14 DAY TRIAL // Google has just rolled out Chrome 37 beta, a brand new testing version of its browser that comes with several new features and improvements on all supported desktop platforms.
The Chrome team announced in a blog post this morning that the new beta version of the browser brings DirectWrite support on Windows, a completely new password manager interface and automatic reload of unreachable pages when network becomes available.
As you can see, most of these improvements have been made to enhance users' experience with the browser, so those running preview versions of Chrome on Windows are recommended to update as soon as possible.
But what exactly does the DirectWrite support mean?
Until now, Google was using the Windows Graphics Device interface to render fonts in the browser, which led to a number of issues especially on modern devices with high-resolution displays. Microsoft's DirectWrite API significantly improves the way fonts look on these displays, which would obviously result in an overall enhanced experience when running Chrome.
At the same time, this new Chrome beta build drops Chrome sign-in requirement for Chrome apps, while also featuring a number of new apps and extension APIs.
Last but not least, Google says that lots of under-the-hood changes for stability and performance are part of this release, so the browser should work almost flawlessly on all supported desktop platforms.
Google Chrome 37 was the first branch that brought the 64-bit Windows builds, but Google says that the beta will be updated with such versions in the coming days.
“The Chrome team is excited to announce the promotion of Chrome 37 to the beta channel with 37.0.2062.20 for Windows, Mac and Linux. (Chrome 64-bit for Windows will be coming to the beta channel shortly, stay tuned!)” Alex Mineer, a Google Chrome engineer, said today.
Since it's a beta, bugs are quite a common issue, so a number of those who have already installed the new version found issues such as Windows 8 graphics compatibility problems and tab freezing glitches.
Obviously, this is something to be expected when installing an early beta build, so you are recommended to stick to the stable version if you do not want to diagnose bugs and send them to Google to improve future versions. Otherwise, click the links below to get the version that's working on your computer and install the new beta on your Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X computer.
Download Google Chrome Beta for Windows Download Google Chrome Beta for Linux Download Google Chrome Beta for Mac OS X