3 ms·

seems a pretty obvious outcome, but only for apps/webapps that are content-oriented, not for apps that actually use custom mobile device hardware. like gps, sms

seems a pretty obvious outcome, but only for apps/webapps that are content-oriented, not for apps that actually use custom mobile device hardware. like gps, sms, multitouch. in the meantime, my android browser doesn't seem to be caching websites aggressively enough, because it seems to take up to several seconds to load the (few) bookmarks i have. so native content-oriented apps are faster, for now.

iseff 16y ago
There are certainly features that are better suited for native apps, but the ones you stated aren't necessarily them. For example, GPS is doable on both Android and iPhone OS. Multitouch is also doable (check out Google Maps on the web on iPhone for an example here). Accelerometer, native graphics, etc are the key features I think about that are not well suited for web apps. My startup, AppStoreHQ (http://www.appstorehq.com http://www.appstorehq.com), is a huge believer of mobile web apps, and we even have a private alpha going on for monetizing your mobile web app (check out an example like fortysquires: http://fortysquires.com http://fortysquires.com ).
- raganwald 16y ago
  Another example of multi-touch is Naughts and Crosses, one of the two demos I made for the iGesture jQuery plugin: http://github.com/raganwald/iGesture http://github.com/raganwald/iGesture After drawing some naughts and crosses, you can rotate the board by placing two fingers on the screen and rotating them 45 degrees or more. It's all Javascript and jQuery.
- mcav 16y ago
  Accelerometer would work just fine, if iPhone OS exposed a javascript event for it. (Not even all that CPU-intensive either.)
- vorador 16y ago
  Ain't you afraid of running into legal trouble because of your startup's name ?
pg 16y ago
It will be in the interest of every other device manufacturer to expose such things to web apps, and that will pressure Apple to follow suit.
- johnrob 16y ago
  Every time I propose that the web will win out on devices, the argument of inaccessible mobile hardware always comes up. The best counter argument is justin.tv - that runs in a browser, and clearly has no problem finding your camera. Why couldn't a solution arise on mobile devices too? Thinking even more generally, what makes a mobile device so different than a PC? Why would the evolution we've seen on PCs play out any differently on handsets?

iseff 16y ago

There are certainly features that are better suited for native apps, but the ones you stated aren't necessarily them. For example, GPS is doable on both Android and iPhone OS. Multitouch is also doable (check out Google Maps on the web on iPhone for an example here). Accelerometer, native graphics, etc are the key features I think about that are not well suited for web apps. My startup, AppStoreHQ (http://www.appstorehq.com http://www.appstorehq.com), is a huge believer of mobile web apps, and we even have a private alpha going on for monetizing your mobile web app (check out an example like fortysquires: http://fortysquires.com http://fortysquires.com ).

raganwald 16y ago
Another example of multi-touch is Naughts and Crosses, one of the two demos I made for the iGesture jQuery plugin: http://github.com/raganwald/iGesture http://github.com/raganwald/iGesture After drawing some naughts and crosses, you can rotate the board by placing two fingers on the screen and rotating them 45 degrees or more. It's all Javascript and jQuery.
mcav 16y ago
Accelerometer would work just fine, if iPhone OS exposed a javascript event for it. (Not even all that CPU-intensive either.)
vorador 16y ago
Ain't you afraid of running into legal trouble because of your startup's name ?

pg 16y ago

It will be in the interest of every other device manufacturer to expose such things to web apps, and that will pressure Apple to follow suit.

johnrob 16y ago
Every time I propose that the web will win out on devices, the argument of inaccessible mobile hardware always comes up. The best counter argument is justin.tv - that runs in a browser, and clearly has no problem finding your camera. Why couldn't a solution arise on mobile devices too? Thinking even more generally, what makes a mobile device so different than a PC? Why would the evolution we've seen on PCs play out any differently on handsets?