Chrome OS update plays nice with touchscreens

Published July 24, 2014 2:54pm

Chrome OS, the operating system for Google's net-centric Chromebooks, has become friendlier with machines using touchscreens.

The latest stable update for Chrome OS, version 36.0.1985.126, also contains several bug and security fixes, Ben Henry of Google Chrome said in a blog post.

"If you have a touch-enabled device, you can now scale a webpage to zoom in on content via pinch to zoom," Henry said.

He added the latest Chrome OS has a touch-enabled window manager for Chrome OS, available on select convertible devices.

Also, Henry said users can adjust the time if their clock is out of sync and they have no network connection.

Supervised users now have the ability to import existing supervised users, and to set a new password from chrome.com/manage.

The update applies to the following devices:

5841.73.0 for CR48, Acer AC700, Acer C7 C710, ASUS Chromebook C200, ASUS Chromebox, Lenovo N20 Chromebook, Lenovo Thinkpad 11e Chromebook, Lenovo X131e, LG Chromebase, Samsung Series 3 Chromebook, Samsung Series 5 Chromebook, Samsung Chromebook 2 (11"), Samsung Chromebook 2 (13"), and the New Samsung Chromebook
5841.74.0 for the Acer C720, Dell Chromebook 11 for Education and the Toshiba Chromebook
5841.76.0 for Google Pixel and the Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook

"Systems will be receiving updates over the next several days," Henry said.

A report on PC World said the support for touchscreens was previously available only in the developer and beta Chrome OS channels before.

"Until now, Chrome OS has only offered rudimentary touch support. But there are signs that Google is starting to take touch more seriously with its browser-based operating system," it said.

It added Google "appears to be moving slowly, so as not to step on the toes of Android."

"But the lines between those two platforms are clearly blurring as more touch-enabled features, apps, and hardware come to Chrome OS," it said. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News

Tags: google, googlechrome