Image via CrunchBaseLast night (3/7) brought a new update to the Development Channel, and now we have the following version information:
Chrome OS 0.11.227.0 (Official Build) dev-channel x86-mario
Google Chrome 11.0.690.0
However, this release comes with more problems than it's worth, and from what I hear this morning the update has been pulled.
The problems were many: Crashing on every restart, blank, white pages, inability to go to bookmarked pages and receive any data, plus many more. A new functionality was added to pre-render web pages and according to on of the moderators on the Google Groups group for the pilot program, you need to disable this in order for pages to load correctly. You do this by going to the about:flags page and selecting Disable from the drop-down in the Pre-rendering group. Problem is, a lot of people can't even get to the about:flags page to change this setting. It takes several reboots, closing all tabs, a couple of crashes and, well, you get the idea.
On a good note, with the upgrade to Chrome 11.0.690.0, there is a very noticeable speed improvement. Pages draw much more quickly, and there is no lag in any of the websites that I normally use. Reminds me more of the commercial that Google did early on for Chrome that show it being faster than a speeding projectile and other things. Also the track-pad is much better behaved. Scrolling in all directions is smooth and controllable. Another new feature is the window cycle button in the top of the window by the battery monitor. If you have several windows and panels open, pressing this button will cycle through them all.
So, if the rumor about the update being pulled is correct, then hopefully the next release will fix the problems for those of us who got this upgrade. When that happens, this will be a great little machine. Snappy, responsive and with some really great features.
Image via CrunchBase
