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Chrome for Mac starts to get real

I'm in Florida visiting some family and had a flashback to the last time I was down here banging away on my brand-spankin' new Dell mini 9 netbook -- which was all the rage at the time (post 1 and 2).I purchased it with every intention to lobotomize it and install OS X as soon as humanly possible, but my travel plans dictated that I wouldn't have enough time to hackintosh it until I got back.
Written by Jason D. O'Grady, Contributor

http://rookery3.viary.com/storagev12/1286000/1286287_3d5c_625x1000.jpgI'm in Florida visiting some family and had a flashback to the last time I was down here banging away on my brand-spankin' new Dell mini 9 netbook -- which was all the rage at the time (post 1 and 2).

I purchased it with every intention to lobotomize it and install OS X as soon as humanly possible, but my travel plans dictated that I wouldn't have enough time to hackintosh it until I got back.

One positive side effect of having a Windows netbook to play with for a couple of days was that I got to put Google's Chrome Web browser through its paces. Because Chrome for Mac is still in development you're forced to go over to the dark side if you want to play with Google's Web browser.

Back in February Chris Latko compiled a version of Chrome for Mac OS X that was a fun weekend distraction, but not a serious browser.

Since mid-May Google has been quietly posting hourly builds of Chrome for Mac on its Web site and TechCrunch notes that the hourlies are starting to look mature. The more recent builds have added favicons, list view, and Recent activities and Tips and Suggestions windows below the thumbnail section on the launch page.

This Tips and Suggestions page is particularly interesting because it does offer up sites that I am finding to be generally interesting based on my browsing.

It's not ready for prime time or anything but it's a lot closer than the Mac Developer Release that the company issued in early June. It doesn't yet support Flash, which is a deal-breaker for those of use following the Phish Hallowe'en festival teaser animation, but I could see this happening really soon.

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