First, the update fixed a case of “extensionitis” that was preventing Hangouts from working on my main profile on my Chromebook. This was, I think, a case where one of the extensions I was using being slightly incompatible with the previous beta. Next, it’s enabled optional editing thru QuickOffice. You can now make modest changes in Word-formatted spreadsheets and documents, and that’s a big step forward with the platform. You have to enable this thru a flag on the Chrome://flags page. It also adds the ability to tweak display parameters, something that’s not an issue on a Chromebook (except with a secondary monitor) but is a big deal on a Chromebox. It has fixed bugs and improved stability, and it seems to me that it’s also dramatically improved memory usage (a big deal on a 2GB Chromebook). Here’s the list of release highlights from the ChromeOS blog:
- Kernel 3.8 landed on Pixel and Samsung 550.
- New “immersive” mode – hit the fullscreen button to hide the toolbar and shelf and until you hover at the top for a more immersive browsing experience
- Pin apps to the shelf using Drag and Drop from the Launcher
- Consumer Kiosk Mode allows you to build your own Chrome OS powered kiosk
- Default wallpaper selection will sync across all your devices
- Monitor Scaling allows you to scale the UI
- Two-finger history navigation
- App launcher Search just got cleverer