You can now save movies for offline watching on Chromebooks

Limited offline functionality has long been an issue that critics of Chromebooks have used to shoot down the concept. Just ask Microsoft, who enlisted reality TV stars to dis Chromebooks as “not real laptops” as part of its infamous Scroogled campaign. But Google is slowly beefing up the offline capabilities of Chrome OS machines, and the latest update will prove useful for anyone looking to kill some time on a Chromebook while away from an Internet connection.

Google just released a Chrome web app that lets you save movies from Play Movies & TV for offline usage, just like it promised it would at the beginning of May. Now you can select the flicks you want, download them locally, and enjoy them on your flight, camping trip, or commute, hassle free.

The free app can be installed in Chrome browsers on any platform, but only Chrome OS offers the ability to download movies for offline viewing. On other platforms, the app gives you Info Cards, which are cards with details about actors that you can pull out when watching a movie from Google Play.

Chrome OS remains a heavily cloud-centric operating system, but changes like this contribute to its evolution towards becoming a serious threat to conventional operating systems (read Windows). And big PC manufacturers seem to realize it – in the past months, all the top PC makers, including Lenovo, Asus, HP, and Dell have released affordable, attractive Chrome OS devices, which consistently rank among the bestselling computers at Amazon and other retailers.