Build Raspberry Pi web apps in your browser with Google Coder

The versatile (and inexpensive) Raspberry Pi serves as an excellent platform to build all sorts of neat gadgets. There are resources available on the web to steer you in the right direction if you aren’t the greatest coder in the world but even still, it’s entirely plausible that you’ll eventually run out of ideas.

That’s where Google’s Creative Lab comes in. Working with a small team in New York, Google employees Jason Striegel and Jeff Baxter have been working on a new project called Coder. It allows users to turn the tiny machine into a simple web server complete with a web-based development environment.

It takes less than 10 minutes to install Coder. After downloading the installer, simply load it onto an SD card, plug it into the machine and point your browser to coder.local. You’ll have everything you need at your disposal to build CSS, HTML and JavaScript-based apps.

It was designed to give educators and parents a private environment in which to build and test web programs. Even if you already know how to write code, it could serve as a solid sandbox for which to debug projects or experiment with fresh ideas.

The original plan was to polish Coder to make it a more complete offering but the idea of getting the open source platform in the hands of developers ASAP was a more attractive proposition. This will give the team valuable feedback on how individuals might use it.

Chrome 17 beta brings speed and security improvements

Google has pushed a new version of Chrome into the beta channel that's designed around improving two of the browser's key aspects: speed and security. The first major change in version 17 is the ability for pages to start loading in the background before a user has even finished typing a URL into the Omnibox address and search bar.

"If the URL auto-completes to a site you're very likely to visit, Chrome will begin to prerender the page," explained Dominic Hamon, a software engineer at Google, while announcing the browser update. The pre-rendering makes the full site show up almost instantly, according to Google.

Chrome 17 Beta: Windows | Mac OS X | Linux

Chrome 16 Stable: Windows | Mac OS X | Linux

Google also introduced an extension to its Safe Browsing technology that protects users against malicious downloads by analysing executable files, including Windows .exe and .msi files, for known malware. Chrome will issue a warning if a certain file appears to be malicious and will also alert the user if a file is downloaded from a website with a poor reputation for hosting malware-infected files.

This protection targets the "social engineering" type of threat, such as the common fake anti-virus product being offered online, but it's still up to the user to proceed with the download or discard it. The database of known malware is relatively small for now but should grow rapidly as the feature moves into the stable release.

A number of other  minor changes and the usual slew of bug fixes are also included in Chrome 17 beta. Additionally, Google updated the browser's Stable channel to version 16.0.912.75, closing three high risk security holes. Hit the links below to download the latest stable or beta versions of Chrome.

Google releases Chrome 16 stable with multiple account sync

Google has released the sixteenth version of Chrome into the stable channel, introducing the ability to create and synchronize multiple profiles for a single instance of the popular web browser. The feature will be particularly useful for anyone who shares their computer with others -- at home, for example -- as they'll be able to keep their bookmarks, apps, settings, extensions and history separate from everyone else's.

To create a new profile users must head to preferences / personal stuff and click "Add new user". A new instance of Chrome will appear with a badge and a random name that can be edited to whatever you like. A clickable label in the top-right corner of your browser windows will show which account is currently in use and clicking on the label enables users to switch between accounts.

In a post at the official Google Chrome blog, software engineer Tim Steele notes that adding new users to Chrome isn't intended to secure your data against other people using your computer. Profiles aren’t password-protected so it just takes a few clicks to switch between users.

Besides adding support for multiple profiles the latest release of Chrome also addresses 15 high- and medium-risk vulnerabilities. The high-risk security flaws include an URL bar spoofing bug, use-after-free errors, out of bounds writes in the V8 JavaScript engine and a buffer overflow in PDF font handling. As part of its Chromium Security Rewards program, Google paid external researchers a total of $6,000 for reporting the bugs.

Download: Google Chrome 16.0.912.63 for Windows | Mac OS X | Linux