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72 'Chrome' stories November 2012 - November 2023
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PSA: Update Chrome on Mac, as security flaw is being actively exploited

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Nov 30 2023 - 3:55 am PT
6 Comments
Update Chrome on Mac | 3D representations of Chrome logo

If you use Chrome on Mac, it’s strongly recommended to update it immediately, as a security flaw discovered by Google is being actively exploited by attackers. It could potentially allow personal data to be extracted from your Mac (the same issue also affects Chrome on Windows and Linux).

Google says it is aware of at least one real-life case of the exploit being used by a bad actor …

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New iPhone browsers on the way without WebKit; Apple prepping Safari for competition

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Feb 7 2023 - 6:48 am PT
84 Comments
Apple wins UK Safari appeal due to gov mess up

We may soon see entirely new iPhone browsers available, as both Google and Mozilla anticipate the end of Apple’s insistence that all iOS browsers use the same WebKit engine as Safari.

This will enable new versions of Chrome and Firefox to offer greater feature differentiation, and for the first time allow them to aim for faster performance than Safari …

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Automatic live captions come to Chrome on Mac for videos, podcasts, and more

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Mar 18 2021 - 5:56 am PT
0 Comments
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Automatic live captions of videos, podcasts, and phone calls was a headline feature of Google’s Pixel smartphones last year, but thanks to a new Chrome update, the same accessibility option is now available on Macs.

Simply update to the stable version of Chrome 89, and you can simply toggle on the feature, which turns speech into text in a privacy-protecting way …

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You can now change your default iOS browser to Firefox or DuckDuckGo

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 17 2020 - 5:16 am PT
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change your default iOS browser

If you’ve updated to iOS 14, you can now change your default iOS browser to either Firefox or DuckDuckGo if you wish. Both browsers have been approved by Apple to take advantage of the new option to change your default web browser from Safari. (Google’s Chrome had already been approved.)

Both browsers claim that the switch will further boost your privacy protections …

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Google has open-sourced Chrome for iOS

Avatar for Ben Schoon Jan 31 2017 - 11:48 am PT
0 Comments
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Since its launch, Google’s Chromium project has been a desktop-only matter, but that changed in 2015 with the addition of the Android version. Following that, only the iOS version of the browser wasn’t open-source. However, that’s changing today as Google has announced that the code for Chrome on iOS has been moved into the Chromium open-source repository.


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How-To: Make Gmail the default mail app in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox on Mac

Avatar for Jeff Benjamin Feb 26 2016 - 8:23 am PT
23 Comments
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Gmail Default mail app

I’ve never been a fan of the stock Mail app in OS X, so I generally find myself relying on Gmail inside of Chrome for all of my email needs. In fact, I don’t have any email accounts configured inside of the stock Mail app at all. With this in mind, I always get frustrated when I inadvertently click a mailto link inside of a browser window. Doing so forces the Mail app, which is set as the default mail client in OS X, to open without purpose.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could configure Gmail to play the role of the default mail client inside your browser of choice? In this video tutorial, I’ll show you how easy it is to configure Chrome, Safari, and even Firefox to use Gmail as the default mail client.
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Chrome for iOS updated to be ‘dramatically faster’ with 70% fewer crashes

Avatar for Zac Hall Jan 27 2016 - 8:20 am PT
4 Comments

Chrome for iOS

Google’s Chrome browser for iPhones and iPads is getting a whole lot faster and more stable today with its latest update. That’s because Chrome is now using Apple’s WKWebView rendering engine on iOS. Google says this update will reduce Chrome’s crash rate by 70% so the browsing experience will see fewer interruptions for various reasons.


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New LaCie + Seagate drives bring USB-C, style, and high SSD/HDD capacities

Avatar for Jeremy Horwitz Jan 5 2016 - 8:41 am PT
1 Comment

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Following its annual tradition, Seagate has announced a new collection of stylish, premium-priced drives in time for the 2016 CES, most now featuring USB-C and USB 3.1 connectors. Three of the drives carry Seagate’s LaCie branding; one is a handsome but Seagate-branded model.

The apparent flagship in the series is the LaCie Chromé ($1,100, shown above left), a 1TB SSD featuring a 10GB USB 3.1 interface with “up to 940MB/second speeds for intensive applications.” Described as “a trophy for tech connoisseurs,” Chromé is a Neil Poulton design that holds a boxy chrome SSD enclosure on an angle atop a circular pedestal. Additional models are discussed below…


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Chrome for iOS adds 3D Touch shortcuts, better hardware keyboard support

Avatar for Zac Hall Dec 1 2015 - 8:47 am PT
9 Comments

Chrome 3D Touch

A few weeks ago we noticed that Google has started testing pre-release versions of Chrome through Apple’s TestFlight beta distribution service, and today the version in testing then has been released to everyone through the App Store. The latest version of Chrome for iOS takes advantage of Apple’s new pressure sensitive iPhone 6s displays and offers even more hardware keyboard shortcuts that will benefit iPad users.
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Google Chrome leaves OS X cats out in the cold

Avatar for Cam Bunton Nov 11 2015 - 4:43 am PT
5 Comments

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Google has announced in an official blog post that its Chrome browser no longer supports a number of older Mac OS X versions. Google initially prepared users a few months ago that a move away from these platforms would be coming by the end of this year. Today is that day, and Google Chrome will no longer get software feature or security updates on the following Mac platforms:

  • Mac OS X 10.6 – “Snow Leopard”
  • Mac OS X 10.7 – “Lion”
  • Mac OS X 10.8 – “Mountain Lion”

On the Mac side, it’s essentially everything before Apple moved to its California-inspired version names (or anything with a cat name). The company also announced that it’ll be ending support for Windows versions XP and Vista, so it’s not just older Mac users who will no longer get updates. The reason behind the end in support is simple: Apple and Microsoft don’t actively support those platforms any more, and so Chrome will no longer actively support them either. This doesn’t mean Chrome will no longer work, it just means it won’t get any more security or software updates on machines running these versions of the OSes.

If you’re still running one of the aforementioned software versions, Google encourages you to upgrade to a more modern OS, since there are now security risks (however small) attached to using them. If you’re not sure which version of Mac OS X you’re running, you can find out by simply clicking the Apple logo in your top toolbar, and clicking ‘About this Mac’.