14 DAY TRIAL // Google has just announced it has promoted the Chrome beta 31 for Android to the Stable channel, which means the browser should be bug free or at least be affected by only a few minor ones.
The announcement also mentions the latest update brings some security improvements as well as new Android 4.4 KitKat features. The latter doesn't come as a surprise at all and we can safely assume there will more of these coming in the next few weeks.
Although Google claims Chrome 31.0.1650.59 will be will be available in Google Play over the next few days, the application is already up for grabs right now.
One major improvement included in this stable version of the browser is the addition of printing from Chrome on Android KitKat devices.
In addition, developers announced they have enhanced autofill for a faster checkout experience on sites supporting requestAutocomplete.
As mentioned earlier, the update contains some security improvements, but this time they're rather unusual given the fact they are based on user feedback.
In fact, Google states it has awarded user Pinkie Pie with no less than $50,000 (€37.000) as part of the Vulnerability Rewards Program for its contribution to the discovering of a critical flaw within the browser:
“Congratulations to Pinkie Pie, for reclaiming the crown with another impressive exploit! [POW!!! $50,000] [319117] [319125] Critical CVE-2013-6632: Multiple memory corruption issues. Credit to Pinkie Pie.”
Last but not least, the official changelog of the update mentions it brings lots of stability, performance and security improvements.
For more info on this major release, make sure you check out the Chromium security page. Keep in mind though that Google announced that “the referenced bugs may be kept private until a majority of our users are up to date with the fix.”
You can now download Chrome for Android for free via Google Play store. Keep in mind the application should be fully compatible with all devices running Android 2.0 and up.