In an effort to improve the mobile version of its Chrome browser for Android (News – Alert), and perhaps even put its features on par with the desktop version, Google recently released a new Chrome beta channel. Android devices running version 4.0 or higher can now download and install the latest beta version of Chrome.

As is usual with any beta release, the Chrome beta app is likely to have the odd bug and as such may perform slightly worse in terms of speed and reliability than the regular Chrome app. However, users will also be able to try out the latest features for the mobile browser as well.

Fortunately, users don’t have to make a choice between the stable Chrome release and the beta as Google (News – Alert) is allowing both to be installed on a device simultaneously.

The beta release has already shown a lot of promise as Google stated that the latest version, 25.0.1364.8, has demonstrated improved performance in the Octane benchmark by an average 25 to 30 percent over the standard Chrome app. Meanwhile, Chrome 25 also boasts HTML5-based CSS (News – Alert) filters as well as improved overall HTML5 support and JavaScript performance.

On the other hand, some of the known issues listed thus far include sluggish performance on the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S, frequent lockups on devices with certain versions of the Qualcomm (News – Alert) GPU driver and broken text autosizing on some sites, just to name a few.

As such, maybe some users — particularly Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S users — may want to hold off on making the Chrome beta their primary mobile browser just yet.

In other recent Chrome news, Google Creative Lab has given Chrome users access to a number of digital instruments through the JAM project. Using HTML5 features such as the Web Audio API and CSS3, the JAM website offers almost 20 instruments to play with, including acoustic and electric guitars, drum kits and keyboards. Users can choose between easy and pro mode to control their instruments and jam over the Web with up to three friends.