ALEXIS MP: Hi there.
We're here back at Devoxx.
Exciting conference so far, lots of content.
I have with me the Chrome guys.
So I have Joe, I have Francois.
These guys have been here talking about Chrome Apps.
And I'll start with you Joe.
Can you tell us what Chrome Apps are, even?
And how they differ from maybe, real apps?
JOE MARINI: So they're relatively new.
We officially launched them back in September.
We've been developing them for a couple of years now.
Essentially, Chrome Apps are a way
to use HTML5 to develop real, native-feeling applications.
Applications that look and feel like native ones.
They run outside the browser.
They work offline by default.
They work on desktop as well as mobile.
So it's a great way for developers
to build real native experiences.
ALEXIS MP: A lot of things you covered briefly here.
You want to cover the offline part?
What does it really mean to be offline?
JOE MARINI: Yeah, sure.
So we're all familiar with building web applications,
right?
So you use HTML5.
You build your web application.
It's online.
So when you build a Chrome app, you
build it the same way, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS.
But all the resources are packaged up locally
into an application.
It's local on your machine like an installed app is.
And you can run the app when you're not connected,
or when you have a connection that's not so good,
and it just behaves normally.
ALEXIS MP: Great, so that's really, obviously,
very important.
Another thing is you can access computer, the laptop,
or the machine's resources, as in the USB port,
or the file system, and stuff like that.
So that brings up the ability to build
a whole new range of applications.
Which typically a web app could not.
JOE MARINI: We leverage HTML5 wherever possible.
But when HTML5 does not provide a certain feature,
we have Chrome app APIs that fill in,
for things like file access, and USB and Bluetooth, and sockets.
ALEXIS MP: So one of the reasons I have Francois here
with us also is that's Francois has been doing some of that,
which is integrating with some of the hardware
available on machines.
Do you want to tell us more about what
you're doing here at Devoxx?
FRANCOIS BEAUFORT: One guy, actually in Google,
named Louis, built an awesome library on JavaScript
to be able to communicate with those USB NFC reader.
So what we've done is, we've built a Chrome app which
helps with registration.
And basically those tie here.
ALEXIS MP: So the wristbands that everybody has here.
FRANCOIS BEAUFORT: And you can scan it and write to it
directly from a Chrome app, only with web technologies.
That's just awesome.
ALEXIS MP: It's used here for registration,
for delivering the wristbands, checking what's
on those wristbands, which is used throughout the conference.
And we use those on Chromebooks.
But that could be on any machine that's running Chrome,
which kind of brings me to the question of,
how are these packaged and delivered?
I mean, those Chrome Apps.
JOE MARINI: So basically, it depends.
On desktop machines, they are packaged up as zip files
and they are stored in the Chrome Web Store.
And so you go to the Chrome Web Store,
you download and install the application,
and it's the same as you download
an app from any other app store.
On mobile, we use the Cordova library
to package up applications as native apps.
So they're basically native apps that host your web code.
And they get packaged as a native app for that platform.
So for Google, they go in the Play Store.
For iOS they go in the Apple App Store.
So depending on whether it's desktop or mobile,
that's how they get delivered.
ALEXIS MP: How real are Chrome Apps today on mobile?
How far along are we?
JOE MARINI: Well, it's really early days right now.
We have a team of people in Canada,
in Waterloo, that are working on contributing to the Cordova
effort.
We've got a good set of the core APIs ported over now.
We think that probably by early 2014
we should be in good shape for people
to start building real apps.
ALEXIS MP: So how would somebody go about building an app,
pushing it out, and making it known?
So there's a store for that?
That's how people find out about it?
JOE MARINI: To build it, it's really easy.
You can go to our website.
It's developer.chrome.com/apps.
That's where all the information about the APIs are stored.
If you want to go to Github, we have a Github repo
at github.com/googlechrome.
Then there's a Chrome app samples repo
in there, shows all the samples.
So those are probably the places I
would start to learn how to build these.
ALEXIS MP: Great.
Francois, how hard was it to actually build this
once the library was available?
FRANCOIS BEAUFORT: Once the library was done?
So easy.
And we are hoping to make this library open source
so that anyone can use it.
ALEXIS MP: It's interesting to be
able-- NFC is obviously not built in every machine,
but certainly devices like this one has it.
It'd be great to be able to tap into that kind of resources.
Any final words on where to go next?
What you expect from this technology going forward?
FRANCOIS BEAUFORT: Oh, dammit.
JOE MARINI: We're building new APIs all the time.
We've already got a lot of great apps in the Chrome Web Store
that some great partners have built.
So we're continuing to see some really good uptake
in the platform among partners.
We're looking really forward to getting these things out
on mobile.
We're really looking forward to people building mobile apps.
So I think that it's early days.
It's just beginning, and I'm really
excited to see where it goes.
ALEXIS MP: Great.
I think I heard good things about your session,
certainly here at Devoxx.
And people can catch it soon, and [FRENCH].
FRANCOIS BEAUFORT: And if I can add something--
ALEXIS MP: You should.
FRANCOIS BEAUFORT: So, Chrome API, great.
But my hope is that we'd be destroyed
in a matter of years so that the web can [INAUDIBLE].
ALEXIS MP: So you're saying HTML++, 5+, whatever,
is the standard.
JOE MARINI: It would be great see a lot of this stuff
get standardized over time.
ALEXIS MP: But you need to start somewhere.
JOE MARINI: Got to start somewhere, exactly.
ALEXIS MP: Chrome Apps, check it out.
FRANCOIS BEAUFORT: Woo hoo!
ALEXIS MP: Thank you.