14 DAY TRIAL // Google has quietly rolled out the eighth major version of its web browser, Chrome 8.0.552.0, for Mac OS X, as well as Windows and Linux. The new build was handed to code-savvy types via the search giant’s Dev Channel, and includes a number of stability improvements and other changes, according to Jason Kersey, of the Google Chrome team.
On the blog dedicated to Chrome releases, Kersey announces that “The Chrome Dev channel has been updated to 8.0.552.0 for all platforms.”
He adds: “It contains a number of stability and other improvements. More details about the changes are available in the SVN revision log.”
However, this is not all Chrome 8.0 does. It is known that this Dev release is specifically tailored to offer enhanced hardware acceleration capabilities, in order to improve the browsing experience in relation to HTML5 content, text, and other types of media.
Chrome 8.0 is also focused on leveraging graphics APIs (application programming interfaces) on the Windows side, which offers common ground to Cloud and desktop applications.
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A note about Google Chrome release channels and updates
Chrome boasts a release system with three distinct channels: Stable, Beta, and Developer preview, called the "Dev" channel. It was introduced on January 8, 2009 when there had been only two channels: Beta and Developer preview.
After January 8, 2009, all previous Developer channel users were moved to the Beta channel. Developer channel builds are less stable than those that Developer channel users were getting during Google Chrome's Beta period.
The Stable channel is updated with features and fixes only after they are thoroughly tested in the Beta channel, while the Beta channel is updated with stable and complete features from the Dev channel, where ideas get tested.