Subj : Future Chromebooks could steal one of the Google Pixel 8's best f To : All From : TechnologyDaily Date : Wed Jan 17 2024 17:30:05 Future Chromebooks could steal one of the Google Pixel 8's best features - its camera Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:16:20 +0000 Description: ChromeOS camera could steal one of Pixels best features. FULL STORY ====================================================================== If youve ever sat down on your Chromebook and wondered Wouldnt this be so much better with a rear camera? youre in luck: Google might be planning to pinch the Super Res Zoom feature from Pixel phones and bring it to ChromeOS, improving the digital zoom capabilities of your device. Normally youd only have your front camera for video calls and occasionally quirky selfies, with Google bumping up the camera quality, especially for the Chromebook Plus lineup. The Super Res Zoom feature isnt particularly useful on a front-facing webcam - but there are ChromeOS devices that do feature an external camera, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Most people dont tend to use the rear camera on devices that arent phones very often, if at all. You might look a bit out of place at a social gathering trying to create special memories by whipping out your Google Pixel Tablet and trying to take a photo (although weve all got that family member who insists on taking photos with an iPad). You also wont be getting nearly the same level of photo quality as you would on a Pixel phone - nor the same wealth of features available on Googles phone cameras. But the addition of Super Res Zoom could mean Google plans to change that. That's great - but why? This news comes from 9to5Google , who spotted a change in code within the ChromeOS Camera app that may suggest the addition of digital zoom paired with super-resolution. It seems like the feature could be initially reserved for insiders and developers within a ChromeOS Dev channel, but despite being present in the code it has no noticeable effect as of yet. While it may not sound like a pretty significant change, its worth noting that ChromeOS cameras (including internal webcams) didnt even have a basic digital zoom function - arguably a major omission that Im actually surprised Ive never noticed. Combined with the super-resolution feature, this has huge potential for improving zoomed-in photo quality on ChromeOS devices. Well those that actually have rear-facing cameras, anyway. That being said, how often are you really going to be using your Chrome tablet to take super-zoomed-in photos? The idea of better camera quality is always nice, and the basic addition of digital zoom to ChromeOS cams will be a welcome one, but it does leave us scratching our heads and wondering - why? You might also like Microsoft tests feature for Copilot AI that remembers your past chats and it could enrage privacy activists Google could be planning a rare upgrade for your Pixel phone to keep it healthy Samsung just accidentally leaked the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Ultra ====================================================================== Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/future-chromebooks-could-steal-one-of-the- google-pixel-8s-best-features-its-camera --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64) * Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100) .