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Google joins the OpenROAD Initiative as principal member to accelerate open source silicon innovation
Google is committed to advancing open source silicon innovation. We are excited to share that we have formally joined the OpenROAD Initiative (ORI), Inc. as a principal member. ORI is a nonprofit public benefit corporation dedicated to the open source electronic design automation (EDA) ecosystem. As part of this commitment, Aaron Cunningham has been appointed to the ORI Governing Board to represent Google and help drive the foundation’s strategic direction, financial sustainability, and technical stewardship.
Driving long-term open source sustainability
The OpenROAD Initiative’s mission is to advance and sustain the open source EDA ecosystem by fostering collaborative innovation across research, education, and industry—transforming ideas into silicon. Google’s membership aligns directly with ORI’s multi-year sustainability goals, supported by the US National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program.
With Google’s participation and membership commitment, ORI will continue to strengthen, grow, and sustain its open source ecosystem through key vectors:
- Neutral Stewardship: Fostering transparent governance where no single company has outsized control over the code, ensuring the project remains inspectable, accessible, and community-driven.
- Ecosystem Growth: Supporting open and reproducible silicon research, developing robust design flows, and hosting global design contests.
- Workforce Development: Supporting global silicon skilling initiatives by expanding open source chip design curricula and collaborating with academic institutions and industrial training networks.
- Technical Strengthening: Enhancing continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, expanding PDK enablement, and improving user experience.
Leadership perspectives
“The OpenROAD Initiative is built on the vision of making chip design open and accessible to all—building a collaborative ecosystem driven by transparency and shared innovation,” said Andrew Kahng, board member of the OpenROAD Initiative. “Google’s deep commitment to open source software and hardware makes them an ideal partner. By joining at our highest membership tier, Google is helping to ensure that the open source EDA ecosystem has the stable, long-term governance and financial foundation required to grow.”
“Cutting-edge silicon research requires robust, inspectable, and reproducible toolchains,” said Drew Wingard, Director of Silicon Infrastructure, Tools and Methodology at Google. “OpenROAD has already made an incredible impact across academia and the broader industry, enabling many successful tapeouts. Google is proud to support the OpenROAD Initiative’s mission to scale this open infrastructure for the next generation of developers.”
About the OpenROAD Initiative and OpenROAD project
The OpenROAD Initiative, Inc. is a California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides governance, stewardship, and coordination for the OpenROAD ecosystem. The OpenROAD Project is an open source, autonomous digital chip design toolchain that democratizes semiconductor design, enabling a complete RTL-to-GDSII flow in less than 24 hours with no human in the loop. Grounded in academic research and referenced in over 500 peer-reviewed publications, OpenROAD has lowered the barriers to hardware innovation, enabling thousands of students, researchers, and startups worldwide to design and manufacture chips.
To learn more about the OpenROAD Project and install the toolchain, visit the new OpenROAD website.
For more information about membership tiers and the foundation’s governance, visit the OpenROAD Initiative website at www.openroadinitiative.org or contact [email protected].
Source: Google Open Source Blog
Stream free movies and shows on Google TV Freeplay
Google TV Freeplay now offers over 10,000 free on-demand movies and shows, — plus, 300+ live channels, with no subscription needed.
Source: The Official Google Blog
AMIE, our research medical AI system, demonstrates real-time clinical video consultation capabilities in a first-of-its-kind study.
Source: The Official Google Blog
Improved file importing in Google Sheets with tables and linked pivot tables
We’re introducing two key improvements in Google Sheets that preserve formatting and linked data when converting files from Microsoft Excel. First, Excel tables will now seamlessly import as Sheets tables. Second, Sheets now fully supports importing Excel pivot tables that are backed by table ranges.
Previously, when converting Excel files, Excel tables did not import as Sheets tables, causing users to miss out on the structural and formatting benefits of tables, and pivot tables linked to tables were replaced with static grids. These updates ensure your data structures remain intact and beautifully formatted upon import. Most importantly, your imported spreadsheets will be ready to use right away, no manual reconstruction needed.
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Table with linked pivot table imported into Google Sheets |
Getting started
- Admins: There is no admin control for both features.
- End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about using tables in Google Sheets or using pivot tables in Google Sheets.
Rollout pace
Table imports
- Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Available now
Linked pivot table imports
- Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on August 11, 2026
Availability
- Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts
Resources
- Google Docs Editors Help: Use tables in Google Sheets
- Google Docs Editors Help: Create & use pivot tables
Source: Google Workspace Updates
More than 1 billion people are using the Gemini app every month.
The Gemini app has officially surpassed 1 billion monthly users, making it the fastest-growing product in Google’s history. Here’s some data about how people are using G…
Source: The Official Google Blog
Media3 1.11 – What’s new?
Media3 1.11 is out. Powering the vast majority of top Android media apps, this release brings new features, bug fixes, and improvements across playback, editing, and UI components. We're expanding our Jetpack Compose UI modules with customizable Player slots and easy to use defaults, interactive gestures, state observers, and short-form video preloading using PlayerPool. We also modernized the Media3 Cast integration with SystemUI Output Switcher support, introduced a new Ktor HTTP client network extension, and added new muxing utilities for Ogg and WAV files.
Read on for key highlights, and check out the full release notes for a comprehensive list of changes.
Playback UI and Compose
With Android becoming Compose-first, we are continuing to expand the media3-ui-compose and media3-ui-compose-material3 modules. This update introduces more granular control over your player layout, richer interaction patterns, and deeper integration with Material3.
Customizable Player layout
The Material 3 Player Composable now supports dedicated content slots for topControls, centerControls, bottomControls, and errorOverlay. You can drop in your own Composables or use the ready-made defaults published in PlayerDefaults:
Player(
player = player,
topControls = { PlayerDefaults.TopControls(player) },
centerControls = { PlayerDefaults.CenterControls(player) },
bottomControls = { PlayerDefaults.BottomControls(player) },
)
The Player Composable also integrates FocusRequester support, enabling seamless D-pad and keyboard navigation on Android TV, foldables, and desktop environments. large-screen devices.
Gestures and playback speed control
PlaybackSpeedState now provides a fast-forward/slow-motion API. The demo-compose app showcases this with a long-press gesture to fast-forward playback and seeking with double tap. Combined with the ProgressSlider introduced in 1.10, the Compose player UI now offers rich touch and gesture interactions out of the box.
Short-form video preloading with PlayerPool
For apps with sliding-window media feeds (for example, short-form vertical video), managing multiple ExoPlayer instances efficiently is a common challenge. Media3 1.11 introduces PlayerPool (in common-ktx) and rememberPooledPlayer (in ui-compose) to handle player recycling and preloading automatically.
The new ShortFormPlayerScreen in demo-compose shows this in action, a vertically paging feed where players are pooled, preloaded, and seamlessly recycled as the user scrolls.
MiniController
A new MiniController Composable in media3-ui-compose-material3 provides a compact playback bar displaying the current item's title, artist, artwork, and progress alongside play/pause controls. As all our default Composables in media3-ui-compose-material3, the MiniController supports Material3 Dynamic Color integration, allowing it to automatically adapt to the user's wallpaper theme.This is ideal for persistent bottom-sheet or mini-player affordances, for example while the user browses content or during active Cast sessions.
Expanded state holders for metadata and errors
We added several new reactive state holders to media3-ui-compose:
rememberCurrentMediaItemState– observe metadata about the currently playing itemrememberPlaylistState– observe the full playlist and active indicesrememberErrorState– track playback errors, with a matchingErrorTextComposable and defaultErrorOverlayin Material3
We'll continue working on new additions and more customization options in upcoming releases. Please share your thoughts on the project issue tracker.
Modernized Cast integration
Media3 1.11 updates the Cast extension with programmatic configuration options and support for OS-level routing.
CastParams and SystemUI Output Switcher
You can now configure the Cast extension using CastParams:
val castParams = CastParams.Builder()
.setShowSystemOutputSwitcherOnCastButtonClick(true)
.build()
Cast.getSingletonInstance(context).initialize(castParams)
Setting setShowSystemOutputSwitcherOnCastIconClick(true) configures the MediaRouteButton to open Android's native SystemUI Output Switcher on supported platform versions, providing a unified output picker experience.
Reactive MediaRouteButton state in Compose
Apps using Jetpack Compose can now easily add the Media routing button (also known as Cast button), which automatically observes the dialog state and updates accordingly. No further logic needed when used together with Media3's CastPlayer!
@Composable
fun TopAppBarWithCast() {
Row {
Text(text = "App Title")
MediaRouteButton()
}
}
Core playback and session enhancements
Eclipsa Video - HAGC dynamic HDR metadata (API 37+)
Eclipsa Video promises a more consistent HDR experience across devices, with a consistent baseline HDR white, adaptive headroom depending on the screen and the surroundings, ensuring the creative intent is preserved on all devices.
ExoPlayer now supports playback of the necessary HAGC (ST 2094-50) timed metadata for progressive media (MP4, Matroska). The player automatically merges HAGC metadata tracks with the associated video track and delivers the metadata out-of-band to the decoder on API 37+ devices. On older devices, ExoPlayer seamlessly falls back to providing a standard HDR playback experience without the adjustments.
New Ktor HTTP client extension
A new media3-datasource-ktor extension module provides KtorDataSource, backed by the Ktor HTTP stack. This offers a Kotlin-first, coroutine-friendly alternative to the existing Cronet and OkHttp data source modules.
Asynchronous MediaSession connections
MediaSession.Callback now includes onConnectAsync(), which lets you process controller connection attempts asynchronously — for example, to verify authorization before accepting a connection. You can return an immediate Future with Futures.immediateFuture(ConnectionResult) for the same behavior as the existing onConnect.
override fun onConnectAsync(
session: MediaSession,
controller: MediaSession.ControllerInfo
): ListenableFuture<MediaSession.ConnectionResult> {
return authenticateControllerAsync(controller)
}
Safer MediaSession defaults
For apps that don’t override onConnect or onConnectAsync in MediaSession.Callback, the library now defaults to a more secure configuration. Specifically, session data is no longer shared by default with untrusted controllers, meaning third-party or non-system apps lacking notification access are restricted from accessing session data unless you explicitly implement these callback methods to authorize the connection.
New Muxer implementations & container parsing
OggMuxer and WavMuxer
We've added two new dedicated muxers: OggMuxer for muxing OPUS and VORBIS streams into standard .ogg files, and WavMuxer for generating uncompressed and floating-point PCM .wav audio files.
Container parsing and track references
- MP4 Track References (tref):
Mp4Muxer.addTrackReferenceallows linking dependent metadata or aux tracks to primary video streams. - Chapter Extraction: QuickTime and Nero chapter from MP4 files (.m4a, .m4b), and Matroska chapters, are now extracted as Chapter metadata entries for audiobook and podcast navigation.
Please use the issue tracker to report any bugs, or if you have questions or feature requests. We look forward to hearing from you!
Source: Android Developers Blog
Expanding the Google AI Professional Certificate with vibe coding
Source: The Official Google Blog
Google Health announces a strategic partnership with Abbott, a leader in health and wellness.
Google Health is teaming up with Abbott to give more holistic views of metabolic and women’s health.
Source: The Official Google Blog
Long Term Support Channel Update for ChromeOS
A new LTS-144 version 144.0.7559.259(Platform Version: 16503.92.0), is being rolled out for most ChromeOS devices.
This version includes selected security fixes including:
513602949 High CVE-2026-19141 Use after free in Resources
513138301 High CVE-2026-13281 Integer overflow in Mojo
533053621 High CVE-2026-19155 Use after free in Payments
540138836 High CVE-2026-19175 Use after free in Payments
513313107 High CVE-2026-12446 Insufficient data validation in Passwords
532939327 High CVE-2026-19153 Insufficient validation of untrusted input in Workers
536584251 High CVE-2026-19166 Use after free in Web Authentication
523729553 High CVE-2026-15123 Insufficient data validation in DOM
516486611 High CVE-2026-17680 Heap buffer overflow in Color
517484284 High CVE-2026-12460 Insufficient policy enforcement in File System Access
496280532 High CVE-2026-9126 Use after free in DOM
517124587 High CVE-2026-12456 Insufficient validation of untrusted input in Extensions
517406035 High CVE-2026-12459 Inappropriate implementation in Serial
532970574 High CVE-2026-15905 Use after free in Aura
523752265 High CVE-2026-15127 Inappropriate implementation in WebGL
502293787 High CVE-2026-17657 Use after free in Navigation
503553615 Medium CVE-2026-15107 Use after free in IndexedDB
523238265 High CVE-2026-15118 Use after free in Input
515443146 High CVE-2026-15108 Integer overflow in Extensions API
522092013 High CVE-2026-15116 Use after free in Actor
514741076 High CVE-2026-12451 Use after free in DigitalCredentials
515463295 High CVE-2026-12015 Use after free
522436154 High CVE-2026-15902 Use after free in Cast
513795122 Medium CVE-2026-15778 Insufficient validation of untrusted input in Navigation
523505418 High CVE-2026-15119 Inappropriate implementation in GetUserMedia
523712556 High CVE-2026-15121 Use after free in WebRTC
523308824 High CVE-2026-13031 Use after free in Blink
523711130 High CVE-2026-13036 Use after free in Blink
523292588 High CVE-2026-16805 Use after free in Blink
523224019 High CVE-2026-13853 Use after free in Journeys
517508651 High CVE-2026-15111 Use after free in Views
516797143 High CVE-2026-12017 Insufficient validation of untrusted input on subframe error pages
517080836 High CVE-2026-13023 Uninitialized Use in GPU
519728279 High CVE-2026-13026 Use after free in Digital Credentials
517148260 High CVE-2026-13024 Insufficient validation of untrusted input in Navigation
523690961 High CVE-2026-13854 Use after free in Ozone
516872067 High CVE-2026-12019 Out of bounds write
512772489 High CVE-2026-10970 Insufficient validation of untrusted input in InterestGroups
513044017 High CVE-2026-19140 Use after free in GPU
520565945 High CVE-2026-15114 Out of bounds read and write in Codecs
533331920 High CVE-2026-19156 Heap buffer overflow in Base
534582496 High CVE-2026-16423 Use after free in UI
536067175 High CVE-2026-19159 Use after free in Views
516794471 High CVE-2026-11672 Out of bounds write in GPU
534903095 Critical CVE-2026-19157 Out of bounds write in ANGLE
517069848 High CVE-2026-12455 Use after free in Tab Strip
514442821 Critical CVE-2026-17650 Use after free in Compositing
506375731 High CVE-2026-10956 Use after free in MimeHandlerView
517585486 High CVE-2026-11691 Insufficient validation of untrusted input in New Tab Page
499182801 High CVE-2026-12012 Use after free
517130229 High CVE-2026-11684 Insufficient policy enforcement in Network
514742747 High CVE-2026-12014 Use after free
Release notes for LTS-144 can be found here
Want to know more about Long-term Support? Click here
Andy Wu
Google Chrome OS





