The Chrome team have released version 27 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux users. Web page loading is now 5% faster on average. Support for the File System Sync API has been added, allowing websites to save and synchronize data on Google Drive.

This release features a new search customized New Tab Page layout, using the Instant Extended API. This new API improves ranking of predictions, improves spell correction, and numerous fundamental improvements for Omnibox predictions.

Finally, the Chrome App Launcher should now be accessible by default for Windows users.

Chrome 27 also features a slew of security updates, making your browsing experience even more secure.

• Security fixes with use-after-free scenarios with SVG, clipboard, media, flash, widget and speech
• Fixes with Memory safety using Web Audio
• Resolved issues with XXS extraction

Finally, Webkit has been updated to version 537.35 and V8 has been updated to version 3.17.14

Chrome 27 will be last ever release using WebKit. Chrome 28 will use Blink.

An official Hangouts extension for Chrome and Chrome OS is already available to install from the Chrome Web Store. If you’re a Google+ user you’ll also find the new chat experience available from there, too.

But the revamped chat service isn’t enabled by default on GMail for everyone just yet. Google are rolling it out to users in stages.

If you don’t yet have Hangouts in Gmail but want it, here’s how to manually turn it on.

Turn On Hangouts in Gmail

• Sign in to GMail (note: doesn’t currently work for Google Apps users)
• Expand the Google Talk box in the left-hand sidebar by clicking the ‘speech bubble’ icon.
• Click on your chat avatar
• Select ‘Try the new Hangouts’ option

See the image below if you’re unsure of where it is.

Enable hangouts in Gmail

Gmail will instantly reload when you click this option, so if you’re in the middle of something important (i.e. gossip, or reading the latest bit of spam from Amazon) be sure to save, make excuses, etc.

Don’t like Hangouts? You can revert to the “old” Google Talk by following the same steps above but choosing ‘Revert to Old Chat’ at the last step.

While there was excitement for what Google did announce, there was also disappoint for what Google did not announce. Where was Android 4.3? Where was the new Nexus 7? When will Google Glass be released?

Looking back through our predictions for I/O 2013, I can not decided if we were very wrong with what Google was going to announce or if Google still has plenty to show us before the year is out.

In this editorial, I will give you my thoughts on this year’s event.

Developers! Developers! Developers!

Like with Steve Ballmer, it was all about the developers this year. I am not a developer, I have never coded. But I do understand some of the basics such as what an API is and what an IDE is used for. Earlier this week Sundar Pichai, VP for Android, Chrome and Google Apps, told Wired that this year’s announcements will be focused on developers rather than consumers. And thats what we got.

Android Studio looked awesome, it was the first time Android developers will have a dedicated IDE to use. Being able to quickly view different screen sizes on the fly and makes changes, just looks brilliant and super useful. Changes to the Google Play Developers Console will hopefully increase app revenue for developers, which is currently much lower than on iOS. 

Android Studio

Google Play Services was updated too, which added a bunch of new APIs which developers can implement into their apps. The new synced notifications using GCM and new location-based APIs got the most appulses.

A feature of Google’s mobile ecosphere which I believed was lacking was gaming. Apple has got Game Centre and Microsoft has got Xbox, Google needs unified game service. It seems such an obvious and easy system for Google to implement; it has the social side with Google+ and it has its cloud services to be able to do game syncing and cloud storage. Thankfully Google has finally implemented a gaming system into Google Play Services called Google Play Games services. It has added everything I was after; leaderboards, achievements and online matches using Google+ and game data cloud syncing. I have tried out the new service by playing World of Goo and Riptide GP, and it works well. 

However, I am very disappointed that there isn’t a Google Play Games app. Like Game Centre on iOS, i was hoping for the following:

• Lists all Google Play Games-enabled games which links to the Google Play Store
• A news stream of all your Google+ friends gaming achievements
• A list of games you have played, which can display the achievements and scores you have achieved in each game.

Basically an app which is the centre of Google Play Games, I can see all my score and achievements all in one place without having to open each game. Hopefully, Google will add this feature soon.

Android Police has put together a list of Google Play Games enabled games.

During the keynote it was hard to understand all these new features to help developers build apps, distribute and market their apps and APIs to plug their apps into Google services. Although, when you heard the cheers from the audience, you knew it must be good and important for Android. From our point of view as users, if developers love it and can make developing apps easier for them, it will eventually benefit us with awesome apps we get to use.

Where was Android?

It was a big surprise that we didn’t get a new version of Android. Rumours leading up to the event pointed to Android 4.3 to be shown off at I/O, but it never materialised. Though, it doesn’t mean its not coming. Server logs show that Google is testing 4.3, and even Googler Sara Sinclair Brody confirmed a new version of Android is on the way. 

With no new version Android at I/O, some have argued this is a good thing. It gives OEMs time to catch up, since many devices are not even on Jelly Bean yet. Android Central’s Jerry Hildenbrand point out that the update to Google Play Services was more important than a new version of Android, since it added many new features for apps to take advantage of and plus all Android devices will receive the update regardless of OEM or carriers control.

I will make a small prediction (even though I have not been terribly good at that this week), Google will announce Android 4.3 which will ship with the new Nexus 7 in July.

Google Play

Amazon has a music cloud locker. Spotify has a subscription music service. iTunes has a music store. Google now has all three.

When you take a step back, have a look at what Google has achieved with Google Play Music, it now provides the ultimate music service. Before, you had iTunes which provided users with a brilliant music store but a very an old fashioned syncing solution. Amazon has a great music store + cloud locker, but no subscription based music option. Spotify has the subscription model which is very popular at the moment, but no means to buy music which is missing from the Spotify library and be able to store it in the cloud to sync with all your devices.

Google Play Music now allows me to stream and add to my library all the great music I love on a subscription mode I love. I am a fan of AC/DC and Example, but they don’t license their music for subscription. This is not an issue anymore, since any music missing from the All Access library I can now upload to Google Play Music or buy from Google Play Music to add to my library.

This great freedom with Google Play Music is why I will be cancelling my Spotify subscription when it arrives in the UK. The ultimate music service, with store/subscription/storage. No other music service can offer this at the moment, and its may be unlikely for some time. I think only Amazon could match this.

Google Play Music – Now All Access!

Social, Hangouts, Search, Maps

Some great improvements to these core Google services.

• Social – the new Google+ news stream is brilliant, makes me want to use Google+ more (which I am guessing is Google’s aim).
• Hangouts – A unified messaging service is what should we should have got 2 years ago when Google+ launched. It works great. But there are now dozens of messaging services, with all our friends on different services, its a complete mess at the moment.
• Search – we can now talk to our computer to give us information, OMG! its like Star Trek!
• Maps – complete redesign using the power of OpenGL, viewing the earth from space is incredible

You don’t need me to tell you how great they are, try them out for yourself! 

SPACE!

Google TV

It was really disappointing that I/O did not have a big announcement for Google TV. We did get an update to Google TV to Android 4.2, with a promise that Google TV will now follow the same development cycle as Android. This move is fairly significant since we could soon see Google encouraging Android developers to build the same app for the phone, the tablet and the TV. Its just another screen size to build for, since the code base will be the same going forward.

No Nexus Q running Google TV was also disappointing, though Google did confirm that new Google TV hardware will be coming later this year. Plus, it has been spotted by an FCC document that the Nexus Q may be making a re-release soon.

Anything else…

Google Play Books got a brilliant update during I/O which was kept quiet. Users can now upload their own PDFs and EPUBs to their Google Play Books cloud locker via the Google Play website and the documents are synced to all your devices. The implementation is brilliant. I uploaded a EPUB book and Google was able to find the cover picture and all the book information, so it looks like a regular book purchased from the Google Play Books store.

One final closing comment. A few months ago, just before the Google I/O tickets went on sale, I posted this comment on my Google+ profile:

I think people are missing the point of Google I/O 

Its an event for android and web developers to speak to the Google team to understand how to best make use of APIs and build better apps.

Its not a place to pick up free Google hardware. Its a wasted ticket which could have gone to a developer wanting to learn.

With a much more developer-focused event and with very little hardware announcements, it should be a clear indication to non-developers that this is not an event for them. Google did give away a Chromebook Pixel to all attendees, but compared to previous years, it’s considerably less to what they used to give out.

Mac users now have access to Chrome’s new ‘Message Center’ in Canary builds.

The feature, already available to ChromeOS and Windows Dev Channel users, provides a centralised place for viewing and responding to various alerts from services, apps, and extensions.

At present the feature isn’t too fancy; a status bar item has been added to the OS X menubar; an unread notification count (if applicable) appears beside this; and clicking on the item opens the message center.

In keeping with other platforms the status bar icon does not, currently, change colour when unread messages are waiting.

Also, depending on the type of notification sent (though most apps/sites still use standard ‘webkit’ notifications) you may see so-called ‘action buttons’. These range from ‘send message’ on an email notifications to a ‘call’ button on a contact alert.

Notification with Action

Google Chrome Canary for Mac OS X can be downloaded at the the following link:

Google Chrome Canary Build for OS X

Glass

• Twitter and Facebook have today released apps for Glass. Tumblr and CCN apps will be arriving soon.

Nexus Q

• Google has confirmed today that the new Google Play Music app does not work with the Nexus Q. The small number of users with a Nexus Q will no longer be able to stream music using their Nexus Q. YouTube and Play Movies will continue to function. Google is yet to announce a re-release of this device.

Google+

• Google+ Games is to close on 30th June. In light of yesterday’s Google Play Game Services launch, Google+ Games will be retired in favour of Google’s new gaming platform.
• Google has confirmed today that Hangouts will soon get SMS integration.

Android

• During the “Best Practices for Bluetooth Development” session, Googler Sara Sinclair Brody confirmed that Android will be supporting Bluetooth Low Energy in a future Android release. This new version of Android will feature API level 18, currently API level 17 is part of Android 4.2. Sara Sinclair says that API level 18 will be landing in a few short months. 

Developer Sessions

Majority of sessions at I/O have been recorded and uploaded to YouTube, you can find Day 1 and 2 sessions available online now.

Developers

• Android Studio – a new IDE for Android which is powered by IntelliJ IDEA. Available today as free download.
• Google Play services 3.1 – adds support for four new APIs.
  • Google Play games services – Google+ social features into your games. Support for achievements, leaderboards and matchmaking.
  • Location APIs – allowing apps to add location and context awareness.
  • Google Cloud Messaging Improvements – bidirectional XMPP messaging between server and devices, plus synced notifications.
  • Cross-Platform Single Sign On – Allows users to sign in once on all their devices using Google+.
• Google Play Developer Console – new features in console
  • App translations
  • Revenue Graphs
  • Alpha and beta testing
  • Staged Rollouts
  • Optimisation tips
  • Google Analytics
  • Referral tracking
• Google App Engine to support PHP and Cloud Storage, targeting Amazon EC2 customers

Google Play

• Google Play website redesign
• Google Play Music All Access - Subscription based music streaming. It provides unlimited access to music for $9.99/month (or $7.99/month before 30th June) Currently US only, but coming to other countries very soon.
  • You can combine your library of music stored in the cloud with Google’s streaming library.
  • Google Play Music website redesign supporting new All Access service.
  • Updated Google Play Music Android app supporting new All Access service.
• Google Play for Education – Google Play can now manage mass deployment of apps to education tablets with payments handled by school purchase orders.
• Google Play Books app updated with a new user interface and support for cloud-syncing ePubs and PDFs. You can now upload ePUB and PDF documents via the web, and they will sync to all your devices.

Google+

• Complete redesign of Google+ stream.
• New Google+ Photo features
  • Can now pick your best photos from each library, known as Highlights
  • Google+ is able to auto-enhance all your photos
  • Google+ is able to make your photos “Awesome” by adding HDR, making people smile in photos, turning your photos into GIFs.
• Hangouts – a new unified messaging service. It supports single or group text chat with pictures and supports video chat. It is available within Google+ and Gmail, as well as an Android app (which replaces Google Talk), iOS app and Chrome extension.
• Hangouts app coming to Glass

Search

• Google Voice Search coming to Chrome and Chrome OS. Just say “Ok, Google…”
• Google Search now recognises hot words, such as “show me photos from New York” or “when does my flight leave”
• Google Search app updated supporting new cards. Location-based Reminders, details on music, TV, books, video games and public transit.

Maps

• All-new Google Maps for the web. New user interface with benefits from WebGL technologies. Integrating Google Earth into Google Maps, with no plugin required. 
• Redesigned Google Maps Android app and all-new iPad app coming this summer.

Gmail

• Gmail messages now have action boxes, which allows you to take certain actions on an email message. For instance, a email message about an event can be added to your Google Calendar, or an email about a flight will display an action box about that flight.
• US Gmail users can now send money as an attachment using Google Wallet. Furthermore Google Wallet is now supported on HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 2.

Google TV

• Google TV updated to Android 4.2.2, Chrome is now a separate app. Users will gain the benefits of Android Jelly Bean, plus improved updating system making updates quicker for OEMs. Chrome is now a separate and can benefit from a six-week update cycle, plus the browser now supports hardware-based content protection for DRM content.
• New Google TV hardware to be released later this year.

YouTube

• YouTube to support VP9 video streaming
• YouTube for Google TV has been updated with a new home screen UI and support for paid subscriptions. 

Android

• 900 million devices activated
• 48 billion apps downloaded
• Samsung Galaxy S4 with stock Android and guarantee updates. Available from Google Play Store from 26th June for $649

Chrome

• 750 million active users – World’s most-popular browser
• Data Compression coming to Chrome for Mobile coming weeks.

You can watch to full 3 and half hour keynote on YouTube, including Larry Page’s Q&A session.

Google is to unveil a music streaming service at today’s I/O event, rumours suggest.

Universal Music, Warner Music Group and Sony are said to be on board according to The Verge, thus granting the service access to music from some of the worlds biggest artists.

Google launched a cloud-based music player and music store – Google Play Music – back in 2011.

Interestingly, sources say that a free-tier option will not be offered, potentially making it a less attractive proposition than Spotify, Rdio and other services offering free ad-supported access; and two separate versions will be on offer: one powered by YouTube and one powered by Google Play Music.

The feature, which has been available directly from Google’s homepage for a while, albeit with a slightly different look (scroll on down), is likely a prelude to the arrival of Google Now on Chrome.

Extended Instant New Tab Page in Google Chrome Dev

Perhaps more interestingly it that the “searching” interface has been revamped to match that seen in Google Now:

Voice Search on Google Chrome

Voice Search on Google Now

For comparison, here’s how the voice search interface used to look on Google. You’ll notice that as well as ditching the mini-box, the microphone icon now matches that used on Android.

Google Voice Search

libudev0 error in Ubuntu 13.04

Having trouble installing Google Chrome in Ubuntu 13.04? You’re not alone.

A dependency change in Ubuntu means that the libudev0 package Google Chrome needs to run isn’t currently available from Ubuntu’s repositories.

The good news is that Google are working to fix this issue, and the next stable release will install just dandy.

But if you want to install Chrome right now you’ll need to fix the issue by hand. Install one of the following packages first, choosing the right one for your architecture (you can find this out from System Settings > Details):

libudev0 32bit .deb   libudev0 64bit .deb

As .Deb files these are easy to install: simply double-click on them and follow the prompts that appear on screen.

Once you’ve install libudev0 you can proceed to download and install Google Chrome itself.

Download Google Chrome

End result:

Google Chrome in Ubuntu 13.04

Pick a nickname in the chatbox below to chat along with fellow Google fans as you watch.

V1 Apps in Chrome OS Will Lose Shortcut Emblem

Chrome OS will not include ‘app arrows’ on old-style Chrome Web Apps – at least not for now.

So-called ‘V1′ applications on Chrome OS Dev & the Chrome Windows application launcher currently display a web shortcut emblem in the lower left-hand corner. This to help visually differentiate them from the newer packaged applications (dubbed V2) so that, Chrome devs say, “expectations are set appropriately’.

Packaged applications offer a greater set of features and functionality that the older, browser-bound web apps.

But, in an update to code today, these pesky little arrows have been removed from Chrome OS, though not from Chrome Dev on Windows.

The reasoning? Chrome devs say:

“[It] makes ChromeOS look ugly, since it has many default apps, most of which will have this “shortcut” UI. 

We [will] live with the dissonance in the short-term [and] aim to bring ChromeOS in sync with [Chrome on Mac and Windows] when we have more v2 apps (specially among the set of default apps).”

Sounds fair to me.

Are you using Chrome OS Dev? What’s your preferred solution for marking V1 apps from V2 ones? 

We first told you that Scratchpad was being axed last November. At that time Google Keep wasn’t even on the radar, so the decision to cease development did seem rather strange.

Google launched Keep earlier this year with a web-interface and mobile apps for Android and iOS. An official Chrome web app was made available at the beginning of May.

Scratchpad to Keep Notification on Chrome OS

For full details head on over to the Google support site, link below.

Scratchpad to Google Keep Migration Help

Mingchi Kuo of KGI Securities predicts that Google will launch an own-brand ‘Androidbook’ later this year once work on Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie is complete. It’s this release of Android that, according to Kuo, ‘is targeted at [Notebooks]‘.

But, if Kuo is proved correct, that won’t matter too much as Samsung, amongst other brand vendors, are aiming to release low-cost notebooks running Jellybean ‘in the coming 3-4 months’. 

Kuo is the latest in a line of industry folk to put weight behind the claims, joining Chinese Trade insider Digitimes, and Intel execs who, in April, confirmed that its new wave of sub-$200 Atom-powered notebooks will be Android-based.

With tacit confirmation that Chrome OS and Android won’t be merging anytime soon, one can’t help but wonder how the two lines of low-cost laptops would sit against one another.

Work on moulding Chrome OS into a more versatile device continues (most recently with the introduction of packaged apps).

Its that time of year again! Google’s main developer event in San Francisco, Google I/O, now in its 6th year, kicks off next week. But what can we expect from I/O 2013?

The 3 day event is where Google reveal a few major announcements for the year ahead, as well as giving web developers the chance to speak to Google and other developers about how to build great Android and Web Apps.

Google I/O will start this Wednesday (15th May), and we thought it would be a good opportunity before the event starts to speculate what might be announced during it.

We have compiled a full list of all the rumoured news and the chances we think it will appear at I/O.

Motorola X Phone

Since Google bought Motorola last year, speculation has surrounded what Google will do with its newly acquired hardware manufacturer. We have yet to see Nexus or Google TV devices come from Motorola, only the standard assortment of skinned-Android devices.

The rumoured X Phone is likely to be first directly-controlled device by Google. We are still unsure what this device will be. Rumours point to a highly customisable hardware device, in which users can decide what hardware they want on their phone.

They only guarantee we have so far is that it will not be a Nexus device, it is not going to replace the Nexus 4. It is likely to ship with stock Android, but with Motorola customisations installed.

Chance of Announcement: 60% - This device has been rumoured for a while, but a release date points to second half of 2013. We may see Motorola make announcement at I/O. However, since it is not a Nexus device, Motorola may choose to host their own press event.

Google Glass

Google Glass has created plenty of buzz since last year’s event, and we now have a very good understanding of what the product is. Google Glasses are starting to be given to developers, and we expect more to be given out during this year’s event. Sergey Brin has stated that Google Glass will ship to consumers at the end of the year.

Chance of Announcement: 100% – We will be very surprised if we hear nothing from Brin about Glass. We expect to see Apps for Glass, firm release date and price.

Next Version of Android

It has been over a year and a half since the last major version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. So it is about time. We are not going to predicate what to features to expect in Android 5.0, it could be anyone’s guess. While Android 5 is long overdue recent news suggests that we will see Android 4.3 Jelly Bean at I/O instead. Android news websites have spotted traffic from Nexus 4, 7 and 10 devices running Android 4.3, which could be Google testing the new version of Android on these devices.

Chance of Announcement: 90% - At Google I/O, we are pretty sure a new version of Android will be shown off. A leaked Qualcomm documented earlier this year we should expect Key Lime Pie released in Q2 2013. However, there is every chance it will not be Android 5.

Many expected Android 5 during the Nexus 4 announcement in 2012, instead we got Android 4.2. We could see Android 4.3 at I/O and Android 5.0 at the next Nexus phone announcement. It certainly looks more likely we will see Android 4.3.

Though, the next version of Android is due, and rumours point to a I/O announcement.

Nexus 7 replacement

The Nexus 7 launched at last year’s I/O, and since Nexus devices are on a yearly cycle, it makes this prediction the easiest one on the list.

I am very certain we will see a new 7 inch tablet from Google, likely to ship with the next version of Android. Rumours point to a Asus-made tablet with a higher resolution display featuring a Qualcomm CPU priced at $199.

Chance of Announcment: 95% - This will happen, though no official word.

Nexus 10 replacement maybe

This may be a surprise to some to see listed on our predictions for I/O 2013 list. We have just mentioned that Nexus devices operate on a yearly cycle, and the Nexus 10 was released last November. So is a Nexus 10 replacement likely? Probably not. However, it would not surprise me if Google did announce a new 10 inch tablet.

Tablets do not exactly follow the yearly cycle like phones, we have seen both Apple and Samsung released updated tablets within months of its predecessors. Also, Google may want to keep their tablet releases in-line with each other. It would make sense to release a new Nexus 7 with a new Nexus 10.

Chance of Announcement: 30% - Its unlikely, plus there has been no rumour news for a Nexus 10 replacement. But it wouldn’t surprise us if Google broken the trend.

Nexus 4 replacement unlikely

The rumours surrounding this we finding highly annoying! A Nexus 4 replacement will not happen. End of.

Chance of Announcement: 1% – Google’s next Nexus smartphone will be out in October/November 2013. No news on name (it might not even be called Nexus 5), No news on hardware or manufacture. Rumours from these rather obscure websites are just trying to gain some attention.

Notification centre and Google Now coming to Chrome

Rumours, leaked screenshots and code spotted in Chromium all point towards a new notification centre for Chrome OS and Google Now coming to Chrome. We have seen a basic form of Notification centre in the dev channel of Chrome OS.

We could see a fully functioning notification centre at I/O. Code supporting Google Now coming to Chrome has been spotted in the dev channel of Chrome, but the feature is not working yet. We could see a working demo of Google Now on Chrome at I/O.

Chance of Announcement: 80%  – We always see big features for Chrome and Chrome OS showed off to developers at I/O, and since these two features are likely to be biggest change for Chrome in 2013, we expect to see a demo at I/O. Plus, thre is bound to be new APIs which take advantage of Chrome’s new notifications, I/O is the perfect place for developers to understand how to best use these APIs.

Music subscription service

Google ramped up its Google Play offering at last year’s I/O. It has been rumoured that Google maybe launching a subscription model to its current Music offerings. The subscription model will allow users to pay monthly to listen to unlimited music streaming. However, how exactly the service will work is still unknown. It is rumoured that there will be two music subscription services from Google, YouTube and Google Play Music.

Chance 0f Announcement: 60% – Rumours have been strong relating to a music subscription service, and Google’s need to keep up with the competition since both Apple and Amazon are likely to announce subscription music later this year. However, it is believe Google’s new music service will not appear until the last part of 2013, so a Google I/O announcement may be unlikely.

Google TV

Google TV has been fairly quiet in the past year. No new hardware, only minor software updates. Google states that Google TV is still an important product for them.

Chance of Announcement: 100% – Google TV team have confirmed on Google+ that there will be news at Google I/O, though we don’t know what. We are expecting a full software overhaul and new hardware. We would love to see a Google-made Google TV box. Could the Nexus Q reappear as a Google TV box?

Nexus Q

Announced at last year’s Google I/O, the Nexus Q was Google’s attempt at a home entertainment system. Praised for its design, but its high price and limited functionality lead to the death of the device. Google refunded customers, and mentioned that Nexus Q will be redesigned for a future re-release.

We have yet to see any news around the return of the Nexus Q. The original Q was limited to streaming Google Play Music and Movies content, with the addition of a YouTube player. We would personally love to see the Nexus Q ship with Google TV.

Chance of Announcement: 60% - Google did hint towards a return of the Nexus Q last year, but we have heard nothing since. We may see the return of Google’s entertainment device, but there has been no news or rumours pointing towards the re-release of the Nexus Q. 

Google Play News

Google Play offers a variety of content for Chrome and Android users to consume. A recent leak has exposed a new section coming to Google Play. Google Play News is rumoured to sell newspapers and for users to subscribe to certain newspapers. Very similar to how Google Play Magazines operates.

Chance of Announcement: 80% - The rumour seems plausible, a likely addition to the Google Play Store. Google announced the addition of TV shows to Google Play at last year’s I/O, so it seems likely we could see newspapers this year.

Google Babel – Unified IM service

In the past few weeks, information has leaked that Google will be unifying its messenging services. Currently; Hangouts, Google Talk, Google+ Messenger are all separate messenging services, Babel will unified them.

There has been mentions of a Unified IM client in Chrome OS code and rumours of a new app called Babel to unify all of Google’s Messaging Services.

Chance of Announcement: 80% - There has been no news to point to a Google I/O announcement, but since it is quite a significant overhaul to Google’s messaging services, its likely to be a good opportunity to show it off at I/O. Plus, the Babel Android client may come part of the next version of Android. 

(Update!) Game Centre – Wild Card Confirmed

Gaming within Google’s ecosystem lacks any unified system, it is spread out across different services and platforms. Users can play games via the Chrome Web Store, social gaming on Google+ and Android gaming on smartphones and tablets. Apple released Game Centre 2 years ago which unifies gaming across all iOS and OS X devices and provides a social layer to gaming.

Google should launch a similar unified gaming network. It can be integrated into Google+ to import your friends and their profiles, it could feature leaderboards and achievements  A gaming news feed can notify when your friends have received an achievement or beaten a high score. Google could also open up gaming on Google TV to providing users a Android gaming console.

Wide Card Prediction – There has been no news or rumours recently pointing to this announcement. Though it has been suggested in the past that Google may use Google+ to launch this sort of service. We would love to see this happen.

Update!  – Since Sunday morning (12  May), a new version of Google Play Services is slowly rolling out to Android devices. Google Play Services is automatically installed and updated on your Android device to provide application hooks to Google Play and other Google services.

Google Play Services update 3.1.36 is currently being rolled out to Android devices. Android Police has managed to get a hold of the apk and has found the Google Play Games app within it. It appears Google is preparing Android devices for the launch of Play Games during this week’s I/O. Expect to see a new Play Services update on your Android devices over the next few days. Plus, there are many sessions during I/O which focus on Android gaming.

(Update!) New Hardware – Strong Rumours

Since we posted this article on Friday (10th May), over the weekend many new rumours have appeared confirming new hardware and pointing to possible new products. For starters, we all predicated a replacement for the Nexus 7 to be announced during this year’s event. New rumours point to a new 7inch tablet with a high resolution (1920 x 1200) display powered by a Snapdragon 800 CPU. It also appears the new tablet may still be called Nexus 7, similar to Apple’s iPad naming scheme.

Rumours also point to a updated Nexus 4 with LTE and 32GB storage, which many customers have been carrying out for. However, this is not the Nexus 4 replacement many have speculated, it is still the same phone released last November.

A new Chromebook is likely to be announced this week, likely to be the “puppy” Chrome device which we have spotted in the Chromium OS code for the past few months. Its likely to be another ARM Chromebook using Tegra 4. It may also feature a touchscreen display.

Finally, rumours point to a second wearable-device from Google. A smartwatch may be shown off on Wednesday, which will display Google Now cards and be synced to your phone.

What are you hoping Google will announce at Google I/O?

Chances are many of you have some sort of note-taking extension or web-app installed in Chrome. After all, it’s hardly like there’s a shortage of choices!

From to-do list titans like Evernote and Wunderlist, to fresher-faced newbies like Nitro and Google’s own Keep, the Chrome Web Store is chock full of apps, extensions and web-links for managing your workload more efficiently.

But how many of those actually do that?

Do It Tomorrow

Do It Tomorrow in Chrome

I find that the most productive way to manage a to-do list is to take a pen, some paper, and manage things that way.

No fancy pants labels; no super-duper time-management features; no cross-referencing groups; no impending pressure of tasks due later in the week.

Good news: there’s an app for Google Chrome that offers the simplicity of that approach, but online.

Do It Tomorrow is billed by its developers as ‘the to-do App for procrastinators’. I prefer to call it the virtual equivalent of a notebook, albeit one with some modern features.

• Simple two day planning
• Do it today, or do it tomorrow
• Click to mark task as done

You will need to create a ‘Do It’ account to make use of the app, but this will allow you to store and save your lists so you can access them from other computers, or using the official Do It Tomorrow apps for Android & iOS.

While you won’t be planning and cross-referencing your next essay with it, DIT is a solid choice for those seeking simplicity and skeuomorphic design.

Do It Tomorrow on Chrome Web Store

Google Keep Chrome App on Chrome OS

The Google Drive team have today released a Chrome Packaged App for its Evernote-rival, Google Keep. The Google Keep Chrome app launches in its own window, so you can create notes, cross out your to-do lists, and attach photos to tasks while you work on other things. Plus, the Chrome app works offline.

You can install the app today from the Chrome Web Store.

Get ‘Google Keep’ on the Chrome Web Store

Google has today announced that Packaged Apps are available to install from the Chrome Web Store – but only for Dev Channel users on Chrome OS or Windows.

Packaged Apps are able to do things web-based apps can’t, including accessing parts of your computer, like network and hardware devices, media tools, etc.

Because of this additional support packaged apps are able to look and work like traditional native system apps – despite being written in the same technologies as web apps.

Amongst the (seemingly hundreds of) packaged apps already available are some popular favourites:

• Cut The Rope – game
• Gliffy - diagram maker
• The Economist – online publication
• Weatherbug – Weather app

The Weatherbug Packaged App on Windows 8

The awesome packaged-app CIRC - an IRC client for Chrome – isn’t yet listed in the ‘App’ category, though it is available to install from the Web Store using a direct link.

Listing Changes

In addition to adding Packaged Apps to the Web Store Chrome Dev users will also notice something else different: existing web-apps, web-links and legacy packaged apps are now housed under a new category in the sidebar titled ‘Websites’.

Listing Changes for Chrome Dev Users

Theme and Extension listing remain unchanged.

Browse Packaged Apps

Chrome Dev Channel users on Windows or Chrome OS can browse and install packaged apps from the Chrome Webstore. Hit the link below to go straight there.

Browse Packaged Apps on Chrome Web Store

Note that visiting this link from non-Dev-Channel Chrome, or Dev Channel on Mac or Linux, will redirect you to the standard Chrome Web Store.

An ‘aggressive marketing campaign’ by Google to promote the new laptop will accompany their release later this year says Chinese tech industry blog Digitimes. 

Digitimes were the first to report that Google had an own-brand touch-screen Chromebook in the works.

Citing ‘sources’ from the upstream supply chain, Digitimes also reveal some interesting sales figures for Acer’s most recent Chromebook, the C7. 

• Acer shipped 150,000-200,000 C7 units between November and December 2012
• By January 2013 this dropped to 20,000-30,000 units
• Acer halted future C7 shipments 

But this drop-off hasn’t deterred them from continuing to back the browser-esque operating system. A new 11.6″ laptop is purportedly in production for release towards the end of July 2013.

Joining them will be ASUS, whose first Chromebook is rumoured to be ARM-based and sport a touch-screen.

The rumours come just weeks after word of Android-powered laptops broke – a plan that chip maker Intel recently gave tacit confirmation towards.