IoT Visual Programming Environment Node-RED Hits 1.0
At the end of a two-year development cycle, Node-RED has finally reached version 1.0, bringing plenty of changes. Among the major new features in Node-RED 1.0 are a new asynchronous message passing model, new completion API, and message cloning by default. Additionally, the visual editor got a revamp.
Smartphone-Based VR at a Dead-End with Google's Demise of Daydream VR
Google’s decision to stop supporting its Daydream VR headset seemingly marks the end of phone-based virtual reality, a vision that attempted to combine the use of smartphones with “dumb” VR headsets to bring VR experiences to the masses. Google’s decision is accompanied by the BBC disbanding its VR content team after two years of successful experimentation.
Android NDK r21 Is the First NDK Release with Long Term Support
The latest NDK for Android, version r21, now available in beta, brings a number of significant changes, including Fortify being enabled by default, and newer versions of GNU Make and GDB. Additionally, starting with r21 Google will manage a new release process with a yearly Long Term Support (LTS) guarantee to provide users more stability.
Reduce Xcode Build Times Using Carthage and Caching Binary Dependencies
In a recent post, Spotify engineer Patrick Balestra explained how they managed to improve Xcode build time by 50% using dependency manager Carthage to avoid rebuilding dependencies over and over across their teams.
Google Open Sources its Cardboard VR Platform
Low-cost virtual reality (VR) platform Google Cardboard is now available as an open source project to let developers create new VR-powered apps and adapt existing ones to new devices. Google’s announcement comes a few weeks after the discontinuation of its Daydream VR platform.