14 DAY TRIAL // Google took the stage at its Google I/O 2011 developer conference to showcase the fruition of its Chrome OS project, the Chromebooks, hitting online stores midsummer. While Google had the devices and the software to display, you won't be able to buy a Chromebook for one more month and the main reason for this was that Chrome OS still wasn't ready.
But it's getting very close with the release of Google Chrome OS R12 beta, which will be the version shipping with the devices in June.
"The Chrome OS Beta channel has been updated to R12 release 0.12.433.38 including Chrome 12 Beta, new trackpad, new Flash Player and several stability and functional improvements over the previous release," Orit Mazor, from the Google Chrome team, announced.
As is obvious, Chrome OS R12 Beta is based on the recently released Chrome 12 Beta. It packs all of the new features and enhancements built into the browser, since Chrome OS is little more than the web browser.
But it comes with quite a lot of improvements and new additions from the previous Chrome OS release. The file browser in Chrome OS has gotten a major improvement bringing it on mostly on par with desktop equivalents. There is now a preview pane which supports several file types.
It also integrates with apps installed on the device, for example enabling you to send photos to your Picasa account.
Chrome OS R12 Beta also comes with a brand new silver theme that looks very sleek and a lot more stylish than the default blue one Chrome has been sporting for a while now.
Adobe Flash Player 10.3 is included with the latest release and the trackpad on Cr-48 devices works better as well. Several fixes for 3G as well as WiFi connectivity have been implemented.
Overall, it's a big improvement over Chrome OS R11. Existing users should find the new features and fixes a great addition and this also means that new users buying a Chromebook next month will get to enjoy a mostly complete OS.