Enable the Default Web Apps in Chrome 8

Google Chrome 8 has been launched, but where is the Web Store? It will be available soon. Google has already started to inform developers about the upcoming changes to the extensions gallery:

"These last few months, our team has been hard at work, preparing for the Chrome Web Store launch later this year. Extensions and themes for Google Chrome will be part of this new store."

While waiting for the Chrome Web Store launch, you can enable the apps section from the new tab page and install the 3 default web apps: Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs. Here's how to do that:

1. Close all Google Chrome windows.

2. In Windows, right-click on a Chrome shortcut from your desktop, select "Properties" and append the following text to the Target field: " --enable-default-apps" (don't use quotes, but don't forget to add a space before adding the command line flag). Click "OK" to close the dialog and then open Google Chrome.

On a Mac, quit Chrome, open the Terminal and paste this:

open /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app --args -enable-default-apps

For Linux you could use this:

/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome -enable-default-apps

3. Type chrome://extensions/ in the address bar (or click on the wrench menu and go to Tools > Extensions).

4. Click the "developer mode" link and then click "Update extensions now".

5. After less than a minute, your new tab page should look like this:

You can open the apps in regular tabs or you can right-click and select "open as pinned tab" or "open full screen".

Via googlesystem.blogspot.com

Google Chrome 8 goes stable -- brings App support, PDF viewer, expanded sync options

Google has just released Chrome 8 to the Stable channel. The updated version is already making its way to a computer near you and will bring your Chrome installation up to version 8.0.552.215. This version is also being released to the Beta channel, since the previous version there was 8.0.552.210. It looks like the Beta and Stable channels will host identical releases for a while, until Google decides to take Chrome 9 to Beta.

Making its debut on the Stable channel with this release is Chrome's built-in PDF viewer, that uses Chrome's sandboxing and has been available in the Beta channel for a while now. Also straight from the Beta channel comes support for the upcoming Web apps that Google will host in the Chrome Web Store, when that launches. Sync options have also been expanded to include apps.

The Flags menu has also made it into Chrome 8 Stable, complete with (possibly unstable) options for tabbed settings, side tabs, Google Instant Search, automatically disabling outdated plugins, cross-site scripting protection, GPU accelerated compositing, WebGL 3D canvas rendering, remoting, and cloud print.

Chrome 8 also has over 800 bug fixes and stability improvements added compared to the Chrome 7. So the update is clearly worth it. And in any case, because of Google's update mechanism, you'll be getting it automagically even if you do nothing. If you're itching for the new features, just click on the Wrench > About Google Chrome > Update Now.

Google Chrome 8 goes stable -- brings App support, PDF viewer, expanded sync options originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:32:00 EST.

Web Store, the Most Important New Feature in Chrome 8

Even if Google didn't mention it in the release notes, Chrome 7 has support for installing web apps, but Chrome Web Store is not yet released. The store will be the most important new feature in Chrome 8, which will be launched very soon.

"Chrome 8 is the first version that supports the Chrome Web Store," mentions a Google Chrome engineer. There's already a new icon for the store in Chromium and this should be the final icon.

Google Chrome 7 was launched on October 21, almost 6 weeks ago, so Chrome 8 and Chrome Web Store should be available this week.


Via googlesystem.blogspot.com