Chrome Beta 23….what the heck you doing?

Trying to keep up or taking the lead. The just released beta version of Chrome 23 features better support for HTML5 video and API’s.

HTML5 video

Two new API’s (PeerConnection & MediaSource) are designed to give developers an easier way to create video/audio chat apps and to dynamically adapt playback based on the differences in computer and streaming performance. Implemented with the getUserMedia API which handles your webcam and mic you will have the basis to build a native, real-time web audio and video communication application.

Also added is a track feature that allows you to add different supplementary text to your video like subtitles and captions. You can even add Google Maps metadata layered over your video… Wow! Take a helmet cam, a bike, and some terrain and you will be able to share your experience in a more immersive way.

WebRTC Support

This beta is one step closer to supporting WebRTC (http://www.webrtc.org/), an open source project that enables browsers with real-time communication. Implemented with the getUserMedia API which handles your webcam and mic, put these two together and you have the basis of native, real-time web audio and video communications.

Opera and Mozilla are not far behind though and are expected to offer full support for the WebRTC standard early next year… yes next near.

You can read more about it here.

Sam Dutton of HTML5Rocks has a great article and tutorial that you can find here.

Who’s in the lead? Your thoughts?