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SecBrowsing: Chrome's bundled Flash is making out-of-date plug-ins history

Submitted by admin on Mon, 08/23/2010 - 10:00

 

When Google began working on a built-in Flash plug-in for Chrome, they cited a handful of key motivations. They wanted a more hassle-free web experience for end users, more modern alternative to the aging NPAPI architecture, better security, and an easier way to deliver updates.

According to the SecBrowsing blog, their update aspirations have been a smashing success.

The traditional Flash updater is easy enough to avoid -- I often work on end users systems and see the beleaguered Flash updater crying out for attention from the system tray. Sadly, its cries often go ignored. Chrome's internal updater, however, can't be ignored. When there's a update to the browser or an internal plug-in, by Odin's beard, you're going to get it!

Within just two days of the most recent Flash update, fewer than 30% of SecBrowsing visitors were running an out-of-date version. That's compared to 14 days with the previous release -- a substantial improvement.

No comparisons to other browsers are given, but I've got to think that Chrome users are well ahead of the curve here.

12 Beginner Tutorials for Getting Started with Adobe Illustrator

Submitted by admin on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 14:31

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    • Google disables internal PDF plug-in in Chrome dev channel update

    Submitted by admin on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 20:35

     

    Ahh, the thrill of running bleeding-edge software! It's not for the feint of heart, to be sure. Heck, it's not even for someone who has a perfectly strong heart but doesn't do well with watching features appear and disappear on a regular basis.

    Take Chrome's nifty internal PDF plug-in. Just a few days ago, Google dropped the need for a command line switch to activate it, enabling it by default for users of the dev channel build. Today, however, another update was pushed and the plug-in has once again been switched off.

    You can still enable the plug-in if you wish -- just visit chrome://plugins and click enable underneath the Chrome PDF Viewer.

    It's likely that the Chrome team is just ironing out a few kinks prior to pushing the plug-in to the beta channel. With Chrome's accelerated release schedule, it probably won't be long before the PDF viewer joins the internal Flash plug-in on Chrome installs everywhere.

    Google Chrome dev update turns on PDF plug-in, Web Store makes an appearance

    Submitted by admin on Thu, 07/22/2010 - 08:00

     

    Not long ago, Google's internal Flash plug-in went primetime, making the jump to the stable channel. Its PDF counterpart, however, has taken a bit longer to materialize -- and it finally arrived in the dev channel build last month, though it was disabled by default.

    Yesterday's dev channel update has flipped the switch, however, and the internal PDF viewer is now enabled by default. Interestingly, Google's official release post states a known issue where the PDF plug-in doesn't load on Linux -- yet it does on my Chromium OS install. If you happen to be running Chrome dev on Linux, let us know if the plug-in is working for you!

    Apart from the plug-in change, it looks as though another big chunk of Chrome's UI will soon be moved to a browser tab. Just as they did with the bookmark manager did, Google is getting ready to move Chrome's options (or preferences) to a tab. Take the jump to see what it looks like so far!

    The tabbed options page is incomplete at this point, but the Under the Hood page is functional. Basics shows all the options, but half are grayed out and Personal Stuff is still totally empty -- so I don't recommend adding the required command line switch just yet.

    Also hidden behind a command-line switch is the Chrome Web Store shortcut. If you have the --enable-apps flag appended to your shortcut, you may notice this on your new tab page:

    ... But don't get too excited just yet. Right now, it merely links to the Extensions Gallery and we probably shouldn't expect to see the debut of the Web Store before apps support is enabled by default. Once that happens, however...

    Google Chrome Blog: Adobe Flash Player support in Google Chrome’s stable channel

    Submitted by admin on Wed, 06/30/2010 - 10:06

    In our most recent stable release of Google Chrome, we talked about beta-testing Adobe Flash Player integration into Chrome. We're now happy to enable this integration by default in the stable channel of Chrome. To read more about this integration, check out the Chromium blog.

    In testing Flash Player integration into Chrome, the Chrome team admittedly spent many, many fun hours with a few of our favorite Flash-based indie games. So as a side project, we teamed up with a few creative folks to build Chrome FastBall, a Flash-based game built on top of the YouTube platform. 

    Google Chrome Now Comes With Flash Built In

    Submitted by admin on Fri, 06/25/2010 - 05:12

    Last March, Adobe and Google jointly announced that Flash Player would soon come built in to the latter’s Chrome browser, eliminating the need for users to download, install and update it separately.

    On Thursday evening, Google released Chrome 5.0.375.86 to the Stable channel on Linux, Mac, and Windows, with a fix for a number of security issues. More importantly, the integrated Flash Player has now been enabled by default.

    As Stephen Shankland over at CNET points out, built-in Flash was previously only available in the developer and beta releases of the speedy WebKit-based browser, and the release to the Stable channel means the integrated plug-in is now available in its mainstream version.

    Google sneaks internal PDF reader into Chrome dev channel release

    Submitted by admin on Thu, 06/17/2010 - 18:00

     

    Overshadowed by the introduction of extension sync in today's Google Chrome developer channel update was another important feature which has been in the works for some time. The same Google and Adobe collaboration which led to the introduction of Chrome's internal Flash plug-in has finally resulted in an internal plug-in for displaying PDF files as well.

    Neither internal Flash or internal PDF rely upon the venerable old NPAPI system. The hope is that this new architecture will provide a more modern, secure way for browsers and plug-ins to interact. PDFs you view with the internal plug-in will also be safely tucked away in Chrome's sandbox, preventing any malicious activity from damaging your operating system.

    If you're running the dev channel, here's what you have to do to turn on the internal PDF viewer:

    • enter chrome:plugins in your Omnibar
    • scroll down to the entry for Chrome PDF Viewer
    • click the enable link, and you're good to go.

    As the official blog post mentions, it's a bit limited in terms of functionality at this point. No zoom options or navigation controls are presented yet, so you'll have to page down or scroll down to read. You can, however, search the text using control + F as you would on a web page.

    My advice: give it a try, but stick to using the Google Docs Viewer for now.

    Apple posts a new HTML5 demo page -- for Safari only

    Submitted by admin on Fri, 06/04/2010 - 16:10

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    Whether you're on Team Apple or Team Adobe in the whole Flash vs. HTML5 brouhaha, you really can't dispute just how nice some of the new HTML5 and CSS3 features are, and while Microsoft was quick to throw a demo page up to tout IE9's capabilities, Apple for some reason waited until yesterday to post one for Safari.

    Farewell, NPAPI! Google Chrome's internal Flash plugin now on by default

    Submitted by admin on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 09:30

     

     
    About two weeks ago, Google and Adobe officially debuted the results of their cooperative efforts, releasing an internal Flash Player plug-in for Google Chrome. Today, the Chromium Nightly build flipped internal Flash support on by default --meaning we'll probably see this pushed to the dev channel in short order.

    CubeMe for Google Chrome lets you pretend you're browsing on an iPad!

    Submitted by admin on Sun, 02/07/2010 - 12:06

     

    There's a very good chance that Chrome OS tablets -- unlike the iPad -- will support Adobe Flash. Google is, after all, one of Adobe's partners in the Open Screen Project.

    Suppose, however, you share the Jobsian distaste for Flash and the CPU abuse perpetrated by carelessly crafted .SWFs. What if you actually want those little blue Legos all over your browser? The answer is simple: there's an extension for that!

    Just install CubeMe, and your Google Chrome will take on a mobile Safari approach to Flash, displaying the mystery block wherever an embed would normally appear. Don't go expecting configurable blocking like with Flashblock -- you'll get blue Legos, and you'll bloody well like it!

    On a practical note, CubeMe will speed load times on certain sites -- though it does make goofing off on ArmorGames a whole lot more complicated...

    In just 16 months Google Chrome overtakes Safari

    Submitted by admin on Sat, 01/02/2010 - 22:06

     

     

    It's the second of January 2010 and the figures are in from December. In just 16 months, Chrome has caught up and passed Apple's Safari browser. Google Chrome now has 4.63% of the global market share, while Safari has only4.46%!