HTML5

Facebook wants to dip its hands on anything that can be related to social engagement, and, to no one's surprise, that included gaming. Trying to reclaim its once glorious position as the trailblazer in web games, Facebook created its own Gaming sub-brand, which is both about live streaming game plays as well as streaming games. In expanding its reach to iOS and iPadOS, Facebook has hit a snag with Apple's strict app store policies, forcing it to offer a rather basic and inconsistent web app experience instead.

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Mobile gaming is a big and lucrative industry these days but not all mobile users might be interested in battle royales like Fortnite or MOBAs like Mobile Legends and the like. Some might not even have phones that can handle those games anyway. Knowing that gamers and games are not limited to specific popular genres and phones, Google embarked on a journey through its Area 120 experimental group to bring more lightweight games to mobile via HTML5. Those games, collectively known as GameSnacks, are now moving to some Google products to make them easier to discover and to play.

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Google is continuing its plan to phase out Flash in favor of HTML5 today by launching Chrome 55. With this new update, many sites around the web will begin defaulting to HTML5 instead of Flash. There are a few exceptions, but Chrome 55 largely implements the measures Google laid out earlier in the year.

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Facebook is taking gaming out of apps and consoles and baking it right into the News Feed and Messenger, bringing classics like PAC-MAN and more to the social network. Dubbed Facebook Instant Games, the titles require no installation, instead being built with HTML5. That means, not only will they play directly in the Facebook or Messenger app on your phone, or in the browser on your desktop, they're also cross-platform too.

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It's been a long time coming, but Twitch is finally signaling that it will soon leave Flash in the dust. Today the streaming site announced that a beta for its new HTML5 video player has gone live, which we're sure is something that will make a lot of longtime Twitch users happy. After all, even Twitch is forthcoming in saying that HTML5 support has long been one of its most requested features.

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Once and briefly the darling of interactive Web content creators, Flash has fallen by the wayside and has become more of a liability than a feature. Even Adobe has taken steps to de-emphasize Flash content in its own tools, while still keeping backwards compatibility a thing. In its stead is HTML5, which covers almost everything Flash can do, especially videos. To hasten Flash's demise from the Web, Google will disable Flash by default in its Chrome Web browser before the year ends. That said, it will still actually ship Flash even then, just in case.

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Tech firms around the world are working hard to end the life of Flash due to the frequent and often serious security flaws that Flash suffers from. Facebook's chief security officer called for Flash to be discontinued about six months ago and Adobe itself is already stepping away from Flash and has renamed Flash Pro to Animate CC. Facebook has now announced that it has ditched Flash for video on its site.

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Despite the immense popularity of the Warcraft franchise, which has bled into MMO, MOBA,and now CCG, Starcraft still remains one of the most iconic RTS games in history. So being able to play the game on almost any device is always welcome news. And with this latest port of the game, you could potentially really play it anywhere. GitHub user Ryuta "gloomyson" uploaded a version of the original Starcraft that can be run and of course be played inside browsers. All thanks to the magic of HTML5 and Javascript.

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There might be some credence to worries that your smartphone batteries can undermine your privacy after all. But not as ludicrous as the NFC antenna mistaken for a spying contraption. This new theory has the backing of French and Belgian researchers. But before you throw out that battery, be aware that it isn't the battery itself that is doing the potential spying. It is merely an unwilling accomplice for less than conscientious websites that might be trying to identify your device, whether you like it or not. And you probably don't.

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Game broadcasting service Twitch has announced via its blog that it's officially migrating to HTML5 for its videos, and in turn phasing out the Adobe Flash format. The company, owned by Amazon, says not everyone will see the changes as once, as they're rollout the changes to accounts gradually. Once those changes start appearing, users will find the web-based video player has HTML5 and JavaScript-powered controls, instead of the Flash-based ones we're used to.

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Gamers who enjoy viewing high quality gameplay footage on YouTube will be pleased to hear the video site is now supporting 60 frames-per-second for live streaming. It was only last October when YouTube began offing 60fps playback of videos that had been uploaded, allowing Call of Duty fans to watch buttery smooth footage. To make the jump to including gameplay being live streamed in only seven months is quite impressive.

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Further driving the obsolescence of technology like Flash, Google is announcing that YouTube will default to using HTML5 video by default, at least on the most recent versions of major browsers. While it might take some time before the web is truly rid of Flash, it is a brave move forward especially for a service that is absolutely reliant on the smooth and flawless delivery of multimedia content. It also shows how much the web has grown up to replace the benefits once provided only by the likes of Flash.

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