Google has created many platforms for several kind of devices, the most popular one is Android, designed for touchscreens and used by many smartphones and tablets, this platform is also available for smartwatches known as Android Wear, for larger screens there’s Android TV and for car dashboards it is called Android Auto. Then, there is Chrome OS, designed for laptops and it shares some elements of their popular web browser. This software runs on devices known as Chromebooks, which are slowly gaining popularity, and other less common hardware like Chromeboxes and the Chromebit, but in any case, it offers personal computer capabilities. Many apps are available for Chrome OS and while at first some required an internet connection to work, most of them can work offline now.
Now, Google has released and updated Chrome OS version with build number 46.0.2490.71, the platform version is 7390.59.0 and every device running that operating system can check if the update is already available, although it might take a little more time before it reaches all of these devices. Besides containing several bug fixes, security updates and feature enhancements, Google has detailed some of the new features in their official Chrome Releases blog. Some highlighted features include improved Wi-Fi scanning indicator and the Gallery from Chrome OS has been updated with some elements following the Material Design language. An important improvement found on the Chrome OS Launcher is that it can now do a universal search including results from Google Drive, plus when users are one metered connections they can enable the Data Saver feature. USB-C charge settings have also been improved as well as the CPU usage from Hangouts on Intel devices.
The Beta channel intended for developers or more experienced users has had these features for a while now, but they are now integrated into the Stable version of Chrome OS, so everyone can benefit from them. The Beta channel might be updated to a newer version integrating new features quite soon, so we will have to wait a little longer to know what Google has been working on to enhance the experience on this kind of computers.