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Android users who want to live an edgier life now can try a beta version of Chrome.

Google yesterday released the Chrome 25 beta for Android 4.x for smartphones and tablets, a version number in sync with the release for personal computers. Previously, the only option was the stable version of Chrome for Android, which is still way back at version 18.

The Chrome for Android beta is available on the Google Play app store, but only by following that link -- it's not visible in Google Play's search, Google said. The beta version can be installed … Read more

Google released the stable version of Chrome 24 today, adding support for IndexedDB for apps that work better offline, mathematics formulas formatted with MathML, and faster JavaScript.

The new version also comes with a range of security fixes, including two $1,000 bounties and one $4,000 bounty paid to people who found high-severity vulnerabilities. Because Chrome automatically downloads updates by default in part to patch holes as fast as possible, people just need to restart the browser to update it.

IndexedDB, under development for years, is geared to store data for use even if a Web site or Web … Read more

Web usage of Apple's iPad fell more than 7 percent in North America after Christmas, while competing tablets from Amazon, Google, and Samsung all registered gains, according to a new study released today.

While the iPad dominates the market with 78.8 percent Web usage, its usage after Christmas dropped 7.14 percent, according to Chitika Insights, which sampled hundreds of millions of smartphone and tablet ad impressions in the U.S. and Canada between December 1 and December 27. The Kindle Fire -- the distant second-place player in the market -- gained 3 percent to account for 7.… Read more

Amazon has posted an apology for a disruption in its cloud services that hobbled Netflix's streaming services on Christmas Eve and said it is taking steps to prevent future disruptions.

Although Amazon's explanation of the outage didn't identify Netflix by name, the streaming service blamed Amazon Web Services last week for an outage that affected "many but not all devices" across the Americas.

"We want to apologize," Seattle-based Amazon said in its statement. "We know how critical our services are to our customers' businesses, and we know this disruption came at an … Read more

At the Le Web conference in Paris in December, the theme was a phrase I wish I'd thought of: the Internet of Things. The show was all about our connected present and future, a world in which all our devices are connected to each other, to us, and to the great Data Cloud in the sky. I interviewed entrepreneurs, futurists, designers, and big company names about what that future will hold and when it might come about for a special Future Tech package in this episode.

The most interesting thing to come out of those interviews, to me, was … Read more

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today took two significant steps down its double-track path toward standardizing HTML, the core language of the Web.

First, it released a "candidate recommendation" of Hypertext Markup Language 5, which means HTML5 is settling down in the eyes of the standards group. Second, it released a first draft of HTML5.1, a smaller set of changes it's developing simultaneously.

"CR [candidate recommendation] is the stable branch into which only bug fixes go, [and] 5.1 is the new line for improvements," said Robin Berjon, one of the five newly appointed HTML5 editors. … Read more

There are many apps that can tie into your Facebook account. These are not just mobile apps, but also those directly offered on the desktop Web site. This option is for those who are serious about removing apps or Web sites from performing actions associated with their Facebook account.

You may want to take special consideration before you disable all apps, and not just some of them. For instance, if you use Foursquare to post the places you check in to on your Timeline, you won't be able to anymore. And if you use Facebook to log in to … Read more

Sometimes I get bored with the same old holiday song and dance.

If you do too, you can create your own theme, techy-style, with a unique Web page that turns your smartphone, tablet, or PlayStation Vita into an on-the-fly holiday music loop maker. German design firm deepblue came up with the site, which blends HTML5 and the powerful WebSocket protocol to offer a unique live mobile-to-browser experience that many of you probably have not experienced before. … Read more

Quite some time ago, Twitter discontinued the ability to see tweets when you did a search through Google. The tweets were actually useful, because you could see who was talking about whatever you searched for, as well as gather additional information.

If you want to add the Twitter results back to Google search, you can do so with a simple extension. Just install a copy of HashPlug for your Chrome Web browser.

This extension will add the Twitter results into a small column to the right of your search results. The column updates with live tweets, but if you … Read more