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Chrome 64 Beta Adds Sitewide Audio Muting, Pop-Up Blocker, Windows 10 HDR Video (9to5google.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the new-and-improved dept.

Chrome 64 is now in beta and it has several new features over version 63. In addition to a stronger pop-up blocker and support for HDR video playback when Windows 10 is in HDR mode, Chrome 64 features sitewide audio muting to block sound when navigating to other pages within a site. 9to5Google reports: An improved pop-up blocker in Chrome 64 prevents sites with abusive experiences -- like disguising links as play buttons and site controls, or transparent overlays -- from opening new tabs or windows. Meanwhile, as announced in November, other security measures in Chrome will prevent malicious auto-redirects. Beginning in version 64, the browser will counter surprise redirects from third-party content embedded into pages. The browser now blocks third-party iframes unless a user has directly interacted with it. When a redirect attempt occurs, users will remain on their current page with an infobar popping up to detail the block. This version also adds a new sitewide audio muting setting. It will be accessible from the permissions dropdown by tapping the info icon or green lock in the URL bar. This version also brings support for HDR video playback when Windows 10 is in HDR mode. It requires the Windows 10 Fall Creator Update, HDR-compatible graphics card, and display. Meanwhile, on Windows, Google is currently prototyping support for an operating system's native notification center. Other features include a new "Split view" feature available on Chrome OS. Developers will also be able to take advantage of the Resize Observer API to build responsive sites with "finger control to observe changes to sizes of elements on a page."

43 comments

  1. Muting is nice... by grasshoppa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...but what I really really want is a way to disable auto-playing videos. I have the Disable HTML5 Autoplay extension, flashblock and ABP, but a lot of sites still have videos that auto play. Given I'm normally working on a metered connection, this causes unnecessary use of bandwidth.

    Shouldn't be so damn hard to prevent this, I would think.

    --
    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
    1. Re:Muting is nice... by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      A) Uninstall/disable the Flash plugin and uninstall the Disable HTML5 Autoplay extension.
      B) Install the AutoplayStopper extension.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    2. Re:Muting is nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and what I really want is a way to permanently disable audio and video. It's useless to me, apart from watching porn. That's what it's worth for me. Feed an addiction.

    3. Re:Muting is nice... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      ABP is kinda old and crap now. Try uBlock. I'm particular, Google "uBlock medium mode" and give it a try. It blocks auto play videos for me with minimal breakage. It's also faster and uses less memory in general.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Muting is nice... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Seconded. If we have to mute audio, it's already too late and the unwanted video has already loaded, already wasted bandwidth and already wasted CPU power.

      Also, I don't know WTF Google are doing, but YouTube is much worst on Safari than it was a year ago.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    5. Re:Muting is nice... by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 1

      Firefox has a setting for it, media.autoplay.enabled = false

      But it is inherently buggy because of all of the custom ways websites play their video

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    6. Re:Muting is nice... by Greyfox · · Score: 1

      I run noscript and whitelist sites that are allowed to run Javascript. I'm frequently astounded by how obnoxious an experience it is to browse the internet without them. I think if I didn't have the options of ublock and noscript, I'd browse the web a lot less than I do now. Which might not be a bad thing, I suppose.

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    7. Re:Muting is nice... by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

      I use this setting all the time, and it generally works. But it STILL doesn't prevent the video from downloading, it just immediately pauses it. I want it to block the video content from even starting to download!

    8. Re:Muting is nice... by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

      > Firefox has a setting for it, media.autoplay.enabled = false

      I use Pale Moon, a Firefox fork. It has 2 settings that have to be disabled

      media.autoplay.enabled = false
      media.autoplay.allowscripted = false

      Does Firefox have the second one? The one downside is that I sometimes have to hit

      play; stop; play

      on Youtube or other HTML5 websites to get a video playing that I want to play.

      --

      I'm not repeating myself
      I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
  2. in other words, mostly bloat by sittingnut · · Score: 1

    does all these mostly bloat features have an easy turn off option if user does not need them, not just when running, but when building/getting binary?

    1. Re:in other words, mostly bloat by ArsonSmith · · Score: 1

      Yea, I really don't need bloat like a switch to turn off audio. Is there a config option to not compile that in?

      --
      Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
  3. Chrome soars. Mozilla whores. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A new version of Chrome delivers useful features.
     
    Meanwhile Mozilla stick a creepy extension to promote MR ROBOT and claim its because they care about your privacy. I bet the producers of MR ROBOT slipped Mozilla some cold hard cash: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/12/15/228235/mozilla-slipped-a-mr-robot-promo-plugin-into-firefox-and-users-are-pissed
     
    Way to fail, Mozilla. Google all the way!

  4. Password Import/Export? (again) by hazem · · Score: 1

    Call me when they restore the ability to export and import saved passwords.

  5. Sites with abusive experiences by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    mozilla.org

  6. So.. by Z80a · · Score: 2

    Do your need an R4300 MIPS CPU, SGI coprocessor/3D rasterizer and cartridge slot to run this version?

    1. Re:So.. by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Didn't Chromodore 64 actually have the 6510?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  7. Ooo! Oooo! The best part? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Spying! More SPYING!

  8. Constant violation of privacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The prime mission of Chrome and, from the perspective of Google, of Net Neutrality.

  9. spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no thanks

  10. Hard to dig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    By any measure, Chrome is a clever piece of malware. Why people use it, and why slashdot chooses to publicise it is beyond me.

    1. Re: Hard to dig by Kazymyr · · Score: 2

      Agree with above. Chrome is a Google tool designed to gather as much information about the user as it can and deliver it to the mothership, with some front-end browser functionality. I use it at work because I have no choice, but it never touches any of my personal machines.

      --
      I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
    2. Re: Hard to dig by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      It locks out third part ads. Approved ads get an encrypted direct path in.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  11. FFS just deprecate window.open by DeplorableCodeMonkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The W3C should just deprecate the ability to open new windows programmatically. 95% of its use on the Internet is for shady advertising. The other 5% are apps that provide bad UX. In other words, it has no legitimate use.

    1. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1, Troll

      Without advertising, the web wouldn't exist. Be careful what you ask for.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    2. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by theweatherelectric · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Without advertising, the web wouldn't exist.

      Of course it would. The web existed before web advertising and the web would continue to exist without web advertising.

      You've been sold a lie and, tragically, you have believed it.

    3. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Without advertising, the web wouldn't exist.

      Without advertising then WEB ADVERTISERS, ad servers, intermediate companies, middlemen, low-level graphic designers, abuse of bandwidth, and interruptions would not exist. FTFY

      Listen, prosperity can be created around anything whether helpful or harmful. Were jobs not created during both the Olympics and 1940's concentration camps? Just because 'jobs and companies' are created around these self-absorbed ad companies does not make it helpful or legitimate. The only people interested in web advertising is the industry itself.

    4. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by blind+biker · · Score: 1

      The W3C should just deprecate the ability to open new windows programmatically. 95% of its use on the Internet is for shady advertising. The other 5% are apps that provide bad UX. In other words, it has no legitimate use.

      Sometimes it feels like 100% of the use is for scam ads.

      --
      "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
    5. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by swillden · · Score: 1

      Without advertising, the web wouldn't exist.

      Of course it would. The web existed before web advertising and the web would continue to exist without web advertising.

      Of course the web would exist. Most of the content on the web however, would not. Nearly everything of quality that did exist would be paywalled or have continual banners begging for donations (the prevalence of ad-blockers is driving many news outlets in this direction). Search engines would be paywalled, or limited mostly to searching sites that themselves are paywalled, and pay the search engine for listing. Much content would be "implicit advertising", with content sponsored by some commercial entity and hosted adjacent to that commercial entity's on-line storefront.

      Without advertising, the web would exist, but it would be much less interesting. Most of the services people use regularly would not exist.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    6. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Sorry but bullshit because we used to have a web that functioned just fine with only ads that were TXT or JPG or if they wanted to be really fancy? A GIF. And it all worked fine, no need for all this blocking because ads couldn't run code and thus couldn't be filled with malware.

      If this web cannot survive without malware ridden pop ups and risking people's PCs for the benefit of lazy programmers who refuse to accept responsibility for the malware they shovel while they scream about adblocking? Then let it die, nothing of value will be lost.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    7. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by swillden · · Score: 1

      Sorry but bullshit because we used to have a web that functioned just fine with only ads that were TXT or JPG

      The topic under discussion was a web without ads, not a web with different kinds of ads.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    8. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by theweatherelectric · · Score: 1

      Most of the services people use regularly would not exist.

      "Service"? Facebook, for example, is a surveillance platform. It exists to provide intelligence to advertisers. It exists to silo and isolate and mediate its user's experience of the web. It exists to treat you like cattle. It exists to extract profit from the control of attention. If Facebook dies, so what? Nothing of value will be lost. So called social media is bad for you, which is why Facebook is now launching its counter-narrative to try to convince you otherwise.

      Mark Zuckerberg thinks web users are dumb fucks. Is he right?

    9. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by Kjella · · Score: 1

      The topic under discussion was a web without ads, not a web with different kinds of ads.

      Well the start of the discussion was about deprecating window.open because it is mainly used for shady ads. The counter-argument was that we need those ads to pay for content, which then derailed into a discussion about ads in general, while the GP brought the discussion back to those particular ads. And we really don't need pop-ups, pop-unders, click-pops, click-switches where where the real content appears in the new page and so on, there's plenty other more acceptable ways to do advertising. So to get back on topic, I think killing off window.open is a great idea. I don't know a single legitimate use where I couldn't just use "open in new tab/window" myself.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    10. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by lucm · · Score: 1

      Of course the web would exist. Most of the content on the web however, would not.

      Most of the content on the web is worthless junk created for the purpose of making money from ads. It's a feedback loop of mediocrity and greed.

      Just like I pay $9/month to have decent, ad-free series from Netflix, I'd be willing to pay to get unbiased news and quality blog posts, unfortunately the clickbait industry has taken over and now all we get is "shocking" articles and shallow content crammed with ads.

      Retarded as it sounds, for a while I was getting more and more convinced that net neutrality is not a good thing because the web is fucked and high-quality paywalls seemed like the only solution, but what will probably happen will be low-quality paywalls crammed with ads handpicked by the people who control the pipes so I don't see an upside with either scenario. We need a new system.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    11. Re:FFS just deprecate window.open by IBitOBear · · Score: 1

      The real harm now is dialog.showModal() and dialog.show().

      The in-page pop-ups and overlays are the new window.open(). Popup blocking should start with opt-in only for any dialogs on any sites. Popup blockers worked in the before time, so W3C let abuses back in the back door with the tag and in-standard DRM extensions.

      The web is just as captured as it ever was, and now with Net Neutrality being murdered in the public square these abuses are just going to continue.

      --
      Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
      --"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
  12. Firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has had site muting for a long time now. Why take this long? Also, screw Firefox. Use Palemoon.

  13. pop-under blocker as well? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please. *please* tell me it blocks the pop-unders that pornhub puts shoves under your active screens. I close it when my wife comes up the stairs, but it *leaves those stupid porn webcams up* under my screen.

    Embarrassing, but true.

  14. Bookmarks within a web page. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've been waiting for years to see the ability to add bookmarks within a web page added as a feature to browsers.

    I probably will never see it.

    1. Re:Bookmarks within a web page. by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

      > I've been waiting for years to see the ability to add bookmarks
      > within a web page added as a feature to browsers.

      And so have police, to be able to run javascript code that adds child porn bookmarks to peoples' systems. Makes it a lot easier for them to meet their monthly quotas of "being tough on crime" convictions.

      --

      I'm not repeating myself
      I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
  15. So... by eclectro · · Score: 1

    Google put "doing evil" on pause and did some good. That's nice.

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  16. Need HDR monitors by HalAtWork · · Score: 1

    It would be nice to get a wider variety of HDR monitors, of all sizes as well. Something 55"-70"" with the low latency of a monitor would be great but there doesn't seem to be anything available

    --
    Twinstiq, game news
  17. Chrome 64 Song by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When I get older losing my bits
    Many weeks from now
    Will you still be sending me a MS cake
    Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
    If I'd been out till quarter to three
    Would you lock the firewall?
    Will you still need me, will you still feed me
    When I'm sixty-four?

    You'll be older too
    And if you say the word
    I will stay with you (forcibly)

    I could be handy, collecting statistics
    When your privacy has gone
    You can knit a sweater by the fireside
    Sunday mornings go for a ride
    Doing the garden, raising the weed
    Who could ask for more?
    Will you still need me, will you still feed me
    When I'm sixty-four?

    Every summer we can rent a cottage in the Isle of Wight
    If it's not too dear
    We shall scrimp and save for phone bills
    Grandchildren on your knee, chatting with their phones
    Vera, Chuck & Dave

    Send me to a webpage, drop me a script
    Stating point of view
    Indicate precisely what you mean to say
    Yours sincerely, wasting away
    Give me your answer, fill in a form
    Mine for evermore
    Will you still need me, will you still feed me
    When I'm sixty-four?
    Ho! (What did your say!?!)

  18. Let the web die then. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Advertising just supports the webpages that tank your PC with CPU peaks. The pure pre-formatted data can be sent for nothing.