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Topic: Browser

Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

Summary: Google has just released Chrome 10 beta (10.0.648.82 for all you perfectionists) and it brings with it a whole slew of new things to play with.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

By for Hardware 2.0 |

Google has just released Chrome 10 beta (10.0.648.82 for all you perfectionists) and it brings with it a whole slew of new things to play with.

First off, there's a significant JavaScript performance boost thanks to the updated V8 engine. According to Google, this version of the V8 engine offers a 66% performance advantage over the current stable release. That alone is pretty impressive.

This beta also adds GPU acceleration for video. For those running video in full-screen mode this can mean a decrease in CPU usage of as much as 80%. A good thing for those living off battery.

Another new feature is that the browser setting page now opens in a tab of its own rather than in a separate window. A small change but one that makes a lot of sense. There's also a handy search box to allow you to find the specific setting you are looking for. Might not be needed by geeks, but dead handy for everyone else (Hey, Microsoft! Here's a setting that would be really handy for IE users ... fire up those photocopiers!).

Syncing now includes saved passwords, along with bookmarks, preferences, themes and extensions. Synced passwords can be encrypted with a separate passphrase.

Download Google Chrome beta 10 here.

Topics: Browser, CXO, Google, Hardware, Open Source, Processors, IT Employment

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174 comments
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  • Chrome copies Intenet Explorer again

    GPU acceleration, wow, such innovation!

    Tab process isolation: copied from IE8
    Sandboxing: copied from IE7

    Now go open your browser to your favorite website, then open this power meter in another tab in IE9, then do the same in Chrome and compare :-S

    http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/HTML5/PowerMeter/Default.html
    sagec
    Reply Vote

    • IE7 & IE8 are extremely clunky, slow and insecure compared to Chrome.

      IE9 gets Microsoft closer, but, it will still be slower than Chrome. And, of course Microsoft continues to copy rivals and make improvements, but, I do not think it will be enough to stop the market share slide.
      DonnieBoy
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @DonnieBoy
        It may not, but with ie9 I am once again using ie...
        ;)
        rhonin
        Reply Vote

      • Well, IE9 will get the curiosity of a few, but, if MS does not move fast to

        improve Java Script and HTML5 conformance, the slide will continue. The funny thing, if MS does move fast enough, web applications will take off, and Windows will become irrelevant. Funny to watch them squirm.
        DonnieBoy
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @DonnieBoy

        What is this..Donnie talking about Windows and Microsoft becoming irrelevant again? Wow! Who could have predicted that.
        bobiroc
        Reply Vote

      • Well, the world is a changin' in case you did not notice. There are almost

        zero webstites that do not work equally well with all the browsers. Comepare that to even 5 years ago. Also, look at mobile, including tablets, which most agree is the next important frontier, and see what Microsoft's share is. It is getting much easier to get by without Windows.
        DonnieBoy
        Reply Vote

      • Microsoft won't be irrelevant for a long time

        Neither will Windows, nor will Internet Explorer become irrelevant. Most people, shockingly enough, don't care about HTML5 or fake Javascript tests. They care about real life performance, and they care about using 'what works'.

        If everyone cared about what got the highest score on the HTML5 test and/or Sunspider? They'd all be using Chrome right now. Also, no, it isn't 'getting easier' to get by without Windows.

        Aside from a majority of the games in the world being made for it, there are also superior office tools. Yes, a lot of games are on the Mac... but most people don't pay twice as much for the same thing just for the honor of having a Mac.

        Linux sure as hell isn't ready for the masses yet.

        Office
        Goof Programming Tools
        Easy to use

        Maybe I could move away from using Windows primarily, but it wouldn't give me much, if any, benefit right now. I love what Linux is doing, don't get me wrong, but it still has a ways to go.
        Michael Alan Goff
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @DonnieBoy We understand that you don't like Microsoft, but you can't down them for everything that they do! If Microsoft had not have done a lot of the things they did ... we wouldn't be where we are today!
        Justin071894
        Reply Vote

      • Guys, the point is, people are less tied to Windows than ever before.

        Win32 is fading fast, and Silverlight is not gaining any traction.
        DonnieBoy
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @DonnieBoy "IE9 gets Microsoft closer, but, it will still be slower than Chrome."

        Feel free to cite evidence to support that claim, but you cannot, because it is false.

        Absolute nonsense. IE9 is faster than Chrome. We already have test results from Facebook's new advanced HTML5/JavaScript speed test framework. Chrome looks good in V8 benchmarks because it's built to look good in those simplistic benchmarks.
        Tim Acheson
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @bobiroc
        Exactly. Give him credit, he is consistently trivial... and usually wrong.
        ItsTheBottomLine
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @DonnieBoy "if MS does not move fast to
        improve Java Script and HTML5 conformance, the slide will continue. The funny thing, if MS does move fast enough, web applications will take off"

        What are you talking about? The official body, the W3C, has already confirmed that IE9 is the most HTML5-compliant browser. (What do you mean by "JavaScript conformance"??)

        Web applications took off years ago. And Microsoft led the way. Have you used SkyDrive or MS Office web apps? Facebook is a web app.

        I don't understand why some people will attempt to discuss a topic that you know absolutely nothing about. This is why popular misconceptions about IE are so endemic.
        Tim Acheson
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @Justin071894
        your exactly correct...something that must be a bitter pill to swallow.
        ItsTheBottomLine
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @DonnieBoy please tell me how Win32 is failing and how Silverlight is not gaining traction? Is it because it's a Microsoft product and in your eyes anything that even remotely is related with Microsoft is a total dud?
        Justin071894
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @goff256 isn't Android built on a Linux kernel. Android seems to be doing well with the masses, or am I wrong.
        alawishis
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @DonnieBoy It's interesting. Google has recently admitted (for lack of a better term) that Web Applications are not the end all, and that local application with web integration is a better way. We have seen that here. Users are rejecting the Web Apps, other than for niche areas - which they are very good in. Overall... they want the localized apps.
        http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/google-to-make-mobile-apps-because-users-do-not-want-web-apps/765?tag=nl.e539
        ItsTheBottomLine
        Reply Vote

      • @ alawishis

        Yes, Linux does have its place. Android is a good example of good Linux. I was referring more to the Desktop arena, where it has been hovering for a while with less than 5% of users.
        Michael Alan Goff
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @DonnieBoy
        @DonnieBoy
        ummm web applications took over years ago. Where have you been. And a huge chunk of them are .net based. Thats why .net is so popular. Just look at all the jobs out there for .net developers.
        rengek
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        @DonnieBoy
        I Agree.
        Sure IE9 comes closer, but there are still a lot of areas where works need to be done. The video loading is still a bit messy, and the worst experience is when you open a pdf page. The whole browser just comes to a stand-still most of the times and whats worse is you cant even move to the other tabs.
        My word, Chrome always! :)
        aditya.kmg
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Google Chrome 10 beta - Faster JavaScript, GPU acceleration, and more!

        Notice how Donnie mentions "Java Script and HTML5 conformance" -- but fails to mention CSS 2.1 conformance. IE9 Beta (not sure what the RC's number is at) "passes 18960 of the 19403 tests (97.7%)" of the official CSS 2.1 test suite (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/10/08/css-2-1-implementation-reports.aspx).

        Results for other browsers:
        Firefox 4.0b6: 93.83%
        Opera 10.70: 90.05%
        Chrome 6: 87.21%
        Safari 5: 85.82%

        (from http://www.1-script.com/forums/CSS-2-1-test-suite-Implementation-reports-of-browser-vendors-article41311--8.htm)

        (Note: this is as of October 2010; the test suite has probably been changed slightly in the time since, and newer browser versions probably have slightly higher numbers.)

        Just think if someone took all the tests that IE passes that the others don't and put them into an Acid test. IE would score 100% while others would be close to zero. (That's just to show that these acid types of tests -- of which caniuse.com, html5test.com, etc. -- don't have much value. Only the official test suites tell the real story about a browser's standards compliance.

        Plus, everyone clamoring for even more CSS3 support in IE (compared to what they are delivering in IE9) should note that the test suites for the majority of CSS3 are completely nonexistent. The modules that Apple so generously plopped in front of the W3C and said "adopt these now!" such as transitions and 2D/3D transforms have no test suite. If someone is going to plop a mostly-finished spec down and expect people to implement it, they should also plop down a corresponding test suite.

        P.S. I can't find the link, but I'm pretty sure I read that even IE8 has a higher percentage conformance than Firefox (i.e. above 93%)...
        PB_z
        Reply Vote
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