12 February 2010, 08:56

Google updates Chrome for Mac and Linux betas

Google Chrome 5.0.307.7 on Mac OS X 10.6. Google has announced the availability of version 5.0.307.7 of Chrome for Mac and Linux, the latest betas of its Chrome WebKit-based browser for each platform. According to the developers, Chrome on both platforms features stability improvements to plug-ins, such the Adobe Flash Player, and is now even more reliable.

Like its Windows counterpart, the Mac Beta of Chrome now features support for extensions and bookmark sync. With extensions, users can extend their browser's functionality by writing and installing scripts that become part of the browser, in a similar fashion to Firefox Add-Ons. So far, there are more than 2,500 extensions available from the Google Chrome Extensions page.

The addition of bookmark sync to the Mac Beta allows users to use their Google Account, to synchronise their bookmarks across all of their computers. Once enabled, bookmarks created on one computer will automatically be added to the users other computers over the internet. The Mac Beta also adds a new bookmark manager, cookie manager and task manager.

The Linux Beta, which previously included support for extensions and a bookmark manager, includes a number of bug fixes, such as addressing an out of memory (OOM) error that would cause "runaway tabs before it kills the browser". The Chrome for Linux beta supports 32 and 64-bit versions of Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE. Chrome for Mac requires an Intel Mac with Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard' or later. All beta users are advised to upgrade to the latest release.

More details about the beta releases can be found in the release announcement and release notes. Chrome 5.0.307.7 Beta is available to download for Linux and Mac. Users that currently have Chrome installed can use the built-in update function by clicking Tools, selecting About Google Chrome and clicking the Update button.

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