Note that the src attribute is not needed for browsers that support srcset, but it’s good for backwards compatibility. Kudos to external Blink developer Yoav Weiss for implementing and driving consensus for this feature. Stay tuned for the <picture> element, which will also help web developers with responsive design.
Unprefixed Web Audio
The Web Audio API is a high-level JavaScript API for processing and synthesizing audio in web applications. We shipped the prefixed version of the API a few years ago. Starting with this release, the unprefixed API entry points audioContext and offlineAudioContext will be available in addition to their prefixed counterparts. Legacy methods such as createGainNode and createDelayNode are deprecated.
This brings Chrome’s implementation of Web Audio in alignment with the W3C draft specification and offers compatibility with the Web Audio support in Firefox. Please switch to the unprefixed versions soon, as the prefixed versions are now officially deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
UPDATE April, 9th: Unprefixed Web Audio will ship in Chrome 35, not Chrome 34.
A variety of infrequently used web platform features have been deprecated or removed. For a complete list, see the list of Blink “intents”.
As we’ve previously discussed, Chrome will now offer to remember and fill password fields in the presence of autocomplete=off. This change does not affect non-password fields.
If you’ve ever been curious about the usage of HTML and JavaScript features, check out the updated chromestatus.com/metrics, which now shows the percentage of page loads that use certain web platform features.
By enabling concurrent compilation, V8 still optimizes a large piece of code, but does it in a background thread. Execution continues alongside compilation, providing for a smoother user experience. For instance, concurrent compilation improved the Mandreel score of Octane 2.0 by 27% on a Nexus 5 and made graphic-intensive applications such as the Epic Citadel Demo run even smoother in Chrome.
Concurrent code compilation is another step towards reducing latency in Chrome and is part of various ongoingefforts to deliver more responsive, smoother web applications.
Receiver app support
You have many options for displaying content on Chromecast. For simple media applications, you can use the default media player that can play back HTML5 media content. You can also customize it with your own branding and style using CSS.
For non-media applications, or for more flexibility and design options, you can build your own custom receiver application using standard web technologies. With a custom receiver you can build virtually any application while including support for many streaming protocols, including MPEG-DASH, HLS, and Microsoft Smooth Streaming, all of which are available in the Media Player Library.
Sample apps
To make it easier for you to provide an optimized user experience on the TV screen, we have created sample apps for Android, iOS and Chrome. For Android, you’ll find a Cast Companion library to make your integration of Google Cast even easier.
Availability
All Chromecast devices have already been updated to the latest software with support for the Google Cast SDK. The Google Cast extension for Chrome supporting the latest SDK will start rolling out today. The Google Cast SDK for Android is now available on Android devices worldwide as part of the Google Play services 4.2 update. The Google Cast SDK for iOS is available starting today. You can find the details for each platform in our documentation.
Head over to the Google Cast Developers site to get started with the Google Cast SDK. We look forward to your feedback and seeing what you develop with the SDK.
Happy casting!
John Affaki manages the client software and services teams for Google Cast. He never grew out of childhood and spends his free time playing video games and reading comic books, but is glad to have some real kids now.
