Cross-Platform Mobile Toolkit "Flutter" Now Stable
At its Flutter Live conference, Google launched the first stable release of Flutter, a Dart-based mobile development platform aiming to make it possible to write apps that share a single code base across iOS and Android with a native UI. Additionally, Google has announced an experimental web-based implementation of Flutter’s runtime which aims to bring Flutter apps to standard web browsers.
Dart 2.1 Brings New Language Features, Better Usability and More
Google has released Dart 2.1. This version brings new language features, performance improvements, faster type checks, and better usability for type errors.
Swift Adopts the Language Server Protocol
Apple’s Swift team announced they are going to provide support for using Swift with the Language Server Protocol (LSP). This will open up the possibility for developers to use Swift in any editor that supports LSP with code-completion, syntax-highlighting, etc. Apple has just opened the Swift LSP GitHub repository to contributions.
Google Adds Android Support for Kotlin 1.3 and Optimizes for Foldable Devices
Google has presented a series of news at the Android Dev Summit, including new features of kotlin 1.3 supported on Android, support for foldable phones, In-app Updates API, improvements on Android Studio, and more.
NativeScript 5.0 Brings Better Developer Experience and More Native Features
The latest release of NativeScript includes a number of changes, such as improved support for Vue.js, better developer experience, and more native features. Additionally, NativeScript 5.0 includes the new NativeScript-Schematics, an Angular extension helping developers to build web and mobile versions of an app from a single project.
New Updates to Firebase: Enterprise-Grade Support, ML Kit Face Contours, Management API, and More
Firebase is a service available on the Google infrastructure, enabling developers to build apps for Android, iOS, and the web. Recently, Google updated Firebase with paid enterprise-grade support, ML Kit Face Contours, a Firebase Management API, Test Lab for iOS, Performance Monitoring improvements, and Firebase Predictions.
New R8 Android Code Shrinker Available in Android Studio 3.3 Beta
Following the migration to D8 as its new Dalvik compiler, Google has been working on a new code shrinker, R8, which is now available in Android Studio 3.3 beta. R8 promises to deliver smaller APK files in less time.
Oboe, a Library for Low Latency Audio Apps on Android
Google has released the first production-ready version of Oboe. Oboe is a C++ library for building high performance audio apps on Android, providing the lowest latency possible for Android devices.
Smoke is a New Lightweight Server-Side Framework for Swift from Amazon
Amazon Smoke framework is a new open-source light-weight server-side framework written in Swift and aimed to build REST-like or RPC-like services. Its architecture stresses ease of use and favours a pure-functional programming style for request handlers.
Kotlin 1.3 Introduces Stable Coroutines, Contracts, and More
At KotlinConf 2018 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, JetBrains announced Kotlin 1.3 RC, introducing new language features such as stable coroutines, contracts, inline classes, and more. At KotlinConf, Google and JetBrains also announced their joint effort to establish the Kotlin Foundation.
Swift 5 Enters Latest Development Stage to Release
After officially delivering Swift 4.2, the Swift team is now focusing on Swift 5 by kicking off the final phase of its release process. Planned to be released early 2019, Swift 5 aims to bring ABI stability to the language while preserving source compatibility.
Alexa Smart Home Skills Gain Flexibility with New API
The latest update to Amazon Smart Home Skill API, available as a preview, introduces new capabilities that can be used as building blocks to model device settings or features. Additionally, Smart Home skills have gained greater flexibility by enabling the use of custom intents.
Swift 4.2 Hits the Road
One year after the release of Swift 4, Swift 4.2 is now official. It brings a number of improvements to the language and the standard library, including better generics, Hashable protocol, and random number generation. Additionally, writes Swift maintainer Ted Kremenek, Swift 4 delivers faster compile times and improves the debugging experience.
How Reddit Rewrote Their iOS App to Improve Performance, Modularity, and Testing
Reddit has been hard at work in the last year to improve the performance of their iOS app while also making it suitable for faster iteration cycles, improved test coverage, and better extensibility. All of this was made possible by evolving the app original MVC architecture into a Model-View-Presenter (MVP) architecture.
Mozilla Pushes WebXR as New Open Web API for Augmented Reality
After adding support for WebVR to Firefox, Mozilla is now working on a new API, called WebXR, to bring mixed reality to the Web. Initially announced last year, WebXR aims to replace WebVR in time and to offer a smooth transition for developers using WebVR.
