html5
Latest
Financial Times web app debuts for iOS, more tablets to come (video)
It's not often that we get the opportunity to mention the Financial Times and Playboy Magazine in the same sentence, but the two publications do have at least one thing in common: App Store aversion. Today, the FT launched a new, entirely web-based app, designed to circumvent iTunes (and Apple's 30 percent revenue cut) altogether. The paper says its single, cross-platform app will allow it to issue updates with more frequency, while reaching an audience that extends far beyond the iOS realm. Though the subscription service is only available for iPhone and iPad users at the moment, versions catered for Galaxy Tab, Xoom and PlayBook users are coming soon. Perhaps more important, however, is what this move could mean for other publishers -- many of whom haven't taken too kindly to Apple's subscription revenue and data-sharing practices. FT managing editor Rob Grimshaw says his paper has "no plans to pull out of any apps store," but if the system proves viable, it could open the door for others to pursue their own, similarly HTML5-based ventures, in the hopes of retaining full revenues and access to subscriber information. We'll have to wait and see whether this iTunes exodus ever materializes, but in the meantime, iOS users can hit the source link to enjoy the new app, available for free until July 14th. Others, meanwhile, can head past the break to see a demo video, narrated in appropriately dulcet, British tones.
Financial Times launches HTML5 web app
The Financial Times is turning towards HTML5 for its upcoming application (technically, a web app), in contrast to its older native iOS app. FT was not happy with the new subscription model offered by Apple, and was working with Apple to keep the revenue and demographic information from its 590,000 website subscribers. These negotiations must have been rocky as the Financial Times is now releasing a web-based application instead of a platform-specific application. The UK-based business newspaper is looking to HTML5 to deliver its content to multiple platforms using a single app instead of multiple apps. Mobile chief Steve Pinches points to the convenience of developing one application using a single development environment. Though it may be easier to deploy and make changes, the Financial Times faces the challenge of teaching people how to set up a homescreen shortcut to the app and how to use an app that runs in a web browser. Initial responses from our readers to the new FT web app are mixed (slow loading and poor responsiveness are the primary complaints).
Google Apps is moving on, you'll need an HTML5 browser to go with it
HTML5 beckons the world with its dashing logo and also, we suppose, all the clever little things it can do. Desktop notifications in Gmail and folder-dragging in Docs already refuse to work with anything less -- and before long that will apply to the entirety of Google Apps. Come August 1st, you will find that Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites are all unsupported unless you're using either the current or last major release of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. An older browser won't suddenly stop working with Google Apps, but it will begin a steady descent into oblivion. Hey, being popular means you don't have to be nice.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen confirms unofficial armistice with Jobs, Apple
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen told Walt Mossberg during an interview that the dispute between Adobe and Apple over Flash is a thing of the past. Adobe and Steve Jobs went head to head last year when the Apple CEO publicly criticized the multimedia company and banned apps that were created using third-party tools, like Adobe Flash. The heated exchange was covered extensively by the press. It took several months, but the dispute was finally resolved when Apple reversed its decision on third-party compilers and now lets developers use them to create apps. Though the press continues to bring up this dispute, it's unofficially over as far as Narayen is concerned. Narayen also confirmed that Adobe is supportive of HTML 5, the standard Apple has chosen for web video and multimedia on the iPad and iPhone. "We welcome the evolution to HTML5, and are actively contributing to it." says Narayen. This is good news to iOS owners who won't have to worry about Flash draining their batteries and slowing their browsers to a crawl.
Adobe CEO has no beef with Apple, no answer for poor Flash performance on Android (video)
The Adobe-Apple Flash war used to be one of the juiciest catfights around, but, much like two aging boxers, both sides now appear willing to act like adults put it all behind them. Speaking at yesterday's D9 conference in Palos Verdes, California, Adobe head Shantanu Narayen confirmed that he and Steve Jobs have reached an unofficial armistice, bringing an end to their prolonged war of words. According to the CEO, Apple's Flash issues stemmed from the company's "business model," rather than any legitimate concerns over quality. "It's control over the app store that's at issue here," Narayen said, implying that Flash's wide-ranging platform compatibility may not have jibed with the Cupertino ethos. He went on to remind moderator Walt Mossberg that developers can still use Adobe's AIR software to get their products to the App Store, adding that his company is looking forward to the rise of HTML5 and "actively contributing" to its development. Mossberg, meanwhile, seemed to blindside Narayen when he brought up Flash's poor performance on Android devices. "I have yet to test a single one where Flash tests really well," the columnist claimed. "I'm sorry, but it's true." Narayen sputtered a bit, before pointing to the BlackBerry PlayBook as an example of the progress that Flash has made. When Mossberg reminded him that the PlayBook doesn't run on Android, the CEO not-so-subtly sidestepped the question by emptily declaring that Adobe's mission is simply to provide people with the best tools to create content. Apparently satisfied with this non-answer, Mossberg changed the subject back to Apple, allowing Narayen to wax poetic about their new Pax Romana -- and, perhaps, to breathe a sigh of relief. See the full interview after the break.
NVIDIA 3D Vision machines get 3D YouTube video support on Firefox
NVIDIA and YouTube made a rather caveat-heavy announcement today that promises to bring stereoscopic 3D YouTube videos to NVIDIA 3D Vision PCs and notebooks, running Firefox 4. If you're rocking an NVIDIA GeForce GPU-equipped machine, sporting driver release 275 or later, a 3D Vision monitor, notebook, projector, or DLP HDTV, and Firefox 4 with streaming HTML5, you've got access to all the 3D goodness YouTube has to offer -- given you're not trying to access content via a standard YouTube channel, as the outfit's HTML5 support is still limited. And don't forget, you'll need your active shutter 3D glasses handy, too. So, if you fit all of the aforementioned criteria, check out the demo video after break (and make sure to hit the HTML5 function under options) -- otherwise, feel free to go on using the old cyan and red method for viewing YouTube in 3D. Full PR after the break.
Our Netflix queue is suddenly out of order, is yours?
It was pointed out to Hacking Netflix and we're noticing it too, in the last few days a large portion of our Netflix streaming queue has relocated from somewhere in the middle to the end, and new additions suddenly appear in the middle instead of the end like they did before. Something else we've recently noticed in those new HTML5 interfaces Netflix is rolling out to most devices is a "new episodes" tag (as seen above) that helps viewers know when to check out their favorite shows for some new viewing selections. This is far from the first time we've noticed someone playing musical chairs in our queues but there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason. Let us know if you're seeing any weird behavior / new features lately and maybe we can figure out what's going on.
The two Apple engineers who created Hype
Jonathan Deutsch, co-founder of Tumult Inc., recently talked to The Startup Foundry about leaving a stable job at Apple to build Hype, the new HTML5 Animation Builder for Mac OS X. Despite some provocative headlines linking to the story, the reason the founders took on this challenge wasn't borne out of Apple's attitude towards Flash. Released last Friday exclusively through the Mac App Store for an introductory price of US$29.99, Hype embraces the HTML5 family of technologies -- including new HTML5 tags, CSS3, and the latest JavaScript technology -- to allow customers to create standards-based interactive websites that rival Flash. Over the weekend, Tumult's product became the top-grossing application on Apple's software marketplace, topping Pages, Aperture, iPhoto, Keynote, Numbers, and iMovie. Prior to opening shop for himself, Deutsch was the engineering manager for Mac OS X Mail's back end. He also worked on Mac OS X's software update mechanism, automation technology, and even Steve-note demonstrations. Despite a successful career at Apple, he always wanted to have his own company, saying it's "in the blood." He and his business partner Ryan Nielsen, another senior member of the Mac OS X team, both saw a new wave of "Web 3.0" technologies, more commonly referred to as "HTML5," hitting the market. "It was always in the back of my mind that for any technology shift you'd need tools to help out," Deutsch told The Startup Foundry. "I'm really a tools guy, though we tend to call them 'apps' nowadays." Deutsch said the idea for Hype came after a trip to Europe. He wanted to showcase photos from his travels on a website with animations and pizazz. Hand-coding the site he imagined in HTML5 would've been a "nightmare," and Flash wouldn't be appropriate for mobile access to the site. When he couldn't find a better way to easily build an interactive website for his photos, Deutsch recognized the opportunity to build a solution for himself and start a business around it. Walking away from an established career at Apple was bittersweet. Deutsch says he formed a deep social and professional network at the Cupertino company that was painful to say goodbye to, but if he had chosen to stay at Apple, Deutsch would've been left to wonder what if. "'Regret Minimization' is what should win out in life," he says, "so it did." [via Business Insider]
No Comment: Friskies makes iPad web games for cats
So it's come to this. Originally, discovering that cats liked to play with the iPad was just a matter of coincidence -- Felix just liked to bat around the Magic Piano, and that was fine. But pet food maker Friskies has blown that idea right out, releasing a line of three full web-based games for the iPad meant to be played entirely by cats. It's true. Cat Fishing!, Party Mix-Up! and Tasty Treasures Hunt! are all games accessible from that website and built in HTML 5 just for the iPad, and as you can tell from the video after the break, all three of them are designed to attract your cat's attention. With bright shapes that move around in a jerky yet lifelike manner and flashy graphics that respond to paw touches, your cat now has its own games to play on your iPad 2. Friskies even warns that while cat claws can't scratch the iPad's glass screen, certain plastic covers might get scratched, so be careful. What they don't warn about, however, is that you might lose all of your Angry Birds free time to a game-addicted kitty. Beyond that, we have no comment. [via Laughing Squid]
Big pharmaceutical companies stockpiling iPads for future sales apps
Big pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of time, money and effort trying to attract the attention of doctors in order to get them to use their expensive new products. Doctors, it turns out, are busy people who give the sales reps about 30 seconds of their valuable time -- most of which is taken up signing receipts for the samples they're being given. So now big pharma is turning to the iPad as a way to grab doctors' attention -- even though they apparently don't, yet, have anything to actually show the doctors on those iPads. "During recent conversations with large pharmas, I have heard leadership at several companies make comments similar in nature to 'we have not yet purchased an iPad-based SFA (Sales Force Automation) software product, but we know we will eventually, so we're buying the devices now'," says Eric Newmark, an analyst at IDC Health Insights community. He says "more than one" big pharmaceutical company has told him that they're stockpiling iPads "in significant volume" for later use. The companies aren't even considering looking at alternative devices, believing that Apple's product gives them a better chance of keeping up with the latest technological developments. Apple products are already popular with medical staff, and it can't hurt to present new pharmaceutical products to them using iPads. "With big pharma already stocking up on the hardware, it seems likely that the apps they want will follow," says Newmark. Apple's absence in the pharma market is likely to rapidly change with Apple "likely to quickly become a dominant hardware vendor in the space." [Via The Mac Observer/MacOS Ken]
Boxee Box v1.1 update includes improved browser, playback controls and more
Early previews of a new update for the Boxee Box mentioned a couple of different version numbers, but now the company has settled on v1.1 for the software update (sorry, still nothing for PCs) it's rolling out over the next few days with a slew of new features. VP of Marketing Andrew Kippen confirms the "huge browser update" he'd mentioned earlier is included with the following features: favorites, history, a better UI to show more of the picture and include more options, plus expanded HTML5 capabilities that should fix login problems for HBO Go. There's no mention of iPad support, but the whole on screen display has been trimmed with a new seek bar for more precise FF/Rewind action, along with support for customized local metadata and NFO files, a new MLB.tv app and two new content partners including the worst TV channel ever and SnagFilms. One thing that's been removed? Volume controls, which Boxee says "improves consistency" and makes it the same as any standard Blu-ray player. As usual, the update will be issued automatically, but if you just can't wait you can force it manually, check the source links for details, more screenshots and a full changelog.
Qualcomm shows off MSM8660's slick video performance on development kit (video)
If you've been closely tracking the development of Qualcomm's 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8660, you would've already seen AnandTech's impressive set of benchmark results back in early April. But of course, it'd be more convincing to actually see this chipset in action, so Qualcomm's latest videos of its Mobile Development Platform should satisfy your curiosity. As demoed after the break, this Snapdragon's Adreno 220 is seen effortlessly handling in-page HTML5 video streaming, Flash video streaming, and 1080p playback. And as a sideshow, Qualcomm even put its current-gen single-core QSD8255 head-to-head with a rival dual-core chipset -- no doubt a Tegra 2 in an LG Optimus 2x -- and easily won the Flash video contest. All of this might lure you into getting the MDP as your next everyday phone, but here's the bad news: this professional kit will cost you a dear $1,350. So unless you're feeling very generous, you'd probably want to wait for the consumer devices to arrive in the summer -- think EVO 3D, Sensation (with GSM-flavored MSM8260, naturally), and TouchPad.
Apple approves JavaScript iOS games that don't use a browser
Look Ma, no WebKit! Your inner geek and nerd should give each other a little hug this morning as you read about the latest rather cool accomplishment of Dominic Szablewski, creator of the Impact JavaScript HTML 5 game engine. He's just released two free games, Biolab Disaster and Drop, which are not, as Szablewski says, the first JavaScript games to be released in the App Store. "Tools like PhoneGap or Titanium make it easy to bundle some HTML pages and JavaScript together in an app and display them in a UIWebView, which is basically just a browser window," he says. However, his games are different because they don't use a browser window to display them. "They don't use PhoneGap or Titanium. They don't even use a UIWebView. Instead, they bypass the iPhone's browser altogether and use Apple's JavaScript interpreter (JavaScriptCore) directly. All graphics are rendered with OpenGL instead of in a browser window and all sound and music is played back with OpenAL," Szablewski says. What Szablewski has done wasn't particularly easy, and as games, his offerings aren't up there with Angry Birds. But his work could open the way for other developers to write more apps with a minimum of fuss. Read his blog for full details of the process.
Carnegie Mellon's GigaPan Time Machine brings time-lapse to panoramas
We've already seen GigaPan technology used for plenty of impressive panoramas, but some researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have now gone one step further with their so-called "GigaPan Time Machine" project. Thanks to the magic of HTML5 and some time-consuming (but automated) photography, you can now "simultaneously explore space and time" right in your web browser -- that is, zoom in and around a large-format panorama that also happens to be a time-lapse video. If you don't feel like exploring yourself, you can also jump straight to some highlights -- like the like the construction of the Hulk statue at the CMU Carnival pictured above. Ht up the source link below to try it out -- just make sure you're in either Chrome and Safari, as they're the only compatible browsers at this time.
YouTube starts transcoding all new uploads to WebM, already has a third of its library ready
Google's resolve to bring WebM video streaming to the masses doesn't seem to have been weakened by a general lack of interest from the rest of the tech world, and the company's announced that each and every new YouTube upload will now be automatically transcoded into a WebM version. Nearly a third of YouTube's archives have already made the transition to the open source format, though if you think that's a small proportion, you should probably know that those 30 percent account for 99 percent of all views on the site. Apparently, we all have a narrower set of interests than we like to believe. So, with all popular vids encoded and every incoming one getting the transcoding treatment, all you really need now is a compatible browser -- Chrome (naturally), Firefox 4, Opera, or IE9 with a plug-in -- and to enroll in YouTube's HTML5 trial linked below to get rolling with WebM playback. Appending "&webm=1" to a search string or a video's URL will also help you ensure you're getting the good stuff.
The World's Biggest Pac-Man game takes over the internet, your life
It's officially the weekend, which means you've got two choices: one, mimic iTr3vor and toss up a YouTube video of yourself dancing in an Apple Store, or two, blow your own mind with the magic of HTML5. In between hour-long Pica-Pic sessions, we'd recommend killing time in The World's Biggest Pac-Man game, which can be "played for fun" or linked to your Facebook account for those who savvy statistics. We'd bother telling you more, but we're fairly sure you're already firmly occupied with the source link. You're welcome. Or, we're sorry.
'World's Biggest Pac-Man' connects user-created mazes in your browser
Yesterday at the MIX11 conference, Microsoft revealed a project undertaken with Soap Creative and Namco Bandai: The World's Biggest Pac-Man, an HTML 5 version of the iconic arcade game with user-created levels. Every maze is connected, allowing players to use the "exits" on the side of a maze to enter another one -- even if it feels really wrong to leave a maze partially completed (so wrong). The rapidly expanding continent of Pac-Man mazes currently includes 1420 separate screens. The app requires users to sign into Facebook before creating new mazes, but no login is required to explore the growing selection of levels. It should run on any browser (despite being released as promotion for Internet Explorer 9), but based on our experience iOS devices aren't compatible.
Windows Phone adds multitasking, deeper OS integration, and sensor access to dev platform
We knew it was coming, and today at MIX 11, Microsoft showed off its developer platform for the next version of Windows Phone, which developers will be able to get their hands on for free in May. The new application platform adds: Multitasking for background processing, audio and file transfer, and fast app switching, including background audio playback for HTML5 webpages Deeper integration of apps into the OS, allowing programs to leverage Live Tiles, including push notifications via Live Agents running in the background Raw access to the camera and sensors (gyro and compass) via the Motion Sensor library, letting apps to control device hardware Microsoft hopes this will allow developers to make even more creative and engaging apps. To get our juices flowing, it showed off demos of new app concepts from Skype, Spotify, Layar, Qantas, Amazon Shopping, and Kik Messenger. Check out our gallery below and hit the break for the details. %Gallery-121151%
BBC expands iPlayer support on TiVo, Popcorn Hour and Freeview HD devices
The BBC has a few updates to share about its iPlayer service -- no, nothing yet about the international rollout that's due later this year -- as it has recently become available on even more devices. That includes living room connected entertainment options that support HTML and Flash like the Virgin Media TiVo, Popcorn Hour players from Syabas, and new HDTVs from Panasonic and Sony. Other areas of increased availability include users with BT Vision set-top boxes and Freeview HD users; the latter thanks to a recent spec update that supports the MHEG-5 standard the app is built upon. Now it operates just like other Red Button interactive TV services, and the first device shipping with support is a Freeview+ HD DVR from Sony (as seen above.) It doesn't look like the Where to Get BBC iPlayer page has been updated with all the new devices yet, but it should be sooner rather than later, although we're still wondering when the Xbox 360 will join the crowd.
Man steers R/C car with his hands, not to mention an HTML5-based web app (video)
With the right Arduino board, an R/C race car, a couple paperclips and the MacGyver spirit, we imagine most anyone can hack together a creative remote control these days... but how many can open-source an HTML5 web app that'll do the deed from any tablet, phone or PC? Gaurav Manek crafted just such a thing, and he'll demonstrate it for you on an Apple iPad in the video immediately above. What's more, he's also got a Kinect hack that uses Microsoft depth camera (with Code Laboratories' NUI SDK) to control the very same with the wave of a well-placed hand -- we're already envisioning fisticuffs should he and a lab partner try for some head-to-head racing action. That said, you don't need to wait for an illustrious creator to have all the fun. Why not download his source code at our links below and give it a go yourself?
