14 DAY TRIAL // Google is moving fast as always with the development of the Chrome web browser, maybe even faster now with the Chrome OS launch not that far off, so a new build of its developers branch is now available, Google Chrome 4.0.206.1. The latest version comes with a smaller list of fixes on the Windows platform but it does show that extension support is coming along at steady pace.
“Closing the download shelf removes all completed and cancelled downloads from it. Fixes various audio/video events which were not firing. Saved passwords for proxy servers are now correctly labeled. Add single line of tips to New New Tab Page,” Jonathan Conradt, engineering program manager, revealed the fixes for all platforms.
“Enforce granular permissions. Modified several APIs to be more consistent. Polish the look of Linux extension shelf. Polish extension install UI. Allow extension toolstrip to detach. (ctrl+alt+b) Polish chrome://extensions/ page. Add convenience developer tools to load an extension and pack an extension,” where the new additions to the extensions support.
Nothing groundbreaking here, but with less than one week of development time between releases, it's clear that the dev team is making good progress. The Linux and Mac versions, which have only been around for a couple of months, are also getting closer to becoming viable alternatives for these platforms as well despite still being available in the dev channel. The new 4.x branch is starting to get more polished, having been released for a while now, and the beta 3.x branch is close to being pushed to the stable channel, which is still labeled as 2.x.
Of course, version numbers don't really mean that much for Google Chrome and they're more of a way to keep track of the development internally and shouldn't be that important to the regular users. Still, just one year after being launched, Chrome is on its way of becoming a serious competitor even if its market share isn't as high as Google might want it to be. But with Chrome OS coming and with a new partnership with Sony to bundle the browser with its laptops, it could soon become a lot more popular.
The latest versions of Google Chrome are available for download here.