If you remember the Chrome OS demo video, the application menu was the most important part of Chrome OS. You will get this functionality on your normal Chrome browser with just two mouse clicks. So, you have most of what Chrome OS does, provided Google has no hidden surprises for Google Chrome when it is out in the market.
Dell has customized Chrome OS source which was released last week, and made available for download on their website. The Mini 10v is one of Dell’s netbooks and is very close to the type of hardware that Google wants to use when Chrome OS is released to consumers.
Reviews say that apart from some Wifi issues, Chrome OS works really well on Dell Mini. So, if you have a Dell Mini with you, you can try Chrome OS right now !
Yes, I would call this trick “CooL” .. It really is.
It works like this, suppose you have google.com open on a tab, and you want to open yahoo.com on another tab, what you usually do is, open a new tab by clicking the ‘+’ icon, and type in the address, and hit enter. Right ?
Instead of this, what if you could type in yahoo.com on the current tab ( where you have google.com open ) hit ALT and Enter key together, and open it on a different tab ? In other words, you are on a tab, you enter a different address or a search keyword on the addressbar, and you get it open in a new tab.
Like it ? I did ! Try it, you will definitely like it !!
The first thing I complained about Google Chrome was the lack of RSS feed icon on the address bar. When I am on a page, or a blog, an RSS feed icon next to the site URL is the easiest way to subscribe to the RSS feed. While using Chrome, I had to copy paste the URL of the website or blog to Google Reader, and subscribe from there.
Not anymore !
Google has introduced a new extension, which will come pre-installed in Google Chrome. The extension “adds a button to the URL bar when a page has a feed that can be subscribed to”. When you click on the orange button, the extension previews the feed and it lets you subscribe using a feed reader.
Since extensions are already working on the Development version of Google Chrome, and was recently pushed to beta versions too, we will soon see extensions working on your browser too. Things will be more interesting with Extensions support !
For those who really really want to try Chrome OS on their computers, here is a little about installing it on a Virtual Machine. This is done using the source code released by Google Chrome OS team. However, the version that is currently available for download ‘seems eons behind what Google showed off at its event yesterday’.
Watch the video for installation and a demo. This video shows Chrome OS on a Mac. You can install it on your windows machines as well, if you have a virtual machine set up.
