RSSMore Palm Pre goodies -- this time, it's HTML 5
By Angela Gunn | Published February 19, 2009, 6:10 PM
The giddiness continues over Palm's upcoming Pre handset, as attendees at a Mobile World Congress demo this week saw the much-anticipated handset running a version of Google Maps and an offline-ready Gmail entirely coded in HTML 5. And running them well, apparently.
For those who signed off from HTML somewhere around the blink-tag era, this is indeed the latest version of the specification, and the first to have two threads in parallel development -- HTML 5 and XHTML 5. (XHTML 5 is an iteration of XML and, if you like, a way of making HTML's relatively freewheeling markups work with XML's persnickety processing tools.) Tags can now give useful information about content types; most appealingly perhaps for developers, there are several new APIs to facilitate apps and improve interactivity.
AT MWC, Google VP Vic Gundorta showed off the new mobile stuff -- running, again, not as an application but on a Web page -- with evident glee at doing so on the Pre, calling it "one of [his] most favorite devices." Video appearing on Slashgear (and embedded below) showed Google Maps looking like ... well, Google Maps, essentially the same and you'd see it on your usual computer screen, though with the added charm of gestures.
For those among us more worried about guidance through the trackless wastelands of email, the version of Gmail shown included labels and the newly essential offline-access functionality. The Gmail improvements are also available for the iPhone and, of course, HTC's Magic Android.
Angela:
We get it, you positively gush over this phone. We get it. We get it.
Thanks,
I get it.
Score: 0
|The problem is the Pre is made by Palm has everyone already forgot what got Palm in trouble to begin with. No software support and no support for their devices. I will never buy another Palm product.
Score: -1
|Hi KSzostek -- actually, that's one of the things that interests me about the Pre, the move toward HTML/CSS/JavaScript. Really hoping it helps the software issue, especially if they're going to do the curated-store thing.
Score: 0
|Palm has been making some crazy choices, like a moth to a flame to a flame to another flame.
This is do or die time for them, though. If this doesn't work, they'll likely be history. Personally, my iPod touch does everything my Handspring Visor Deluxe ever did and probably does it better than a Palm Tungsten T|X.
I wish Palm well, but I think they're so far down that they won't return. The only thing that the Pre can do is to help Sprint with sales.
Score: 0
|Angela
I can only go by history I owned several palm devices up to the TX being my last, Palm has gone down hill for a long while and yes this is their last ditch effort to stay afloat.
So help me understand why they would choose Sprint to be their exclusive source for the PRE when Sprint is losing subscribers by the millions each quarter 1.3 million this last quarter!
2 failing companies equals yet more poor decisions. It is destined to fail.
My question also is was no one interested at AT&T, Verison or T-Mobile
Score: 0
|It is also worth noting that HTML 5 is a W3C Working Draft. That means that it is not finished yet, and that:
"Implementors should be aware that this specification is not stable. Implementors who are not taking part in the discussions are likely to find the specification changing out from under them in incompatible ways. Vendors interested in implementing this specification before it eventually reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage should join the aforementioned mailing lists and take part in the discussions."
So this is an interesting approach for Palm to take. And by "interesting" I mean "Wee, let's restart the browser wars!"
Score: 0
|Excellent point, Joseph D. OTOH, we know how it goes with the W3C; wait around for a working draft to be nailed down and you may well be trampled by everyone who didn't. I don't envy Palm (or anyone else working through HTML 5) that tightrope, no sir.
Score: 0
|Aye.
Just look at the WCAG guidelines.
1.0 released in 1999.
2.0 released in 2008.
9 years!
Score: 0
|@Angela
True. The problem is, you have many vendors working on it and several have a vested interest in gumming up the works so to speak. Look at all the fuss around the video and canvas elements, for example.
Score: 0
|it's worth noting that ie on it's best day supports probably 1% of the HTML5 new features, so windows mobile is bound to be the worst mobile os for another half decade or infinity... whichever comes first
Score: 1
|Does it really surprise you? Microsoft does not want the HTML spec to add things like video and canvas elements. They would much rather people use their proprietary, patent encumbered, Silverlight (AKA Silverturd) plug-in. Silverturd is how they are planning to extend their proprietary Windows APIs onto the web.
Smart organizations will stay far away from it However, most IT shops are led by totally clueless managers who will gladly lock their shops into a single vendor, in this case, Microsoft.
Score: 1
|Well that's quite a coincidence.
I just read an article that commented on the blink tag.
Yahboosucks to HTML 5, bring on XHTML 5.
Score: 0
|I detect a meme.
...and there's also marquee!
Score: 0
|NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO! (previous to be read in slow motion, as if I was throwing myself onto a grenade, WHICH I DID JUST NOW)
Score: 0
|