Virtual Reality with Chrome 79 Beta, Firefox 70, DevDocs and React Conf 2019 | Front End News #24

Hello everyone and welcome to another round of Front-End News. I have been traveling over the last weekend and I missed my regular update. That's why today you are getting a double-sized list. I hope you will enjoy the subjects I've selected for you in this edition.

• Virtual Reality comes to the web with Chrome 79 Beta
• What's new in Chrome 78
• Firefox updated to v70
• DevDocs: The API Documentation Browser
• React Conf 2019 videos are available online

Virtual Reality comes to the web with Chrome 79 Beta

Chrome 79 Beta is bringing over the first implementation of the WebXR Device API. This allows developers to create immersive experiences for both smartphones and head-mounted displays. The API is scheduled to appear soon with other browsers like Firefox Reality, Oculus Browser, Edge and Magic Leap's Helio browser, among others.

• https://blog.chromium.org/2019/10/chrome-79-beta-virtual-reality-comes-to.html

What's new in Chrome 78

While we're looking ahead to future versions of Chrome, let's not forget the freshly released v78. This brings over interesting stuff like advanced features for CSS Properties, fresher service workers and many other things. For more details, you should read the reference blog article linked below.

• https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2019/10/nic78

Firefox updated to v70

There has been a new update for Firefox as well, with version 70 being deployed. And the features are a lot more visible to the end-user than the updates for Chrome. People can now generate secure passwords directly from the browser, there is support for the new CSS properties that allow further customization of text underlines or the two-keyword values for the display property. There are two articles covering this release, while some of the changes are also covered on the official Mozilla Developer channel. You can find links to all these sources down below.

• https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/10/firefox-70-a-bountiful-release-for-all/
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Releases/70
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh5UlGiu9d6LegIeUCW4N1w

DevDocs: The API Documentation Browser

DevDocs is a project operated by freeCodeCamp and it aggregates documentation for a huge set of programming languages, frameworks, applications, and tools commonly used in web development. Everything is packed in an application that can run on the web, installed on Chrome or even offline, on your mobile device. Next time someone tells you to RTFM, all you have to do is launch DevDocs.

• https://devdocs.io/

React Conf 2019 video sessions are online

React Conf 2019 took place on October 24 and 25 in Henderson, Nevada. If you didn't manage to attend, don't despair, for the organizers already published the presentations on YouTube. Happy binge-watching!

• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPxbbTqCLbGHPxZpw4xj_Wwg8-fdNxJRh

Software updates and releases

Here are the updates and releases for this edition. In each case, you can find the full details in the release notes linked down below.

Release Notes for Safari Technology Preview 95

• https://webkit.org/blog/9621/release-notes-for-safari-technology-preview-95/

Node v13.0.0

• https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v13.0.0/

Ghost 3.0

• https://ghost.org/blog/3-0/

Electron 7.0.0

• https://electronjs.org/blog/electron-7-0

Puppeteer v2.0.0

• https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer/releases/tag/v2.0.0

Formik v2.0.1

• https://github.com/jaredpalmer/formik/releases/tag/v2.0.1

react-beautiful-dnd v12.0.0

• https://github.com/atlassian/react-beautiful-dnd/releases/tag/v12.0.0

vue-apollo v3.0.0

• https://github.com/vuejs/vue-apollo/releases/tag/v3.0.0

vue-devtools v5.2.0

• https://github.com/vuejs/vue-devtools/releases/tag/v5.2.0

That’s all there is in this edition. Follow Front End Nexus on Twitter at https://twitter.com/frontendnexus to be notified as soon as a new update happens. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to the YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgACtqiDmnSaskDIBsK54ww. I can unlock some more options once the channel hits 100 subscribers, so your support is highly appreciated.

Have a great and productive week and I will see you next time!