Google has announced the release of Chrome 14, a new version of its Web browser. The update brings some nice technical improvements under the hood and enables Native Client for end users.
Several key enhancements for Lion have been introduced in Chrome 14 on Mac OS X. Lion's new scrollbar style, which is fully supported in the new version, nicely complements Chrome's minimalist design. Chrome has also gained compatibility with Lion's full-creen functionality. It also offers a separate "presentation mode" that mimics the legacy fullscreen style.
One of the most significant technical additions in this release is support for the new Web Audio API specification, which is a draft-status standard proposal authored by Google through the W3C. It enables rich audio processing in Web applications—making it possible for games to mix sound sources in 3D space, for example. Google has published some compelling demos to illustrate its capabilities, including a WebGL pool game with spatially realistic sound effects.