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Not being an ios dev, I didn't understand the tech they actually are using. Is the article saying that the linked in app is basically some sort of web container

Not being an ios dev, I didn't understand the tech they actually are using. Is the article saying that the linked in app is basically some sort of web container (webkit?) and everything on the screen is actually html/javascript being interpreted by the web container? Didn't google put out a "gmail app" recently, which was basically a web container with all content in html? I remember there being a backlash because it wasn't a true native app. Did that app have a different problem? Is it feasible to create nice, usable iphone/ipad apps using mostly html/js (but have them look like native apps)/

sosuke 14y ago
Go to slide two and you will see a massive amount of text content. Those instances are perfect examples of when a UIWebView is a perfect vehicle for organizing information that HTML and CSS do best. Several apps like this one do similar stuff when presented with marking up text blocks.
alaskamiller 14y ago
Apple's App Store app is mostly HTML too. This is a trend piece pointing out how web techonlogies is seeing more real world uses by big name corporations, though not a particularly new trend.
- potatolicious 14y ago
  The App Store app is also aggravatingly slow, just like every other heavily-webview'ed app (Facebook, and now LinkedIn I guess). Note that desktop apps that try to do this fare little better - iTunes is widely hated by its own users for being bloated and slow, particularly the store component, which is entirely webviews. In the mobile space right now, these webview'ed apps seem to be heavily sacrificing user experience for developer experience, which is something I cannot agree with.
  - marknutter 14y ago
    you've just described every website, ever, yet they have managed to become quite popular despite the superior performance of native applications.
    - potatolicious 14y ago
      Right-o, except these webview-driven apps have all the weaknesses of websites and none of the advantages. A website, from the perspective of the user, has the advantage of being entirely frictionless - anyone with a browser can use any website anywhere without downloading, installing, or configuring anything, and it's always up to date. A webview-driven app still gets out of date, and still presents the significant friction of making the user install something... all the while enjoying none of the usability benefits of going native. It should also be noted that the performance gap between web and native on desktops is at least two orders of magnitude less than it is on mobile. The difference between a website vs. a connected native app on desktop can be something on the order of milliseconds - below user-perceptible time. The difference between, say, the iOS browser vs. a connected native app, is on the order of seconds, if not tens of seconds. On a desktop with a broadband connection, the difference between a highly optimized 1KB JSON call vs. a 500KB full HTML-CSS-JS content blob is really a rounding error - below user-perceptible time. On a mobile that translates into seconds where the user is entirely non-interactive - and this is before we even get into the performance difference in rendering and input. Hell, part of the reason why apps have taken off in mobile (where they haven't on desktop) is because of this crucial difference. People hate using websites on mobiles, even mobile-optimized ones. The browser is such a poor experience on most mobiles that people will actively seek out the Store/Market, authenticate, and download huge binaries just to get the better UX.

sosuke 14y ago

Go to slide two and you will see a massive amount of text content. Those instances are perfect examples of when a UIWebView is a perfect vehicle for organizing information that HTML and CSS do best. Several apps like this one do similar stuff when presented with marking up text blocks.

alaskamiller 14y ago

Apple's App Store app is mostly HTML too. This is a trend piece pointing out how web techonlogies is seeing more real world uses by big name corporations, though not a particularly new trend.

potatolicious 14y ago
The App Store app is also aggravatingly slow, just like every other heavily-webview'ed app (Facebook, and now LinkedIn I guess). Note that desktop apps that try to do this fare little better - iTunes is widely hated by its own users for being bloated and slow, particularly the store component, which is entirely webviews. In the mobile space right now, these webview'ed apps seem to be heavily sacrificing user experience for developer experience, which is something I cannot agree with.
- marknutter 14y ago
  you've just described every website, ever, yet they have managed to become quite popular despite the superior performance of native applications.
  - potatolicious 14y ago
    Right-o, except these webview-driven apps have all the weaknesses of websites and none of the advantages. A website, from the perspective of the user, has the advantage of being entirely frictionless - anyone with a browser can use any website anywhere without downloading, installing, or configuring anything, and it's always up to date. A webview-driven app still gets out of date, and still presents the significant friction of making the user install something... all the while enjoying none of the usability benefits of going native. It should also be noted that the performance gap between web and native on desktops is at least two orders of magnitude less than it is on mobile. The difference between a website vs. a connected native app on desktop can be something on the order of milliseconds - below user-perceptible time. The difference between, say, the iOS browser vs. a connected native app, is on the order of seconds, if not tens of seconds. On a desktop with a broadband connection, the difference between a highly optimized 1KB JSON call vs. a 500KB full HTML-CSS-JS content blob is really a rounding error - below user-perceptible time. On a mobile that translates into seconds where the user is entirely non-interactive - and this is before we even get into the performance difference in rendering and input. Hell, part of the reason why apps have taken off in mobile (where they haven't on desktop) is because of this crucial difference. People hate using websites on mobiles, even mobile-optimized ones. The browser is such a poor experience on most mobiles that people will actively seek out the Store/Market, authenticate, and download huge binaries just to get the better UX.