New Mobile Safari Features To Take WebApps To The Next Level
November 23, 2010
Apple has invested heavily in iOS 4.2. In doing so, the Cupertino, California-based company is advertising the update’s most noticeable improvements such as multitasking, folder creation and AirPlay. However, mobile Safari has also seen significant updates as well.
Apple’s default browser for the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad includes many enhancements which will bring joy to developers. These include: accelerometer & gyroscope support, WebSockets and updated HTML5 form support.
For most users, these terms don’t mean too much. But, for developers, Apple, in offering these tools is making the creation of webapps much better.
As Apple CEO Steve Jobs has stressed in the past, his company is actually supporting two platforms on its mobile devices: the App Store and webapps. Unlike apps in the App Store, webapps can be edited by developers “on the fly” and require no approval process. The closer webapps become to native apps, the more choices customers will have in the long run.
The folks at Mobile Web Programming have been testing the new mobile Safari and created a web page to showoff some of its features. If you have an iOS 4.2 device, go to ad.ag/wjmtgt from the Safari browser. You'll have fun moving around the red ball!
Next, check out this video:
Both the site, and video show Apple's new accelerometer & gyroscope support in action.
Apple has released API documentation for the accelerometer and gyroscope. See DeviceMotionEvent Class Reference and DeviceOrientation Class Reference for more information.
