From TVs to tablets: Everything you love, across all your screens

When I was growing up, my family had a single screen we huddled around every day: the television set in the living room. Nowadays, we “huddle” around multiple screens—laptops, smartphones and tablets—using them almost interchangeably as we navigate through our day. In a world of ubiquitous computing, life would be a lot simpler if we didn’t have to learn new behaviors and interfaces each time we switched screens—if we could have one consistent, intuitive experience no matter where we are or what we’re doing. Today, with the launch of Chromecast and the new Nexus 7 tablet, it’s even more effortless to enjoy content you care about—whether it’s video, music, movies, games—wherever you are, across your devices.

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

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

Cast the web to your TV
In addition to apps like Netflix, you can use Chromecast to bring a broad range of content available on the web to your big screen, thanks to a new feature in the Chrome browser that allows you to project any browser tab to your TV. From sharing your family photos to enjoying a video clip from your favorite news site, it’s as simple as pressing a button. This feature is launching in beta, but we’re excited for people to try it out and give us their feedback.



Google Cast SDK preview for developers
To ensure a great Chromecast experience over time, we've built Google Cast, a technology that enables developers to build consistent, intuitive multi-screen experiences across mobile devices and TVs. Today, we’re launching a preview version of Google Cast with more information for developers on our Google Developers blog. A handful of early developers are already working on enabling Google Cast technology in their apps, so more supported apps are coming soon. And while the Chromecast device is the first instantiation of Google Cast, we expect the technology to be embedded in a range of hardware from our partners in the future.

The new Nexus 7—the sharpest 7” tablet screen ever
Together with ASUS, we took what you loved about the original Nexus 7 and made it even better. The first thing you’ll notice is the sharpness of the screen: the 323 pixels packed into every inch of the screen makes it the world's highest-resolution 7-inch tablet. It’s lighter than ever, with more than nine hours of HD video playback and 10 hours of web browsing or reading. Nexus 7 now features stereo speakers and virtual surround sound from Fraunhofer (the inventors of the MP3 format), giving you rich and immersive audio.

Android 4.3—a sweeter Jelly Bean
Nexus 7 is the first device to ship with Android 4.3, the newest version of Android. Tablets are perfect for sharing with others, so in Android 4.3, we're introducing restricted profiles, which let you limit access to apps and content. For example, restricted profiles enable parental controls, so certain family members are prevented from accessing mature content. Likewise, retail stores can use tablets to show off product information, and shops can use tablets as point of sale systems. Android 4.3 also now supports Bluetooth Smart technology, opening the door to mobile apps that connect to new devices like fitness sensors. Android 4.3 is rolling out to Nexus devices starting today.

Ready to Play
The new Google Play Games app brings your friends together with the games you love, where you can invite a friend and start challenging gamers around the world, compete for top achievements, and race to the top of the leaderboard. You can also enjoy the world’s largest collection of eBooks, listen to millions of music tracks and immerse yourself in thousands of movies, TV shows, magazines and apps on Google Play. Plus, Nexus 7 comes loaded with your favorite Google apps, like Chrome, Maps, YouTube, Gmail and Google Now.



How to get Chromecast and the new Nexus 7
Starting today, the Chromecast device is available for $35 on Google Play, Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. It will be available in Best Buy stores across the U.S. starting July 28. For a limited time, you also get three months of Netflix included. More info available in Google Play.

Nexus 7 starts at $229, and is available in the U.S. beginning July 30 (with more countries coming soon!). Buy Nexus 7 online on Google Play, or check it out at Best Buy, Gamestop, Walmart, Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, Amazon, Home Shopping Network, Radio Shack, J&R and B&H Photo. Nexus 7 (LTE) is coming soon with support for T-Mobile and Verizon in the coming weeks. Learn more on our Nexus site.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps

Simpler printing from more places

(Cross-posted on the Google Enterprise Blog)

Have you ever needed to print a boarding pass, whitepaper, or speech, and didn't have your computer at hand? Google Cloud Print helps you print from anywhere to anywhere using any device, and we’ve recently made several improvements on that front.

First, if you have an Android smartphone or tablet, we've released the Cloud Print app in Google Play to make it easier to print documents and files on the go.

Second, if you work out of different offices or other public spaces like a school, you can now easily share a printer with anyone nearby, by simply publishing a link.

In addition, we’re releasing two new tools today to make it even easier to print anywhere, anytime. The first, Google Cloud Printer, makes it possible to print to any of your cloud printers from Windows applications such as Adobe Reader.

The second, Google Cloud Print Service, runs as a Windows service so administrators can easily connect existing printers to Google Cloud Print in their businesses and schools.

We’ll continue evolving Google Cloud Print to make printing simple and easy from as many devices as possible. For now, the future looks good on paper.

Posted by Andrew Warren, Product Manager and Printing Prophet, Google

Better integration between Chrome and Google apps

Today’s release of Chrome for iPad and iPhone makes it easier to integrate your favorite Google apps with Chrome. After you sign in to Chrome, you can sign in to other Google apps with a single click. In addition, if you prefer to follow directions in the Google Maps app instead of in the browser, you can easily set a preference to open these links in the Maps app instead. Try the same for YouTube, Google+, and Google Drive (with more apps coming soon).

Over the coming days, we are also rolling out an experimental data compression service to help you save bandwidth, load pages faster, and browse more securely on your iPhone and iPad. Finally, this update brings fullscreen browsing to your iPad and the ability to access your browsing history from the menu.

Try out the latest version of Chrome for iPhone and iPad today.

Posted by Peter Lee, Software Engineer and Ideating Integrationist

Smarter omnibox suggestions tailored to you

For folks using Chrome Beta on Windows, Mac, or Linux, starting today you’ll notice improvements to omnibox suggestions based on the recency of websites visited, so you’ll get more contextually relevant suggestions at the right time.

In addition, if you use Chrome Beta on your Android phone or tablet, we’re releasing a new update later today to improve the way you navigate and interact with the web. You may notice pages loading faster, and the latest implementation of WebRTC technology allows you to chat face-to-face through your browser without installing any plugins. Try it out by starting a conversation with a friend.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on today’s Beta updates.

Posted by Mark Pearson, Software Engineer and Suggestion Savant

More multilingual mobile web

Today’s Chrome for Android stable update continues to break down the language barrier as you browse the mobile web. In addition to the built-in translation bar, we’ve added improved layout support for right-to-left languages including Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew. This update also brings fullscreen browsing to your tablet.

Furthermore, we’re rolling out an experimental data compression service over the coming days which helps you save bandwidth, load pages faster, and browse more securely on your phone and tablet. Too good to be true, you say? Au contraire. By optimizing the pages you visit, this feature can help you save on data usage and bring you a faster, more dynamic web.

We look forward to your feedback on the latest version of Chrome for Android as it rolls out in the coming days.

Posted by Dan Alcantara, Software Engineer and Professional Polyglot

Richer notifications now available to all Chrome users

Starting today Chrome users on Windows will see their browser updated to include richer notifications (Mac is coming soon). We’re excited to see what developers create and the convenience it brings to your day-to-day lives.

 If you haven’t tried Chrome yet, there’s no better time than now!

Posted by Justin DeWitt, Software Engineer and Master of Messages and Meetings