You’re having friends over and before you know it, a battle has ensued in your living room over who can show the funniest YouTube video. Now, it’s even easier for your friends to cast to your TV without first having to connect to your WiFi. With the new guest mode feature, anyone with an Android device can cast to your TV as long as they’re in the same room.

To set up guest mode for your Chromecast, open the Chromecast app on your Android phone or tablet and select “Devices” from the navigation drawer. Choose your Chromecast device, tap the “Guest mode” setting and then turn the slider to “on.”

See it in action:
This update is rolling out starting today. Just make sure your Chromecast app is up to date on your Android phone or tablet. To learn more about this feature, visit chromecast.com/guestmode.

Posted by Jagjit Chawla, Product Manager and Host Extraordinaire

Chromecast is adding seven more great apps to your casting queue. Get bigger laughs with The Daily Show on Comedy Central, learn with Elmo on Sesame Street Go, or cast Nickelodeon and let Spongebob keep your family entertained. And, no matter how far you travel this winter, stay connected with TuneIn for international radio stations and millions of podcasts. With EPIX, YuppTV and ENCORE Play also casting, you have a full lineup of shows, sports, games and movies to last throughout the holiday season.

Posted by Faisal Feroz, Partner Engineering Manager, Elmo’s best friend

We all know how hard it can be to find something once you've saved it. Starting today, it's a lot easier thanks to an update to bookmarks in the latest Chrome Beta. We’ll be rolling this feature gradually out over the next few weeks. Try out the new Bookmarks Manager by going to your Chrome Menu  > Bookmarks > Bookmarks Manager.

Now when you create a bookmark, you can select an image and add a note or snippet to help you find that bookmark more quickly later. Google will also suggest a folder if it seems like it could be a fit.

The new bookmarks get even better if you’re signed in to Chrome with sync enabled:

• Improved search: Quickly find that elusive page with search powered by Google, which looks not only at the bookmark title and snippet, but also the bookmarked page’s content. 
• Collect bookmarks by topic: Your bookmarks will automatically be organized by topic, like “Tokyo” and “Photography.” If you’d rather, you can still organize them into folders yourself.
• Familiar bookmarks, new look: Your existing bookmarks will automatically get updated with images and descriptions, wherever possible.
• Share: Have a folder of favorite bookmarks? You can make it public and share the link with whomever you’d like to access it. 
• Access your bookmarks anywhere: Bookmarked an article on your phone to finish reading on your laptop? Chrome will continue to sync your bookmarks across all of your devices, just like it does today. 

Adding, organizing, and browsing your bookmarks is now easier (and prettier) than ever before. Have any questions about your new bookmarks? Join the discussion here.

Posted by Cynthia Johanson, Product Manager and Super Star-rer

In time for the epic conclusion to the Hobbit trilogy we’ve updated the Chrome Experiment, “A Journey Through Middle-earth.” Whether you’re a hobbit, wizard or dwarf (oh yeah, humans too) you can now relive all of the epic Middle-earth adventures, from Frodo’s journey to Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring to Bilbo’s final battle in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, in theaters December 17th. This year's Chrome Experiment was developed by North Kingdom in collaboration with Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM).

Your adventure starts on a beautiful, interactive map of Middle-earth where you can explore all 27 locations from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies. This year’s map is rich with 3D animations highlighting the paths of eight key characters, including Bilbo, Gandalf and Bard.

Completely new for this year’s version is a peer-to-peer battle game where you can challenge your friends to a test of skill. The peer-to-peer gameplay experience was built primarily using the latest web technologies, including WebRTC and WebGL. It’s touch optimized for laptops, phones and tablets, bringing you a stunning interactive experience across all your devices.


Just go to goo.gl/TheHobbit on your laptop, phone or tablet to check out the latest Chrome Experiment, “A Journey through Middle-earth.”

And for those of you who are more interested in geeking out about web development than exploring Middle-earth, check out our technical case study on HTML5Rocks.com.

Posted by Ian Ellison-Taylor, Chrome Product Manager and human defender of Minas Tirith

Over the past year Chromecast has added hundreds of your favorite apps, and brought anything on the web to the TV via Android mirroring and Chrome tab casting. Just in time for the holidays, we’re adding even more apps to the list. So whether you’re looking forward to a quiet evening watching your favorite holiday heartwarmer or a rousing game night with the gang, there’s something for everyone.

Family-friendly games for Chromecast

Chromecast uses your phone or tablet as the controller and your TV screen like a game or score board to let you play games like Wheel of Fortune or classics like Hasbro’s Monopoly Dash, Scrabble Blitz, Connect Four Quads and Simon Swipe on your big screen.

If you prefer to dance around, check out Just Dance Now. Your smartphone can tell if you’re fist pumping high or shaking your hands down low, which earns you points. To show off your mental moves instead, Big Web Quiz and Emoji Party for Chromecast bring trivia to the TV. Astound your friends with your answers to questions like: How many goats tall is Taylor Swift? What does the "Queen of Hearts" look like in emoji? Big Web Quiz uses Google Knowledge Graph to create hundreds of questions, while Emoji Party uses your knowledge of emojis to guess movie titles based on the pictures.

There's no hassle or expense with extra controllers. Anyone with a phone or tablet can join in on any of these games, so download these apps from the Play Store or App Store so all your family and friends can shake it, show off their smarts or just play.

More movies and shows with Showtime Anytime and Starz

Nothing says winter like a TV binge on a cold, gray day. With Showtime Anytime you can catch up on past and current seasons of the network’s original series including Homeland and The Affair. With Starz Play, get your tartan on with the first season of Outlander, or have a marathon of Friday night flicks.
Easily explore and discover new things to cast 

To make it easier for you to navigate through the many great apps available with Chromecast and find exactly what you’d like to cast, we’ve added category tabs to the chromecast.com/apps page. Choose from TV & Movies, Music & Audio, Games, Sports, Photos & Video, or More.
Posted by Wendi Zhang, three-peat Scrabble champ

[Cross-posted on the Google Translate blog]

When you're browsing the web, you might come across a page where some of the text is in a different language. With the new update to the Google Translate Chrome extension, you can translate just that piece of text, without worrying about the rest of the page.

Simply highlight the text that you want to translate, and then click the Translate icon that appears. You can also right click and choose "Google Translate". If you click the icon in the upper right of your browser window, with no text highlighted, you can translate the entire web page.
You can download and try the Translate extension from the Chrome Web Store; if you already have the extension installed, it will be updated automatically.

The Translate team is working hard to connect people by breaking language barriers across computers, mobile devices and Internet browsers. Our users make more than 1 billion translations a day, and we hope that our recent update will make their translation tasks a little easier!
Posted by Chao Tian, Software Engineer

When you’re chatting with your friends and family, you want your conversations easily accessible, not buried in browser windows. Today, we’re introducing the Hangouts Chrome App for Chrome OS and Windows -- a simpler, faster way to use Hangouts on your computer alongside whatever else you’re doing.

The new app brings the best of Hangouts to your desktop, plus some improvements we think you’ll love:
Keep the conversation going, without taking over your desktop. The app has a streamlined design that keeps your chats accessible without getting in the way of everything else. Your contact list and all your chats are condensed into one easy to toggle window. Also, you’ll get integrated notifications that alert you to new messages, so you can quickly find the conversation you’re looking for.

More app, less Chrome. It works outside of your browser so your chats are always available, not tucked away inside a window. You’ll get all your messages as long as you have the app running, and your chats will sync across Hangouts on all your devices.

Voice calling from your desktop. The app now has all the video and voice features you’re used to in Hangouts. We recently announced you can make phone calls to any number in the world (via Hangouts dialer) and now you can do this right from your desktop.  If you use Google Voice, the app includes complete Google Voice support, so you can make and receive calls, and get your voicemails and SMS messages directly in Hangouts.

Download the Hangouts Chrome App today and get started with a new experience tailor-made for your desktop.  If you’re already using the Hangouts Chrome extension on your ChromeOS or Windows computer, you’ll also see a promo to try the new app over the next few weeks. To learn more, visit the Hangouts Help Center.

Posted by David Levin, Software Engineer, and the very model of a modern Hangout Handler

You’ve told us you love the photography that shows up on your TV when you’re taking a break from casting videos with Chromecast. But many of you have also told us you want to add your own photos on the screen. Now, you can.

With a new backdrop option, you can customize your TV screen with:

• Your favorite photo albums from Google+
• Amazing artwork from galleries and museums around the world via the Google Cultural Institute
• News and lifestyle images from The New York Times, The Guardian, Saveur and more (U.S. only)
• Satellite imagery of some of the hardest-to-reach places on Earth from Google Maps
• and even more beautiful photos from the Google+ community

To customize your Chromecast, open the Chromecast app on your phone or tablet and select “Backdrop” from the left menu. Then, choose the topics for types of imagery you want to show up on the TV.
If a picture sparks your curiosity, you can learn more about it by opening the Chromecast app, selecting “Backdrop” from the left menu and tapping on the card to find out more. Or, simply open the Google app on your Android or iOS device, tap on the microphone icon and ask “What’s on my Chromecast?”

This update is rolling out starting today. Just make sure your Chromecast app is up to date on your Android phone or tablet, iPhone, or iPad. To learn more on how to set it up, visit chromecast.com/backdrop.
Posted by Raunaq Shah, Chromecast Product Manager and Master Caster

Chromecast has a little something for everyone in the family to enjoy, and today we’re adding even more options for kids, music lovers and gamers.

For kids of all ages, we're introducing the WATCH Disney, WATCH Disney Junior and WATCH Disney XD apps. So now you'll be able to watch Girl Meets World, Doc McStuffins, and Star Wars Rebels on demand from the Disney Android and iOS apps. (To watch live stream of the network or recent episodes, you’ll need to sign in with a participating TV provider account.)

Music aficionados can now cast and blast music from the best speakers in the house with iHeartRadio. The app lets you listen to more than 1,500 live radio stations from all over the U.S. or customize your own.

You can also join 60 million gamers on Twitch to watch and talk about video games. Get insights from both casual gamers and some of the biggest professional players competing in sold out stadiums. Cast Twitch content from the web, Android and iOS apps.

If international dramas are your favorite, look no further than DramaFever to find more than 15,000 TV episodes. Finally, in case you missed it, last month we also added WATCH ABC and NPR One to the Chromecast family. So make sure to update your apps and check out the latest on chromecast.com/apps.

Chromebooks were designed to keep up with you on the go—they’re thin and light, have long battery lives, resume instantly, and are easy to use. Today, we're making Chromebooks even more mobile by bringing the first set of Android apps to Chrome OS:

• Duolingo - a fun and free way to learn a new language before your next trip
• Evernote - write, collect and find what matters to you, with a full-size keyboard and touchscreen
• Sight Words - a delightful way for you to help improve your child's reading skills
• Vine - create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way 

These first apps are the result of a project called the App Runtime for Chrome (Beta), which we announced earlier this summer at Google I/O. Over the coming months, we’ll be working with a select group of Android developers to add more of your favorite apps so you’ll have a more seamless experience across your Android phone and Chromebook.

In the meantime, please tell us which of your favorite Android apps you’d like to see on your Chromebook.

Posted by Ken Mixter, Software Engineer & Josh Woodward, Product Manager (Android Dreamers)

If you share a computer, click "Switch person" to add your profile and get your own bookmarks, apps, and theme. Switching lets you keep your stuff separate.
With the new “Guest mode,” you can let others use Chrome without letting them see your stuff. And after they’ve closed out their tabs, their browsing information is deleted from your computer as well. To enable Guest mode, click on You (or your name if you’ve signed in) > Switch person > Browse as Guest.
Here's to no more login tango or making friends open incognito tabs. Happy (shared) browsing!

Posted by Roger Tawa, your personal Chrome Engineer

[Cross-posted on the Google Online Security Blog]

You should be able to use the web safely, without fear that malware could take control of your computer, or that you could be tricked into giving up personal information in a phishing scam.

That’s why we’ve invested so much in tools that protect you online. Our Safe Browsing service protects you from malicious websites and warns you about malicious downloads in Chrome. We’re currently showing more than three million download warnings per week—and because we make this technology available for other browsers to use, we can help keep 1.1 billion people safe.

Starting next week, we’ll be expanding Safe Browsing protection against additional kinds of deceptive software: programs disguised as a helpful download that actually make unexpected changes to your computer—for instance, switching your homepage or other browser settings to ones you don’t want.

We’ll show a warning in Chrome whenever an attempt is made to trick you into downloading and installing such software. (If you still wish to proceed despite the warning, you can access it from your Downloads list.)

Chromebooks were designed for your mobile lifestyle. They’re thin and light, resume instantly, and are easy to use.

Starting today, we’re welcoming a new type of Chromebook into the family, beginning with the Acer Chromebook 13. This new device uses the NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor, so you get the speed you’re used to from Chromebooks with a battery life up to 13 hours. What could you do in thirteen hours?

• Fly from New York to Beijing
• Watch the entire set of Harry Potter movies
• Complete an Iron Man triathlon (average finish time is 12hr 13min)
• Finish a 1-credit college course
• Watch 390 adorable cat videos (2 min per video)
• Use your Chromebook 13 to watch, play and get a lot done

The Acer Chromebook 13 is available now (with optional touchscreen and 1080p resolution) at Amazon and other online retailers from $279.

Posted by Bill Brougher, Engineering Director & frequent flyer

Unless you’re a rocket scientist, you’ve probably never heard the story of the International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) - yet it has had one of the most fascinating journeys in all of space flight. Originally launched in 1978 to study the Sun, it was the first spacecraft in the world to fly by a comet and has been orbiting the sun for billions of miles since 1986. Now, the ISEE-3 is headed back towards Earth and is on its way to becoming the first citizen science spacecraft thanks to a crowdfunded effort called The ISEE-3: Reboot Project.

There’s also a new way for everyone to get involved. In a new Chrome Experiment called A Spacecraft for All, you can follow the unlikely odyssey of the ISEE-3 using Chrome’s interactive WebGL graphics and video. You can re-live its story, read its re-activated data instruments, learn about its current position and trajectory—and explore space along the way. It’s all designed to make space science simple, fun and accessible enough for anyone eager to learn—whether you’re a Ph.D. or grade school student.
The experience will build up to a live event this Sunday, August 10, when the ISEE-3 will fly by the Moon for the first time in decades. We’ll document every second with a live lunar flyby demo, and we’re inviting the entire world to join in. You can follow the spacecraft’s trajectory real-time, along with interviews with the Reboot team, visits from the original ISEE-3 Flight Director, and live data measurements coming directly from space!

Explore the journey of this decorated spacecraft and join us live from the control room on Sunday, August 10 at 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET.

Suzanne Chambers, Executive Producer & Space Cadet, Creative Lab New York

If you’ve typed your password on a tiny on-screen keyboard recently, you know how frustrating it can be. Well, say goodbye to all those "x"s when you meant "c"s. Now with the latest Chrome beta for Android when you’re signed into Chrome, you won’t need to sign in again on Google websites, including Gmail, Maps or Search.
To sign into Chrome, simply click on > Settings > Sign in to Chrome.
When you add more than one Google Account to your device, you'll also be automatically signed in to those accounts on the web. In addition to having your accounts a click away, your bookmarks, passwords, and other Chrome stuff will be kept in sync across your devices, using the account you choose.

Today our little one, Chromecast, celebrates a year. We built Chromecast to make it easier for people to enjoy their favorite entertainment from their phone, tablet or laptop on the largest screen in the house—the TV. Since Chromecast launched, people have hit the cast button more than 400 million times to enjoy their favorite sports, music, premium movies and TV shows. We’ve added hundreds of your favorite apps, including WatchESPN, Pandora, Hulu Plus, HBO GO and PBS Kids; announced new features like mirroring your Android device to the TV and expanded to 30,000 stores across 20 countries.

Chromecast makes it easy for you to enjoy your favorite entertainment on the biggest screen in the house. Starting today, you can mirror your Android phone and tablet to the TV so you can see your favorite apps, photos or anything else, exactly as you see it on your mobile device—only bigger. To start mirroring, simply select “Cast Screen” from the navigation drawer in the Chromecast app and select your Chromecast device.  On Nexus devices, this feature is also available through the quick settings menu.

Whether you’re from Croatia, Cameroon or Colombia, chances are you’re cheering on your country’s team as they vie for the ultimate soccer achievement: winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup™. Now Chromies around the world can get in on the action with Kick with Chrome, a new Chrome Experiment that will help you tap into your inner soccer champion.

Soccer, fútbol, football, jogo bonito—however you say it, there’s a good chance you’ll be tuning in to watch when the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ kicks off next week. But if you’re not lucky enough to have a ticket to the matches in Brazil, you can enjoy the next best thing right in your living room with Chromecast.

Thanks to our friends at Disney and ESPN Media Networks, you can now cast live sports content from the WatchESPN app if you receive ESPN networks as a part of your cable, satellite or pay-TV subscription from affiliated providers. This means that next week, U.S. soccer fans will have the ability to watch all 64 World Cup games with the tap of the cast button (vuvuzelas not included). Of course, in addition to soccer, you can also cast all of ESPN's other sports content, from the NBA Finals and X Games to college football.

And if you can’t wait to get your soccer fix, starting today you can cast professional soccer matchups with the MLS Matchday app and MLS LIVE premium services. So get your friends together to watch your local favorites while practicing the new game-day anthem for the U.S. Men’s National Team from the comfort of your couch.

We’re also adding Crunchyroll to the video lineup. Whether you're a casual anime fan or the hardcore otaku, Crunchyroll is your one-stop-shop with over 25,000 videos and 12,000 hours of Anime, Korean Drama and Live-Action titles. Premium Subscribers can even catch episodes just one hour after Japanese TV broadcast.

You can find all of these great apps in the Play Store and Apple Store, with Chromecast support rolling out over the day. As always, you can explore these apps and more on Chromecast.com/apps.

Posted by Brad Foreman, Chromecast Sports Partnerships Lead and Future Soccer Dad

Chromebooks are coming to nine more nations
to improve computing for all generations.

So we’d like to say our Hellos
to our new global Chromebook fellows:

Kia ora to our New Zealand mates,
where getting on-line will have shorter waits.

Kumusta to new friends in the Philippines,
a better way of computing is what this means.

Hallo to all the folks in Norway
Speed, simplicity and security are coming your way.

Hej Hej to the people in Denmark
Built-in virus protection will be your new computing benchmark.

To Mexico and Chile, Hola we say
Tons of apps and free automatic updates are starting today.

And in the coming weeks -- very soon, you’ll see --
Chromebooks will be in Belgium, Spain and Italy.

Chromebooks are easy to share, manage and use,
With lots of shapes, colors and sizes to choose.

Stay safe with your data stored in the cloud,
A smart pick like Chromebook will make your mom proud.

When Chromebooks in these countries alight,
We hope our new global friends find some computing delight.

Posted by David Shapiro, Director of Chromebook Marketing and Occasional Versifier

Whether it's gourmet cooks, international beauty gurus, or K-Pop superstars—if you’re in Australia, Belgium, Japan, Korea, Portugal or Switzerland, you’ll now be able to use Chromecast to bring your favorite content from a phone, tablet, or laptop to the TV.

These countries are home to some of the biggest fans of online content in the world, and the smartphone is one of the most popular ways for them to access it. For example, in Korea, more than 60 percent of YouTube views come from mobile devices. And in Australia, 90 percent of people switch between four devices every day. All these mobile content lovers will now be able to bridge the gap between their smartphone and the TV.

Curious about what people around the world might be casting? We’ve polled our local team members, and here’s some of their favorite local content.

• Australia: Aussies will be casting the latest antics from Rake available on Google Play. 
• Belgium: In Belgium, comedy fans will be able to cast YouTube star Za Ka’s latest sketches.
• Japan: Japanese will be able to cast Golden Bomber’s rock pop hit. They’ll also be able to catch up on the latest movies and dramas using the d-Video app by NTT docomo.
• Korea: Koreans will be casting Cocomong, a super popular animation among kids. They’ll also be able to watch TV shows and movies from Tving and Hoppin.
• Portugal: Portuguese will be making homemade ice creams and chocolates after casting Sabor Intenso’s YouTube recipe tutorials. 
• Switzerland: Swiss music fans will be using the best speakers in the house to listen to local star Bastian Baker.

Chromecast is open to developers worldwide, so you’ll find a range of great TV shows, movies, music and more from local app developers. So if you’re in one of these six countries, look for Chromecast online
and in local stores starting today.

Suveer Kothari, Director of Chromecast business development, and frequent flyer

We’re constantly working to keep Chrome users safe as they browse, with built-in features like Safe Browsing, which blocks many types of malicious websites and downloads. In the case that malicious software has managed to hijack your settings, we've added a “reset browser settings” button, so you can get things back to normal. But since the bad guys continue to come up with new ways to cause our users headaches, we are always taking additional measures. We previously announced that we’re making it more difficult for malware to secretly install unwanted Chrome extensions. Starting today, we’ll start enforcing this policy.

Malware can change how browsers work by silently installing extensions on your machine that do things like inject ads or track your browsing activity. If you notice strange ads, broken web pages or sluggish browsing after installing some new software or plugins, you could be affected.

From now on, to protect Windows users from this kind of attack, extensions can be installed only if they're hosted on the Chrome Web Store.  With this change, extensions that were previously installed may be automatically disabled and cannot be re-enabled or re-installed until they're hosted in the Chrome Web Store.

For developers, we’ll continue to support local extension installs during development as well as installs via Enterprise policy. And if you have a dedicated installation flow from your own website, you can make use of the existing inline installs feature.  Windows developer channel users, as well as those on other operating systems, are unaffected by these changes.

You can reach out to us in our support forums if you're running into problems, or if you think an extension was disabled incorrectly.  If you're a developer and your extension isn't in the store yet, please submit it today. This is just one more step we are taking to make sure our users can browse safely, and enjoy all the Web has to offer without worrying.

Posted by Erik Kay, Engineering Director

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog] 

As a designer, it is always humbling when you encounter a perfect piece of design. Good design attracts our attention with its beauty, doesn’t need a user manual, is universally understood by anyone in the world, and is simple without sacrificing functionality.

As a student growing up in France, I was always looking for ways to improve my English, often with a heavy French-to-English dictionary in tow. Since then, technology has opened up a wide world of new educational opportunities, from simple searches to Google Translate (and our backpacks have gotten a lot lighter). But it can be hard to find time and the means to practice a new language. So when the Web Speech API made it possible to speak to our phones, tablets and computers, I got curious about whether this technology could help people learn a language more easily.

That’s the idea behind Spell Up, a new word game and Chrome Experiment that helps you improve your English using your voice—and a modern browser, of course. It’s like a virtual spelling bee, with a twist.
We worked with game designers and teachers to make Spell Up both fun and educational. The goal of the game is to correctly spell the words you hear and stack them to build the highest word tower you can—letter by letter, word by word. The higher the tower gets, the more difficult the word challenges: You’ll be asked to pronounce words correctly, solve word jumbles and guess mystery words. You can earn bonuses and coins to level up faster.

We worked with game designers and teachers to make Spell Up both fun and educational, and we encourage teachers to try it in the classroom.

Spell Up works best in Chrome on your computer and on Android phones and tablets. (It also works on iPhones and iPads, but you’ll need to type rather than talk.) Whether you’re just learning English or you’re already a pro, check it out! And if you’re a teacher, we encourage you to try it out in your classroom.

Posted by Xavier Barrade, Creative Lead and Polyglot, Creative Lab London

Spring has finally arrived in the U.S. And with the new growth the season brings, we’re happy to expand our Chromebook family. Together with Intel, today we’re announcing a new lineup of Chromebooks with Intel inside from leading manufacturers Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG and Toshiba—spanning an entire range of shapes, sizes, colors and configurations.

Lenovo’s N20p Chromebook and Thinkpad YOGA 11e Chromebook offer options for touchscreen and hinge designs that enable tablet or tented-angle usage, so they’re just as easy to use at your desk or coffee table, on your lap or at school.

ASUS is following the success of their Chromebox (now the most popular desktop on Amazon.com) by introducing two new laptops: The ASUS C200 Chromebook (11-inch) and ASUS C300 Chromebook (13-inch).

New versions of the Dell Chromebook 11 and the Acer C720 Chromebook will be powered by Intel’s Core i3 processor, which packs the additional performance to help you get things done faster. These new Chromebooks, along with a new 13-inch Toshiba model, a Chromebox from HP, and the LG Chromebase (the first all-in-one computer running Chrome OS), will be available in retail over the next few months.
We hope that you get a chance to try one—or more—of these new Chromebooks soon.

The 2014 Major League Baseball season is off to a big start, and now you can make all those hits, homers, steals and K’s even bigger with Chromecast. Thanks to our friends at MLBAM, as of today, you can cast live games straight to the TV with a tap of the cast button.

MLB.TV is the latest live streaming service to come to Chromecast, so now MLB.TV Premium subscribers can invite their friends over to watch live, out-of-market games. You can even choose between home or away broadcast feeds to steer clear of the opposing team's announcers.
The MLB.com At Bat app can be found in the Play Store and Apple Store, with Chromecast support rolling out starting today.  MLB.TV Premium subscription required. Peanuts and Cracker Jack sold separately. As always, explore the latest new apps on Chromecast.com/apps.

Posted by Brad Foreman, Sports Partnerships Lead for Chromecast and Tee Ball Slugger

Have you ever been out and about, and urgently needed to access a file that’s sitting on your home computer? Since 2011, Chrome Remote Desktop has let you remotely access your machine from another laptop or computer in a free, easy and secure way. And now, with the release of the Chrome Remote Desktop app for Android, we’re making it possible for you to do the same thing from your Android device.

Today we’re announcing Google Translate support for Emoji, built directly into Chrome for Android and iOS. You can now read all your favorite web content using efficient and emotive illustrations, instead of cumbersome text. Our translation algorithm interprets not just the definition of the words on a webpage, but also their context, tone and if appropriate, facial expression. It then distills text into articulate, meaningful symbols so you can get more out of every screen.

The launch of the Google Cast SDK and Chromecast means anyone can develop applications that take advantage of the biggest screen in the house—the TV.

We got excited about using the TV as a place for people to collaborate, so we started tinkering with ways for people to play with photos using their phones and tablets—like an interactive slideshow. The experiment became Photowall for Chromecast, a new Chrome Experiment that lets your friends collaborate and display images in real time on the TV.
Setting up a Photowall is easy. You’ll need to have a Chromecast plugged into your TV*, then you can create a Photowall from your laptop, phone or tablet. Once you’re set up, you and your friends can start sending photos directly to the big screen. When you’re finished, a YouTube video of your Photowall is automatically generated, which is perfect for sharing with everyone who took part. The Photowall app for your iPhone, iPad, or Android device will be available starting today.

If you’re a developer and you want to make your own multi-screen experience, we hope you’ll roll up your sleeves and start experimenting with Chromecast as well. We'll also share some behind-the-scenes tips for developers and will be hosting a Google Developers Live Hangout in the next few weeks.

Posted by Iain Tait, Creative Director and Selfie Snapper

*If you don’t have a Chromecast yet, you can still check out the experiment by selecting the option of setting up your Photowall on your computer screen.

Superheroes, cliff divers, fearless reporters or pop icons—whatever you like to watch, Chromecast makes it easy to bring it from a phone, tablet or laptop to the biggest screen in your house: the TV. Since announcing Chromecast in the U.S., we’ve grown to include more of your favorite apps and websites. Those numbers will continue to grow, and we want to bring Chromecast to more people around the world. Today Chromecast is available in an additional 11 countries—Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the U.K.

In addition to your favorite apps like YouTube, Google Play Movies, Google Play Music and Netflix (where available), we’re working with local content providers to bring even more of the movies and TV shows you love to Chromecast. Apps will start rolling out today, and include BBC iPlayer in the U.K.; France TV Pluzz and SFR TV in France with CANALPLAY coming soon; and Watchever in Germany with Maxdome coming soon. So instead of huddling around your laptop to watch Sherlock solve the next crime or getting caught up on all the workplace drama in Stromberg, you can cast it, sit back, and watch together on the big screen.

Chromecast will keep getting better. We recently opened up Chromecast to developers, and in a few short weeks more than 3,000 developers worldwide have signed up to bring their apps and websites to Chromecast. You’ll soon have more TV shows, movies, videos, sports, music and games to choose from. Stay up-to-date on the latest apps that work with Chromecast at chromecast.com/apps.

So if you’re in one of these 11 countries, look for Chromecast starting today at Amazon, Google Play, Currys PC World, Elkjøp, FNAC, Saturn, Media Markt and other retailers.

Happy casting!

Posted by Mario Queiroz, Vice President of Product Management, Chromecast

If you've ever tried to cook and search at the same time—say, when your hands are covered in flour and you need to know how many ounces are in a cup—you know it can be tricky. With the latest Chrome Beta, you can search by voice on Google—no typing, clicking or hand-washing required. Simply open a new tab or visit Google.com in Chrome, say "Ok Google," and then start speaking your search. This will be rolled out to English (U.S.) users on Windows, Mac and Linux over the next few days, with support for additional languages and Chrome OS coming soon. Here are a few examples to get you started:

• Perform searches: Say “Ok Google, how many ounces are in a cup?” 
• Set a timer: Say “Ok Google, set a timer for 30 minutes” 
• Create a reminder for Google Now: Say “Ok Google, remind me to pick up dessert at 6pm tonight”

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

The best meetings are face-to-face—we can brainstorm openly, collaborate closely and make faster decisions. But these days, we often connect with each other from far-flung locations, coordinating time zones and dialing into conference calls from our phones. Meetings need to catch up with the way we work—they need to be face-to-face, easier to join, and available from anywhere and any device. Starting today, they can be: Any company can upgrade their meeting rooms with a new Chromebox, built on the Chrome principles of speed, simplicity and security.

Chromebox for meetings brings together Google+ Hangouts and Google Apps in an easy-to-manage Chromebox, making it simpler for any company to have high-definition video meetings. Here are a few highlights:

• Instant meeting room. Chromebox for meetings comes with a blazing-fast Intel Core i7-based Chromebox, a high-definition camera, a combined microphone and speaker unit and a remote control. Set up your entire room in minutes and easily manage all meeting rooms from a web-based management console. All you need is the display in your room, and you’re good to go.
• Simpler and faster meetings. Walk into the room, click the remote once and you’re instantly in the meeting. No more complex dial-in codes, passcodes or leader PINs. Share your laptop screen wirelessly, no need for any cords and adaptors. Integration with Google Apps makes it easy to invite others and add rooms to video meetings, directly from Google Calendar.
• Meetings with anyone, anywhere. Up to 15 participants can join the video meeting from other conference rooms, their laptops, tablets or smartphones. Need to meet with a customer who doesn’t use Chromebox for meetings? That’s easy too—all they need is a Gmail account. You can also connect to rooms that have traditional video conferencing systems using a new tool from Vidyo, and participants who prefer phones can join your meeting with a conference call number from UberConference.

Chromebox for meetings is available in the U.S. today starting at $999, which includes the ASUS Chromebox and everything you need to get going. That means for the same price that companies have typically paid for one meeting room, they'll be able to outfit 10 rooms—or more. CDW and SYNNEX will help bring Chromebox for meetings to customers and resellers, and Chromeboxes from HP and Dell will be available for meetings in the coming months. Later this year, we plan to launch in Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the U.K.

Companies like Eventbrite, Gilt, oDesk and Woolworths have been testing Chromebox for meetings, and have told us that they love the simple setup, the ease of use, and being able to see their colleagues in other offices. More importantly, the low price will enable them to extend these benefits to even more employees, rooms and offices. Find out how Chromebox for meetings can help you and your coworkers see eye-to-eye. Happy meetings, everyone!

Caesar Sengupta, VP, Product Management

Chromecast makes it easy to enjoy all of your favorite online content on a TV screen with the simple press of a button on your phone, tablet or laptop. We want to make it easier for that content to get to your TV, so today we’re releasing the Google Cast Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers who want to build Chromecast support into their apps and websites. For the rest of us, that means even more of our favorite movies, TV shows and music will become available on Chromecast as developers work with the SDK. Just be on the lookout for the cast button in your favorite apps and websites across Android, iOS and Chrome.

Your friend Steve’s flight from New York is delayed by an hour. Your favorite soccer team is up by one point with two minutes left. Your Chromecast has just shipped. If you're using Google Now, you'd already know all of that information without having to ask. Google Now already gives you the right information at the right time on Android and iOS. Starting this week, if you’re using Chrome beta, you will be able to receive your Google Now notifications via the notifications center on your Mac, Windows or Chromebook computer. To enable these notifications, simply sign in to Chrome with the same Google Account you’re using for Google Now on Android or iOS.

So the next time you’re finishing up emails at your desk, Google Now might suggest that you leave the office a bit early to beat the heavy traffic on the way to your dinner date. To view the notifications, click on the bell icon on your desktop (on Mac and Windows) or the numbered box (on Chromebook) to open the Chrome notification center.
To learn more about Google Now notifications in Chrome and how to configure your settings, please visit the Help Center. If you’re not already using Google Now on Android or iOS, head over here to get started. Google Now notifications in Chrome will just be available in English initially, with other languages supported soon. Let us know what you think in the comments!

Update 3/24/2014: Starting today and rolling out over the next few weeks, Google Now users in all languages will be able to get these notifications in all channels of Chrome. To enable this feature, simply sign in to Chrome with the same Google Account you’re using for Google Now on Android or iOS.

Travis Skare, Software Engineer and Always in the Know