HTML5 Boilerplate
Another “HTML5” (with some new Javascript and new CSS rules) starting point.
A pack containing a rudimentary baseline HTML5 document, with CSS and JS files. It sounds like a does a bit more than it needs to do, but I suppose in this case that’s better than not enough.
A heck of a demo to start off your monday morning. Comes in an LGPL 3 package of C++ and JS code.
Over the last few months, user engagement on Scribd has surged, according to CEO Trip Adler, thanks to its transition to HTML5, the introduction of the iPad, and Scribd’s Facebook integration. Of these three factors, Adler says the conversion from Flash to HTML5 was by far the greatest driver for his document sharing company. According to Scribd’s numbers, time on the site has tripled in the last three months.
Anyone surprised? Make your content easier to read and interact with and more people will do so.
An Apple-sanctioned HTML5 demo site. This is a good first step towards getting serious about HTML5, in the sense of actually building things.
Things of note: Most of these aren’t HTML5 per-se, and they won’t work in other browsers that don’t use webkit, due to Apple only using their vendor-prefixed CSS attributes (-webkit
).
Adobe wants people to use Flash to play videos, primarily because they own the technology behind it (which makes them lots of money), and have enjoyed the majority of video on the web being played via Flash for quite some time. Adobe, by virtue of owning Flash, is the only real player in the Flash playing and video encoding game. They want Flash on every device in the world, so they can sell their tools to author Flash. Adobe as a company still makes most of their money on selling people tools to make things with. Adobe has spent a lot of money making Flash and their Flash editing tools.
Apple wants people to use H.264 to play videos, primarily because their mobile devices (which make them a ton of money) can decode the video stream in hardware which is a big win in battery life .vs. decoding in software like Flash. Apple controls the decoding of H.264 on the Mac and iPhone/iPad lines, so they don’t have to wait for anyone else when they want to do something new with it. Apple has spent a lot of money and time making H.264 work great on their devices.
Google just wants people to play videos. They’d prefer it if the technology used to encode and playback those videos didn’t belong to anyone, so they don’t have to deal with the politics of being nice to some other company because they need their support vis-a-vis video. They bought a company called On2 and open sourced a video codec and container format (which may have some severe patent problems) to accomplish this end and try to diffuse the situation. Google is the only company in this tug-o-war who actually makes money selling videos, or more precisely, renting the eyeballs of people who are viewing videos to advertisers.
Due to the above, video on the web is a nightmare right now. There is no video format you can encode to that will play in the big three: Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, unless you want to use Flash to play the video. Which means users will need to have Flash installed on their device, in which case it will not play on the largest mobile device market: the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, or even current releases of the smaller ones, like Android, which also do not support Flash. If you encode to H.264, it won’t play in Firefox or the current version of Internet Explorer (8), but will work in Safari, Chrome (on the Mac), and the upcoming version of Internet Explorer (9). Adobe has pledged to support WebM in it’s Flash products.
There is no way Apple is going to support WebM for their mobile platform unless it can be decoded in hardware. Broadcomm, a major producer of chips for mobile device, has announced a chip which will decode VP8 in hardware, but this is fairly new development. It is not unreasonable to consider that Apple has plenty of so-called “skunkworks” projects to play all kinds of Video content on iPhone and iPad, but it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll see any new video support in the upcoming new iPhone model.
As some anticipated, Google has open-sourced the VP8 codec they acquired in their purchase of On2 Technologies on 17 February this year. They’ve taken the VP8 video codec and combined it with Ogg audio, and a new container format to create the WebM project: “a broadly-backed community effort to develop a world-class media format for the open web.”
If you’ve been following the HTML5 video
debate, this is very interesting news, indeed.
This is certainly the death knell for Theora, and depending on just how good VP8 is it may be a serious competitor to H.264. There are two big hurdles for WebM’s adoption:
Getting browsers to support the format, so it makes sense for content producers to use it and
Hardware decoders for mobile devices. Software decoding just isn’t going to cut it. Part of H.264’s strength is that it runs great on iPhone and iPod Touch and iPad. The reason: All of those devices have built-in hardware decoding for the codec. I highly doubt Apple will ever include hardware decoding for a directly competing tech like VP8.
Vorbis audio is still kind of a stinker compared to AAC, but WebM doesn’t need James Cameron to be on board with this for the project to be successful. They just need to start making some dents.
Great guide from Mark Pilgrim, who’s Dive Into HTML5 is essential.
Microsoft seems to be running with HTML5 in a real way, and that is really great news for people who make websites.
It’s got a not-great ACID3 score, right now, but it’s nice to know they actually give a shit. For once.
Written in HTML5, no need to interact with the App Store at all, it’s available immediately. Funny how that works out.
A shame, but I can’t say I’m particularly surprised. Firefox may have to join the H.264 bandwagon or get left behind.
I like the idea of Vorbis, but if I’m authoring video I’m thinking it’s not worth my time right now.
It is a set of libraries, tools and presets to create pixelated indie-style 8/16-bit era games in Javascript that runs in your browser without any Flash plugin, making use of a small small small subset of the HTML5 features, that are actually available on many modern browsers.
There are 5 really nice demos, to boot. Works on iPhone.
A good introduction to the highlights of HTML5, using the code itself for examples. Best viewed in a browser that, you know, supports HTML5.
Simultaneously taking Ogg out back and putting one it’s ear and making the streaming video wars much more interesting. Gruber’s questions are my own: Will Apple or Microsoft support VP8? And will Google support it at YouTube?
It’s nice to be able to link to something GOOD that Adobe is doing. With Apple putting the kibosh on their Flash -> iPhone bridge, this is an even bigger deal. Apple does not, yet, control HTML.
Feel the power of WebGL, Canvas, HTML5 Works in WebKit nightlies, Chrome development build. See also: More on how to make it work.
Which for them means H.264, apparently, and no Ogg support. I’m glad to see the IE team getting on board, but I wish Ogg was a more viable option for authoring web video.
As it stands, it’s really not worth authoring two formats of video (Ogg and H.264) if you’re aiming at accommodating the most people for the least effort/space. I imagine most places will author an H.264 version and a Flash or Silverlight version, just based on usage.