| Cult of Mac

Google tweaks Chrome to reduce MacBook battery drain

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The Chrome browser may soon become a more efficient MacBook battery user.
The Chrome browser may soon become a more efficient MacBook battery user.
Photo: Google/Apple

Google said Tuesday it’s making several changes to the Chrome browser to make it less of a MacBook battery hog. Modifications include adjusting timers to wake the CPU less often, tuning memory compression and further optimizing Energy Saver mode.

The company’s tests using a 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro suggest the tweaks may help folks browse for 17 hours or watch YouTube for 18 hours on a single charge.

Google and Mozilla test iPhone browsers not based on WebKit

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Google claims Chrome for Mac is now faster than Safari
A major under-the-hood change might be coming to Chrome for iPhone.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Google is tinkering with a version of its Chrome web browser for iPhone that does not use the WebKit rendering engine. The same is true for Mozilla and the Firefox browser.

Releasing these is currently impossible because of Apple’s browser rules, but the iPhone-maker may be forced to drop that restriction soon.

Google makes Chrome for Mac less of a RAM hog

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Websites may have issues with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox when each one hits version 100.
Google is improving Chrome so it takes up less of Mac's system memory. And it'll go easier on batteries, too.
Photo: Google/Apple

Google tweaked the desktop version of Chrome so that background tabs take up less memory. The widely used browser will also use less power when a laptop’s battery is getting low.

The changes are coming soon to the macOS version as well as other desktop OSs.

Get the most battery life out of your MacBook

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Get the most battery life out of your Mac.
Get the most battery life out of your Mac.
Image: Apple

How do you kill that which cannot die? The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro boast industry-leading battery life. In the PC world, the high power consumption of Intel processors means you generally must choose between battery life and performance.

The latest MacBooks use Apple’s own custom chips, cut from the same cloth as the iPhone and iPad chips Apple has been designing since 2010 (and, in a roundabout way, the one they made for the Apple Newton in 1994). This is what powers them to last all day at full speed.

If you want to take your M1 Max MacBook Pro to the coffee shop to get work done, and you leave your power cable at home — even if you’re editing 8K ProRes video streams in Final Cut Pro — you still might be ordering lunch and staying through dinner. How could one possibly need more battery life, and how do you get it?

Firefox and Chrome may start breaking websites soon

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Websites may have issues with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox when each one hits version 100.
Websites may have issues with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox when each one hits version 100.
Photo: Google/Apple

Google, which makes Chrome, and Mozilla, which makes Firefox, warn that those web browsers are about to reach version 100. And that could mean major websites stop working properly with them.

Why? Coded to recognize two-digit version numbers, websites may have trouble identifying browsers with three-digit numbers.

How to use iCloud Passwords inside Google Chrome on Windows

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How to use iCloud Passwords in Chrome
Grab Apple's new Chrome extension today.
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Apple has rolled out a somewhat surprise Google Chrome extension that allows users to access iCloud Passwords on Windows machines.

You can use it to sync all the passwords you’ve created on Mac, iPhone, and iPad to your Windows desktop. And to sync any passwords you create in Chrome to iCloud Keychain for use on Apple devices.

We’ll show you how to get set up.