14 DAY TRIAL // Just one day after it introduced the 4.1 minor update to the Stable version 4.0 of its open source browser, Google offered early adopters a new taste of Chrome’s next major iteration. Google Chrome 5.0.356.0 is now available for download through the Dev channel, delivering a range of fixes for all supported platforms. “The Dev channel has been updated to 5.0.356.0 for Windows, Linux, and Google Chrome Frame,” Anthony Laforge, from the Google Chrome team, revealed.
While Chrome 4.1.249.1036 was released exclusively for Windows users, the Dev channel milestones are being released concomitantly for all platforms, with the development process synchronized across the three flavors of the browser. Although it delivered updates for Windows and Linux first, by the end of yesterday, Google also kicked up a notch Chrome for OS X.
Laforge enumerated some of the changes introduced by the latest Dev channel update. “Form autofill enabled by default for new profiles. [Just for ] Linux: Client SSL Certificate Support (UI) for Linux. Renderers can now figure out how much memory they're using and release it properly. Chrome Frame: Chrome frame should use ‘parentNode’ instead of ‘parentElement’ to get the DOM. Better integration with host (InternetExplorer) popup blocker.”
For Mac, “Implement Mac Address Book ‘me’ card integration with Autofill. Various improvements to the bookmark folder menus. Fix beach ball/performance issues with the cookie manager. Better integration with host (InternetExplorer) popup blocker,” Laforge added.
Windows users that have jumped the gun and are running, testing or developing on top of Chrome 5.0 will notice that the browser is more stable after the latest update. Google introduced a number of reliability fixes that resolve a number of crash issues. Laforge also noted that problems still existed. “Cannot drag anything (text or images) in a content area. For example, dragging a thumbnail on the new tab page hangs the page.”
The latest release of Google Chrome 5.0 is available for download here.
Google Chrome 4.1.249.1036 Stable for Windows is available for download here.