Chrome was rumoured to be part of the Ice Cream Sandwich launch but ended up not being included in the final release, however the browser released with Ice Cream Sandwich did have a number of features such as bookmark sync. Today Google has launched Chrome for Android as a Beta release for Android phones and tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich which you can download it from the Android market.
Google advises that they have focused on speed and simplicity with this release, they say that the scrolling and navigation in browser is ‘Chrome fast’. They have reimagined the tab setup to suit both large and small screen devices advising that you can now flip or swipe between an unlimited number of tabs using intuitive gestures ‘as if you`re holding a deck of cards in the palm of your hands, each one a new window to the web’.
When you load the browser it signs you into your Google account and you can now view tabs you left open on your PC at home, the permissions also look like it supports Google Cloud Print as well. Just like the stock browser Chrome will sync your bookmarks and also delivers faster auto-complete suggestions for URL`s based on your surfing habits in Chrome on other devices. The Chrome browser in Android also includes ‘incognito mode’ for surfing
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Google has also launched a deeper look at the Chrome for Android browser through their Chromium blog site and goes into more technical information there. They`ve also released a video which explains a few things as well :
I`ve installed it and so far it’s looking good, i’ve hit one or two stutters but apart from that it appears to be nice and fast, bear in mind that the app has been released as a ‘Beta’ so treat it as such. The app installs alongside the default browser so you can use either browser. I feel Google will try and make Chrome the default browser for Android at some stage in the future but for now the beta is out it seems so they can find bugs and receive feedback.
Update :
There has been some further information come out in regards to Chrome for Android, first it looks like it is only available in the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Japan, Korea, Argentina, and Brazil if you find any other countries which have access to the Chrome beta in the Android Market, obviously without using Market Enabler, we`d love to hear about it in the comments.
Further to this release, TheVerge has reported that Adobe has confirmed that the Chrome browser will not be getting Adobe Flash support, instead Adobe will be continuing to work with Google on HTML5 support, which Google has stated in their Chrome Developers blog that ‘Chrome for Android brings support for many of the latest HTML5 features to the Android platform’.
That`s it for now, back to playing with Chrome.
