Native

Mozilla coder: Chrome violates Google's own Blink principles

With a project called Portable Native Client now making its way into Chrome and potentially onto the Web itself, Google is violating its own principles for its Blink browser engine, a Mozilla programmer said Friday.

Portable Native Client, or PNaCl, is a Google technology to let Web apps run specially created software at nearly the speed of the native apps that run on operating systems like Windows or iOS. It plugs into the browser with an interface called Pepper.

Mozilla representatives have been frosty toward Native Client for years, but one programmer, Robert O'Callahan, issued a new criticism Friday, … Read more

Twitter releases its handcrafted Windows 8 app

The Twitter for Windows 8 app has finally hit Microsoft's Windows Store. The social network announced today that it was launching the new app, which was uniquely tailored for Windows 8 devices.

Besides the usual Home, Connect, Discover, and Me tabs, the Windows 8 app has a host of other features. There's Snap view, which lets users adjust the size of the Twitter app and use other apps alongside it. Photos can also be expanded or shown in a photo gallery. There are two new charms -- Share and Search -- which let users tweet or search from … Read more

Instagram reportedly says no native app for BlackBerry 10

As BlackBerry 10 works to get a foothold in the smartphone market, it's considered crucial that the platform carry all the components important to users. Besides a camera, Wi-Fi support, and a well-designed interface, the smartphone also needs to be able to carry popular apps.

However, it's looking like one of the world's most popular apps isn't planning on developing a version for BlackBerry 10. Instagram is reportedly not going to create a native BlackBerry 10 app, according to AllThingsD. VentureBeat also reported on this back in October.

"There will be no [native] Instagram for … Read more

Netflix support coming to ARM-based Chromebooks

Those who've bought the low-cost Samsung Chromebook will be able to watch Netflix streaming video -- at some point.

"We are collaborating with Google on a solution for ARM-based Chromebooks," said Netflix spokesman Joris Evers last night.

He didn't share details on the company's schedule or its technical approach to bringing its service to Chrome OS, Google's browser-based operating system.

Most Web apps work just fine on the $249 Samsung Chromebook even though it has a Samsung ARM processor rather than the x86 chip found in all other computers running Google's Chrome OS. … Read more

Google's Native Client reaches ARM-based Chromebooks

Google has finished a version of its Native Client programming technology that extends beyond mainstream x86 PC processors into the world of ARM chips.

Native Client, or NaCl for short, is designed to let programmers easily adapt the C or C++ software they've written for native software so that it can run as a part of Web apps, too. It's designed for high performance, but it's also got security mechanisms built in to counter the risks of running malicious code directly on the processor. The first version of NaCl, though, only worked on personal computers using Intel … Read more

Pulse leaps from app to Web, at last

iPhone? Check. Android? Check. For most mobile apps, that's enough. Popular news reader Pulse, however, has decided that its next frontier is something you may have heard of before called the World Wide Web.

Pulse's Web app at Pulse.me is built entirely from HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, and indicates that the future-Web technologies are rapidly approaching a state where they can easily re-create native app experiences in the browser. The site is accessible from most major browsers on traditional PCs and mobile devices. With the touch-focused Windows 8 and its associated touch screen hardware coming at the … Read more

What could be coming tomorrow in Chrome 20

Google usually celebrates a new stable Chrome release with a blog post touting its new features. But with Chrome 20 today, all we got was a long list of high-paying security bug fixes. That can't be right.

Or at least that can't be all there is in Chrome 20.

If Google sticks to its approach from past years, today's I/O keynote will focus on mobile hardware and Android, while tomorrow will be about the Web and Chrome. But what's in Chrome 20?

Demonstrating the power of Native Client I expect a lot of talk about … Read more

iOS finally gets native Google Offers app

Google Offers, at its core, is not really much different from any deal site (Groupon, Living Social). Users sign up for daily email offers from local businesses willing to give potential customers heavy discounts to become patrons of their establishments.

The only real difference, until recently, was that Google did not have a native iOS app for users to easily browse, organize, and use their purchased deals.

Excusing the ugly app icon that gets completely sucked into the iPhone's display, the Google Offers app is actually quite nice. Once you sign in to your Google Offers account (or start … Read more

Google: Native Client for mobile devices still alive

Yesterday, Google appeared to have scrapped a software project to dramatically speed up browser-based games and apps on mobile devices -- but it turns out the project is still alive.

The software in question is called Native Client, and it lets programmers adapt software they've already written so it can be packaged up as a Web app -- one that runs nearly as fast as a regular native app, in Google's aspiration. Native Client today works on personal computers using x86 chips from Intel and AMD, but the company is adapting it to devices using ARM processors -- … Read more