Google is switching things up with Chrome/Chrome OS releases

Google has something brewing this year for sure. I'm merely speculating but this announcement today may seem insignificant now however could be more meaningful later this year. For Chrome, Google is moving away from a six-week update cycle to a four-week update cycle. This means features will be released quicker along with Google maintaining its 2-week releases for fixes and patches.

As for Chrome OS, Google is a bit vaguer and more news will be shared later this year. For now, all we know is that Chrome OS will receive multiple stable releases but nothing more specific was mentioned. Again we should learn more later this year but it sounds to me that Chrome OS will be on a different release cycle than Chrome. More feature releases? One could hope.

Alex Mineer from Google says:

For more than a decade, Chrome has shipped a new milestone every 6 weeks, delivering security, stability, speed and simplicity to our users and the web. As we have improved our testing and release processes for Chrome, and deployed bi-weekly security updates to improve our patch gap, it became clear that we could shorten our release cycle and deliver new features more quickly. Because of this, we are excited to announce that Chrome is planning to move to releasing a new milestone every 4 weeks, starting with Chrome 94 in Q3 of 2021.

Link(s)

Chromium Blog

Comments

Are we set to see new entry level Pixel Buds at Google I/O?

I'm not one to start a Google rumor but I have to do it this time. Looking at the Google Store website this evening I noticed that the Pixel Buds A series are all but out of stock except for the Sea color way. This lines up perfectly with Google I/O being just around the corner. The Pixel Buds A are coming up on their four year anniversary in June so a refresh is definitely needed. I'm actually hoping Google gets rid of the A series line and make a slightly more premium version with features similar to the Pixel Buds Pro 2s. Of course Google will save some features just for the pros, however, they can add multi point and better battery life just to name a couple of much needed upgrades. I guess we will have to wait and see what Google's plans really are.

YT Music is my new go to Podcast player | The case to make it your podcast app

Believe it or not but YouTube Music did not always have podcasts. As a matter of fact YT Music was not the home for music for Google. That was once Google Play Music but in December of 2020 YT Music took over the music duties for the company. In 2023 YT Music absorbed podcasts from Google Podcasts which brings us to where we are now. For the sake of time I am only going to mention the podcast function within the app/service. What does YouTube Music offer? YT Music is a real basic podcast player that has got the essentials right. The service offers podcasts that are available on the service and the option to add podcasts via an RSS feed. Podcasts can also be downloaded, playback speed can be adjusted, audio/video switching (YT Music podcasts only), sleep timer, trim silence (new), and background play without the need for a YT Music subscription. There is also library support to manage your collection of podcasts, a dedicated podcast section and search and recommendation for podcast...

I attended a Pixel Superfans event at the new Google Store in Santa Monica, CA

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend a Pixel Superfans event at the new Google Store in Santa Monica. It was a soft launch of the store and a good way to meet like minded people. The staff were very nice and helpful. While I was at the store I was able to finally check out the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and wow that device is extremely impressive. Outside of that, I was able to look around the store and check out other Google products which there are quite a bit to see. I'm looking forward to my next visit to the new Google Store. Take a look at the pictures below including one of some swag I got from Google at the event.

CorysTechTime

Search This Blog