Chrome 26 Beta Adds Fancy CSS Transitions, HTML5 DRM

Chrome 26 has been pushed to the beta channel and, while the big new feature is the smart spell checker, there are plenty of new things under the hood as well.

Google is continuing work on Web Components, a new technology designed to make it possible to create "widgets" for the web.

Google is now adding support for the <template> element, part of Web Components. The template element instructs the browser that the code inside will be used at some point, but that it shouldn't be rendered when the page first loads.

Chrome 25 also comes with support for CSS Transitions and the calc() function enabled by default.

Transitions make it possible to change the styling of elements smoothly, providing short animations, which can be customized, between states. calc() allows developers to use mathematical expressions as units in CSS.

Also new is support for the HTML Main element, also supported now by Firefox 21 Aurora. The latest Chrome beta also adds support for Encrypted Media Extensions, the so-called HTML5 DRM.