14 DAY TRIAL // Google is announcing via its Chrome Releases blog that a new Beta version of the popular, open-source web-browser is now online for all supported platforms, including Mac OS X.
Anthony Laforge, of the Chrome development team at Google, informs that “The Beta channel has been updated to 9.0.597.67 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome Frame.”
According to the Google Program Manager, Chrome sandboxing has been put behind a flag in 9.0 builds, because of stability issues with the Flash Player.
“Accelerated composting and WebGL will remain on,” Laforge adds, while “the remaining set of changes for this release constituted bug and stability fixes,” the blogger notes.
As usual, those who find new issues are encouraged to highlight them by filing a bug at http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/entry . This Beta Channel update arrives almost two weeks since the last Chrome Beta release, which was actually the first release to put Flash Player sandboxing behind a flag.
Since then, Google released several new Dev and Stable Channel builds, the latter (still at version 8.0) focusing on security issues only.
The current Developer build (10.0.634.0) includes crash fixes in addition to resolving several other small issues found on all platforms, including Mac.
Google Chrome requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and an Intel-based Mac.
Download Google Chrome for Mac OS X (Free)
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.
The Stable channel is updated with features and fixes only after they are thoroughly tested in the Beta channel, while the Beta channel is being updated with stable and complete features from the Dev channel, where ideas get tested.