14 DAY TRIAL // Google is getting ready to push Google Chrome 15, which is currently in the dev channel, to the beta channel, giving a lot more users the chance to check out the new features and smooth out any remaining creases before Chrome 15 is ready to hit the stable channel, the one most people use.
Google has released Chrome 15.0.874.0 for Windows and Chrome Frame, 15.0.874.1 for Linux and 15.0.874.3 for Mac. It is very likely that this is the version that gets upgraded to the beta channel.
The very latest update brings the V8 3.6.0.0 JavaScript engine and plenty of fixes. One notable change is that all Pepper Plugins now get hardware acceleration by default, though this can be disabled.
The latest update also brings an important security feature, all users now get the new client-side phishing detection technology in Chrome.
The feature tries to determine if the user is experiencing a phishing attempt and tries to mitigate the damage.
So far, the notable changes in Google Chrome 15, that users are going to notice first, are the revamped new tab page and the extensions management page integrated into the main settings page.
The redesigned new tab page splits functionality between three separate panels. While it's a welcomed visual update, the latest new tab page suffers from some usability problems.
There should be several more releases in the dev channel, but Chrome 15.0.874.x is most likely the version that's going to move up the channels all the way to the stable release.
The next few dev channel releases will focus on stability and polish, but, in terms of features, what you see now is what everyone is going to get once Chrome goes stable, providing that something doesn't go horribly wrong and some features turn out to be too buggy to be fixed in time.
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.