The folks handling the Camino Project have updated their simple, but useful, web browser for Mac OS X, Camino. The release includes critical security and stability fixes, an updated Google feed handler icon, improved ad blocking, and more.

Although still hard at work on the web browser, the Camino Project hopes more Mac users will embrace the simplicity of Camino. The application is a good solution for day-to-day web browsing, being optimized for Mac OS X with a Cocoa user interface and powerful Gecko layout engine, which make it a simple yet secure, fast browser for Mac OS X.

Even though Camino sports an uncluttered user interface, that doesn't mean it lacks the features you'd normally expect from a modern browser, such as tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking settings. Integrated with Google, Camino's Google search field lets you find faster what you need, while security measures have also been implemented in the software. The browser now supports multi-touch gestures for back, forward, page up, and page down.

Besides the above-mentioned additions and tweaks, Camino 2.0 Alpha 1 has been upgraded to version 1.8.1.18 of the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine, which includes several critical security and stability fixes.

Moreover, Camino will no longer crash on startup when the Mac OS X spelling system is broken, while the General preference pane will no longer be missing for users who had customized the Preferences window toolbar. In light of Google's new site icon, the move has been that of changing the icon for the Google feed handler. Lastly, the developers have added CamiTools to the list of problematic add-ons.

NOTE: Camino is only stable enough to use for day-to-day tasks, therefore you should always keep backup copies of important data that you use with Camino, such as your bookmarks.

Download Camino 2.0 Alpha 1 (Free)