boot13The latest version of Google’s web browser is 39.0.2171.65. The new version of Chrome fixes forty-two security issues and includes a few other fixes and improvements. If you use Chrome, you should allow it to update itself as soon as possible.
Category Archives: Chrome
Chrome 38.0.2125.122 released
A new version of Google’s web browser was announced yesterday. Version 38.0.2125.122 fixes some bugs, and updates the embedded Flash to the latest version. Apparently there are no security fixes in this version, although the updated Flash does include security fixes.
Chrome 38.0.2125.111 released
Another new version of Chrome was announced yesterday.
The announcement unfortunately contains no details about what was changed. There is a link to the full change log, but that page is rather technical and likely difficult to read for typical users. However, it appears that the new version fixes several minor bugs, none of which are related to security.
Reviewing the change log reveals this:
Flip 32-bit warning string to let users know it’s the end of the line. The string is changing to “This computer will no longer receive Google Chrome updates because its hardware is no longer supported.” Previously, the message began with “This computer will soon stop receiving”.
Since my main computer currently runs a 32-bit O/S, I became somewhat alarmed at this. Digging into the related material, I was able to determine that the message in question is only for Mac systems. 32-bit versions of Windows will continue to receive Chrome updates.
Chrome 38.0.2125.104 released
A new version of Google’s web browser was announced yesterday. Version 38.0.2125.104 includes the latest Flash update. It also includes some other changes, but presumably none of them are security-related, otherwise the changes would have been mentioned in the announcement. Unfortunately, the full change log is in a form that is essentially unreadable to non-programmers.
Chrome 38.0.2125.101 released
A new version of Google’s web browser was announced on Tuesday. Version 38.0.2125.101 fixes a whopping 159 security issues in Chrome, and includes a number of other fixes and stability improvements.
Chrome 37.0.2062.124 released
A new version of Chrome for Windows and Mac fixes a single security issue related to RSA signatures. The official announcement for version 37.0.2062.124 provides the details.
Chrome 37.0.2062.120 released
Chrome 37.0.2062.120 was announced yesterday. The new version includes the latest Adobe Flash, and fixes several security vulnerabilities.
Chrome 37.0.2062.103 released
A new version of Google’s web browser fixes one minor font rendering bug on Windows. See the official announcement for details.
Chrome 37.0.2062.102 released
Another new version of Google’s web browser was announced yesterday. Version 37.0.2062.102 fixes one lone bug, that was causing font rendering problems in some situations. There are no security fixes in the new version, so there’s no urgency about updating.
64-bit Chrome released
Yesterday Google announced the availability of a 64 bit version of the Chrome web browser.
PC hardware has been 64-bit capable for several years now, and new PCs have been shipping with 64 bit operating systems for almost as long. The main difference between 32-bit and 64-bit PCs is that the latter can use more memory (RAM). More memory means faster operation.
We’ve been slow to move to 64-bit systems, mainly because the advantage of having access to more memory hasn’t been important to typical users. I’m writing this on a PC which has hardware capable of running a 64-bit operating system, but is in fact running 32-bit Windows 7. For the most part, this hasn’t been a problem, since even though I do run a lot of software, I typically haven’t needed more than the 3.25 gigabytes to which I’m currently limited. But that’s changing, and I’m about to make the switch to a 64 bit O/S.
Software developers have similarly been slow to embrace the new 64 bit world, and for the same reason: if running a 64 bit version of your software is indistinguishable from running the 32 bit version, why bother developing and maintaining a 64 bit version at all? There are of course exceptions; applications that use large amounts of memory, such as video editors, clearly benefit enormously from the availability of more RAM. Along with operating systems, that type of software has been available in 64 bit form for years.
Other software developers are slowly joining the 64 bit party, and the latest to do so is Google, for its web browser, Chrome. Although web browsers traditionally haven’t needed a lot of RAM to operate, that is starting to change, with ever more massive, media rich pages appearing on the web. Mozilla has been struggling to develop a stable 64 bit version of Firefox for Windows; they recently announced that they were giving up, only to reverse that decision in the face of criticism.
Ars Technica has more, including a breakdown of the pros and cons of the new 64 bit Chrome.