14 DAY TRIAL // Two new development releases of Google Chrome are now available for download to early adopters, as the Mountain View-based search giant has updated both the Dev and Beta channels for its open source browser. Chrome 6.0.408.1 Dev and Chrome 5.0.375.53 Beta are currently up for grabs for testers running Windows, Mac, and Linux, as the Builds were synchronized for all supported platforms. As the labels that accompany the downloads reveal, the Chrome 6.0.408.1 and Chrome 5.0.375.53 are pre-release software and should be treated as such.
This means that end users running Chrome should stick to the Stable version of the browser, especially if they are not willing to take on the risks associated with testing software that is still in development. As far as Chrome 6.0.408.1 Dev is concerned, Google has resolved an issue that prevented the browser from remembering zoom changes that end users applied while running in incognito mode, according to Jason Kersey, from the Google Chrome team.
Google Chrome 5.0.375.53 brings to the table a fix for the same issue as the latest update to the Dev channel. In addition, Anthony Laforge, from the Google Chrome Team, indicated that the Mountain View search giant had worked in order to resolve a number of bugs affecting the browser. In this regard, early adopters running the Beta of Chrome are bound to notice minor improvements in terms of stability and reliability.
Chrome 5.0.375.53 Beta also comes with Flash disabled. Google has made the choice to embrace the ubiquitous plug-in developed by Adobe extremely close, and to make it virtually a part of Chrome. But while, for the time being, the Flash Player in Chrome 5.0 Beta is switched off, it would be enabled by default in future Builds of the browser, Laforge promised.
Early adopters that want a sneak peek at what Google will offer in terms of the future of Chrome can also download a WebM-ready variant of Chromium, the open source project behind the browser. Chromium 6.0.412.0 comes with support for the new HTML5 WebM VP8 video codec, and is available for download along versions of Firefox and Opera that also play nice with the format. Internet Explorer 9, while it will indeed offer support for WebM, will require users to run a VP8 codec installed in Windows separately from the browser.
Google Chrome 6.0.408.1 Dev is available for download here.
Google Chrome 5.0.375.53 Beta is available for download here.
The new WebM-ready Firefox 3.7 Alpha 4 is available for download here.
Chromium 6.0.412.0 is available for download here.
Opera 10.54 Build 21868 Beta with HTML5 WebM VP8 video support is available for download here.
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 2 Build 1.9.7766.6000 is available for download here.
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