Chrome 14 launches with Native Client, Lion support

By Mike Flacy September 16, 2011

Google+ enhanced: Five must-have Chrome extensions — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Earlier today, Google pushed the most recent revision of Chrome out to users of the Web browser. Google Chrome 14 brings a smattering of bug fixes as well as updates to the core functions of the browser. One such update adapts Chrome to the Mac OS X Lion scroll bar style that appears when scrolling up and down the page. Chrome is also now compatible with Lion’s full-screen mode. Google has included Native Client support within this version of Chrome allowing developers to run C and C++ Web apps within a secure space in the browser. While it only works with content from Google’s Web Store at the moment, the company plans on removing that limitation shortly.

Chrome 14 has also received a new Web Audio API that allows developers to mix sound sources within a three dimensional space, a feature that could easily translate into Web-based games. Advanced audio effects like spatialization can be built into a HTML5 page for instance. Google has published a variety of demos if interested in taking the new sound effects for a test drive. On the bug squashing front, Google fixed 32 bugs ranging from low to high in severity and paid out nearly $15,000 to those that reported the problems. No critical bugs were located during this round of revisions.

While testers in the Chromium channel are already playing with Chrome 16, the next version of the popular Web browser will bring more end-user upgrades than Chrome 14. The most significant upgrade within Chrome 15 are three options at the bottom of a new tab. When a new tab is launched, users can switch between most visited sites, apps and bookmarks. The recently closed tabs menu has also moved to the bottom right hand corner of a new tab, a helpful tool after accidentally closing a tab.

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Computing

This Lenovo laptop is normally $2,919 — today it’s $919

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 5 opened up on a table.

Lenovo laptop deals aren’t too difficult to come by, but this promotion was so exceptional, it needed its own spotlighting! Right now, Lenovo is knocking $2,000 off the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s. Since it's normally priced at $2,920, it’s hard to say how long this markdown is going to last. If you’ve been sitting on a laptop upgrade for a minute, now might be the time to get some new gear.

Why you should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s laptop
Built for businesses, the ThinkPad has long been the go-to Lenovo laptop for busy professionals. Portability is one of the strong suits here: At 12.50 inches wide, 8.93 inches from front to back, and 0.65 inches tall, the ultraportable T14s is the ideal PC for frequent travelers. It’s lightweight too, weighing but a mere 2.71 pounds.

Computing

Best Dell laptop deals: Cheap laptops starting at $280

The Dell XPS 13 9315 on a table against a window.

Being one of the best laptop brands on the market, it's no surprise that Dell has a huge selection of laptops that you can potentially pick from. Whether you're going for gaming laptops or just normal day-to-day laptops, there's probably a great option for you. In fact, there are even some great budget laptops for those who don't really need anything fancy and just want something basic to get online and access shows or work-related content.
Of course, having so many options can be a bit overwhelming for somebody who isn't familiar with Dell or the laptop market, which is why we scoured the Dell website and other retailers for our favorite picks and listed them below. This list has a lot of crossover with the best Dell XPS deals, student laptop deals and gaming laptop deals, so make sure to check out some of those other great laptop deals as well.

Dell Inspiron 15 -- $280, was $330

Computing

No, an old iPhone won’t beat the Snapdragon X Elite

A photo of a laptop with the Snapdragon X Plus CPU.

Update 6/14/24: A slate of new Geekbench 6 results show that the Snapdragon X Elite performs about as well as Qualcomm claimed, at least in the Galaxy Book4 Edge. The new results, which were uploaded last night and this morning, show the processor reaching the advertised 4GHz and hitting single-core speeds that aligned with Qualcomm's claims. Multi-core speeds are still a bit below where expected, but not by much.

Although these new results show that there's a little more to the story than the peak performance of Qualcomm's new chips, it's important to wait for proper reviews to vet the performance of these processors. At the moment, it appears the software isn't final, so it's hard to draw any firm conclusions about performance before the processors release on June 18.