By Santthosh Babu Selvadurai, Senior Mobile Developer at InMobi

Why HTML5 and why now?

When it comes to touch-screen mobile devices, native applications have led the way in terms of performance, speed and tighter integration to specific platforms. Unbound by the need to conform to standards, native apps could rapidly take advantage of the latest hardware and operating system innovations, while Web technologies always had to wait for the international community to agree and implement standards first.

But with...

A recent study by Forrester Research has made the case for a single standardised web browser for internet users. The argument for this is that there are hidden costs involved in having multiple non-standardised browsers.

Of the 113 IT professionals who were surveyed, nearly all of them (96%) said they standardise on a single browser for use on work PC’s. Enterprises are now deciding whether to support non-standard browsers as the report suggests it can be costly. According to the firms which offered a multiple...

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has today published the complete definition of the HTML5 specification, allowing a more stable standard for businesses and developers to utilise.

“As of today, businesses know what they can rely on for HTML5 in the coming years, and what their customers will demand,” said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO, adding: “Likewise developers will know what skills to cultivate to reach smart phones, cars, televisions, ebooks, digital signs, and devices not yet known.”

The W3C had back...

When HTML5 is finally released in July 2014, it will change the face of the internet. This was recently reaffirmed by Designer and Consultant Jen Simmons who spoke at Event Apart, an annual design conference which this year was held in Chicago. In her speech she said that, “HTML is more than paving the cowpaths. "There's a lot of stuff in the spec about databases and communication protocols and blahdiblah backend juju. Some of that stuff is pretty radical. And it will change how you design websites."

In...

Ben Savage recently wrote an article on VentureBeat called “Why HTML5 has provided more tricks than treats in 2012″ criticising what he sees as its low-uptake and over-hype. He quoted Mark Zuckerberg as saying: “The biggest mistake we did as a company (this year) was bet too much on...

Results of a survey from Sencha have revealed that the majority of companies polled think that dev skills in Web technologies are a more vital skill than native development skills.

Just over two thirds of companies (68%) polled – comprising 1400 mobile developers, managers and corporate execs – stated that their best skills in development were in the likes of HTML5, JavaScript and CSS rather than iOS (14%) and Android (13%) native development.

This aligns with a number of prevalent HTML5 trends; not least the...

Kendo UI spoke to over 4,000 software developers, who reaffirmed that HTML5 was the real deal.

The majority of developers prefer the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) HTML5 spec as opposed to the WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) ‘living’ standard.

That’s one of the cornerstone findings from Kendo UI, a division of end-to-end solutions and tools provider Telerik, in a survey entitled ‘HTML5...

State of HTML5 video looks healthy for now, but how does LongTail Video's results compare with other tests?

LongTail Video, the creators of the JW Player, has updated its State of HTML5 Video report, which shows a healthy uptake for HTML5 video on browsers although isn’t at completion yet.

According to the research, nearly four in five browser and device manufacturers (79%) can play HTML5 video – in other...

DIY web publisher Wix has announced the launch of its app market, which allows the integration of third party apps to its website builder.

Garnering support from the likes of Instagram, Tumblr and SoundCloud, the Wix App Market will allow devs to offer apps to a user base of 25 million and counting worldwide.

Combined with this, the Israeli based start-up has released its latest software development kit (SDK), which can be seen here.

Wix, who back in July developed...

According to Ali Sarrafi, product evangelist and community manager at Swedish open-source tools company MoSync, HTML5 can survive and thrive in native app territory.

“One reason for web developers to want to go into the mobile app ecosystem in the...