The world of Web-based real time communications (WebRTC) is constantly producing big news from all around the world, so it's never a surprise to see plenty of new topics show up. With a well-deserved weekend now upon us, it's time to take a look back at all the biggest news of the week with our Week in Review coverage.
First, Google's Chrome got some serious new updates early this week, as a beta version of Chrome 27 emerged. With the new beta comes substantial upgrades in terms of page loading speed, said to be fully 5 percent faster than previous versions. Chrome 27 reportedly gets its speed boost from the use of a resource scheduler, which can handle the order of code managed by the browser, allowing certain parts to display first and other parts to follow afterward.
Additional new features include live audio playback with low latency and the addition of WebRTC PeerConnection.
Next up came a new version of OpenMeetings from Apache, which is part of a growing number of tools that are looking to take WebRTC to a whole new level of utility. OpenMeetings, unexpectedly for WebRTC, uses a set of plugins to accomplish its goals, and looks to bring a new level of collaboration tools for users.
It boasts improved integration with Asterisk 11 PBX, and that in turn provides a set of useful features on its own.
New word about Google Babel came in next, as a set of new screenshots, forum posts and bug reports boasting the name cropped up from several different sources. The unified messenger service that looks to pack in several useful communications features, bringing in Google Talk, Google Hangouts, and Messenger under the same umbrella. It's also set to pack in a variety of features, like over 800 different emoji, but while several different sources are boasting informal confirmation, the formal confirmation of Google Babel has yet to arrive.
Finally, there's a big new movement afoot in the communications space as the numbers of mobile devices set to feature HTML5 compatibility is set to nearly double between now and 2017. The reports from ABI Research indicated that a series of different reasons is behind this push, including integrating browsers directly into operating systems and an increased support for HTML5 in mobile chips.
The push for HTML5 in mobiles has been seen on other fronts as well, with Samsung and Mozilla working on a new browser engine in the form of Servo, as well as Intel getting involved mobile HTML5-related projects.
That was the week that was in WebRTC, and it's plain to see that there's plenty going on. With several big names from Google to Intel getting involved in the field, and other companies looking to help make the experience even better, the push to get WebRTC into more users' hands is clear. This in turn means that our global online community has plenty of room to bring in fresh news, so be sure to join us back here next week for all the biggest news on the WebRTC field, and of course, every weekend for our Week in Review coverage!
