Tag: Chrome

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Google Chrome Crashes in OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 Beta

Google Chrome Crases in OS X 10.10.2 beta build 14C68k

From Chromium Project:

Steps to reproduce the problem:
1. Open Chrome.
2. Attempt to interact with the browser in any way.

What is the expected behavior?
Browser should work.

What went wrong?
The browser crashes completely on every start attempt.

After further investigation, it seems the crash happens when built-in Trackpad or Magic Trackpad is used to interact with Google Chrome on any Macs running OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 build 14C68k.

Further discussion:

#9 Mike.Had…@gmail.com
-[NSTouch _initWithPreviousTouch:newPhase:position:isResting:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance

isResting Available in OS X v10.6 through OS X v10.9

ie deprecated in 10.10 Yosemite and looks like removed in 10.10.2

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/AppKit/Reference/NSTouch_Class/index.html

We’ll see if this issue would be resolved in the next build of OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 seed.

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Tips: Sync Your Web Browsers Settings

Just a few years ago, setting up a new computer for either yourself or others was a chore. It is still a chore, but easier. Thanks to sync services provided by Apple, Google and Mozilla; moving browsers’ settings and bookmarks are no longer difficult.

Apple has iCloud, Google has Chrome Sync and Mozilla has Firefox Sync. You get to move your Bookmarks and Passwords with ease.

iCloud System Preference Pane

Firefox Sync

Google Chrome Sync

Chrome Sync

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Security versus Convenience

Elliott Kember wrote the headline: “Chrome’s insane password security strategy”

Kember points out the way Google Chrome manages saved passwords.

There’s no master password, no security, not even a prompt that “these passwords are visible”. Visit chrome://settings/passwords in Chrome if you don’t believe me.

Yes indeed. Unlike Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome does not offer users to set Master Password. Apple added Passwords Manager in Safari 6; the passwords are actually stored in users’ Keychain.

Justin Schuh, who works on Google Chrome Security according to his Hacker News profile, says that it was a design decision to not include Master Password in Google Chrome.

For most users, there’s a certain level of inconvenience they are willing to tolerate when dealing with security. Unsurprisingly a lot of users are still using obvious passwords or none at all for their computer login. That’s because they prioritize convenience over security.

Security and convenience have an inverse relationship. It would look something like this:

Security-vs-Convenience-Linear

that is true if it is a linear relationship. In reality it looks more something like the following:

Security-vs-Convenience-Curved

It is more like a curve line. More convenience means less security.

The concern about the way Google Chrome manages passwords is valid. At the same time there is a bigger issue with security. Having a Master Password option would be useless if it is the same obvious password people are using for their computer login. Most users using Mozilla Firefox never set the Master Password at all.

Users need to understand why they need to secure their computers. Ultimately the users are the one to set the security level based on their convenience level.

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Google Chromecast

chromecast

New product from Google:

Introducing Chromecast
To help make it easy to bring your favorite online entertainment to the biggest screen in your house—the TV—we’re introducing Chromecast. Chromecast is a small and affordable ($35) device that you simply plug in to your high-definition (HD) TV and it allows you to use your phone, tablet or laptop to “cast” online content to your TV screen. It works with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, and Google Play Music, with more apps like Pandora coming soon. With Chromecast, we wanted to create an easy solution that works for everyone, for every TV in the house.

From the faded fine-print:

Subscriptions may be required to use with certain content providers. Chromecast is compatible with WiFi-enabled Android 2.3+ smartphones and tablets; iOS 6.0+ iPhones, iPads, and iPods; Chrome for Mac® and Chrome for Windows®; and Chromebook Pixel. Power cord required (not shown).

It seems that Chromecast does not work on its own and requires other device such as Android and iOS devices as the remote; even though Google says “Remote-free”.

Remote-free
Once your Chromecast is set up, you can use your phone, tablet or laptop to browse and cast content to your TV, play and pause, control the volume, and more. But unlike other streaming solutions, you can still multitask—send emails or surf the web—while enjoying what’s on the TV screen. It works across platforms—Android tablets and smartphones, iPhones, iPads, Chrome for Mac and Windows (more to come), so your personal device is also now your remote control.

Chromecast comes with 3 months of Netflix included when purchased from Google Play, Amazon or Best Buy.

Buy-Chromecast

 

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Blink and Servo

It is a back to back news on web browsers.

First, Mozilla and Samsung are working together on new Servo web browser engine for Android and ARM. Servo itself is written in Rust, a programming language developed by Mozilla.

Should Samsung ever want to fork Android, they would have their own web browser.

Mozilla-Samsung

——-

Second, Google announces Blink, a new open source rendering engine based on WebKit.

In a sense that Google is in a disagreement on what direction Webkit should go.

Chromium_Logo

Bring on all the different web browsers, as long as they adhere to one HTML standard.