Technology giant Google has made the latest stable version of the world’s most used desktop web browser available for download, right in the wake of Mozilla’s recent release of Firefox 19.  

Chrome 25 adds voice recognition support via a web speech API (application programming interface), which enables web developers to add voice as a method of input within their web applications. This will allow users to perform functions such as dictation, voice searches and navigating through menu options using only their voice.

Beyond the new web speech API, Google also beefed up Chrome’s security by plugging no less than 22 security holes as well as patching a memory corruption issue. Google further boosted the level of control users have when managing extension updates. Silent updates in the background by extensions are now disabled, and every extension requires the approval of Chrome users before it can be installed.    

Users who are new to Chrome can go to Google’s page to download version 25 of this browser. Those who already have Chrome installed on their PC can simply click on the control and customisation icon (three vertically stacked dashes on the right) and select ‘About Google Chrome’ to kick off the automatic update process.

In related news, Google also recently announced a new Chromebook, namely the Chromebook Pixel, a 13" screen that boasts a resolution of 2560 x 1700 (considerably better than the 1366 x 768 we usually see on notebooks), 4.3 million pixels and 239 ppi (pixels per inch), which is slightly higher than the 220 ppi offered by the MacBook Pro Retina Display.