The toolchain wraps your Chrome App with a native application shell and enables you to distribute your app via Google Play and the Apple App Store. We provide a simple developer workflow for packaging a Chrome App natively for mobile platforms. You can run your Chrome App on a device or emulator using the command-line or an IDE. Alternatively, you can use the Chrome Apps Developer Tool to run your app on an Android device without the need to install an IDE or the mobile platform’s SDK.

We’ve made many of the core Chrome APIs available to Chrome Apps running natively on mobile, including:
  • identity - sign-in users using OAuth2 without prompting for passwords
  • payments - sell virtual goods within your mobile app
  • pushMessaging - push messages to your app from your server
  • sockets - send and receive data over the network using TCP and UDP
  • notifications (currently Android only) - send rich notifications from your mobile app
  • storage - store and retrieve key-value data locally
  • syncFileSystem - store and retrieve files backed by Google Drive
  • alarms - run tasks periodically
In addition to the above Chrome APIs, you have access to a wide range of APIs supported in the Cordova platform.

For web developers, this toolchain provides a simple workflow for extending the reach of Chrome Apps to users on mobile platforms. The toolchain is in developer preview mode, and we expect to continually improve it based on your feedback. To get started, take a look at our dev workflow and sample apps. As always, we welcome your feedback on Stack Overflow, our G+ Developers page, or our developer forum.

Andrew Grieve, Software Engineer and WebView Wrangler

Labels:

Web Speech API - Synthesis

The Web Speech API enables web developers to add speech recognition and synthesis to their web pages. We added the recognition part last year, and today’s release is the first to include speech synthesis. For example, your dictations could be synthesized to play back in a different language.

NPAPI deprecation update

As described in the original NPAPI deprecation announcement, Chrome has begun blocking webpage-instantiated NPAPI plug-ins by default on the Stable channel. Mac and Windows NPAPI support will be completely phased out by the end of the year, and on Linux Chromium will no longer support NPAPI plug-ins starting as early as April.

Other web platform changes in this release
  • The requestAutocomplete API for easy web payments is now available on Mac.
  • The Page Visibility API has been unprefixed.
  • WebFont downloading has been optimized so that fonts (at the median) are available before Blink layout is done, meaning that the net latency impact of using a webfont is usually zero.
  • The Blink CSS Animations and Transitions implementations are now powered by the new Web Animations model. This change should not affect developers or sites; let us know if it does.
  • Chrome now supports the latest version of the Web Notification API. We'll be deprecating support for the legacy API down the road, so please update your websites if they're using it.
  • Google Chrome Frame has been retired.  Please read our June 2013 Chromium blog post for additional details and background.
Visit chromestatus.com for a complete overview of Chrome’s developer features.

Chrome Dev Summit recap

In late November we also held the Chrome Dev Summit, a two-day, single-track conference with over 300 web developers and Chrome engineers. The talks—which were recorded and livestreamed—covered a range of topics including Polymer, new media APIs in Chrome for Android, Mobile DevTools, and a ton of performance tips. Check out the full list of recorded talks, including the keynote and Q&A panel.

Circle +Google Chrome Developers for more updates!

Posted by <software-engineer title="Element Customizer">Dominic Cooney</software-engineer>


Labels:


In each of the course’s 12 lessons, you can watch short videos teaching you the latest mobile web development techniques, and follow a series of quizzes and interactive code challenges that will test your knowledge. Specifically, you will learn how to build web experiences that adapt to different screen sizes, how to program touch interaction, and how to configure web experiences to work great even when network conditions are suboptimal. You’ll also learn to investigate performance in mobile applications using Chrome DevTools, with a strong emphasis on mobile networking.

On Tuesday, January 7th at 9:30 a.m. PST, we are hosting an introductory Google Developers Live session with special guest and Udacity CEO, Sebastian Thrun. In this session we will tell you all about the content of the course and answer your questions live. You can add this event to your calendar and vote for your questions.

We’ll also be running a study group for the first several weeks of the course. The study group will be livestreamed (and recorded) from the Google Developer Live studio and course instructors Sean, Chris, and Peter will be there to answer any questions you might have and help you out with the course material.

We hope you’ll try out the new course and start building awesome mobile web experiences!

Posted by Chris Wilson, Developer Advocate and Multi-device Prestidigitator, and Peter Lubbers, Program Manager and MOOC Manufacturer.