A new breed of Chrome Apps • Hacker News Board

Re: A new breed of Chrome Apps

#11

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 5:04 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #7

alexandros wrote: post #3

Prediction: The much-anticipated convergence of Android and Chrome is near. These new Chrome apps are the programming model for the upcoming native Android webapps The next milestone I expect to see is V8 added alongside Dalvik as a first-class runtime for Android. Maybe in Android KitKat?

I really hope so. Android's support for webapps has been dismal, which is very surprising given that Google pushes them so hard elsewhere.

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Re: A new breed of Chrome Apps

#12

Post by Achshar » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 5:04 PM UTC

How do I get my app to be in "for your desktop" category? It's not on the developer page of my app. It's a media player app that matches most of the requirements of the new apps.

Re: A new breed of Chrome Apps

#13

Post by simonster » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 5:05 PM UTC

Firefox has made stubs for web apps that can be launched directly from the desktop since Firefox 16 (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Apps/WebRT). I guess the difference here is more (Chrome-specific) APIs and better support for running offline?

Re: A new breed of Chrome Apps

#14

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 5:06 PM UTC

taskstrike wrote: post #8

The new breed of chrome apps has a lot of flaws after I tried to convert my app over: -Previous installed chrome app matches the HTML5 api, the new chrome apps has a lot of restriction where you have to totally rewrite you code in terms of storage. i.e. Chrome.storage instead of localStorage; All chrome storage is async. -The new window format for apps are a huge UI flaw. You can not open an Chrome app in a tab anymo…

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Re: A new breed of Chrome Apps

#15

Post by talkingquickly » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 5:06 PM UTC

josephwegner wrote: post #2

So, really, there's only two new features here: - Launch chrome apps directly from the desktop - Run chrome apps with out any of the browser toolbars Everything else is already possible in a regular chrome app.. Right?

For me the exciting bit is being able to access devices from them.

E.g. I've been waiting for this for a while because you can write an app which communicates directly with an Arduino or any other serial device.

This means that a lot of special purpose desktop apps communicating with custom hardware can be written as Chrome apps and take advantage of the speed/ ease of UI development of web apps.

For one of the apps I maintain this will reduce the time it takes to make UI improvements from several days to several hours.

Re: A new breed of Chrome Apps

#16

Post by walexander » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 5:09 PM UTC

alexandros wrote: post #3

Prediction: The much-anticipated convergence of Android and Chrome is near. These new Chrome apps are the programming model for the upcoming native Android webapps The next milestone I expect to see is V8 added alongside Dalvik as a first-class runtime for Android. Maybe in Android KitKat?

I don't know if the convergence will happen, but they certainly need to fix WebView in Android to at least allow migration. It's still using the old Android Browser and is severely outdated (no WebSockets, etc).

My guess is that Chrome Packaged apps will be the replacement for WebViews on Android.

Anyone who wants a stop gap though, should check this out: https://github.com/pwnall/chromeview

Re: A new breed of Chrome Apps

#17

Post by vondur » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 5:10 PM UTC

"Chrome-specific code that means they won’t be able to run on other web browsers" This sounds vaguely familiar...

Re: A new breed of Chrome Apps

#18

Post by cassidysummers » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 5:14 PM UTC

It would be nice if the apps they recommended (wunderlist) actually worked. I have attempted 5 times to "sign up" for the wunderlist app, every time I hit the button the app freezes on the load screen. Not once has it made it past. I also have not received one email verifying my attempt to sign up. My first experience with app launcher and one of the apps would be horrible. Better get on the ball if you really wanna change the web in such a dramatic way.

Re: A new breed of Chrome Apps

#19

Post by duncans » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 5:14 PM UTC

josephwegner wrote: post #2

So, really, there's only two new features here: - Launch chrome apps directly from the desktop - Run chrome apps with out any of the browser toolbars Everything else is already possible in a regular chrome app.. Right?

"chromeless" Chrome windows have been in Chrome since the start as far as I can remember: Tools > Create Application Shortcuts.

Re: A new breed of Chrome Apps

#20

Post by Nowyouknow » Thu, Sep 05, 2013, 5:16 PM UTC

If I could use the Hangouts extension as an app, I would be so happy. I don't like the implementation of the extension on my Mac.