If you’re a fan of Google eBooks, we’ve got good news for you. Offline support for all of their eBooks have been added to Chrome and Chrome OS so you can continue reading your favorites even if you don’t have an Internet connection.

Google announced the launch of offline support for Google eBooks for those using Chrome or Chrome OS, so they can continue reading books even when they’re not actually connected to the Internet.

“We’ve all been there: the Internet is suddenly down, and you can’t keep on reading your ebook to see what the character decides to do next,” says Google Books Product Manager Xinxing Gu. “Or you’re about to head to the airport and want to be able to dive into a newly-purchased ebook during a long flight. Whether you are flying through the air, backpacking through the European countryside, or simply facing intermittent network connections, you can always read your Google eBooks in your Chrome browser or on your Chromebook,”

In order to take advantage of this new feature, you’ll need to download the Google Books app that is available in the Chrome Web Store. Once installed, simply mouse over the cover of the book and tick “Make available offline”. Currently this feature is only possible for eBooks in the EPUB and PDF formats.

[via Web Pro News]

Google has struggled to get the Chromebook into the hands of the consumer, even going so far as to offer them as an in-flight convenience and later opening a Chromezone section inside of a PC World in London. It’s no secret that the search giant is having to fight tooth and nail for public awareness about its little cloud computer that could, which is why it should come to no surprise that the company is now teaming up with the city of Palo Alto to offer Chromebooks on lease from the city’s library.

21 Chromebooks were made available for use within the library in addition to the many Windows laptops that are already available, but upon seeing how the notebooks work, the library committed these 21 Chromebooks to a take home for a week lease model. The unique set up for the Chrome operating system allows for it to be set up and customized completely by the person borrowing it, while making it extremely easy to wipe and start the customization process over again once their period is up.

The biggest problem Google seems to have is breaking the misconception that the Chromebook is incapable of performing every day tasks we relegate to “normal” laptops, such as word processing and photo editing. Most users who tried the laptops at the library mentioned they would love to own a Chromebook if it was capable of those things, despite that being the case.

The Chromebook lending initiative is set to start up in January.

[via The Verge]

You can retrieve this screenshot by:

• Pressing CTRL+M
• Clicking File Shelf > Screenshots

There you have it… your full window screenshot with Chrome OS on your Chromebook!

Happy Chromebooking!

• CTRL+ALT+T to open command prompt
• Type “Shell” and hit enter
• Type “arecord > hello.wav”
• Hit enter
• Press CTRL+C to start recording
• Press CTRL+C to stop recording
• Type “aplay > hello.wav” to playback your recording

It’s not exactly groundbreaking, but it’s a fun little feature to test out. I’m sure, based on how far Google has come with voice on products like Android, that voice recording on Chrome will get caught up to speed very, very quickly.

Maybe not. A Kaspersky Labs expert has reported a finding that Chrome OS runs on an outdated version of Adobe Flash Player. If Adobe Flash Player has security risks, flaws, and holes – which it often does – then Chrome OS users, too, are left exposed.

Ina Fried from AllThingsD reported on the potential issue, citing a Google employee who claims additional measures have been taken to account for these unique situations.

Regardless of this particular situation, it certainly calls into question the bulletproof security of Chrome OS. Are we a bit more vulnerable than we initially cared to believe? So far so good… hopefully Google is keeping an eagle close eye on this.

Google is claiming that “Chromebooks have many layers of security built in so there is no anti-virus software to buy and maintain. Even more importantly, you won’t spend hours fighting your computer to set it up and keep it up to date.” It simply doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to think of another company that has made similar claims. Those claims have finally come out from Windows vs. Linux vs. Mac forum threads and under real world scrutiny. And that same Rocket Surgeon would see that it wouldn’t take much for Google’s promise of “no security needed” to go up in flames.

So what are these features that Google is touting?

•”Sandboxing”. Which, in a layman description, prohibits apps and processes from interfering with one another.

•Automatic updating. Which is great on paper until one of the updates sneaks in a security hole that wasn’t detected by the Chrome team before release.

•Reversion. The saving grace feature that allows the system to rollback to a safe state when an issue has been detected. See automatic updating.

While Google is making great steps and seems to have a decent plan when it comes to protecting their netbooks, perhaps they should tread a little more lightly when it comes to making claims that seem more like old west snake oil than honest to goodness fact.

[via Crunch Gear]

For those of you interested, Engadget has a few screen grabs to pour over.

[Read on Engadget | Google on BlogSpot]

In the near future, you’ll also be able to run traditional software remotely on our Chrome notebook. Companies like Citrix are developing solutions that will be available in the Web Store, and we are developing a free service called Chromoting that will enable Chrome notebook users to remotely access their existing PCs and Macs.

You might be thinking, “Remote access – whoopdy doo,” but I think this is a reason to be excited. Combine this concept with virtualization, Chromebox, and some other connectivity features I’m willing to bet Google has thought about and Chromebooks could become lean, mean powerhouse machines – especially for enterprise and education who want to essentially run duplicate versions of the same machine. Get my drift?

I’m already eager to see some chromoting in action… or would that be chromotion?

[Via Chrome Forum]

Not below 10-seconds, but that was indeed FAST! We had to take into account entering the password which tacked on a few seconds. You can see that the Verizon 3G or Wi-Fi doesn’t connect properly right when we log in – we joked that the Chromebook booted so fast that the internet connection couldn’t keep up and process in time! In actuality, there is probably some truth to that.

The days of opening up your laptop and walking around the house waiting for it to FINALLY allow you to open something (anything) are coming to an end. Not to mention, closing/opening the Chromebook without completely shutting it off yields in essentially immediate on/off experience.

We were pretty impressed with both the hardware and the software. The Samsung Chromebook is sturdy yet light and has a great look and feel. The interior retains the matte finish seen on the CR-48, contrasted by the glossy exterior with Chrome logo.

Samsung is known for bright and vibrant screens and their Chromebook isn’t any different. Representatives from Samsung and Google indicated the Chromebook was optimal for viewing both indoors and out, but this is a factor we weren’t able to test. The HD webcam on the front looked like it had excellent quality, however we weren’t given an exact megapixel count.

The Chromebook was full of helpful ports including 2 USB ports, VGA port, and Card Reader. It didn’t have an HDMI-out port, although I wonder how many people will really care considering the Chromebook’s purpose. Also interesting to note is the device’s exceptional battery life and the inability to remove the battery – it’s built in.

The keyboard and trackpad were well spaced and enjoyable to use. The trackpad problems fixed on the CR-48 have left nothing behind on the Chromebooks – those seem to be problems of the past. They were actually fixed with a software upgrade and the new version of Chrome running on the Samsung Series 5 seemed really polished and enjoyable. As more and more Chrome Apps and Extensions are made available, the experience on this device will only improve.

As for software, ChromeOS is no longer broken as it was on the CR-48. A revamped file manager allows you to access documents and multimedia with ease. It was a huge complaint of mine – probably the hugest – and I’m glad Google realized just how elementary their old implementation was. This version of ChromeOS also looks a bit different as far as visuals go, but they didn’t stray too far from the norm. The experience just feels a lot more refined overall and should be a viable option for anyone who doesn’t need to do any heavy lifting.

After an initial hands-on with the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook I’m really excited for it to launch. We’ll be getting our version hopefully in the next couple weeks and it goes on sale to the general public on June 15th. If you’re interested in the Samsung Chromebook, make sure you visit our Samsung Chromebook Forum to learn more.