Google’s Latest Chrome Update Emphasizes Speed And Lower Memory Usage

Chrome started out as one of the least memory hungry browsers on the market, but over time, it developed a bit more of an appetite for RAM. Now, however, Google is starting to get back to basics and the latest Chrome release (version 45) focuses on making the browser faster and more efficient.

As the company announced in a blog post today, Chrome 45 includes a number of updates that focus on making Chrome load faster and use less memory. When you restart the browser, for example, and Chrome restores your tabs, the browser will now first open those tabs you most recently looked at, so you can get back to work (or browsing car videos) faster.

That will save a few seconds here and there, but the real updates are in how Chrome now manages memory.

Starting with this update, the browser will recognize when your computer is running low on resources when it’s restoring tabs and then stops restoring them until you actively click to restore them yourself. For the most part, this will likely only affect those of you who regularly have a few dozen tabs open, but if memory usage is a major issue on your machine, then every little megabyte counts (and you should probably look at extensions like The Great Suspender, too).

Most importantly, though, Chrome now notices when you’re not using a tab for a while or a website isn’t busy with another task and then uses that time to free up unused memory. Google says its tests have shown that this can cut memory usage by 10 percent on average, though more complex web apps will obviously profit from this more than your average Tripod homepage.

As previously announced, Chrome will now also start automatically pausing Flash videos that it thinks aren’t “central” to a website. For this, Google’s tests have shown that turning on this setting can make your battery last up to 15 percent longer, so Google will now turn this feature on for all users by default in the coming weeks.

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The EHang 184 Is A Human-Sized Drone Taking Off At CES

We’ve seen some pretty cool stuff on day 1 of CES 2016, but probably nothing more eye-catching than the EHang 184, a human-sized drone built by the Chinese UAV company EHang . Yes you heard right — a giant autonomous drone that fits a human. It’s basically what you would expect to see if someone shrunk you down to the size of a LEGO and stuck you next to a DJI Inspire. Except no one was shrunk, and the giant flying machine was sitting smack in the middle of the CES drone section. EHang, which was founded in 2014 and has raised about $50M in venture fundingto date, was pretty gung-ho about telling everyone at CES that the 184 was the future of personal transport. And for the most part, people were too in awe to question them. But the reality is that the company probably was using the 184 as more of a marketing tool for their standard-sized drones like the Ghost . Not that we’re saying that the 184 will never be a real thing, just that it probably isn’t co...

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How ad-free subscriptions could solve Facebook

At the core of Facebook’s “well-being” problem is that its business is directly coupled with total time spent on its apps. The more hours you pass on the social network, the more ads you see and click, the more money it earns. That puts its plan to make using Facebook healthier at odds with its finances, restricting how far it’s willing to go to protect us from the harms of over use. The advertising-supported model comes with some big benefits, though. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that “We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.” Ads lets Facebook remain free for those who don’t want to pay, and more importantly, for those around the world who couldn’t afford to. Ads pay for Facebook to keep the lights on, research and develop new technologies, and profit handsomely in a way that attracts top talent and further investment. More affluent users with more buying power in markets like the US, UK, and Canada command higher ad prices, effectively...

Building a smarter home

The Jetsons presented a highly entertaining vision of what homes of the future would look like . The animated television show anticipated a world where humans would be able to do everything with just the push of a button. In many ways, the show turned out to be prophetic; today we have printable food, video chats, smartwatches and robots that help with housework — and flying cars may even be on the way. The challenge for companies is to integrate digital technologies in meaningful ways that enhance people’s homes and improve their lives. Many of the innovations to emerge over the past few years have been geared toward this kind of “push-button living.” Thanks to the rise of smartphones and the proliferation of cheap sensors, it is possible to make just about any household appliance “smart” and “connected.” By 2019, companies are expected to ship 1.9 billion connected home devices, bringing in about $490 billion in revenue. ...

NVBOTS Wants To Make 3D Printers As Easy As Toasters

Right now 3D printing curriculums, if they exist, are fairly sparse. Putting a two thousand dollar machine in front of a grade schooler usually ends up in a lot of 3D printed Yoda heads and not much education while the learning curve for most 3D design tools is steep. That’s what the founders of NVBOTS, AJ Perez, Forrest Pieper, Christopher Haid, and Mateo Peña Doll, are looking to solve. Their product, the NVPRO , is a 3D printer with a few interesting features. The two most interesting are the automatic removal system which pops parts off of the build plate when they are done and a built-in print server that allows you to print from any device. This means you can run large batches of prints from different users with each part popping off as its printed. This means a class of students can send jobs to a printer and then pick them up just as they would a laser printer. The printer also supports a central “admin” who can check jobs before they are printed as and offers a ...

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