The Beta Channel has been updated to 26.0.1410.0 (platform version 3701.30.2) for new Samsung Chromebook.  The details of this release can be found here.

If you find new issues, please let us know by visiting our help site or filing a bug. Interested in switching channels? Find out how. You can submit feedback using ‘Report an issue...’ in the Chrome menu (3 horizontal bars in the upper right corner of the browser).

Ben Henry
Google Chrome

The Stable channel has been updated to 25.0.1364.126 (Platform version: 3428.193.0) for all Chrome OS devices. This build contains a number of bug fixes and security improvements. Machines will be receiving updates over the next several days.

Release Highlights:

The Stable channel has been updated to 25.0.1364.152 for Mac.  This release fixes a number of issues, including a crash when typing in the Omnibox.  Additional release notes will be posted next week.  Interested in switching release channels?  Find out how. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug.

Jason Kersey
Google Chrome

The Dev channel has been updated to 27.0.1425.0 for Mac, Linux, and Chrome Frame and 27.0.1425.2 for Windows.

This build fixes the following issues:

• Facebook doesn't always render correctly. [Issue: 177520]
• Cancel string is missing on the button from the uninstall dialog. [Issue: 178464]
• Mac: After resizing the window, a frameless window can become draggable in the titlebar area [Issue: 159361]

Full details about what changes are in this build are available in the SVN revision log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing a bug.

Karen Grunberg
Google Chrome

Last year we ran a comparison of the memory usage of popular web browsers and discovered that Chrome used more memory than Firefox, Opera or Internet Explorer despite its leaner and slimmer image that it has. While that may not be an issue at all, if you have lots of memory installed, it may be an issue for users who run systems where memory is always maxed out.

Chrome users who do not want to switch to another browser to reduce the memory consumption of their web browser can use tricks to reduce it. One option is for instance to restart the browser regularly which resets the memory it uses. While that may be an option, it is not really practicable. A far better solution is to make use of extensions that help you reduce the memory consumption.

The Great Suspender is a free extension for the web browser that can suspend tabs manually or automatically after a set period of time.

Here is how it works. The extension adds an icon to the browser’s address bar that you can click on to suspend the active tab, all tabs, or to reload all tabs. Suspending in this regard means that the extension saves information about web pages before they are replaced with a placeholder that uses less memory and lets you reload the page when the need arises. A click on the information reloads the page in the browser.

Since speed is critical for a good experience when using the web, at Google we’re always exploring ways to make the web faster. As it turns out, one of the biggest bang-for-the-buck ways to do that is by replacing JPEG and PNG images with WebP. WebP offers significantly better compression than these legacy formats (around 35% better in most cases), and when you consider that over 60% of typical page sizes are images, the benefits can be substantial. WebP translates directly into less bandwidth consumption, decreased latency, faster page loads, better battery consumption on mobile, and overall happier users.

Case in point: the Chrome Web Store uses many large promotional images and tiles on its home page, making it a very heavyweight page. The team was eager to find ways to improve its speed, without sacrificing the user experience or giving up image quality. WebP to the rescue!

Chrome Beta for Android has been updated to 25.0.1364.74 on Google Play. This build will be rolling out over the next few hours. This update contains a number of fixes, including:

• 173232: Chrome does not load pages on Samsung Galaxy S2
• 158633: Overaggressive tap disambiguation popup
• 167089: Blank screen when opening links from external apps
• Resolution for some frequently occurring crashes

Known Issues:

Last year, Chrome introduced manifest V2 to Apps and Extension developers, which brings a variety of security and API improvements such as a default Content Security Policy. As of Chrome 18, manifest V1 was officially deprecated. At the time, we published our manifest version support schedule to give developers transparency and insight into our plans for migrating to the new version.

Today, we’re announcing a slight update to that schedule, to let developers know that they have until Monday, March 4, 2013 to make updates to their existing manifest V1-based items. After that date, the Chrome Web Store will block all updates to products based on manifest V1 unless the update includes switching it to manifest V2.

You won’t need magical powers to take a journey down the yellow brick road; just point your favorite browser to the latest Chrome Experiment, “Find Your Way to Oz.” Developed in collaboration with Disney and UNIT9 in anticipation of the upcoming film, Oz The Great and Powerful, this experiment takes you through a dusty Kansas circus and leads to a vibrant land, following in the footsteps of the Wizard himself.

Earlier today we unveiled Find Your Way To Oz, a new Chrome Experiment inspired by the upcoming feature film Oz The Great and Powerful. Developed by UNIT9, this experiment brings together Disney’s unique storytelling tradition and the power of the web platform, allowing users to interact with the web in a completely new way.

The desktop version of “Find Your Way To Oz” uses many of the open web’s more advanced features:

• Immersive Graphics: The experiment uses WebGL for the main 3D environment, CSS3 features such as CSS Transitions for various visual embellishments, and GLSL shaders for the tornado’s ominous look and feel. 
• Rich Audio: As the user explores the experiment, the 3D sound dynamically adapts thanks to the Web Audio API. The same API powers the experiment’s music composing section. 
• Camera-based interactions: Through WebRTC’s getUserMedia API, users can become circus characters or record their own mini-movies. 

The experiment’s mobile web version also uses cutting-edge web technologies. These include graphics features such as accelerated 3D transforms and sprite sheets as well as mobile hardware features like camera, multi-touch, gyroscope and accelerometer. Together they create an experience that can normally only be found in native apps.

To learn more about how this experiment was built, read our technical case study and join us for a Google Developers Live event on February 11th at 11 a.m. GMT where we’ll be talking to the team behind the project. Alternatively, use Chrome’s developer tools to see how the experiment works on your own, perhaps finding in the process your own path to the yellow brick road.

For the first time, Chrome and Firefox can “talk” to each other via WebRTC. WebRTC is a new set of technologies that brings clear crisp voice, sharp high-definition (HD) video and low-delay communication to the web browser.

From the very beginning, this joint WebRTC effort was embraced by the open web community, including engineers from the Chrome and Firefox teams. The common goal was to help developers offer rich, secure communications, integrated directly into their web applications.

In order to succeed, a web-based communications platform needs to work across browsers. Thanks to the work and participation of the W3C and IETF communities in developing the platform, Chrome and Firefox can now communicate by using standard technologies such as the Opus and VP8 codecs for audio and video, DTLS-SRTP for encryption, and ICE for networking.

To try this yourself, you’ll need desktop Chrome 25 Beta and Firefox Nightly for Desktop. In Firefox, you'll need to go to about:config and set the media.peerconnection.enabled pref to "true”. Then head over to the WebRTC demo site and start calling.

For developers looking to include this functionality in their own apps, there are a few places you can go to get more information. You can look at the source code of the AppRTC demo, a library that makes writing cross-browser WebRTC apps a snap, and a document detailing some of the minor differences between browsers.

You can read more from Mozilla’s hacks blog here and view our first “Official” call at the video below:

It's an exciting time in computing. Now more than ever, you have so many choices when it comes to software, hardware and services. With Chromebooks, people tell us they love its ease-of-use, speed and security, and also enjoy having options when it comes to shape, size and price. So today we’re happy to announce that our newest partner HP is introducing the latest addition to the Chromebook line—the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook.

This HP Chromebook is a great home companion that offers the built-in security, speed and simplicity you’d expect from a Chromebook on a brilliant 14” screen. Enjoy your favorite videos, photos and more in new detail, and with its versatile HDMI and USB ports, the HP Chromebook is easy to customize with peripherals. It’s less than an inch thick and powered by an Intel® Celeron® Processor, so you can work and play at full speed. 

With popular products like Gmail, Google+ Hangouts, YouTube and Maps built in, the best of Google is always at your fingertips. With the new HP Chromebook, you can also take advantage of 100GB of free storage on Google Drive*, making it easy to backup stuff in the cloud so that it can be accessed anywhere and from other devices.

Starting today, the HP Chromebook will be available for $329.99 in the US at HPDirect.com and at other retailers soon.

2013 is already shaping up to be a busy year for the web in education. Earlier this month Lenovo announced the new ThinkPad Chromebook and this week, Jaime Casap, our Global Education evangelist announced in his keynote atFETC in Orlando, that there are now globally more than 2,000 schools using Chromebooks - twice as many as 3 months ago. For more details about what we announced at FETC and BETT in London, U.K., check out our Enterprise Blog. We’re looking forward to all that 2013 has in store!

Chrome Beta for Android has been updated to 25.0.1364.64 on Google Play. This build will be rolling out over the next few hours. This update contains a number of fixes, including:

• Updated graphics architecture that greatly improves fast scrolling on large pages 
• 163439 - yahoo.com page links are not working 
• 166233 - Cannot submit comments on facebook posts or pictures 
• 169616 - Keyboard pops up after Chrome is closed 
• 170653 - Scroll position is reset momentarily when double-tapping in footer/gutter on some pages 

Known Issues:

The Beta channel has been updated to  25.0.1364.63 (Platform version: 3428.114.0) for Samsung Chromebooks. Systems will receive this update over the next few days. This build contains a number of bug fixes, security improvements and feature enhancements.

Some highlights of these changes are:

The Dev channel has been updated to 26.0.1398.0 (Platform version: 3635.0.0) for all Chrome OS devices. Highlights among the numerous updates are as follows:

• Extended Desktop Mode enabled - please help test and provide feedback.
• Two finger swipe back/forward has returned!

Known issues include:

• Netflix.com does not stream video.
• The new Samsung Chromebook with 3G may have problems with the modem after returning from idle.  Workaround: deactivate and reactivate the modem or reboot the machine.
• Audio is not working over HDMI. 

If you find new issues, please let us know by visiting our help site or filing a bug. Interested in switching channels? Find out how. You can submit feedback using ‘Report an issue...’ in the Chrome menu (3 horizontal bars in the upper right corner of the browser).

Ben Henry
Google Chrome

The Beta channel has been updated to 25.0.1364.58 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome Frame. This build contains improvements in stability and fixes for few other issues including:

• [171725] Windows controls have red overlay

Jason Kersey
Google Chrome