14 DAY TRIAL // Two new releases of Google Chrome are now available for download, one for early adopters and the other for end users.
The Mountain View-based search giant is now offering Chrome 11.0.696.0 through the Dev Channel for those testers running the browser on Windows or Mac OS X. Chrome Frame also received an update and is sharing the same version number with the latest Dev releases.
Among the enhancements highlighted by Google are an update to the V8 JavaScript rendering engine, as well as a new page of options related to cookies and privacy in the browser’s settings.
At the same time, some of the changes introduced in version 11.0.696.0 have caused regression issues with Chrome.
“Cannot select omnibox auto suggested entries by clicking at it and Bookmark focus is not lost when moved away from the bookmark bar,” revealed Karen Grunberg, from the Google Chrome team.
But as I’ve said in the first paragraph, Chrome 11.0.696.0 Dev is designed to be run in testing environments, and as such, various problems are to be expected.
End users not accustomed to testing pre-release software should stick with Chrome 10.0.648.127. This is the latest Stable version of the open source browser, also available for Windows and Mac OS X, but also for those running Linux. Chrome Frame was also updated to 10.0.648.127 Stable.
Users running Chrome 9.0 need to upgrade to version 10.0 as soon as possible, mainly because the latest Stable release introduces patches for a number of security vulnerabilities.
At the same time, Chrome 10.0.648.127 is designed to also deliver new features and improvements on top of the security updates built into the browser version.
Google has kicked up a notch Chrome’s JavaScript performance with a new version of V8 Crankshaft, overhauled the settings pages which is now offered in a new tab, and not in a dialog box, and enhanced user protection with work related to malware reporting, disabling outdated plugins by default and sandboxing Adobe Flash on Windows.
Chrome 10.0 also makes it easier for users to synchronize their passwords, as Build 10.0.648.127 comes with Password sync enabled by default. Performance improvements will also be noticed by users watching video content online, ,with Chrome 10.0 featuring GPU Accelerated Video.
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.