If you are already using a Chromebook then you will already be familiar with the various perks and benefits on offer, from Google’s take on what a laptop is. Running on Chrome OS, Chromebooks offers users an affordable and functional alternative to standard desktop and laptops. Of course, there are some disadvantages with (mostly) everything needed to be done in browser form, due to the Chromebook’s limited internal storage and offline use.
That said, one of the real benefits of Chromebooks is the speed in which they see updates and features added. In fact, if you are willing to be more adventurous than the standard Chromebook user, they you can opt to be part of their testing program and subscribe to what it referred to as a beta or developer channel user. By changing your Chromebook to either of these channels, users experience far more often updating (typically once a week for beta and twice weekly for developers) as well as the latest and newest features.
In terms of the beta channel, it looks like one of the new feature en route to beta users is the implementation of Google Now Cards. According to a community post (source link below) which went out late last night, beta channel users are going to be seeing their Google Now cards being displayed in their Chrome App Launcher very soon. Of course, this is a feature which has already been present on the developer channel along with a number of other additions. However, this is typically how new features are updating, by moving from the developer channel to the beta channel and finally to the stable channel. The announcement also states that other changes en route to beta users is the redesigned material design file manager, timezone auto updating and the recently announced password protected zip files. If you are not currently using the beta (or developer) channel yet, then you can switch over at any time through your Chromebook settings. However, if you are going from stable to beta, you might lose your content stored locally on your device. So make sure to back up your data before you do. You can read the full details of the latest changes coming to beta users by clicking the source link below.