This is how the open-source PhoneGap framework operates: it fills the gap by exposing native features as web services, which the web view calls using a standard networking API. When you build a hybrid app like this, you’re also able to hook into those platform features like widgets, notifications, and intents.
Most mobile websites still rely on clicking (actually, tapping) buttons to navigate through sections that should really be using inertial scrolling, like photo galleries. That’s unfortunate, because flicking through pages is a far more comfortable than tapping on small “next” and “previous” buttons. My hope is that Scrollability will encourage mobile web developers to be more like native app developers, and use inertial scrolling when it makes sense, rather than falling back on desktop conventions.
But recently, we’ve seen some extremely important game-changers: jQuery, JSON, Node.js, and HTML5. JavaScript may have been a perfectly adequate language in the past, but these changes (and a few others that I’ll point out) have made JavaScript a language that is essential for every developer to know. If there’s one language you need to learn in the next year, it’s JavaScript.
As of August 1st, we will discontinue support for the following browsers and their predecessors: Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari 3. In these older browsers you may have trouble using certain features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites, and eventually these apps may stop working entirely.
Snapshots contain every object from the JavaScript heap, so you can explore them in detail and find out how much memory every object of your application consumes. In addition, the heap profiler takes into account native DOM nodes, and allows you to uncover DOM-related memory leaks.
The plan is to keep releasing Beta’s as changes go in, put out release candidates in the next few weeks, and release bbPress 2.0 by the end of June (in tandem with WordPress 3.2.)
Despite WebP’s present limitations and lack of clear competitive advantages, it seems like Google is still making meaningful progress. The WebP format isn’t ready for widespread adoption today, but further optimization and perhaps a rethinking of the container format could someday make it successful.
Last week, WordPress dropped support for IE6 and joined the hundreds of other web sites that are working to move enterprises and consumers alike to a modern browser platform. Thank you!
