Chrome 8 arrives with PDF and Web Store

Google today quietly released a finished version of Chrome 8. The stable release adds a new built-in PDF viewer that, like Safari, saves having to use a companion app. The tool is sandboxed to prevent a rogue PDF from compromising the browser and posing a security threat to the rest of the system.

Although not directly mentioned, developers have also revealed that Chrome 8 should have the underlying framework for the Chrome Web Store. Google's portal will let users shop for web-based apps, such as Flash games or HTML-based productivity tools, without having to visit separate sites. Access to the store isn't currently active.

Full release notes aren't available, but the update should fix a pair of major security holes with SVG images and XPath as well as other crashes and exploits that focus most on web video. Linux and Mac users get a specific fix that updates the list of dangerous files to be in sync with the Windows edition.

All three operating systems can download the update today.

By Electronista Staff