14 DAY TRIAL // “Google Chrome 5.0.375.29 has been released to the Beta channel on Linux, Mac, and Windows,” the latest update signed Anthony Laforge, of the Google Chrome development team, reads. The post includes key features added in version 5.0.375.29 for all platforms, as well as a link to the Chrome blog, where Mads Ager, software engineer, details the changes more broadly.
As revealed by Laforge on the Chrome Dev Channel, features typical to this release include: HTML5 Features (Geolocation, App Cache, web sockets, file drag-and-drop); Integrated Flash Player Plugin; V8 performance improvements; Preferences synchronization; NaCl behind a flag.
Touted as the fastest beta released to date, Google Chrome 5.0.375.29 has reportedly experienced a lot of “tuning, testing, and polishing” on its V8 engine “to give Chrome a hefty boost in speed,” Ager writes.
“Today’s new beta release incorporates one of Chrome’s most significant speed and performance increases to date, with 30% and 35% improvement on the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks over the previous beta channel release,” Ager explains. “In fact, looking back in time, Chrome’s performance has improved by as much as 213% and 305% on these two benchmarks since our very first beta.” Various other tweaks and new additions are detailed in the post (available here).
To be noted that this is the first Chrome beta that fully integrates the Adobe Flash Player plugin. Users will reportedly receive security and feature updates for Flash Player automatically, thanks to Chrome’s auto-update mechanism.
Google encourages everyone to try out all these new features, by downloading the latest Chrome beta now. Chrome for Mac works on Intel machines only, and requires Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later. As ususal, Softpedia asks readers to note that the Mac version of the browser is still in beta, therefore users are advised to exercise caution when utilizing the browser, or at least not rely on it for important tasks.