This is the monthly archive for August 2009.
26 August 2009
Jason Grigsby discusses HTML5 from a mobile point of view and concludes, interestingly:
I believe the adoption of HTML5 will be driven by the needs of mobile, not the needs of desktop developers.
Why does he believe so? Because IE doesn't matter on mobile. Food for thought.
HTML5, Mobile | Permalink
25 August 2009
Joe Hewitt:
I have only one major complaint with the App Store, and I can state it quite simply: the review process needs to be eliminated completely.
Now that's an interesting idea, and to me it proves that the whole App Store thing is just a temporary fad, and that it does not form the future of the mobile web. After all, what's the point of an app store when apps aren't reviewed and weighed?
Enter apps that can be distributed by Bluetooth. Cool!
App stores | Permalink
WAPReview points out that Iris, the browser Blackberry just bought, has a widget engine and supports the Geolocation API as well as several HTML5 features. (I haven't tested these myself yet.)
The first, especially, is very interesting. Although Blackberry is supposed to have its own widget engine, it's rumoured to use Java wrappers around every individual widget, which is not optimal for interoperability.
WAPReview expects Blackberry to switch to WebKit, discarding its native rendering engine. That could be, I suppose; it all depends on how much (or little) the Blackberry engine resembles WebKit.
Blackberry | Permalink
RIM, the makers of Blackberry, acquires Torch Mobile, the makers of the (WebKit-based) Iris browser for Windows Mobile. Apparently the purpose is to improve the Blackberry browser.
Will Blackberry switch to WebKit? At the start of this year I heard a rumour they would, but couldn't find any evidence. Why did they buy a Windows Mobile browser? Maybe just because it was the only browser maker available — it's extremely unlikely that Blackberry is switching to Windows Mobile, after all.
Anyway, this is the first takeover of one browser by another I've ever heard of.
Blackberry | Permalink
24 August 2009
Why Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian S60 have trouble keeping up with iPhone and Android. The operating systems were not made for generic web access and web applications.
Mobile | Permalink
13 August 2009
Another browser speed test, this time for the client/server browsers Opera Mini, Bolt, Skyfire and UCWEB. Opera Mini (barely) wins.
Opera Mobile/Mini, Performance | Permalink
A browser performance test on mobile. Surprisingly, the S60 WebKit (five versions tested) is faster than either iPhone or Android.
The only thing I'm missing here is a reference to S60's extremely aggressive caching. Still, I might use the methodology described here myself later on.
Android, Performance, S60 WebKit, iPhone | Permalink
3 August 2009
Chris Messina discusses why the app store model will eventually fail.
App stores | Permalink
See the July 2009 archive.
This is the linklog of Peter-Paul Koch, mobile platform strategist, consultant, and trainer. You can also visit his QuirksBlog, or you can follow him on Twitter.
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