14 DAY TRIAL // Google has updated the Chrome dev channel with the release of Google Chrome 8.0.552.23. The team is inching closer towards the first Chrome 8 beta launch which should be very close now.
The update focuses on bug fixing and stability issues, as is usually the case, but also comes with a few regressions, the GPU accelerated canvas option is no longer available and GPU Accelerated Compositing is no longer enabled by default.
"The Chrome Dev channel has been updated to 8.0.552.23 for all platforms," Jason Kersey, a Product Manager at Google, announced.
"This release addresses a number of stability and polish issues found in the previous release as well as the following: Various fixes for browser sign-in; Fix importing from Firefox on first run on Mac when it’s the default browser; Disable accelerated 2D canvas," he added.
It looks like hardware acceleration is proving tricky. Although plans were to have full GPU acceleration in time for Google Chrome 8, more and more functionality is being pushed to Chrome 9.
The GPU accelerated canvas flag is no longer available in about:flags. What's more, GPU compositing, which has been a part of Chrome for a few months now and was enabled by default, has now been brought back to the about:flags section.
Note that the GPU accelerated canvas is still available via the "--enable-accelerated-2d-canvas" command-line switch.
Still, it's starting to look like Google Chrome 8 will ship with the same hardware acceleration features as Google Chrome 7.
A couple of sync features have been reverted as well. The encryption tab, which enabled users to encrypt the sync data stored in their Google Docs accounts, has been removed. Also gone is the password sync option.
Google Chrome for Windows is available for download here. Google Chrome for Linux is available for download here. Google Chrome for Mac is available for download here.