Media news roundup: April 2016

WebRTC
• WebRTC for WebKit now 'In Development'
• Roadmap update for Real Time Communications in Microsoft Edge
• Plugin-free Skype on the Web a step closer with Edge support
• Google confirms Hangouts will now use peer-to-peer connections to improve call quality and speed
• WebRTC Explained
• Snapchat Chat 2.0
• Holoportation: RTC + 3D capture and recording (thanks Peter Thatcher)
• No matter how you slice it, Apple and WebRTC need each other
• WebRTC Is Not Losing Steam: response to (linked) articles stating the opposite
• Lip-sync Issues: When a Chrome Update Fixes your Application: detailed account of how a complex bug got fixed.
• WebRTC 1.0 now 'under consideration' for Edge (h/t HTML5 Weekly)

Web audio and video
• DASH video player Shaka Player v2.0.0-beta
• Intent to Implement: Storage Quota Estimation API

'Web apps using storage for offline or caching purposes need to answer questions like: Do I have enough storage available to let the user save this media file for for offline use?'

• Unified Media Pipeline on by default in Chrome for Android from version 51:

• Cache audio and video with service workers, since media delivery is now implemented directly within Chrome rather than being passed off to the Android media stack.
• Use Blob URLs for audio and video elements.
• Set playbackRate for audio and video.
• Pass MediaStreams between Web Audio and MediaRecorder.
• Cross-platform development and debugging is easier, since media works the same on desktop and Android.

• Chrome Media publishes white paper on migrating from Flash to HTML5 video

VR and 360°
• YouTube Announces 360-Degree Live Streaming, Spatial Audio
• Mark Zuckerberg Samsung talk at MWC
• a16z Podcast: Mapping the Future of Virtual Reality

Codecs & services