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Google’s Chrome OS is again receiving maintenance updates to its Stable, Dev and Beta software channels for users on all Chrome OS devices, as part of its regular code refreshes.
The new Stable Channel version of Chrome OS is Version 28.0.1500.95, according to an Aug. 12 post on the Chrome Releases Blog by Josafat Garcia of the Chrome team. The build contains a kernel version update in the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), a special security feature that helps keep the users’ data secure. Devices will receive the update automatically, according to the post.
In a related move, the Chrome OS Dev channel moves to Version 30.0.1589.4, according to another Aug. 12 post by Garcia on the Chrome Releases Blog. The update includes several improvements and bug fixes, while several known issues remain, such as video glitches on some Flash sites and HTML5 YouTube video freezes when a USB headphone is plugged in, according to the post.
The Chrome OS Beta channel moves to Version 29.0.1537.49, and also includes a variety of bug fixes and security updates, according to an Aug. 12 post by Ben Henry on the Chrome Releases Blog.
The updates are done regularly by Google as features are added and as known problems are corrected. Earlier in August, Google issued software updates for its new Chromecast television dongle and for its existing Chrome Web browser, Chrome for iOS and Chrome Beta for Android applications.
The Chromecast update included a bug-fix update to Chromecast devices to improve performance, reliability and security for the recently released TV dongles.
The latest Chrome Web browser recently advanced to its Stable channel, with Version 28.0.1500.95 being offered for Chrome Frame, Linux, Mac and Windows. The latest Chrome browser has 11 security fixes, including one medium-severity fix and five high-severity fixes. Meanwhile, the latest Chrome for iOS browser was released as Version 28.0.1500.16 and contains improvements to embedded video playback on iOS 5.1 and other bug fixes.
Also released was an update to the Chrome Beta for Android development channel, to Version 29.0.1547.40, which includes crash fixes and feature fixes.
In July, Google announced previous updates for many of these applications, including a new version of its Chrome browser for iPhones and iPads, as well as a new Chrome Beta version for Android that introduced a new Web audio API and support for WebRTC.
In June, Google introduced a video game, Cube Slam, to demonstrate and show off WebRTC capabilities. WebRTC allows users to see, hear and communicate with each other using only a Web browser, whether they are playing a game or participating in an online video conference. Google has been working on WebRTC projects for some time as a Google Chrome Experiments project. The technology could find its way into many other business and consumer uses in the future. The Cube Slam video game lets users play face-to-face against their friends by simply using a WebRTC-enabled browser.
In April, a Dev channel version of Chrome OS caused problems for some Google Docs users, so the company recommended that developers revert back to an earlier version that didn’t include the glitch. The affected Dev channel software was Version 28.0.1485.1.