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Google's Chrome adds support for Retina Display

Been wondering when Chrome was going to support Apple's Retina Display? Wonder no more. Also, Google throws a few more features into the latest Chrome release.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
Brooke Crothers
Google's Chrome now supports the 2880-by-1800 pixel density of Apple's MacBook Pro Retina display.
Google's Chrome now supports the 2880x1800 pixel density of Apple's MacBook Pro Retina display. Apple

Google's Chrome can now serve up Web pages that show off Apple's Retina display in all its glory.

Until now, Google's popular browser did not support the display on Apple's newest MacBook Pro. The Retina screen has a 2880x1800 pixel density (220 pixels per inch). It is the highest pixel density, by far, of any laptop in its class.

Chrome support for Retina smooths out those fuzzy, jagged edges.
Chrome support for Retina smooths out those fuzzy, jagged edges. Google

Back in June, Google said: "Apple recently announced a new laptop with a Retina high-resolution screen, and we're committed to polishing Chrome until it shines on that machine."

And that's exactly what Google did yesterday.

Google didn't stop there, though. Chrome now includes an API that "lets you grant web apps access to your camera and microphone without a plug-in." The GetUserMedia API is the "first step" in WebRTC, a standard that allows high-quality video and audio communication on the Web, Google said.

What else can you do with the latest version of Chrome, you ask? The Sketchbots "experiment" uses GetUserMedia to "let you take a picture of your face, which is then converted to a line drawing and sent to a robot in the Science Museum in London. The robot then draws out your portrait in a patch of sand, which you can watch live on YouTube and visitors can watch in person at the museum."

Forget Retina support. There's the real must-have feature.