Three Short Takes

#1 - Nativefier Will Instantly Convert Any Web Page Into a Desktop Program

Motherboard | January 23, 2016

<See original article at: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/nativefier-will-instantly-convert-any-web-page-into-a-desktop-program>

Despite the ever-increasing capabilities of web pages most of us probably still tend to think of them as things that live within browsers and that do typical old-school website stuff, much of which consists of just sitting there displaying some combination of links, text, and images. The growth and development of JavaScript and its myriad extensions has, however, heralded in a chaotic new age—the era of the web application. A URL now might reveal what amounts to a fully realized computer program. A canonical example would be Google Maps.

Source: https://github.com/jiahaog/nativefier

#2 - Unity Game-Making Tool Gets Native Support for Google’s 5M Cardboard Virtual Reality Devices

Jeff Grubb | February 10, 2016

<See original article at: http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/10/unity-gets-native-support-for-googles-5m-cardboard-virtual-reality-devices/

Google wants to keep the momentum it has with its virtual reality products going by supporting one of the most popular developer tools in the world.
Unity, the game-making tool from Unity Technologies, is getting native support for Google Cardboard, the company announced at Unity’s Vision Summit earlier today. This is Google’s cheap phone holder that enables you to use VR apps by holding it over your eyes. Unity support will enable game makers and other software developers to quickly bring their VR projects to both iOS and Android mobile devices. With companies like tech adviser Digi-Capital predicting that VR and AR will grow into a $120 billion business over the next five years, Google could establish itself as one of the go to stores to get mobile VR experiences.

Cardboard puts virtual reality on your smartphone. The Cardboard app helps you launch your favorite VR experiences, discover new apps, and set up a viewer. Source: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.samples.apps.cardboarddemo

#3 - Porting iOS Games to Windows 10 Is Actually Pretty Easy

Chris Smith | February 10, 2016

<See original article at: http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/porting-ios-games-to-windows-10-is-actually-pretty-easy>

In a post on his blog (via WMPoweruser) developer David Burela was able to move the popular endless runner game Canabalt using Project Islandwood.
Using the source code posted by the game’s developers on GitHub, Buerla was able to open the files in Windows Visual Studio and build them for fast playback in Windows 10.
Project Islandwood is a bridge tool that allows apps from all manner of platforms for use in Windows 10. The iOS bridge can be downloaded from the Windows 10 website.

On The Viability Of Porting iOS And Android Apps To Windows 10 Mobile, Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/porting-ios-android-apps-windows10,29509.html