Chrome 9 dev build released ahead of Chrome 8 beta

It's been just shy of one month since the developer build of Chrome v8 was rolled out in Google's Chrome developer channel, and Chrome 8 beta still hasn't come out yet. Today, v9 of Chrome's dev build has been made available.

When this happens, the public beta version of the previous dev build has usually already been pushed out. However, Chrome 8 beta still is not out in the beta channel.

A post in the Chromium-dev Google Group on October 20 suggested that the first beta candidate was expected "by the end of the week," to try to keep with the six week release cycle. On October 30th, instead of a beta build, another developer build (8.0.552.23) was released.

So for the time being, the Chrome developer build is two full versions ahead of the beta build.

Chrome dev Version 9.0.570.0 includes a long list of changes and fixes including previews of upcoming technologies like password sync, an internal DNS resolver, sidebar tweaks, voice input language patches, and an update to Chrome's JavaScript engine to version 2.5.

The launch of Chrome 8 beta could be temporarily delayed to coincide with a critical patch for Adobe Flash Player 10.1.85.3, which is expected as soon as tomorrow. The vulnerability was identified on October 28, and Adobe's security alert says:

"We are in the process of finalizing a fix for the issue and expect to provide an update for Flash Player 10.x for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris by November 4, 2010. We expect to make available an update for Flash Player 10.x for Android by November 9, 2010. We expect to make available an update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions during the week of November 15, 2010."