Google recently released Chrome 36, which includes some additions and improvements as well as various bug fixes and performance tweaks. The initial announcement was made for the Desktop version (Windows, Mac and Linux) followed by other in the same day for the Android version.
Continuing its 6-week release cycle, the Chrome team released a new stable version for the Desktop with a revamped incognito new tab page that debuted a new icon and message, cleaner-looking notifications, and a crash recovery bubble to alert users when something has gone wrong. The Linux version also got the Chrome App launcher that Windows and Mac had already received in previous versions.
The complete Chrome for Desktop (version 36.0.1985.122) changelog provided by Google is the following:
- Rich notifications improvements
- An updated incognito / guest new tab page design
- The addition of a Browser crash recovery bubble
- Chrome App Launcher for Linux
- Lots of under the hood changes for stability and performance
Although not included in the changelog, this release also features some technologies that where available on the Beta version such as HTML Imports, element.animate() and Object.observe. HTML Imports is a component of the Web Components W3C specification that let developers include and reuse HTML documents in other HTML documents. The element.animate() function is the first part of the upcoming Web Animations to ship in Chrome that makes possible to create simple CSS Animations using JavaScript, providing animations with better performance, cancellation and guaranteed end events. The Observe.observe() function lets developers observe changes to JavaScript objects while still giving the possibility to observe multiple objects and receiving all changes to any objects in a single asynchronous call.
Chrome for Android contains mostly incremental changes. It improves how it renders text on sites not optimized for mobile device screens, making it a bit more legible, and brings back Google Doodles to the New Tab page.
The complete Chrome for Android (version 36.0.1985.12) changelog is the following:
- Improved text rendering on non-mobile optimized sites.
- Doodles return to the new tab page.
- Lots of bug fixes and performance improvements.
Concerning the security aspect and following its bug bounty program for Chrome, Google has spent $5000 with this release. From the 26 security fixes for the desktop version, a fix was for a medium-level bug (CVE-2014-3160) that made its researcher earn $2,000. The other $3000 went to a researcher who found a bug that allowed URL spoofing in the location bar of the Android version (CVE-2014-3159).