14 DAY TRIAL // Google Chrome is getting ready for another major release. As Google Chrome 13 has performed its duties and six weeks service, Google Chrome 14, currently in beta, is gearing up to take its place.
Google Chrome 14.0.835.163 has been released to the beta channel. The latest release focuses on stability exclusively, to be expected since is this version will graduate to the stable channel very soon now.
For the past few releases, the Chrome team has been trying to isolate the source of a series of crashes. First, it disabled all options from the about:flags section, to see if any of the experimental flags were the cause.
It re-enabled support for flags in a later update but then reverted some of the improved auto-completion functionality in the Omnibox, introduced with Chrome 13. Google Chrome 14.0.835.163 re-enables the completion features.
Google Chrome 14 comes with the usual list of performance and stability improvements. The one big new feature is support for Native Client apps, enabled by default.
Native Client enables developers to build powerful apps that run native code from the web, for huge performance improvements over what current web technologies offer today.
Google Chrome 13 has been pushed to the stable channel at the beginning of August. Since Chrome operates under a six-week development and release schedule, Google Chrome 14 should be surfacing in the stable channel and be made available as an update to most Chrome users any day now.
Immediately following the stable channel release, Chrome 14 will continue to be made available in the beta channel and both channels will actually be offering the exact same version of the browser.
However, Google Chrome 15, now in the dev channel, is getting ready to make the step up to beta level and the team is putting the finishing touches on it, so beta users should expect a major update not long after Chrome 14 goes stable.
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.