over and over, there are plenty of tools around for making your own animations. Soon, even your Chromebook may be lending its hand to help create your goofiest GIF yet.
Google is giving your Chromebook the nerdiest possible customization
Soon you'll be able to set your own custom hostname
Network administration is one of those annoying realities of using so many connected devices, and while there are plenty of tools that can help streamline things, sometimes it feels like Chromebooks are doing everything they can to make the task more difficult. Right now, it's a hassle to even identify your Chromebook on your local network because Chrome OS doesn't broadcast your device's hostname — a unique label that helps it stand out. As a result, diagnosing even simple wireless issues is more painful than it needs to be, forcing you to deal with cumbersome IP addresses. Thankfully, you won't have to wait much longer before you can assign your Chromebook a convenient, easy-to-recognize hostname of its own.
Get ready to say goodbye to potato-quality Chromebook screen captures
Lackluster video quality will be a thing of the past
It's no secret that it can be a Herculean effort to find decent screen recorder software for Chromebooks. Most online capture tools lock functionality (like recording in native resolution) behind an expensive subscription paywall, so you'd have to pay up just to unlock a basic feature. Google has been working to end your recording woes by adding a native solution for Chrome OS in its big 89 update, but unseekable captures and lackluster video quality made it mostly useless. The good news is that may soon change in a future Chrome OS update.
Google just pushed out a new Chrome OS 91 build — update now
Trying to make things right after a stupid typo messed so much up
It's no secret that Google really screwed over Chromebook users with its botched Chrome OS 91 update. When it released 91.0.4772.165 on Monday, it locked many people out of their devices, forcing them to powerwash and lose their valuable files. We learned yesterday that Google forgot to add a second "&" to a conditional statement, which broke its ability to decrypt login information (required to sign you in). Google issued a statement that it planned to push out a fix on July 21, and now, it looks like the company has kept its word.
Google Assistant is going goth, with dark mode coming to a future Chrome OS update
Light theme is getting some tweaks, too
It's been almost a year since Google started working on giving Chrome OS some darker hues. Despite dark mode's long development time, it still looks pretty unfinished today (even in Canary), and we'll probably be waiting for some time before Google officially launches it. With the highly requested feature slowly trekking its way towards the finish line, Google has been steadily rolling out updates that introduce new sprinkles of dark theme goodies, like dynamic theme switching and scheduled dark mode. And now, Google Assistant is raring to embrace its new goth makeover.
Google messed up all those Chromebooks yesterday because of a single typo
A fix has rolled out
Read update
Google can't seem to catch a break when it comes to Chrome OS 91. First we saw many users reporting their devices using an egregious amount of CPU after upgrading to 91.0.4472.147. While Google pulled the update shortly thereafter and rolled everyone back to 91.0.4472.114, that managed to lock out Linux apps. Now we're seeing the arrival of 91.0.4772.165, and this update introduces an awful bug that's breaking Chromebooks left and right.
Another day, another major Chrome exploit: Here's how to keep yourself protected
Act now to protect your system from the newest, bad Chrome vulnerability
Your security is critical to a positive web surfing experience, and Google is constantly pushing updates to Chrome so you'll stay protected from malicious websites. Some security flaws inevitably fall through the cracks — a reminder you should always use the latest version of Chrome. There's a newly discovered Chrome exploit being actively exploited today, and while Google promptly released a fix for it, there's a chance you could still be running an old, vulnerable version. Let's take a look at what you need to do to make sure you're safe.
Google's built-in price tracking for Chrome is inching closer to reality
It helps make shopping products at their lowest price much easier
It's no secret that we're constantly looking for ways to save our hard-earned cash when we purchase things. While there are plenty of resources to help us hunt for deals, it still requires a bit of work on our end to find the best prices. Thankfully, Google has been working to bring a price tracker to Chrome for Android, and with a future update, it could be even easier to find products at their best prices.
Google is adding a document scanner to the Chrome OS Camera app
Don't have a scanner at home? Use your Chromebook
The demand for flatbed scanners has been soaring ever since many of us started working from home because of the global pandemic. If you don't have access to that kind of hardware, being asked to sign and send a document might seem like an impossible task. Thankfully, the Chromebook you're using right now could soon double as a scanner.
Chrome OS is getting a new wallpaper app with Material You vibes
It's also way smoother and less broken than the old picker
Personalizing your Chromebook's desktop is key to spicing up your device with a modern, fresh look. With Google's attractive selection of stock backgrounds (that you can download here), it's easy to find a wallpaper that matches your style — as long as you don't mind dealing with its mediocre wallpaper-selection interface. For years, choosing a background has been a bit of a drag thanks to awkward sorting and confusingly poor performance. That may soon be over, as Google is rebuilding its wallpaper picker from the ground up.
Pick up the best premium Chromebook with Best Buy's killer deal
The refreshed Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is $80 off and comes with a free gaming controller
Chrome OS is a lot more capable than it once was. Unlike the "Chrome" moniker implies, it's a swiss-army knife that runs a wide range of Android apps and powerful desktop Linux tools. The versatility means you'll need a beefier laptop, and nothing fits the bill better than the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 refreshed this year. It continues its predecessor's winning formula of packing terrific specs and features for the money, and now, you can pick one up at Best Buy for $80 less with a couple of freebies to sweeten the deal.
It's about damn time: Your Chromebook will finally let you sort your apps in the launcher
After ignoring user feedback for years
It's no secret that your Chromebook's app launcher could use a serious user experience overhaul. As it is today, Chrome OS is devoid of any method of sorting your apps, meaning all rearrangement of your apps has to be done by hand, and it creates new pages in the launcher seemingly at random. The end result is an unusable mess, making it frustrating to find your important apps unless you use the search bar. After years of neglecting user feedback, it seems Google is finally doing something about it.
Managing downloads in Chrome OS is about to get much easier
Our favorite Chrome OS feature is getting even better
There's no question that Chrome OS does (mostly) everything these days, from productivity to entertainment. One of several aspects we've grown to love is its focus on usability, and we think Tote (formally Holding Space) is a brilliant feature that can take your productivity to the next level. Google is planning on supercharging Tote even further with a fresh update we're sure most would find handy.