Google Chrome developers have been adding a number of new features lately, especially now that work on Chrome 7.0 has started, and, while many benefit existing users, quite a few target Chrome OS and the devices it's going to run on.

A couple of features that have recently been enabled by default, fit the bill perfectly. Device orientation and speech input have both been enabled by default in the latest Chromium builds, with the latter only with Windows users for now.

The two features aren't really that useful on desktops or even on laptops, but are right at home on tablets. While Chrome OS will be available on netbooks for start, tablets are definitely on the table after the initial launch.

The first feature enables the browser to access a device's accelerometer and determine its orientation. These sensors are common on mobile phones and on tablets. They are also present on some netbooks and laptops out there.

The feature enables web pages to access this information as well, as demonstrated by a Chrome developer. The data could be used to present a different layout depending on the orientation, for example. Firefox has been working this functionality for a while now.

The second feature is also a perfect fit for tablets. The lack of a physical keyboard makes it annoying to type anything on tablets. Android phones make ample use of the speech recognition and input features built into the mobile OS and Chrome OS will definitely benefit as well.

Speech input is available by default only for Windows users, for now, Mac and Linux users still have to run Chrome with the --enable-speech-input command-line option.

Chrome OS is now only a couple of months away. The upcoming operating system will rely entirely on web apps so the Chrome browser on which is based has to handle all of the features an operating system and core apps would normally do. [via DownloadSquad]