by a Thinker, Sailor, Blogger, Irreverent Guy from Madras

Google Chrome 25 released - What is new?


Google released Chrome 25 browser with exciting new features.  If we look back, Chrome 24 also added  new features - some of which worked and some which didn’t.

Google is continuing their push to introduce new features as a standard install in their Chrome browser with improved security management of extensions, better HTML5 support and the most exciting feature, voice recognition support.

Chrome 25 has also a clutch of security fixes - 22 of them - which alone makes it essential that we update - all those messy details at the release blog [http://googlechromereleases.blogspot.in/2013/02/stable-channel-update_21.html].

Silent Extensions management:
A long awaited security enhancement is the way silent extensions will be handled by Chrome 25+.  Silent extensions are those which are installed by other applications without the knowledge of (or unintentionally by) users.  The most irritating example is the installation of Skype & Firefox.  If you aren’t careful, Skype will insert its extension into Firefox.

With Google Chrome 25 and above, such silent installs will be blocked automatically with a pop-up dialog.  And if any such extensions have already been installed, Chrome 25 on its first run will disable them and inform the user with a one time prompt.

Sideload wipeout final 3

Voice Recognition Support:
With the addition of voice recognition, Google Chrome 25 becomes the first browser to add another piece of WebRTC technology within it.   WebRTC support was implemented in Chrome 22, and if you didn’t read it then, a brief explanation is here.

So, what does that mean for normal users?  In simple terms, it means is we won’t need installation of additional plugins to use various applications and functions.

With just Google Chrome (and soon in Firefox) we will be able to carry on real-time video chat, data sharing and now voice activated command and speech recognition.  After updating Chrome, a visit to the demo page at Web Speech API Demonstration is fun [https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/demos/speech.html].

As with every piece of new technology integration, it is still clunky.  All I tried to say was ‘hello can you hear me. it is very impressive’.

It appears that selecting English (US) delivers better results, (no wonder that), while English (India) sux big time.
:-)

google_web_speech_demo_ingoogle_web_speech_demo_ukgoogle_web_speech_demo_us

What it also tells me is to junk the Rs. 150 headset and get a quality one.  BTW, there is no support yet for Indic languages.


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