Chrome 29 for iOS availble now, brings enahanced voice search features

Google has just recently released a small but useful update to its iOS Chrome app. The now available Chrome 29 for your iPhone or iPad boasts a few new interesting features.

The app's main new additions come in the way of new search, data management and voice search features. The new search feature will allow users to get back to their search results faster: Once you do a search, click a result and then find out its not what you wanted, when you hit back "your search results will instantly appear, ready for you to choose the next one," Google's Chrome for iOS update post read.

Chrome 29 will also come with an interesting voice search enhancement. Now you can request follow up searches by using pronouns. So for example, your initial search could be “Who is the president of the United States?” and now with the new pronoun recognition, you could follow up with, “Who is his wife?”

Lastly, Google has also given users the ability to view their data savings in Bandwidth Management Settings. At this point, the feature is being rolled out slowly, but according to Google will be available to "all users over time." Other additions coming along with the update include general improvements with security and Single Sign On. You can grab Chrome 29 for free through the App Store now.

Google optimizes Chrome for Retina display, adds new API support

Google’s latest stable release of Chrome now supports Apple’s new high resolution screen on the MacBook Pro with Retina display. In addition to supporting the 2,880 x 1,800 resolution (220 pixels per inch) panel, Google has added a few other features to Chrome to bolster their browser offering.

If you recall from our recent review of the MacBook Pro with Retina display, Apple had to employ some pretty impressive software tricks to make the display perform in a practical manner. Having the screen show content at a 1:1 scale for things like text just isn’t practical because the text would be too small to comfortably view.

Instead, Apple uses four pixels to create a single “viewable” pixel. This allows them to keep the same visual appearance of a 1,440 x 900 resolution display with a much sharper image. The problem with this, at least early on in the MacBook Pro’s life, is that apps must support the Retina resolution. If they don’t, you end up with a pretty blurry and pixilated image like we saw in Firefox during our review.

Google noted in a blog post in June that they were committed to polishing Chrome (no pun intended) until it performed flawlessly on Apple’s new flagship portable. That time has come and now Chrome looks just as nice as Safari. We suspect it’s only a matter of time before Mozilla and others update their browsers with Retina support.

Google also added support for the getUserMedia API which lets you grant web apps access to your webcam and microphone without the need for a plug-in. There’s also deeper Cloud Print integration and expanded support for gamepads.

Google Chrome causing new MacBook Air to crash

Owners of Apple's newly released MacBook Air have been experiencing persistent kernel panics on their systems, causing the laptop to freeze and crash.

The issue generated a lot of discussion on Apple's support communities among frustrated users and earlier this weekGizmodo reported that the general consensus pointed towards Google’s Chrome browser as the culprit.

Now a spokesperson for Google has finally come forward with an official statement acknowledging that it had found a "leak of graphics resources in the Chrome browser" and this had been causing the new MacBook Airs to crash. The company said it is working to fix the root of the leak, but in the meantime it has issued an auto-update release that will temporarily disable GPU acceleration features in Chrome.

We have identified a leak of graphics resources in the Chrome browser related to the drawing of plugins on Mac OS X. Work is proceeding to find and fix the root cause of the leak. The resource leak is causing a kernel panic on Mac hardware containing the Intel HD 4000 graphics chip (e.g. the new Macbook Airs). Radar bug number 11762608 has been filed with Apple regarding the kernel panics, since it should not be possible for an application to trigger such behavior.

While the root cause of the leak is being fixed, we are temporarily disabling some of Chrome's GPU acceleration features on the affected hardware via an auto-updated release that went out this afternoon (Thursday June 28). We anticipate further fixes in the coming days which will re-enable many or all of these features on this hardware.

Google’s response suggests that while Chrome may be inducing the crash, ultimately is an issue with Apple's drivers that allows for the kernel panic to be triggered. Apple hasn’t officially commented on the matter as far as we know, but according to one poster on Apple's support forums, a store employee told him that the company was aware of the problem and plans to release a patch soon.

Chrome 17 beta brings speed and security improvements

Google has pushed a new version of Chrome into the beta channel that's designed around improving two of the browser's key aspects: speed and security. The first major change in version 17 is the ability for pages to start loading in the background before a user has even finished typing a URL into the Omnibox address and search bar.

"If the URL auto-completes to a site you're very likely to visit, Chrome will begin to prerender the page," explained Dominic Hamon, a software engineer at Google, while announcing the browser update. The pre-rendering makes the full site show up almost instantly, according to Google.

Chrome 17 Beta: Windows | Mac OS X | Linux

Chrome 16 Stable: Windows | Mac OS X | Linux

Google also introduced an extension to its Safe Browsing technology that protects users against malicious downloads by analysing executable files, including Windows .exe and .msi files, for known malware. Chrome will issue a warning if a certain file appears to be malicious and will also alert the user if a file is downloaded from a website with a poor reputation for hosting malware-infected files.

This protection targets the "social engineering" type of threat, such as the common fake anti-virus product being offered online, but it's still up to the user to proceed with the download or discard it. The database of known malware is relatively small for now but should grow rapidly as the feature moves into the stable release.

A number of other  minor changes and the usual slew of bug fixes are also included in Chrome 17 beta. Additionally, Google updated the browser's Stable channel to version 16.0.912.75, closing three high risk security holes. Hit the links below to download the latest stable or beta versions of Chrome.

Mozilla renews Google agreement for default search in Firefox

Mozilla has just announced it is renewing its search partnership with Google for another three years, putting to rest concerns that the non-profit organization could lose its primary source of revenue.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed beyond Mozilla's comments that it will be significant and mutually beneficial for both parties. In 2010, Google contributed 84% of Mozilla's $123 million total revenue.

The previously standing three-year arrangement had expired at the end of November. Mozilla said at the time that it was in "active negotiations" with Google, but with Chrome steadily growing its market share many believed Google could use that as leverage to cut down on a competitor or just let them go.

Coincidentally, Firefox began offering a "Firefox with Bing" at the end of October, adding more weight to the idea that Firefox might stike a deal with Microsoft instead. Mozilla is safe for the next few years, but the company would do well to try and diversify its sources of income to be less dependent on a single company -- which also happens to be one of its strongest rivals.

Just last month, Chrome overtook Firefox in global usage for the first time, according to StatCounter. Chrome has also surpassed the latest version of Internet Explorer in worldwide market share, though Microsoft still dominates the desktop browser landscape when counting all versions of IE in aggregate.

Firefox is trying to regain some momentum with a rapid release schedule using alpha, beta and stable channels -- a la Chrome. The stable version of Firefox 9 was released yesterday, just six weeks after Firefox 8.

Google releases Chrome 16 stable with multiple account sync

Google has released the sixteenth version of Chrome into the stable channel, introducing the ability to create and synchronize multiple profiles for a single instance of the popular web browser. The feature will be particularly useful for anyone who shares their computer with others -- at home, for example -- as they'll be able to keep their bookmarks, apps, settings, extensions and history separate from everyone else's.

To create a new profile users must head to preferences / personal stuff and click "Add new user". A new instance of Chrome will appear with a badge and a random name that can be edited to whatever you like. A clickable label in the top-right corner of your browser windows will show which account is currently in use and clicking on the label enables users to switch between accounts.

In a post at the official Google Chrome blog, software engineer Tim Steele notes that adding new users to Chrome isn't intended to secure your data against other people using your computer. Profiles aren’t password-protected so it just takes a few clicks to switch between users.

Besides adding support for multiple profiles the latest release of Chrome also addresses 15 high- and medium-risk vulnerabilities. The high-risk security flaws include an URL bar spoofing bug, use-after-free errors, out of bounds writes in the V8 JavaScript engine and a buffer overflow in PDF font handling. As part of its Chromium Security Rewards program, Google paid external researchers a total of $6,000 for reporting the bugs.

Download: Google Chrome 16.0.912.63 for Windows | Mac OS X | Linux

Chrome showing ads for some, will get gamepad support in 2012

Google has reportedly started to promote some of its own products through ads in Chrome. Although they are rather unobtrusive, appearing in a yellow-tinted box at the top of the new-tab page, it has caught the attention of enough people online who are now worried Google might do this a common practice.

The current ad promotes the company's Chrome OS-powered Chromebooks, which happen to be on sale for the holidays. Some say it is Google's right to display ads because Chrome is free software, while others are already threatening to switch browsers unless there's a way to switch the ads off.

Personally, I don't really mind them as long as the ads stay in the new-tab page and don't become obtrusive -- and I really don't think it'll come to that. Cnet notes that when Google launched Chrome in September 2008, it made it clear that the browser was a secondary mechanism for making money. But it wanted to this by enabling a faster and richer browsing experience, getting people to search more and use their web-based services.

Consequently, Google often uses Chrome as a vehicle to bring new Web-app features to market and promote new standards such as SPDY networking, WebM video, and WebP images. One example of this is an upcoming feature that will allow a gamepad to interact with web content on Chrome.

That update is expected to land early next year, according to Google's Paul Kinlan, and is part of an effort to bring console-like gaming to the web. Besides native gamepad support, webcams and microphones will also be made plug-and-play friendly in Chrome without having to install additional plug-ins.

Image credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET

Chrome on track to overtake Firefox by year's end

Google’s Chrome is on track to surpass Mozilla’s Firefox as the second most popular browser globally by the end of the year. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer holds a solid lead among all other competitors, according to data from free website analytics company StatCounter.

StatCounter’s top five browsers in September 2011 show that Internet Explorer holds a 41.7 percent market share while Firefox has 26.8 percent of users and Chrome is just behind at 23.6 percent.

When viewing the same data over the course of the past year, it becomes clear just how rapidly Chrome is closing in on Firefox and how many users are leaving Microsoft’s offering. In October 2010, Chrome only had a 12.4 percent share, Firefox was at 31.2 percent and IE was at 49.2 percent. IE lost 7.5 percentage points in just one year while Chrome added 11.2 percent. If these same trends continue, Chrome should top Firefox before the end of the year.

As noted by Computer World, other stats providers often report quite different findings. For example, Net Applications'August 2011 report indicates that IE holds a 55.3 percent share while Firefox sits at 22.6 percent and Chrome is a bit further back at 15.5 percent.

The reason for the discrepancy between reporting sites has to do with how each company gathers and reports data. Net Applications is said to theoretically paint a more accurate picture because they factor in the Chinese market. As such, companies like Microsoft typically tend to quote Net Applications’ results when citing market share.