WebProNews

Tag: Web Browsers

  • Chrome Gets Better At Spell Check In Latest Beta

    Google announced Chrome 26 Beta today, with improved spell check capabilities. Google has refreshed the dictionaries the browser’s default spell check users, and it now supports proper nouns as well as Korean, Tamil and Albanian.

    Chrome Spell Check

    “Users who sync their settings will also notice their custom dictionary gets shared across devices now, so you won’t need to teach that new Chromebook how to spell your name,” says software engineer Rachel Petterson. “Furthermore, for users who have enabled the ‘Ask Google for suggestions’ spell check feature, we’re now rolling out support for grammar, homonym and context-sensitive spell checking in English, powered by the same technologies used by Google search. Support for additional languages is on the way.”

    Google is pushing the update to users on Windows, Linux and Chrome OS in the coming weeks. Mac support will be on the way soon.

    The browser update also have a bunch of new bells and whistles for developers, as discussed in this post on the Chromium blog.

  • Voice Recognition Comes To Chrome (Stable)

    Google launched Chrome 25 beta last month, which included support for voice commands via the Web Speech API. Now, voice recognition has come to the stable release.

    Developers can use the API to to integrate speech recognition capabilities into their web apps, so Chrome users can benefit from the feature.

    Google has a demo here, if you want to see how it works.

    The release also disables silent extension installs in Chrome for Windows.

    “This keeps Chrome fast and safe by ensuring that you consent to every extension that’s installed on your computer,” says Google software engineer Glen Shires.

    The new features will come with the auto-update as the release is rolled out.

  • Internet Explorer 10 Adoption Slow Going, Still Strong Overall

    In a perfect world, everybody who uses Internet Explorer would be on the latest version so all the problems affecting IE8 wouldn’t be happening. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you ask, IE10 is only available on Windows 8. That means Microsoft’s latest browser isn’t doing super well in its second month on the market since Windows 8 isn’t doing that well either.

    Despite having sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses since launching at the end of October, the latest browser marketshare numbers from Net Applications shows that Internet Explorer 10 hasn’t even cracked one percent yet. Being exclusive to Windows 8 isn’t doing the browser any favors. There’s a beta for IE10 on Windows 7, but it has received little to no publicity from Microsoft. It probably didn’t add much to these numbers.

    That being said, Internet Explorer is still king. Overall, the browser still has a majority of the browser marketshare at 54.77 percent. When broken down, the constantly hacked Internet Explorer 8 is used the most with 23 percent of the marketshare and the much safer Internet Explorer 9 coming in 21 percent.

    As for the other browsers, Firefox and Chrome are still battling it out for second place. Firefox was in the lead in December with 19.82 percent of the market while Chrome lagged closely behind with 18.04 percent. Safari and Opera came in at 5.24 percent and 1.71 percent respectively.

    In mobile browsers, Apple Safari for iOS is still by and large the dominant force with 60.56 percent of the marketshare. The generic Android browser and Opera Mini are the only other mobile browsers with percentages in the double digits with 22.10 percent and 10.71 percent respectively. Chrome is picking up pace, however, as it has increased from 0 percent to 1.48 percent in only a year. Not bad for a relative newcomer to the mobile browser scene.

  • Google Launches Chrome 25 Beta With Speech Recognition

    Google released Chrome 25 in beta today, and this version of the browser is noteworthy because it supports voice commands via the Web Speech API. Developers will be able to tap into this to integrate speech recognition into their web apps.

    Google speech specialist and software engineer Glen Shires pretty well sums up what this means when he says, “Using your voice to search on your computer or phone is handy, but there’s so much more you can do with voice commands. Imagine if you could dictate documents, have a freestyle rap battle, or control game characters with your browser using only your voice.”

    When this hits the stable release, Google should really have some cool stuff to show off when it advertisers Chrome on TV as it has been doing lately.

    The beta also automatically disables some extensions on Windows that have been added by third party programs without you necessarily knowing about it.

    “The original intent was to give people an option to add useful extensions when installing applications, but unfortunately this feature has been widely abused by third parties who added extensions without user consent,” says Shires. “A notification will appear with the option to re-enable the affected extensions.”

    The beta can be downloaded here. Once you do, you can check out this demo Google has set up, where you can compose an email by talking.

  • Chrome To Get Even More Search-Friendly

    One of the best parts about Chrome has always been the omnibox, and the ease with which searching the web is compared to browsers that came before it (though some have caught up in this regard now). Google has made additional search-related improvements to Chrome over the years – most notably the addition of Google Instant. But more search-friendliness is on the way.

    Google announced today that it is going to begin testing variations of Chrome’s New Tab Page in which the user’s default search provider will be able to add a search box or “otherwise customize” the page.

    “While you can search straight from the omnibox in Chrome, we’ve found that many people still navigate to their search engine’s home page to initiate a search instead,” says software engineer David Holloway on the Chromium blog. “The goal is to save people time by helping them search and navigate the web faster.”

    “We’ll also allow search engines to display the user’s search terms right in the omnibox, which avoids the need for a second search box on the results page,” adds Holloway. “This new capability, along with other ways to improve search suggestions, are exposed in a new Embedded Search API, an extension of the existing SearchBox API. Search engines can implement any part of the specification if they’d like their users to experience a customized variation of the NTP experience.”

    A small set of users on the Dev channel on Windows and Chrome OS how have Google selected as their default search provider will start seeing test variations starting today. Halloway says Mac will be coming soon.

  • Google Now Just Might Be Coming To Chrome

    Google Now Just Might Be Coming To Chrome

    Google Now may soon be part of the Chrome web browser. A note was discovered on the Chromium (the open source project on which Chrome is based) site, indicating that such an integration is being buit.

    CNET, which points to the note (first spotted by Francois Beaufort), confirmed with Google that it is indeed working on this in an experimental capacity. Successful experiments, of course, go on to become features, and Google Now is surely a product Google wants to be successful.

    The log message in the note says:

    Creating a skeleton for Google Now for Chrome implementation. The CL creates the top-level structure for showing Google Now cards in Chrome via Chrome Notifications. The implementation lives behind -enable-google-now-integration flag.

    This appears to be the latest sign that Google is indeed working hard to bring its robust roster of products closer together into a more unified experience. The most obvious example of this is Google’s integration into its Google+ social network into its other products.

    Last week, Google SVP, engineering, Vic Gundotra said, “Google+ is the next version of Google, so, if you love YouTube, or Chrome, or Search, or Android, or Gmail, or Maps, we’re bringing it all together.”

    “Bringing it all together,” just might start to be more apparent from Chrome to Android too. Google has even hinted in the past that Android and Chrome OS could one day converge.

    Google appears to be blurring the lines among its products more and more as time goes on.

    Google pushed out some new cards for Google Now last week, in an update to its Search App. New cards include Events Nearby, Suggestions to help with research, Boarding Passes from Gmail (United only, but more to come), Search by camera when at museums or shops, Weather at upcoming travel destinations, and the approximate monthly summary of walking and biking activity.

  • Google Updates Chrome For Android And iOS

    Google Updates Chrome For Android And iOS

    Google announced updates for Chrome on both iOS and Android on Wednesday. Chrome for iPhone and iPad has been updated to Chrome 23 / 23.0.1271.91. Chrome for Android has been updated to 18.0.1025469 for ARM devices and to 18.0.1026322 for x86 devices.

    The iOS update includes a few new features and fixes for issues reported by users. In addition to stability and security improvements, the latest iOS update includes the ability to open PDFs in other apps, support for saving boarding passes and tickets with Passbook, and an option to automatically detect text encoding.

    Google still maintains a list of known issues here.

    The Android update includes stability fixes. Both versions of that one can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Again, known issues can be found here.

  • Mozilla Launches Firefox With MSN

    Mozilla announced the release of a new version of Firefox for MSN fans called, appropriately, Firefox with MSN. It’s described as a customized version of the browser for MSN users, which sets Bing as the default search engine in the search box and “Awesomebar,” and saves msnNOW in a Firefox App Tab. It also makes MSN.com your default home page.

    Last year, Mozilla introduced Firefox with Bing. This takes Firefox deeper into the Microsoft ecosystem for those who like it just enough to still avoid using Internet Explorer.

    “It also gives your Firefox an MSN theme and provides quick access links to popular MSN channels so you can easily get real time updates for news, entertainment, sports and the things that matter most to you,” Mozilla says of the new offering.

    You can download the browser itself here, or if you are already using Firefox, simply download the Firefox with MSN add-on.

    There are about 20 different customized versions of Firefox available, including versions tailored to fans of AOL, Bing, Yahoo and Yandex.

  • Firefox Is Now 8 Years Old (Is That All?)

    Mozilla is celebrating Firefox’s eighth birthday today. It was November 9, 2004, when Mozilla launched the browser. Frankly, I can’t believe it’s been only eight, but that is a long time in Internet years.

    “We had the audacity to believe that we could change things. We believed that a community of people who understood the power of the Web, and who put people above profits, could build something amazing,” writes Johnathan Nightingale, Vice President of Firefox Engineering. “Today, on Firefox’s 8th birthday, we’re proud to say that our mission hasn’t changed, but the Web has. These days, hundreds of millions of people trust Firefox with their online lives and they encourage their friends and family to do the same. We still put people first and, with the support of our Firefox fans, we drive the Web towards openness and interoperability.”

    “It’s hard work,” adds Nightingale. “But in the last year, Firefox has gotten faster, more secure, friendlier to use and more fun to personalize. We’ve also brought the speed and power of Firefox to millions of smartphone users with Firefox for Android. In the next year, we’re going to take Firefox even further.”

    Nightingale links to the original Firefox 1.0 press release, if you want to take a trip down memory lane. Here’s a sample:

    The Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving choice and promoting innovation on the Internet, today announced the worldwide availability of the Mozilla Firefox 1.0 web browser. Development of Firefox has been driven by a desire for a more robust, user-friendly and trustworthy web experience. Mozilla Firefox 1.0 arrives on the heels of last month’s highly successful Preview Release that over eight million people downloaded, contributing significantly to the final phase of its open source development.

    Today’s announcement marks the worldwide launch of Mozilla Firefox-with immediate availability for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux-as a free download from mozilla.org and by CD from the Mozilla Store. Firefox is now available in over a dozen languages, with many more on the way.

    “We are delighted to be announcing this major milestone for the Mozilla Foundation and for the Firefox browser, which has been made possible thanks to the tireless effort of hundreds of community volunteers and developers around the world,” commented Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla Foundation. “Now millions more will be able to enjoy a better web experience.”

    When was the last time you got a web browser from a CD?

    Last month, Mozilla talked about some future plans for Firefox, which includes the Social API and Facebook Messenger for Firefox. More on that here.

  • Chrome Update Saves Windows Users Battery Life, Privacy

    Google pushed anew Chrome stable release today, potentially saving Windows users battery life.

    “We recently enabled GPU-accelerated video decoding for Chrome on Windows,” the company said in a blog post. “Dedicated graphics chips draw far less power than a computer’s CPU, so using GPU-accelerated video decoding while watching videos can increase battery life significantly.”

    “In our tests, the battery lasted 25% longer when GPU-accelerated video decoding was enabled,” the company says. “Now Chrome users on Windows will experience longer battery life so they don’t get cut off while watching their favorite YouTube video on repeat.”

    The update also comes with the ability to click on the page/lock icon next to a website’s address in the omnibox and see a list of the site’s permissions:

    Chrome Lock

    It also includes the option to send a “do not track” request to sites. Google does not that the effectiveness of that feature is dependent on the sites’ responses.

  • Google Launches Chrome For Windows 8

    Google announced the availability of its new Google search and Chrome web browser apps for Windows 8, Microsoft’s new operating system, which hit the market today.

    The Google Search app was spotted previously. We talked it about it here, but here’s what Google had to say about it today:

    The Google Search app comes with a clean and recognizable user interface. Our new voice search lets you naturally speak questions. The image search and image previews are built for swiping. And, as usual, you get immediate results as you type with Google Instant. The doodles you enjoy on special occasions will be right there on the homepage and even show up on the Google tile on your start screen.

    Google put together the following video to help Windows 8 users “get their Google back in two easy steps”. These would be putting Google on your start page by getting the Google Search app, and getting Google Chrome (and making it your default browser). Actually, Google has set up a site where you can quickly get both at GetYourGoogleBack.com.

    “The Chrome browser is the same Chrome you know and love, with some customizations to optimize for touchscreens, including larger buttons and the ability to keep Chrome open next to your other favorite apps,” says Google Search product management director Tamar Yehoshua. “It delivers the fast, secure web experience you’ve come to expect from Chrome on all your devices.”

    Microsoft, of course, showed off its new Bing apps for Windows 8 as well.

  • Mozilla Launches Developer Toolbar In Firefox 16

    Mozilla has launched a new feature with Firefox 16 called the Developer Toolbar, which comes with what Mozilla calls the Developer Command Line. This is designed to provide easy keyboard control over Firefox developer tools, and it completes commands and parameters for you.

    “In addition, Firefox unprefixes a number of stable features including: CSS3 Animations, Transitions, Transforms, Image Values, IndexedDB and Values and Units,” Mozilla says in a blog post. “Firefox also unprefixes Battery API and Vibration API, two Web APIs that Mozilla helped create.”

    “On mobile, Firefox for Android introduces Reader Mode to make it easier to view, read and share articles and stories from your mobile phone or tablet,” Mozilla adds. “Simply tap the ‘Reader’ icon in the Awesome Bar to activate. This feature provides an enjoyable and clutter-free way to read online content by removing advertisements, reformatting pictures and increasing font size.”

    The toolbar will also show you the errors on a page if there are any. It displays an error indicator next to the web console.

    Simply press shift+F2 to bring the toolbar up.

  • Is Apple Restricting Google Chrome For iOS Out Of Spite?

    Apple’s new Maps app in iOS 6 has been a constant source of entertainment since its launch. Beyond the laughs, Apple going with their own Maps app underscores a very important point – Apple now sees Google as their main competitor. To that end, Apple may be engaging in some decidedly anti-Google tactics.

    As pointed out by Thomas Baekdal on Google Plus, Apple has retroactively rated the Google Chrome app as 17+. They say the app contains frequent and/or intense mature/suggestive themes. The description accurately describes the Internet, but that’s only if you’re going to specific unsavory areas.

    Thomas Baekdal

    Thomas Baekdal3 hours ago

    Apple's bullshit anti-competitive behavior strikes again. Now Apple has age restricted Google Chrome for iOS… with the warning that it includes "Frequent/Intense Mature/suggestive Themes".

    Apple really needs to be hit hard with an antitrust lawsuit. 

    25    6 Powered by socialditto

    Before you cry fowl, Apple is doing this to all the browsers in the Appstore. The Opera Mini Web Browser, another popular mobile browser, has been rated 17+ for the same reasons.

    In a far more hilarious turn, Apple has rated the Dolphin Browser 17+ for the following reasons:

    Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
    Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
    Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
    Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity
    Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
    Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
    Infrequent/Mild Simulated Gambling
    Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence

    It’s hard to say if Apple would rate Safari the same way since the app is included by default in iOS. By making it the default, Apple seems to at least be saying that Safari is a safer Web browser. It might not be anti-competitive, but it’s funny to see Apple making it harder for the younger crowd to use anything but Safari when browsing the Internet. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal, however, since most iOS users are over the age of 17.

    Just for kicks, let’s take a look at the same browsers on Google Play. Chrome is listed as a low maturity app. The Opera Mini Web Browser is surprisingly rated as an app for everyone. Firefox is rated as low maturity, and Dolphin is also rated as low maturity.

    So, what’s happening here? Apple is either being anti-competitive or being over protective. I would like to think it’s the latter. The Internet can be a dangerous place for young people, and Apple is probably just wanting to protect them from the worst the Internet has to offer. It’s odd, however, that Apple doesn’t allow parental controls in Safari. The company apparently thinks the only way to protect children from the horrors of the Internet is to restrict access to the Safari app altogether.

    Either way, we’ve reached out to Apple for comment. We’ll update if we hear back.

  • Google Apps Will Soon Stop Supporting Internet Explorer 8

    Google announced today that it will soon stop supporting IE 8, so if you’re an Internet Explorer user who also uses Google Apps, you might want to consider upgrading soon.

    “As we announced last year, we support the latest version of Google Chrome (which automatically updates whenever it detects that a new version of the browser is available) as well as the current and prior major release of Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis,” Google said in a blog post. “Each time a new version of one of these browsers is released, we begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.”

    Google made the initial announcement in June of 2011, and started the practice on August 1, 2011.

    IE 10 launches on October 26, and Google will stop supporting IE 8 on November 15. At that point, Google says IE 8 users will see a message recommending they upgrade their browser.

    This goes for Google Apps, Google Apps For Business and Education and Government editions.

  • Google Makes Chrome For Android More Secure

    Chrome for Android just got an update, which Google says makes the browser safer.

    Google software engineer Jay Civelli explains in a blog post, “This release strengthens Chrome for Android’s sandbox technology, which helps ensure malicious mobile websites are contained and do not impact the entire browser. This is made possible by the innovative multi-process architecture in Chrome for Android, in conjunction with Android’s User ID (UID) isolation technology. This more in-depth sandboxing capability will be automatically used for devices with Android 4.1, Jellybean.”

    Additional features of the update include (via Google Play):

    • Location preference now integrated to system level Google apps location setting.
    • Youtube videos controls now work in full screen mode; videos continue playing after a screen lock/unlock
    • Fixes to make third-party IMEs work better with Chrome

    The update also comes with a number of bug fixes. It’s available for Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich and up.

  • A Visual Evolution Of Google’s Chrome

    A Visual Evolution Of Google’s Chrome

    Google is celebrating Chrome’s 4th birthday with the launch of the Chrome Time Machine, an interactive site that takes you through the browser’s evolution from launch to today. In retrospect, it’s gone through quite a bit in that short time.

    “When we launched Chrome four years ago, most people accessed the web through a personal computer,” writes Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome & Apps on the Chrome blog. “Our goal was to help build a better web–a web that is faster, simpler and more secure.”

    “Fast forward to today, and many people have more than one device–a smartphone, a tablet, a computer at work, a computer at home,” adds Pichai. “The beauty of the web is that it’s the one platform that can deliver a consistent experience on any device with a browser. We’ve been working to build a more seamless Chrome experience that lets you to take your Chrome stuff with you on all your devices.”

    While you can peruse through Chrome’s entire history at the site, here are some of the highlights from the Time Machine (along with some related videos).

    Chrome Time Machine

    Chrome Time Machine

    Chrome Time Machine

    Chrome Time Machine

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    Chrome Time Machine

    Chrome Time Machine

    Chrome Time Machine

    Chrome Time Machine

    Chrome Time Machine

    Chrome Time Machine

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    Chrome Time Machine

    Chrome Time Machine

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    Chrome Time Machine

    Chrome Time Machine

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    Chrome Time Machine

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    Chrome Time Machine

  • Chrome For iPhone, iPad Gets First Update

    Chrome For iPhone, iPad Gets First Update

    Google announced its first update for Chrome on iPhone and iPad in version 21 / 21.0.1180.77.

    The update adds the ability to share directly from Chrome to social networks and email. Other features include: “more actionable” sync sign in error messages, improved detection for the welcome tour, and fixes for pages loading blank in Incognito mode.

    Not a huge update, but an update nonetheless, for the highly anticipated mobile version of the popular browser. Google launched the iOS version of Chrome in June. Here’s a hands-on in case you’ve yet to test the waters.

    In other Google-related browser news, Google has extended its partnership with Opera to remain the default search provider.

    Chrome’s operating system counterpart, Chrome OS, also got some tweaks this week. More on that here.

  • Here’s 40 Minutes Worth of Chrome WebRTC Developer Discussion

    If your’e looking to develop for WebRTC, you may be interested in the following Google+ hangout video Google has uploaded to YouTube.

    If your’e not familiar with WebRTC, it’s a free, open source project designed to enable web browsers with real-time communications capabilities via Javascript APIs. Google’s Chrome team creates and maintains the Web RTC site, but the project is supported by Google, Mozilla and Opera.

    Now, watch a handful developers discuss it:

  • Safari Gets More Chrome-Like. Should Google Worry?

    Google’s Chrome browser has plenty to offer that its competitors don’t, but the biggest thing in my mind, has historically been the omnibox, which lets you simply enter a search query into the address bar to search Google. Ever since first using Chrome, it’s been a struggle to use other browsers.

    For a long time, Chrome was the only browser to offer this functionality, though some competitors have finally caught up in this regard. Firefox, for example recently began offering similar functionality. IE and Opera have released versions that perform searches from the address bar as well.

    Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference last month, that its Safari also now has such a feature. Apple calls it SmartSearch. Here’s what Apple has to say about it on the Safari site:

    Now there’s one simple field for both search terms and web addresses. When you enter a web address, Safari takes you right to the web page — and even fills in the entire URL. Safari finds what you’re looking for in a faster and smarter way. As you type in the field, Safari stays one step ahead and suggests a Top Hit — the closest match to what you’re looking for. Safari uses pages from your bookmarks and history to find a Top Hit, so you find the right web page fast.

    It’s not quite Google Instant, as Chrome has, but it’s a step in the right direction.

    Apple has users used to the Safari browser on their iOS devices, so it’s possible that such a feature could sway some users away from Chrome and other browsers, but Google did also launch Chrome for iOS last month as well.

    Interestingly, there are reports surfacing today suggesting that Apple may have ended development of Safari for Windows, which certainly wouldn’t play into that increasing market share scenario. Not sure what to make of that. Frederic Lardinois reports for TechCrunch:

    What seems to be completely gone from Apple’s site now, though, is any mention of the Windows version of Safari. Indeed, it looks like Apple has removed all download links for Safari from its site for the time being. This could be due to the fact that Apple is currently highlighting Safari’s new features in Mountain Lion (which pre-installs Safari 6), or because Apple has indeed ended development of Safari for Windows. Windows users can still download the old version from Apple, but the link is hidden on the company’s support page.

    Apple’s latest version of Mac OS X – Mountain Lion – came out today, and with that comes the latest version of Safari (6). The Safari update has reportedly also been made available to OS X Lion users.

    Other new Safari features include (as described on Apple’s site):

    Share button
    The Share button is built into Safari, so it’s easy to share web pages using Mail, Messages, Facebook, and Twitter.

    Offline Reading List
    Safari saves the web pages in your Reading List so you can catch up on your reading even when you don’t have an Internet connection. If an article in your Reading List contains multiple pages, Safari fetches the pages and stores them, so you can read the entire article offline.

    Tab View
    Use Multi-Touch gestures to switch between your tabs. On the trackpad, pinching in reveals your open tabs. In Tab View, a two-finger swipe navigates between them.

    Password AutoFill
    When you log in to a website, Safari offers to save your password for AutoFill, so you don’t have to type it the next time you log in.

    View passwords
    If you forget a saved password, you can find it in the new Passwords pane in Safari. Use your system password to authenticate, and you’ll see all your passwords.

    iCloud Tabs
    Pick up browsing right where you left off — on your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Mac. iCloud makes your open Safari tabs available on all your devices, so you can access the last websites you looked at.

    Smooth scrolling
    Thanks to hardware acceleration, web pages scroll smoothly in the browser window even when your Mac is loading new web page content.

    Do Not Track
    Safari supports an emerging privacy standard called “Do Not Track.” When you turn on Do Not Track or surf the web with Private Browsing, Safari asks the websites you visit not to track you online.

    Rename bookmarks in the bookmarks bar
    Click and hold a bookmark or folder to rename it.

    Improved hardware acceleration
    With improved hardware acceleration, Safari renders text and graphics even faster.

    Faster performance
    Safari speeds up JavaScript performance by up to 6 percent compared with Safari 5.1.

    As far as search is concerned, it’s also worth noting that Baidu has been added as a search option.

  • This Is How Many People Use Chrome [Google I/O]

    Google I/O day 2 has kicked off, and Chrome is one of the big points of focus today. Google just announced that there are now 310 million active Chrome users, making Chrome the most popular browser in the world, globally.

    According to the company, those 310 million users combined are typing 60 billion words, downloading a terabyte of data, and saving 13 years worth of time every day.

    Chrome numbers

    During the keynote, Google hyped up the idea that they’re going to be reaching a lot more people via mobile devices, and yesterday, the company announced that Chrome for Android is out of beta, so that will certainly help.

    Yesterday, Google announced that 400 million Android devices have been activated.

    It just so happens that Google just announced Chrome for the iPhone and iPad. That should make a pretty big difference too. More on that shortly.

  • Google Just Fixed A Bunch Of Bugs In Chrome

    Google released a big stable channel update for Chrome: Chrome 20 (20.0.1132.43). Along with it comes over 20 bug fixes and rewards.

    Many of the bugs, Google says, were detected using AddressSanitizer.

    Google lists them as follows:

    • [118633] Low CVE-2012-2815: Leak of iframe fragment id. Credit to Elie Bursztein of Google.
    • [Windows only] [119150] [119250] High CVE-2012-2816: Prevent sandboxed processes interfering with each other. Credit to Google Chrome Security Team (Justin Schuh).
    • [$1000] [120222] High CVE-2012-2817: Use-after-free in table section handling. Credit to miaubiz.
    • [$1000] [120944] High CVE-2012-2818: Use-after-free in counter layout. Credit to miaubiz.
    • [120977] High CVE-2012-2819: Crash in texture handling. Credit to Ken “gets” Russell of the Chromium development community.
    • [121926] Medium CVE-2012-2820: Out-of-bounds read in SVG filter handling. Credit to Atte Kettunen of OUSPG.
    • [122925] Medium CVE-2012-2821: Autofill display problem. Credit to “simonbrown60”.
    • [various] Medium CVE-2012-2822: Misc. lower severity OOB read issues in PDF. Credit to awesome ASAN and various Googlers (Kostya Serebryany, Evgeniy Stepanov, Mateusz Jurczyk, Gynvael Coldwind).
    • [$1000] [124356] High CVE-2012-2823: Use-after-free in SVG resource handling. Credit to miaubiz.
    • [$1000] [125374] High CVE-2012-2824: Use-after-free in SVG painting. Credit to miaubiz.
    • [128688] Medium CVE-2012-2826: Out-of-bounds read in texture conversion. Credit to Google Chrome Security Team (Inferno).
    • [Mac only] [129826] Low CVE-2012-2827: Use-after-free in Mac UI. Credit to the Chromium development community (Dharani Govindan).
    • [129857] High CVE-2012-2828: Integer overflows in PDF. Credit to Mateusz Jurczyk of Google Security Team and Google Chrome Security Team (Chris Evans).
    • [$1000] [129947] High CVE-2012-2829: Use-after-free in first-letter handling. Credit to miaubiz.
    • [$1000] [129951] High CVE-2012-2830: Wild pointer in array value setting. Credit to miaubiz.
    • [Windows only] [130276] Low CVE-2012-2764: Unqualified load of metro DLL. Credit to Moshe Zioni of Comsec Consulting.
    • [$1000] [130356] High CVE-2012-2831: Use-after-free in SVG reference handling. Credit to miaubiz.
    • [131553] High CVE-2012-2832: Uninitialized pointer in PDF image codec. Credit to Mateusz Jurczyk of Google Security Team.
    • [132156] High CVE-2012-2833: Buffer overflow in PDF JS API. Credit to Mateusz Jurczyk of Google Security Team.
    • [$1000] [132779] High CVE-2012-2834: Integer overflow in Matroska container. Credit to Jüri Aedla.
    • [$500] [127417] Medium CVE-2012-2825: Wild read in XSL handling. Credit to Nicholas Gregoire.
    • [64-bit Linux only] [$3000] [129930] High CVE-2012-2807: Integer overflows in libxml. Credit to Jüri Aedla.

    Google notes that details of some of the bugs may be kept secret until everyone has a chance to update to the latest version.

    We’re sure to get plenty more Chrome news today at Google I/O, as yesterday was primarily about Android. Google did, however, announce that Chrome For Android is now out of beta, and if you have the right device, you can start using it.

    Keep an eye on our Google I/O coverage here.