This week I had the chance to play around with the first preview release of Adobe Edge. Edge allows web designers and developers to create web standards based animation without doing any coding whatsoever. Reminiscent of the way in which Flash helped to open the world of web animation to designers from non-technical backgrounds, Edge stands poised to lower the barrier to entry into HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript animations. In an environment that has seen Flash become somewhat of a pariah, embracing the open web is a logical way forward for Adobe. While it’s still very early in development, Adobe has managed to do some impressive things with Edge, and releasing it this early demonstrates that they are serious about incorporating user feedback into future iterations. Now, let’s get under the hood… (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘HTML5’
A Hands-On Look at Adobe Edge
Friday, August 12th, 2011Why Won’t IE6 Die?
Thursday, July 7th, 2011
A few weeks ago, WordPress announced that it was dropping support for Internet Explorer 6. For now, this will only affect blog writers and publishers, but this could soon affect viewers and readers of these blogs as well.
WordPress is definitely not the first to make this kind of announcement. Google announced that it will not support IE6 when it makes new improvements to its YouTube, Gmail Notifier and Google Docs services. Facebook, White Pages, Digg and many more sites are also on-board.
Microsoft, the maker of IE6, has been actively promoting its website http://www.ie6countdown.com to encourage and explain why people should move away from the browser. IE6 is two-months short of its tenth birthday, making it a real relic in a technology landscape where new browser versions are announced every 3-4 months. In fact, trying to load most websites on IE6 will bring up a very intrusive graphic encouraging the user to upgrade. (more…)
Death of Silverlight Greatly Exaggerated
Friday, November 5th, 2010
Late last week a number of posts popped up online talking about the “death of Silverlight”. These posts were roughly based on a piece by Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet, who had reported on Microsoft’s change in strategy around Silverlight. Based on what Mary Jo saw at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) last week, Silverlight was more in the shadows than at previous conferences, so she spoke with Bob Muglia, Microsoft’s President in charge of the company’s server and tools business and got the scoop on Microsoft’s change in strategy with Silverlight. Bob stated that “Silverlight is our development platform for Windows Phone”, and he went on to state that it also has some “sweet spots” for media and business applications. However, he stated, for cross-platform development Microsoft was putting its weight behind the only real alternative at the moment, HTML5. (more…)
A Step Closer to Universal RIAs
Thursday, September 16th, 2010
A move by Apple this week to ease up on its restrictions for the creation of mobile applications for the Apple App Store is a step forward toward universal rich internet applications (RIAs). Back in April 2010, Apple tried to restrict how companies could code and build their applications. The company’s justification was that the restrictions were in place to protect quality and ensure security. However, it really just closed the door for many companies who were unable or unwilling to build technology using native development.
With Apple loosening up their restrictions, businesses can now create applications with a variety of technologies and tools and port them over to an Apple-friendly format. Abode is a step ahead in this race, as they had already rolled out the Packager for iPhone with CS5 to applications to an Apple format. As of today, Flash content in a browser is still restricted. (more…)
YouTube and Hulu Say HTML5 Video Not Ready for Prime Time
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
When companies like Apple and Scribd start using HTML5 for their offerings, organizations start to question whether they should be using it for their own applications. However, it’s important to remember that while HTML5 has made strong strides lately, it is still in the draft development phase and it is early for organizations to rely solely on it for their core business applications.
This point was clear when YouTube posted a rather lengthy blog post about its experience with the HTML5 <video> tag and how it does not yet meet the company’s rather intense requirements. Features like full-screen video, access to cameras and microphones, embedding content on other sites, and live video streaming are not yet fully supported by HTML5 <video>. (more…)
Why does it have to be HTML5 vs Flash?
Friday, June 25th, 2010
Why is it that when people talk about technology they reduce the concepts down to a black and white comparison? It’s always one technology against another or one product that’s good and one that’s bad.
This is case in point with the recent battle that’s emerged between HTML5 and Flash. HTML5 is being touted by developers, bloggers and press alike as the new “Flash Killer”. This angle seems to be based on the one-dimensional view that Flash is only used for video (rather than the full spectrum of game, 3D and application development it’s really suited for), and that the fast and reliable video support that’s offered with HTML5 will make it the new choice for developers. But don’t count Flash as dead yet, it still offers a number of unique features that are not yet supported in HTML5, such as live streaming, DRM, and rich video controls. Plus it has a much greater span of support than HTML5 does today. (more…)
