Anything But Idle

Anything But Idle


Chrome 100 Arrives

April 05, 2022
https://youtu.be/1SMY-K4xDb4

Chrome 100 Arrives and the Productivity News This Week


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In this Cast | Chrome 100 Arrives

Ray Sidney-Smith


Augusto Pinaud


Headlines & Show Notes | Chrome 100 Arrives

Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.


Remote work vs back to the office? It’s more complicated than you realise


Work-Life Balance Vs. Work-Life IntegrationWhich Holds More Benefits?


The Pyramid of Leisure


# Google Docs is getting more Markdown support


Overcast Redesign Enhances Podcast Navigation with an Emphasis on Playlists and Recent Episodes 


What to expect from Microsofts Windows 11 hybrid work event


Modos Paper Laptop will be the first laptop with an E Ink display


Featured Story of the Week

Chrome OS 100 brings new Launcher design to Chromebooks – The Verge


Chrome OS version 100 rolls out today with a redesigned app launcher | Engadget


Google Releases Chrome 100 for iOS and Desktop With Updated Icon – MacRumors


Chrome version 100 arrives with refreshed logo in tow – The Verge


What’s New in Chrome 100, Available Now


Google announces ChromeOS 100


Announcements

Apple iOS and iPadOS 15.4.1 and MacOS 12.3.1 Update NOW!


Zoom reminds everyone it will soon kill off its Chrome app in favor of the shiny new PWA


Other News

OmniPlan 4.4 Adds Localizations, Scheduling Fixes 


Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 142 With Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements


Raw Text Transcript | Chrome 100 Arrives

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio).


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Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:00


Hello, personal productivity enthusiast and community Welcome to Anything But Idle the productivity news podcast. Today’s show is brought to you by co working space by personal productivity club. I’m Ray Sidney-Smith.


Augusto Pinaud 0:12


And I’m Augusto Pinaud.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:15


And we’re your hosts for Anything But Idle. This is episode 102. April for April 4 2022, Chrome 100, version 100 arrives, and the related productivity and technology news of the week, of course, each week of gusto. And I read and review and discuss the productivity and related technology news headlines. And so we get started with the productivity blogosphere, and the audio sphere, the podcasts, blogs, whatever, of the week, and then after the break, we come back and we do the tech episode, the tech articles for the episode. And so let’s get started with the productivity articles episode, what’s our first story this week.


Augusto Pinaud 0:54


So the first story that we have this week come from CD net, and his remote work versus back to the office and solid, more complicated network like that his title and, you know, the article talks about there are more elements, you know, than just working to the office or not working into the office, and, you know, the travel and the implications that that will have in life. And I was discussing last week about how, you know, when we did the pandemic change, as I call it, okay, January, February, March 2020, depending on where you were in that transition, a lot of people went from being in the office, whatever was their normal to now being at home and trying to be productive. Okay. And, oh, we discussed that at that time, too. Enough. But what a lot of people have not yet realized is that the next change is here. And people now need to start deciding what is what their company will do, what second what that means, and for a lot of people means that they are going to leave now in a bag, because they’re going to go to the office two or three times a week, and they’re going to work remotely the rest of the time, your new office is in a bag, I remember that because I live in a bag like that for many, many, many years. But for people, this is new. And what the tendency seems to be, is, it is going to be more complicated, because now a lot of people will need to figure it out how to work back into an office and back into remote and be this hybrid and live in this box. And it’s going to be interesting.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 2:43


Absolutely, I think it’s gonna be very interesting. And I’m gonna continue to keep watching because I think that this is a time that we’re going to learn based on what different organizations do. So all right on to our next story this week,


Augusto Pinaud 2:55


or next Thursday going from Trello. And I really liked it the title is work life balance versus work life integration and which whole benefits. And they go into define work life balance, work life balance, basically, you establish clear boundaries between work and life and what they call work life integration where those boundaries may not exist as much. I have never been a work life balance guy. I have always been a work life integration. You know, I’ve may read a book at 3pm. But then we’ll be working on emails a night, and I’m okay with that. I don’t have I don’t need that balance. I’m lucky enough that I enjoy my work. But there was something that I did notice back in this article, and it’s a quote from our friend, Alexis altenburger. And neither of these perspectives hold more benefit across the board. Because they are different people and different needs. And I cannot agree with her more, you know, and maybe saying that for years work life balance works great for people. It never worked for me not, not when I tried to apply it not when I begin working. You know, when I’m, I’m lucky I love what I do. So there are moments that I have an idea and I’m not going to wait until tomorrow morning. I will grab laptop, phone, tablet, whatever it is to work into that. So integration works much better for me.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 4:27


Yeah, so if you don’t know who Agusta talking about snap back to Anything But Idle episode 38. I believe it is where Alexis Hassel Berger joined us on Anything But Idle, so she’s an alum of abi. All right on to our next story this week Gousto.


Augusto Pinaud 4:45


The pyramid of leisure and that this came from the art of that work could have been the Art of Manliness and I know I chopped the title there There we go here. But anyways, they talk about the importance of well use less retirement, they talk about the pyramid where you go from basic, you know, they call it antidote to boredom. So you entertain, you know, you trying to escape from monotony trying to kill in time, and then how you move from what they call, you know, an emotional participation. So you are now moved by appreciation, active participation, when you copy those models do not you try to play the part. And finally, the creative participation when you are the inventor, the painter, the composer, the writer, that’s at least how I read it, and, and how to how this is important to understand, where are you into this? And Which role do you prefer to play into this? And what was interesting for me is, I am really, really bad at what they call, you know, entertainment of amusement. I, over the years, I have sure I was really good at that at some point. Over the years, I have gone a lot more in the creative participation and the active participation than any of the lower levels. Oh, well, you.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 6:21


Well, so just so everybody’s on the same page. This is actually the the pyramid of leisure actually comes from a book by John Nash, Dr. John B. Nash. I’m sorry, Jay B. Nash. He was a professor of physical education, health and recreation. He wrote a book in 1950s. Sometime there abouts. It was called the philosophy of recreation and leisure. And so the, the pyramid were referencing, I highly recommend that you check it out in the show notes, click on the link from the Art of Manliness, it’s the pyramid of leisure articles Agusta noted, and, and so, you know, it gives us these four tiers of leisure, which I think is interesting in some way, shape, or form. I’m not sure this is necessarily, you know, how I would model leisure, but I can see how each of those things manifests in my own life. And I know that I actually spend a considerable amount of time in each of these portions of the pyramid. So at the bottom of this, people kind of have a visualization at the bottom of the pyramid is entertainment, amusement, escape from Mountain monotony, and then killing time, and so that that’s what Professor Nash calls the antidote to boredom. And then he steps up a level to emotional participation, then to active participation, and then to create a participation. And I can’t, I can’t argue against the model. It’s just not how my brain perceives leisure time. And at the same time, you know, you know, Augusto, as much as I do, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about liberalism. And of course, that is, you know, the concept of a free life. And I think you could potentially also call it leisure realism, right? Like, how do we spend our leisure time, and we have more leisure time when we consider how we use our our other time, that we also consider productive time, because I think leisure time is actually productive time. So I think really what it ends up being is it’s like a spectrum for me, your pendulum swinging along that spectrum in terms of us going in and out of different types of use of our time. And we can potentially think about leisure. From an escapist perspective, as he notes at the bottom of the pyramid, we could talk about it from more active engagement at the higher levels, what I would more consider rejuvenative activities, things that are done not for an explicit purpose for say, a professional or career work, but still something that actually is contributing toward some other end some other means to an end. And I think I think we should all be considering those things as we are thinking about our productive lives at at large, as opposed to thinking about it from a like, that’s the time I have leftover. Right, I’m going to do this with the time I have leftover. And going back to Dr. Neal Fiore’s concept you know, he’s worked against procrastination for many years and you know, wrote the book The now habit and now have it at work read the now habit skip the now habit at work and and so but, you know, his his thoughts on it are that really what we do is we relegate leisure we relegate rewards to an after thought to basically throw away time, and that’s not how humans operate best. So we can actually think about leisure reward, whatever that might be, as being stuff to positively reinforce us to engage in the work that we have to do that might be mundane, that might not be as fun We’re going to be more engaged in our lives in general. So all right, we have reached the end of our articles in terms of the blogosphere, if I’m not mistaken Augusto. Correct. Fantastic. Okay, so we’re gonna take a quick break for a word from our sponsor this week co working space by personal productivity club. When we get back, we are going to do our tech articles. And then we are going to get into our feature story of the week, which is going to be all about Chrome, Chrome 100 chrome version 100. And so with that, we will see you after the break. Well, working


Sponsor Voice Over 10:36


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Raymond Sidney-Smith 11:44


Welcome back everybody to Anything But Idle. I’m Ray Sidney-Smith joined with Augusto Pinaud for a second half of the show. We’re gonna get into our technology articles for the week of Cousteau. What’s our first article this week?


Augusto Pinaud 11:57


So the first one is no, we’re going to cover some Google’s but it’s Google Docs is getting Markdown and you don’t know what Markdown is Markdown is a way to get you know, was created for the web. I think it’s a format basically to use in text shortcuts and keyboard so you can get you know, an bolt and symbols and, and stuff. And it’s interesting, I can notice explain. markdown, this is sad. But anyways, you cannot Eddins Balt do both. And is a really great way to write especially when you’re writing text because you don’t need to leave the keyboard you can do you know star star for bold, etc. So it’s finally coming to Google Docs. And it is something at least for people who write consistently. Very, very exciting.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 12:52


Yeah, so so so the people have an awareness. Markdown is basically a markup language, hence the markdown. But it’s lightweight, it gives you the ability to format text in a plain text environment. And then other systems can go ahead and read that Markdown and then apply the formatting appropriately. The most, I guess the longest one that I know of is common mark. And so if anybody is interested in learning more about common mark, you can Google it. And so the idea is, is that instead of having to use your cursor and go to the toolbar, the formatting toolbar of your word editor of choice, in this case, Google Docs, and applying the formatting, you can just type these, this syntax, this basically this markup, you know, so a double, double pound sign will give you the two number signs next to each other will give you a Heading Two, for example. So you know, basically one smaller than the largest heading in the system, and other things like that, you know, forward slashes and minus signs on either sides of words, you could do all kinds of interesting types of markup of the plain text that then applies a formatting to it. So Google providing some markdown support I think is brilliant. I think it’s just, it’s great to have the capability available to us. So all good stuff there.


Augusto Pinaud 14:11


Awesome. Our next one is about overcast, overcast is an application that I particularly used to listen to podcasts and they recently really sign make emphasis on the playlist on recent episodes. And it could look a lot more useful. I really enjoyed that. They now put the playlist into big things into colors. I there is a playlist that I have that has things that I listened with the kids almost every day, and I love now that used to be this small thing to click. I can click for the big thumb is a fantastic thing, but they did a bunch of things under the hood, as well as you know the options to now add things to the recent area look at the podcast. So if you try it on the past and like it updated, it is looks pretty, pretty nice. Also, I don’t know until when but it was going to be a free update at least the first room, the normal version. And the premium is still going to be a $9.99 per year. And that’s removed the banner ads and all those kinds of things.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 15:29


Now that’s pretty inexpensive. I mean, that’s a pretty affordable application. And I know that Marco amount and the team over at overcast do a really great job with the application. I know that it doesn’t support video podcasts I as I understand it, but you know, otherwise all the audio podcasting is really well done in the system. Yeah. All right on to our next story, or next


Augusto Pinaud 15:51


one is what to expect from Windows 11, Microsoft Windows 11 hybrid work event. And I have never been that excited about Windows event. No, really. I am, believe it or not, I am this is the first time that I’m looking forward for this event. And mostly because I believe that Microsoft has done a really, really good job, in the software in the pandemic in trying to embrace all this. And I’m really curious what they’re going to bring. According to the article, you know, we’re going to have smarter clipboard, tabs on the file explorer. And some of the things you already can see, you know, you go to cross platform, all the tips that we talked about this Mater clipboard, at least what is available right now, for Windows 11. taps on the file floater, there is a new email app that they’re going to bring teams. And apparently, some time on the first stuff, the 2022 Microsoft has promised that they’re going to bring the 3d avatars for Microsoft team. I don’t know about that. Okay, team’s conversations it’s not teams is so miss meat doesn’t matter, are awkward enough to now start seeing people what they think it’s a 3d avatar. And how that look, I don’t know how I honestly feel about that. But we are going to see more security management Microsoft Edge. So if you are a Windows user, this may be interesting for you.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 17:31


Yeah, I’m particularly interested to see how they’re going to screw up Microsoft’s clipboard, I mean, how they’re going to improve the clipboard in Windows 11. You know, I have to say that currently, the way in which Windows clipboard works is perfectly fine. They do not need to improve it by kicking Microsoft Teams or Skype into it or anything idiotic like that. So if anyone from Microsoft is listening, please leave clipboard alone.


Augusto Pinaud 17:57


I think it’s a little bit late. This will be April 5 at 8am. Pacific time. So at the moment, we are recording things a little late for that glory.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 18:11


They’ve already they’ve already done. They already done the git commit.


Augusto Pinaud 18:15


They’re going to mess it up. Already done.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 18:18


Yeah, they’ve done the git commit to ruin my, my hopes for clipboard. But either way, for those of you who are unawares, right now, if you are on the Windows operating system across, I believe since eight, and maybe back to seven now. But if you hold down the Windows key and and tap the letter V as in Victor, you will have a prompt to either start the Windows clipboard, or you will then have then the Windows clipboard triggered. And you can have up to 20 past items that you’ve clipped to your clipboard available to you. Now, if you if you have your Windows account in the later versions of Windows connected to a Windows Microsoft account, that is a when Microsoft Live or Microsoft 365 account. Those clipboard entries can also be synchronized across devices. So if you have multiple laptops or multiple devices with Windows on it, you can then see your clipboard entries across different devices, which is a very handy feature if you want to use it in that capacity. Apple has something very similar I believe. And so that’s, that’s all well and fine. And currently operating in the system, what they’re talking about is adding additional capabilities to clipboard. But that’s not where clipboard. That’s not where those features belong. So I just I really reject this notion that we need to start kicking features into places where features don’t belong. I don’t need to, I don’t need to think about executing features where I’m attempting to copy, cut and paste. I should be thinking about those from some different context menu, which we have. We have the right click or the Options menu button on Windows to be able to trigger context to do things, not from the clipboard. So I’m going to get off my soapbox and we’re going to move on


Augusto Pinaud 19:59


from there. Next, we’re going to go to get into a different soapbox, and we’re going to talk about the modos paper laptop. And this is the second or third product or offer that prototype that comes and said, Okay, we’re going to build a laptop with ink. And, you know, we’re seeing more in more devices, I am still now going to say to Amazon, when it’s coming, your Kindle Fire, or whatever you wanted to call it, that is going to be handwriting recognition. In the meantime, you know, we continue talking about this one, what the difference was the Matos is that motto says we’re not interested in running Windows or making decent really computer, this is for reading, and writing. And it will be interesting to see, because if you put a decent keyboard, or a good keyboard, and you give this, this may be a really nice thing for people who create a lot of content to have an eating where your eyes are not going to get tired. Where the machine is basically designed for that. That will be pretty interesting. Um, if this ever comes to product, I may be happy to test it.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 21:19


Yeah, I think this is gonna compete with the free right if anybody doesn’t


Augusto Pinaud 21:23


free, right has this three line screen? I yeah, I mean, more than that.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 21:27


Well, yeah, I got it. There’s some people who who like that some people who don’t I mean, there’s the there’s the alternative to that, which I believe is the Alpha Smart Neo, a little bit of a less expensive version of the free, right. It’s something that lasts a really long time, and gives you that capability of being able to write on a slimmed down device. I think this is probably in that same vein, my only concern is that as I look at the, the device, at least in this prototype image, it doesn’t look like the screen flips over into like, basically, collapsible into a tablet mode. It may maybe that hinge does flip backwards. But if it doesn’t, that’s a that’s a deal breaker for me. It really needs to be able to, to lay flat into a tablet mode for me to be able to fully and comfortably read on it. Otherwise, it’s solely to me a writing device and that keyboard looks itty bitty maybe it’s just the image that I’m looking at but no I think


Augusto Pinaud 22:25


is the image because the what the article said is that for the prototype he use Lenovo Lenovo machine for this I this. I don’t know where I found it. The old


Raymond Sidney-Smith 22:39


IBM ThinkPad


Augusto Pinaud 22:41


ThinkPad the sorry, sorry, I’m thinking St. Patty’s for me, Lenovo. Now Euro, an IBM ThinkPad. So,


Raymond Sidney-Smith 22:47


yeah, I don’t I don’t know that this has a very large bed. I


Augusto Pinaud 22:51


agree. This photo doesn’t help but it but I think but I don’t remember, I think that their keyboards were not good. That was actually their highest thing on those machines.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 23:03


Yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see. It looks very interesting to me, I don’t think I would, I you know, I just don’t need a device like that I can, I can write on any one of my devices. But I see the value, I see the appreciation of something like this. And, you know, we’ve talked about E Ink display laptops before, and the E Ink displays that, you know, like little monitors that are now available in this space, just lots of really good stuff happening there. And I like the idea of having a touchscreen ink display that you can just, you know, use for for days and days, without, you know, running out of battery. Because these things just use a little. So that’s interesting to me in some way, shape or form. I don’t know what the battery is going to be like on this laptop. But you know, even if it gives you you know, 16 1718 hours of battery life, that’s a that’s going to be far superior to other laptops that are out there on the market. I’m not sure that’s what that is, but pretty curious, interested to see what’s going on there. All right. With that, those are our tech stories for the week, we are going to hop skip and jump over our other segments this week, because we have a lot to cover in our feature story of the week, which is that Chrome iOS version 100 chrome version 100. So browser and operating systems both reached the very important milestone of 100. And so yeah, let’s get into Chrome OS, and chrome version 100. And what’s new in those two versions of the operating system and browser?


Augusto Pinaud 24:38


Well, let’s start with the operating system, the Chrome OS and, you know, there is a lot of things. One of the things is they include a window similar to what Windows people are familiar, you used to be able to click on the corner, and then you will get a whole screen of apps and now you’re getting Windows start menu like thing with the applications. And the you can now see the, the icons in there. And for what I understand, you can even sort the icons in there in different ways, you know, group them together. So they really try to bring that to a different level. Because as you get to be heavy using the Chromebook, you know, that open there, it’s now pages of pages, pages of things. So seems like that


Raymond Sidney-Smith 25:35


work, they ever hold on, hold on, hold on. So so I’m just gonna just say it for everybody. It was a terrible user design, terrible experience. And I fully admit that, and I am they bring


Augusto Pinaud 25:48


so from the Windows world to the sign that.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 25:53


But I’m really glad that they did this. I mean, it makes so much more sense for it to come up now and give you a clearer ability to search. And remember, this is this is like the everything search or the universal search, sometimes called. But this is this is the place where you search for files and your browser tabs, as well as your apps and settings and everything else like that. And so having that that space where you had to like you had to find that little tiny arrow button to be able to get it to expand. And it was it was all kinds of silly. And for folks like me who are very used to working with their keyboard, and kind of executing from that space, it’s not as much of a problem. But the moment you put your finger on the touchpad and you’re already there, then it becomes this like issue of you know, you having to have great dexterity in terms of being able to find where you’re going and how you’re getting there. And I found that to be very frustrating for myself and other users. So I’m really, really pleased to see them add this new launcher to the system. Okay, continue on.


Augusto Pinaud 26:50


So they’re your your camera app now can create gifs or GIFs, or GIF, or whatever you wanted to call it just days. But regardless, you can pop up the camera, and sorry, the internal joke is that we have discussed and how to I mispronounce that every time. So that is the result of the joke. But anyways, you can now pop up the camera and choose and record the three seconds and that will create a GIF. And I think, you know, that is a feature that obviously is not appealing to me. But I could see kids in school with those Chromebooks creating so many of them. And and again, the more fun you make the platform the more people use it, the more people eventually even he says by mistake learn new things. The dictation has been as I said significantly improve the browser obviously. When when I don’t think I don’t know what else I am missing on the Chrome OS area.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 28:00


Yeah, so it only had a few highlights from Google themselves in terms of the updates to Chrome OS 100. I will note though, since we’re gonna, you know Riester the pot on that debate. The gifts or gifts as as younger folks are called them to our to call them gifts. And those of us have an older generation called them gifts. Don’t ask me but the the creator of the GIF Steven Wilhite actually passed away in March. And he was 74. And and so he at his webby lifetime achievement award acceptance did say that the name and way to pronounce that thing is a GIF. And so you can pronounce it however you want to. But just in honor of Steve Wilhite, he did pass away last month. And so he did invent the GIF, and kudos to him, and he will be missed. So that being the case, you know, I think it’s just really phenomenal that they built a GIF maker directly into the operating system. It’s such a great additional feature to have. And yeah, otherwise, they’ve only highlighted a few of those refinements to 100. They’ve got a lot more coming in the OS to come in the next couple of months. So there’ll be lots more to talk about when we when we see one, basically the the 101102 and one of the three coming out in the next


Augusto Pinaud 29:24


year. We move to Chrome, actually browser that also was raised 100 on Windows, Mac, iPhones, iPads and Android devices, basically anywhere you can get it and one of the things that came new was the logo or the icon and you know, when the first thing that came to me, us this came was an old movie and I know I said at the beginning of the show that I watched a little movies but I do but regardless was the movie was the devil where A product and there isn’t a scene in that movie. Where is Carter and is coming and cheese, laughing about the color blue, and Meryl Streep going to all this odd you think this is blue? Let me tell you and she unloaded on how people came to that. And that’s what I feel when I saw the links, oh, oh, you remove the shadow. And as soon as I said that, that’s the seam that came in my movie, thinking how many millions into removing that shadow? Anyways, since 2014, the logo of the icon of Chrome has been the same. And now it’s change.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 30:42


I think it looks far superior to the original logo that came out, you know, back in whatever it was 2014 or so. It’s it’s definitely 2008, I suppose, was the first version of Chrome. So


Augusto Pinaud 30:56


there is an improvement from 2008, without any doubt.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 31:00


Yeah, and I think now it’s just more vibrant, and just flatter. And so the goal here is to, of course, create greater accessibility. And just a clear, you know, image iconography that tells a brand story about Chrome. And I think going from 2008 to 2022, you can see a clear, evolving definition of, of that brand language of that vision that that the Google Chrome team has had about it. And I’m, frankly, please, in full disclosure, I’m a volunteer in the Google Chrome Help Forum. So I’m a google google chrome product expert. And, you know, I’ve just, I watched the chrome project very, very closely, both chromium, many of the other chrome based browsers, and really all of the various chrome versions Dev, Canary, and otherwise, and this most recent Chrome Stable desktop version is just a remarkable, you know, achievement, of, of actually open source software, if you want to think about it from that perspective, because the Chromium project, which ultimately, birth, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, opera, brave, new name, all of these other chromium based browsers, this is a a large for profit corporation, that is championing an open source browser project. And it has basically consumed the the world in terms of browser adoption. And, you know, at the end of the day, I believe that open source will rule the world. And we could probably already see that look at all the various Linux based and, you know, Linux kernel based application operating systems that are in existence today. And we are we are in this phase where people tend to think, well, you know, there’s lots of proprietary software out there, look at Apple, look at Microsoft, they’re still doing well in the world. At the end of the day, though, open source will, we’ll be able to eat the cake, because, you know, with the right energy, and the right, perseverance, open, software open, that is free software, free licensed software, is how we, you know, will ultimately find the level of adaptation, adaptability, and really extensibility that the world needs. And so, you know, I’ll again, get off my soapbox here, but I really do believe in free software, open source software. And I’m very, very pleased to see the Google Chrome project continue to thrive, there’s a lot of stuff that it can be better at, there’s a lot of ways in which Google could manage the product better. But you know, what, there’s a security flaw, you know, in almost a heartbeat, Google is responding to that. And that means that the Chromium project gets that that update, which means that edge gets updated, which means all of the other chromium based browsers get updated in short speed, and it keeps the world and the Internet protected, the users of the internet protected in so many ways, by virtue of them being so responsive to the project. And so I give them a lot of credit, you know, there’s a lot of ways in which we can talk ill of, of all the big tech, but this is one way in which they have helped champion the web, both from a security perspective, not necessarily from a privacy perspective, but from a security perspective, and, and doing some really good things. And I would hope that Apple would maybe, you know, fall in line and follow some of the good ways in which the Chromium project has pushed the web forward. PW ways. So just a little bit of PWA support is all I’m asking for.


Augusto Pinaud 34:35


No, but but I’m going to say I’m going to say I’m going to send something in here because I have in the past said, well, Apple, you know why Apple not? And I was corrected on our 100th episode. I don’t remember if it was during the show, or on the pre show. Honestly, I don’t. But on the show, Trevor Moore beard came on I was talking about it. They say, Yeah, I wish to have them on my iPad. And he said, No, you can say no, you cannot suggest you can. And he said, Show me. So he told me the problem. And he told me clearly say, I know what you can’t say, Why? Because you’re trying to do it from Google. Of course, I’m trying to do from Chrome, I say, yes. But in the iPad, the chrome version, it’s not Chrome. It’s apple web, tried to do it from Safari. And as soon as I did it from Safari, I had my PWA. So I’m really thankful from driver to teach me that. But the interesting things, well, I start sharing that with a couple of my Uber, Apple geek friends say, you know, you can do PWA, and I share it with somebody is specifically. And he was like, No, you cannot. So of course, again, it’s good to say that I co wrote that but only book with this guy, okay. And he is a developer. And he was like little cabinets I show him. And he was like, great. Now I can have three different versions of this software, installing this iPad, for testing. And what I think one of the things I think Apple has been doing really poorly is embrace them and explain people what they are, I get it that you don’t get money from the PWA. And you get it from the Apple store. But it’s time that people learn how to use PWA s into the iPad ecosystem.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 36:30


Yeah, I think I think iPad has supported some version of PWA. Since 13, iOS 13.


Augusto Pinaud 36:37


It was just not intuitive to do any was counter intuitive. And because of that most people don’t even know they exist.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 36:44


Right? Right. But there but their limitation of Chrome being able to install a PWA is still there. And Apple let go, just let go. Alright, onward with Chrome 100. What else do we want to talk about regarding Chrome 100 Minus their refresh


Augusto Pinaud 37:04


logo? Well, no, there is a lot of things, there are 23 security things that they fixed. And we need to remember Google is on our four week scheduled now. So release new thing. So we are going to see more and more things coming up more and more faster. One of the things that we already seen is that web apps can use multiple screens, now they add a new multiple screen, Windows plays for an API are so that now, you know, in a stable it can recognize Oh, I have multiple screens and can work with them in a much better way than what it was before. You know, the other thing, this feature that I particularly appreciate, is if you have Chrome and you have a tab making noise, because you open a YouTube or because you you can now on the tab, click on this little speaker and take it on mute that cell, I think that is so nice, especially when you have multiple devices, and you’re doing something somewhere and you get a call or you get something else in another. So there is a lot to do it is a big deal. Not only that is the 100 it is how much they have done into this, but I hope you already downloaded and are playing with it.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 38:27


Yeah, I mean, so that people have an awareness, when they switch to the four week cycle that was back in March, April of last year, and it’s the 2021. And and so, you know, they started clicking up numbers a little bit faster than they otherwise would have. And so so like, you know, we’re 100 faster than I than I thought we would have gotten but I think that you know, between now and 200, that will be you know, at a much, much faster clip than it took 14 years to get us to 100 It’ll be much, much faster for us to get to 200 I forget how many years that is. But it’s it’s a few years. And and Chrome runs across, you know, Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android, iOS, it runs across a lot of different operating systems. And all of them now we’re at version 100, along with it’s parallel, Chroma West 100. So, you know, like when you think about the power and some kind of surface that Chrome has created across all of these major operating systems, I’m just I’m really, really pleased with the with its abilities to stay both up to date and up to speed and all that fun stuff. So yeah, I’m pretty pleased with the with the latest updates. I’m pleased with the stability of it, you know, I haven’t seen any stability issues. And I’m hoping that in this most recent version. Normally when I when I see a new update come, what will happen is my entire system will just basically bogged down until I update. It’s like chrome wants to push me to update and so the whole system just kind of slows down on one of my devices and that’s when I know that an update is pushed to me. That didn’t happen. In this most recent version, and I’m curious whether or not they finally cured that, that outstanding bug off to go actually into the, into the bug tracker and see if that that they actually solve that problem. But, you know, across different profiles, I’ve seen a speed improvements this past year, just remarkable speed improvements, it’s still one of the fastest browsers if not the fastest browser out there. You know, like, if you’re, if your Chrome is running slowly, it is likely not Chrome that is doing it. It’s basically an extension, you know, get rid of those extensions, turn off those extensions and see how it’s going. Or do an underlying, you know, hard drive review, look at whether your hard drive something, you know, like, what’s the name of the software now, it’s escaping me now. But their software to basically analyze your hard drive to see whether or not it’s up to speed, you can run, you know, some some tests on your CPU and your your memory to make sure that they aren’t hanging you up here. But for the most part, Chrome has done a really fantastic job of making the browser itself, just lightning fast. So I’m pretty pleased with with it. I sound like I sound like a chrome evangelist all of a sudden, but I just I’ve been I’ve been really I’ve actually been really pleased with with a lot of the improvements in the last, you know, year. And that’s been really good. Any anything else about Chrome 100?


Augusto Pinaud 41:21


No, I cannot think when anything else, right now.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 41:26


Oh, I’ll note here. And I saw this in the notes here that Chrome on mobile. So all the mobile versions are getting rid of light mode. That used to be like a version that would allow you to get rid of things and do some data compression and whatever else. In essence, they’re, they’re basically doing all of the improvements within the software itself. And so they’re no longer doing that server side, light mode, or Data Saver mode, or whatever they call them in the past. And so that’s going to be a, you know, just, it’s just going to go away, which is fine, it really hasn’t been a major issue. And I think that’s just about it. In terms of the major, there’s a lot of under the hood, minor little fixes here and there, that I’ve been really pleased with the other major thing. And this is not a chrome 100 thing. But if you’ve ever had a lot of Chrome tabs open on your mobile device, and lost those, Google Chrome now has done a really fantastic job of giving you control over getting back those of those, they’re not being lost in the first place kind of situations. And I’ve also liked the fact that when you are on when you’re on a desktop advisor device, you can go ahead and access the open tabs from your mobile device on the desktop device, just by clicking on your three dots, and then going to history, you will see your other devices listed under that history section. And you’ll be able to jump to it. So it’s really, really helpful. I’m not quite sure what version the sidebar came to forgive me. But this might have been a chrome 99 one, but in the sidebar, you now have the reading list and bookmarks. So your bookmarks have now moved. They are still if you drop down three dots in the top right hand corner on the desktop, you’ll still you’ll still see bookmarks. But if you click on the new little icon, it looks like a square with a darkened a you know a thick bar on the right hand side. That is now your I forget what it called side panel side panel, not sidebar, if you click on that, it actually opens up the side panel. And now you have two tabs, your reading list and your bookmarks. So think of your reading list is like you know, you browse the web for various articles. And you can now save them there as a temporary holding zone for you to be able to read them, and so on and so forth. So you can just add the current tab. And, you know, keep doing that on various websites. So it’s nice to be able to have this functionality right there in the browser. I’m not quite sure I’ll use the reading list. But I really like having this new side panel with the bookmarks bar, because now you’re browsing. And so you have the browser here and right next to it, you have your bookmarks, and you can actually review the bookmarks in a little bit nicer of a fashion. I’m hoping they add a search field at the top of this list. Because I want to be able to search my bookmarks from that space, and you currently can’t. And so I’ve not really found a way for you to search this without going into the bookmarks manager. So this seems a little bit odd that they that they didn’t give you that capability in here. But I’ve already spoke to the Chrome team and noted by need for some kind of search here. I mean, it makes total sense that you would want to search within the side panel of the bookmarks that you have here and even your reading list that gives you the capability of searching your tabs. So I can see them adding something very similar as basically just a little upside down caret to the right of the bookmarks and reading list so that you can click on it and search those items that are in the list because I have a lot of bookmarks. I’ve I’ve just have dozens and dozens of bookmarks in the system and I want to be able to See those? So, again, like I said, I can’t remember which chrome version that showed up in, but it should now be up there in your, in your, in your bar. So anything else, sir?


Augusto Pinaud 45:12


No, that’s all good. We have to Oh, no, that’s not true. That’s all that we have on Chrome. Go forward the announcements. So there are two important announcements. One is Apple, iOS, iPad, iOS 15, point, dot 4.1, and macOS. 12. Point 3.1 was released last Thursday. Make sure you update all your Mac and iOS devices, there are important security things that were fixed into this. And the second thing is soums is trying to remind everyone that their Chrome app, it’s going to go away in favor of the PWA. And initially when the loads to PWA, but it’s been improved. It’s been really good now really workable now. So those are the two announcements we have for this week. But if you use on iOS, iPad, iOS or MacOS, make sure you update pronto.


Raymond Sidney-Smith 46:11


Fantastic. Alright. And with that, we’ve covered the productivity and related technology news this week. Thank you Augusto for putting together the show this every week. It’s my pleasure. All right, everybody on anything but idle.com, you’ll find our show notes. Those include links to all the stories we discussed, plus any extra stories we didn’t cover during our time together, and text transcripts both readable on the page one you can also download as a PDF locally so you can read offline. And so after surveying our show notes reading through the show notes, please let us know if there’s a story we missed. You can leave comment, you can tweet or DM us at Anything But Idle. So our Twitter handle is at Anything But Idle. You can also tweet or DM us at either of our Twitter profiles. But you know, we have one dedicated Anything But Idle. You can also use our contact form on the website, anything but idle.com forward slash contact. If you have a question or a comment about anything we discussed today on the show, you can do the same right there on the episode page. So if you go to anything but idle.com forward slash 102 You will be taken to today’s episode. I’ll also note that we actually have a community dedicated to Anything But Idle on inside of personal productivity club you’ve probably heard during the the break, talking about co working space living inside a personal productivity Club. Well inside a personal productivity club, we also have a channel it’s free to join, just come to anything but idle.com forward slash community that will take you to the join page. And in there, we post each of the episodes for free for you feel free to go ahead and dialogue about you know anything that we talked about on the show or anything that we missed. If this is your first time watching us welcome. And feel free to subscribe using the subscribe button so that you can get notified when we go live weekly there on YouTube or wherever else you’re watching from. If you’re listening to the podcast, feel free to add us in your favorite podcast app. Some of you might be watching from Twitter, you feel free to follow the Twitter account as well if you want to, you know see when we go live weekly, we do restream to Twitter as well. If you’ve enjoyed spending time or watching us today or listening to us in the podcast, feel free to leave a rating a review in Apple podcasts or Stitcher or any other podcast app or site that allows you to leave a rating a review your compliments really help us reach more of a personal predictive productivity listening community. And so thank you for doing that. And with that we will see you all next time here on Anything But Idle. Here’s your productive life.



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