Chrome 33 was released, Google hasannounced the release of Chrome 34 beta for Windows, Mac, and Linux. New features include the addition of responsive images, an unprefixed version of the Web Audio API, and hands-free Google Voice Search.The last of the three is arguably the most exciting: just open a new tab or visit Google.com in Chrome, say “Ok Google,” and then start speaking your search. The feature is being rolled out gradually to US English users on all three desktop platforms “over the next few days.” Google notes that support for additional languages and Chrome OS is “coming soon.”
To enable the feature, you’ll have to visit Google.com, click on the microphone icon, and hit “Enable Ok Google” as you can see in the screenshot above. Once you flip the switch, Google offers three examples of what you can do: perform searches (Ok Google, how many ounces are in a cup?), set a timer (Ok Google, set a timer for 30 minutes), and create a reminder for Google Now (Ok Google, remind me to pick up dessert at 6pm tonight).
Chrome 34 beta, Google is also introducing “srcset” to let Web developers provide multiple resources in varying resolutions for a single image, in the hopes of speeding up page load times, reducing wasted bandwidth, and ending improperly formatted content. Responsive images means the browser picks the resource that matches the device’s capabilities, whether it’s a desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, or a TV.
Lastly, the new beta browser comes with an unprefixed version of the Web Audio API, to bring Chrome’s implementation of Web Audio in alignment with the W3C draft specification. Google is asking developers to switch to the unprefixed versions “soon,” as the prefixed versions have been deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
The full changelog for this release is as follows:Responsive Images and Unprefixed Web Audio.Hands-free Google Voice Search in Chrome.Import supervised users onto new computers.A number of new apps/extension APIs.Lots of under the hood changes for stability and performance.The third point is worth expanding on: you can now import supervised users, which were first added as a beta feature Chrome 32. Imported supervised users come with all their permissions, which will automatically sync across devices.
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