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Chromebooks are about to get a prettier video player
Complete with scrubbing, skip forward/backward, and more
Chromebooks have an incredibly barebones video player interface that hasn't changed much over the years. It looks like Google finally wants to change that. The company is testing a much prettier video player in Canary, complete with enhanced, floating controls.
We've all tried to kill a few minutes here and there by screwing around in a mobile game, but a slow phone or connection can make games run poorly. That's where GameSnacks comes in. It's a project from Google's experimental Area 120 division to create HTML5 web games that should run on almost any phone, and you can give it a shot right now.
It may have become the underdog now compared to the ubiquity of Chrome, but Firefox isn't letting that excuse hinder its improvement and development. The latest beta of Firefox for Android proves that by fixing some issues, adding support for requested regional features, and enhancing performance thanks to a few HTML5 additions.
Flash continues to exist largely because it's so entrenched. Even as mobile devices without Flash become increasingly common, you might notice ads are often still created in Flash. Google is looking to change that on its ad network by automatically converting Flash to HTML5. That should take some strain off your system.
Google has been buffing up the capabilities of the Chromecast as of late by opening up app access with the SDK, and it looks like even first-party apps are getting in on the action. The latest release of the beta version of Chrome for Android adds in Chromecast capability for YouTube videos. Theoretically, it should work for any standard HTML5 video as well. Now you don't need a laptop to cast web videos to your television.
The odds are against most people in the Android world having heard of TouchDevelop by Microsoft. From the start, it was designed to be used with a small touchscreen interface by hobbyists and intended to ease people into programming. Things haven't changed too much in that department, but the project has grown from its humble beginnings on Windows Phone to supporting iOS, Windows, Mac, and now Android.
The Developer Economics 2013 report—a sort of State of the Union on app development—is out and it's packed with helpful tidbits, both for armchair analysts and programmers trying to make some sense out of this crazy software world. One of the most interesting observations the survey showed is there is still demand for a third platform. And right now they're getting it in a surprising place: on Blackberries.
Whenever you hear someone talking about Facebook's mobile app, the most common complaint is always how slow it is. Even your news feed can take what feels like an age to load, and that's before you've started navigating through your events and photos of friends.
Dolphin Browser Beta Hits The Play Store, Boasts Major HTML5 Rendering Speed Improvements
At the beginning of the month, the Dolphin team released a new version of their popular browser to the Play Store. It featured the normal UI and performance
At the beginning of the month, the Dolphin team released a new version of their popular browser to the Play Store. It featured the normal UI and performance enhancements, but apparently that just wasn't good enough for the Dolphin crew. Today, they have released a public beta of Dolphin Browser that brings some pretty impressive numbers where HTML5 rendering speed is concerned:
Fluid UI Makes Creating (And Testing) Mobile Design Mockups Faster, Easier, And More Productive
Aiming to "unlock the world's creativity," the team at Fluid Software recently completed a project that began in January 2011 with the release
Aiming to "unlock the world's creativity," the team at Fluid Software recently completed a project that began in January 2011 with the release of Fluid UI 1.0. The tool, which is powered by HTML 5 and based online, allows users to quickly and easily create mobile UI mockups for Android (both tablets and phones), as well as iOS using a simple interface that includes all of the basic building blocks (clip art icons, navigation elements, system bars, etc.) for beautiful, style-guide friendly interfaces.
Google I/O is coming and it's time to get excited! It's like Christmas in June! It will be here in just a few short agonizing weeks - and we need to prepare. There is background information you need to know, rumors you should have in mind, and past announcements and acquisitions that need to be remembered. Google always leaves little news breadcrumbs for those that pay attention, and I pay attention. Fanatically.
While trying to figure out the best way to develop a cross-platform game, developer Christopher Black created a simple HTML5 benchmark, which he then ran on a Nexus One (N1), iPod Touch 4G, and iPhone 4. For some further variety, he also tested Flash 10.1 on the N1. The test itself was simply a black ball bouncing, and the results were incredibly surprising: the Nexus One ran the animation 67% faster than the iPod Touch, and 81% faster than the iPhone 4.