Google is “still working with Netflix” for Samsung Chromebook support
While the stable version of the Google Chrome web browser got updated to version 24 today (and got some pretty big speed and security enhancements), the developer channel for Chrome OS also got an update a few days ago to version 25.0.1364.26. And whenever I see an update available on my Samsung Chromebook, I am always hopeful that maybe, just maybe, Google and Netflix have gotten their issues worked out.
As most people who own the new Samsung Chromebook on ARM know, Netflix doesn’t work on this machine quite yet. To my knowledge, it’s the only Chrome OS device on which Netflix doesn’t work, and Google has been saying since the laptop’s release back in October that Netflix support was “coming soon.”
Unfortunately, Google’s definition of “soon” is oftentimes very different from most other people’s. In fact, given Google’s track record of abandoning services and features that prove not to be popular enough in the search giant’s eyes, many people have started to fear that perhaps Google might have abandoned all hope of Netflix ever working on Samsung’s newest Chromebook.
Luckily, Googler Melissa Daniels – an active contributor to the official Google Chrome forums – recently posted the following:
As promised, we are still working with Netflix on resolving these issues for our ARM community members and are very aware that this is of concern/a major priority for our new Samsung Chromebook users. You haven’t been forgotten!
Repeated requests for a specific, or even a vague, timeframe have gone unanswered, but at least we have confirmation from inside Google that Netflix support hasn’t been abandoned. Let’s just hope Google can get this done soon, because three months is a very long time to wait.
[Google]
