Reading List
Closing the gap
A look at some discussions and emerging standards that attempt to close the gap between usability of web and usability of native apps:
- Installable webapps: extend the sandbox – a proposal by Boris Smus of Google to allow web apps that are actually on the web (rather than packaged) use extended permissions
- Exposing privileged APIs to web content – similar to the above: “a discussion on the challenges we face in exposing privileged APIs to web content and a proposal for exposing such APIs to web pages by mitigating the risks inherent in doing so” by Rich Tibbett (Opera)
- Enabling new types of web user experiences – “In the court of public opinion, the war between native apps and web apps appears to be over. Even though the web world is valiantly and consistently improving the web platform, the world seems to have moved on, embracing and rewarding native apps.”
- requestAutocomplete – take my money, not my time – an article by @jaffathecake on the API that’s “a superhero in beige clothing”, eg that looks quite dull but which makes payments, especially on mobile, much easier
- What is EME (Encrypted Media Extensions)? asks (then answers) Mozilla’s Henri Sivonen: “soon the video DRM capability will be the only thing that Silverlight and Flash have but the HTML/CSS/JS platform doesn’t”
Standards
- initial-scale=1 makes Safari iOS react to orientation change by PPK
- If you don’t know about unicode and internationalization, it’s time to find out says Oli Studholme
- script[defer] doesn’t work in IE< =9
- How to Send a File Using WebRTC Data API
- ECMAScript Internationalization API by David Storey
- How to build a 3D City in 256 bytes with Canvas 2D by Opera’s p01.
- How does Flexbox relate to Grid Layout? Tabindex Atkins has the answer
- clarifying use of <section> – proposed change to spec of <section> to recommend use of a heading
- Sigh JavaScript – The best sites, only accessible to some.
- WinPhone 8 update 3: device-width in CSS @-ms-viewport rule now correctly renders pages
- Internet Explorer team: “Web Components are trying to solve a hard problem: we love the debate, but no support plan yet.”
Interesting
- Researcher Controls Another Person’s Brain Over the Internet – “Mr. Rao then sent a signal to Mr. Stocco’s brain, forcing him to move his right index finger to hit the “fire button in a computer game.”
- SEEN THROUGH GLASS – Stuart Langridge reveals himself to be a massive hipster and tries Google Glass
- The developed world has the most affordable mobile broadband – chart from The Economist
- iPhone IP Wars: Apple & the thorny issues of patent protection
- Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media – “We analyzed 700 million words, phrases, and topic instances collected from the Facebook messages of 75,000 volunteers, who also took standard personality tests, and found striking variations in language with personality, gender, and age” (Infographic)
- OUR LOGO LOOKS LIKE UNDERPANTS: A CASE STUDY IN INTERNATIONALIZATION – “Without exception, every tweet that ever suggested that our logo looks like underpants had come from the UK”
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“Installable webapps: extend the sandbox”
Bruce I love that you shared this!
I mean, this is an almost perfect approach to web apps. It’s a dream apart from the non-standardized iOS examples and the “Standalone app mode” idea that scares me (forcing the user into a full screen mode with no browser UI, no tabs, no URL field, and maybe even no “share button” if the web developer doesn’t provide one, it seems?). Also, it’d be easy for evil ads to abuse the “system” and display fake “Install app” buttons on pages making users accept to permissions of what in reality is malware.
I’ve been getting really curious to know how Opera sees the future for its users now that web apps are a thing and that packaged web apps are more of a browser vendor lock-in than anything else (because of the non-standard development APIs/languages).
Initially I thought it’d be related to the NEX extension format somehow as if sites would be able to suggest the installation of extensions that would bring to the user the acknowledgement about the permissions required and the whole mechanism to display notifications, access hardware, etc. But my thought looks obsolete now! I was trying to imagine something close to the packaged apps model and extensions were the things of more resemblance. 😛
So, do your personal view fit with Boris Smus’ suggestions? Can we please know more about what direction Opera Software is heading also?