IS Chrome for iPhone and iPad in the making? Pedram Jabbari and I had a long conversation about this topic a few days back. It all started with an interesting entry we saw in Chromium code base. Now, businessinsider.com says Chrome is coming to iOS, quoting an analyst.

Chrome for iPhone and iPad?

While doing my regular review of recent code changes on Chrome, Chromium and Chrome OS, I found an entry mentioning iOS 5.1. Here it is

Update paths for iOS 5.1

These values can be overridden with some poorly documented and
overloaded options: –libc and –sdk-path

../libvpx/configure –target=armv7-darwin-gcc –sdk-path=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer –libc=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS5.1.sdk/

So for someone who still wants to build with the iOS 5 SDK, the last
part of the path should be iPhoneOS5.0.sdk

Change-Id: Ibe93d96ae828c619700dc3222983aa4c30456b88

Patch Set 1: Verified

Build Successful

After spending more time in the code Pedram and I came to the conclusion that this is code was not really for Chrome on iOS, but may be for bringing WebM features for iPhone/iPad users.

Today’s Rumor – Chrome for iOS

Business Insider’s story today about Chrome for iOS quotes an industry analyst who believes that Chrome for iPhone and iPad is getting ready or may be even awaiting Apple’s review.

Macquarie analyst Ben Schacter has a surprising report out this morning. He writes, “Google Chrome browser for iOS is coming.” He adds, “Apple may already be reviewing Google’s submitted code for a Chrome browser for iOS.”

Schacter says we can expect a Chrome browser for iOS as soon as Q2, but if not this quarter, then definitely this year.

Chrome team is working really hard on the mobile version of Chrome and have already pushed the beta version with lot of cool features and tight integration with Chrome on PC and Mac.

If Chrome comes to iOS, it is going to give a touch competition to other mobile browser makers out there. Especially players like Opera who is having trouble keeping momentum on computers, but getting a lot of fan following for their mobile version, Opera Mini.

Any excited iPhone/iPad users here?

Image Courtesy – Lifehacker.com

We all know by now that Google is planning to make Chrome more Lion friendly. There are a bunch of features being planned for this new version of Mac OS where Apple did a little “Shake Things Up” activity.

I am trying to find out what they are planning for Lion. This is not a final list and things are still being developed. So, what you see her may or may not change. But I am sure you will get  a taste of what’s planned.

Turn On Session Restore by Default

OSX Lion will have session restore turn on by default, meaning, every time you open the browser, you start where you left last time.  ”Since applications will be more agressive about restoring state, we should mimic this behavior” says a bug opened for this feature.

Another comment here says, “Now that the Lion’s out of the bag, these are safe to open up to the world.” I am pretty sure this is now available on daily builds of Chromium, for now.

Full Screen API

Lion believes that with smart phones and tablets, people have become more interested in doing things in “full screen”.  Chrome will make use of its existing full screen API to make best out of it.

“Currently we think our API for this is fine.  If someone wants to make this work they can, but for now off to MX.” says a comment from Chromium.’

Things are not as smooth as it should be, for now. They are still working on this feature and have great plans about it. Read this comment “Long-term, we’re going to implement a proper fullscreen interface for Lion. In this interface, we’ll also experiment with having a collapsable toolbar. Until then, fullscreen will operate as it does on Leopard/Snow Leopard.”

Rubberband-Scrolling (overscroll)

Apple website explains this as “Scroll to the top or bottom of a list or a web page and it springs back.” The team is trying to get this working on Chrome as well. The bug for this says “Scroll to the top / bottom edge of a page using the trackpad - There should be the rubberband-effect like on iOS.”

We will see this feature as well, pretty soon.

Support “scrolling” to go backwards/forwards

To explain this feature, I will simply copy the notes on this bug, says it all.

 ’On Lion, there’s a new gesture controlled by System Preferences –> Trackpad –> More Gestures –> Swipe between pages. If the value is set to enable two-finger gestures (either “Scroll left or right with two fingers” or “Swipe with two or three fingers”), then a two-finger gesture will perform a cool slide animation.

In Safari, when you gesture backwards with two fingers, the current page slides to the left, tracking with the user’s fingers, until after some point (1/3rd-1/2 of the page has slid) the gesture is committed. The same is true for going forward.

We should do this for Chromium, but it’s a lot of work.”

Couple of these features are already implemented in the daily build. Some are being discussed or planned. But I am sure you could get a taste of what’s cooking!

To track what’s happening with Mac OSX and Lion, you can visit this page on the Chromium Code and sort them with time to see the latest. But again, you can subscribe to my blog’s feed to get the best, always!

Looks like Google likes to do all animations / window behavior changes on Chrome’s Mac Dev version.  Remember the tabpose feature I told you about sometime back ? That was also a OSX only feature, and still remains so.

I don’t have a mac, but when I saw the following comment on the Google Chrome Releases Blog, I decided to find out what it i. “New and improved bookmark bar animations”

Daniel was there to help me ! He did a small screen capture of this new change, have a look here in the video. But before that, do try adding a bookmark, moving it around and deleting it on your bookmarks bar, you will feel the difference when you see the video.

I loved the animation while deleting a link from the bookmarks bar. Watch it closely. What do we call it ? A bob drop effect ? or a smoke effect ?

Anyone else here using Mac ? Try this out

Great news for Mac Users, Google Chrome Mac has a new Beta Update which brings Extensions Support and Bookmark Sync to Mac.  With this new version, you’ll be able to install any of over 2,200 extensions (and counting!) currently available in Chrome’s extensions gallery

If you want to try few extensions, my suggestions are :  My  Favorite Chrome Extension – Feedly ,  and got Gmail users, Gmail Checker Plus, with extra features to manage your Gmail account from Chrome.  And for Blogger extension for your blogspot blog.

Google Chrome team has released a small video demo of the new beta version of Chrome Browser for Mac. Check this out, and enjoy your Mac Chrome !

Chrome Mac

If you’ve been waiting for extensions to be available for the Mac version of Google Chrome, you finally have a chance to try them out. Extensions are now available on the new developer channel of Google Chrome for Mac.

So mac lovers out there .. try them out, if you can change to dev version .. and let me know if you are enjoying it !

image from : technoheads.org

There is a new development about Google Chrome for Linux and Mac. ReadWriteWeb found a change in the Google Chrome privacy policy that hints to the release of Google Chrome for Linux and Mac operating systems.

The Change.

OLD:

The Privacy Policy below applies only to Google Chrome for Windows. For the Developer channel releases on other platforms see the privacy policies for Mac OS X and Linux .

NEW:

The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google’s products and services

On Google Chrome for Windows, You can configure Google Chrome to not send cookies to Google or other sites as explained here. Google Chrome for Mac and Google Chrome for Linux currently do not allow this level of configuration.

So, we have a strong reason to believe that release date for the stable version of Google Chrome for Linux and Mac is near.

Is it a BIG news ?

It is a big news for people who do not use the development version of Google Chrome for Mac and Linux. However, for those who do not use these, will be really excited to see this news. There is another group who can be happy about this. When they released Chrome development version for Linux, it was only for Ubuntu users. So, users on other Linux distributions like Fedora was left out. This time when the stable version of Linux Chrome is out, we should expect Chrome for all distributions on Linux.

PLUS, I believe that Google will bring the Extensions and Theme support for all platforms Windows, Mac and Linux, to the stable versions. It’s going to be REAL BIG !!

Yes, people, I’ve seen many many requests about google chrome for Mac. Now, if you guys wanna try Chrome for Mac ahead of the official release, you can try crossover chromium for Mac.

What is CrossOver Chromium

CrossOver Chromium is a Mac and Linux port of the open source Chromium web browser. CrossOver Chromium is available for download from CodeWeavers, free of charge. This is based on WINE software which lets Mac and Linux users run windows applications on their computers.

Some Facts

Even though it’s nice to experience Chrome browser on Mac before the official release, you should not use CrossOver Chromium as your primary browser, since it’s not the final product, and it’s not a native application. They used a Dev build of the actual chromium package to build this, thus is incomplete.

Okay, I’m Ready, Give me the Link

If you are ready to install Crossover Chromium, here is the download information.

Official Page and FAQ
Support Forum

Remember : Use this only for testing, and not as your primary browser.

Bonus Link : Google Chrome 2 – the Good and the Disappointing

Note: This is not an official version. This is not the final product either. So, be careful when you playaround with this.

Today, I found two interesting articles about Google Chrome on Mac. Even though the official Mac Download page for google chrome is just an email sign up form, for updates, there is one way you can install Chrome on your Mac right now. At least for testing purposes. You will need an Intel Mac running Leopard to run Chrome.

There is a list of things that works, and a list of things that does not. Read them carefully before installing or working with it. Now, go ahead and explore the Chrome Mac Version. Good luck !

1. Download Page
2. News On The Guardian

If you are waiting for Mac version of Google Chrome, the superstar browser, here is a good news. We have updates from the Chromium team, here is a quick viwdeo demonstrating the early stages of Chrome on OSX. Have a look.

Chrome Walkthrough from Ars Technica on Vimeo.
For a detailed review of this project, click here.

When Google Chrome is released for Apple’s Mac computers and Laptops, Safari’s browser market share will be hit … don’t you think so ?

Why people spend so much on their Mac, when they can get a normal PC at a much lower price ? Perfomance, Brand , etc etc … ok agreed.. but a major reason for Mac’s success is it’s user interface, the beauty and the ease to use it .. no questions about this right ?

Google Chrome also got it’s first recognition as “Looks Good, and Works Fast”.  It’s something that every Mac lover would love to have on their Desktop or Laptop computers. Google Chrome works faster than any other browser, and looks better than many. It’s going to be the first choice for Mac users, very soon.

With Safari 4 beta, Apple did try to give it a push, but we are yet to see results from this. If Google releases Chrome before Safari 4, stable version is out … well .. that’s going to be pretty interesting for us, and a bit tough for Safari to gain it’s lead on Mac.

What if Google Chrome’s Mac  version comes very late ? …. I am not able to make any guess about it right now. Do you have any ?