Mark Pilgrim on HTML5

I wanted to find out a little more on developments on HTML5, and with a guy called Mark Pilgrim, who recently joined Google and is working on Google Chrome with emphasis on HTML5 and author of www.diveintohtml5.org. I decided to write him an email asking about what were the latest features of HTML5, and what to look forward to, he took a while to reply but here are his answers. Enjoy!

On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 1:41 PM, Hon wrote:
Hi Mark, my name is Hon and I'm a web developer in London, I write a blog at http://guinnesslee.wordpress.com and
http://www.mashupweb.co.uk, and would like to ask a few questions, if you do have time feel free to answer them.

Do you work closely in HTML5 with Google?

I work on Google Chrome, developing tests for interoperability with other browsers and fixing bugs where those tests fail. At the moment I'm working on IndexedDB compatibility.

What would you consider the best feature of HTML5?

In terms of maturity, canvas is the best. The fact that you can play Angry Birds in a browser ( http://chrome.angrybirds.com/ ) is huge,
and it will be a big part of Flash's inevitable downfall.

How are the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group
(WHATWG) close to finishing HTML5 and that W3C would put a stamp of approval upon it? It really has been a long time in waiting.

AFAIK, the W3C is publishing another draft next week and publishing the "final" version of HTML5 in October. But work continues on HTML.next. The web moves ever forward.

People are started to develop in HTML5 already which is great, but it has taken a while for large corporations to release web browser to be
compatible with HTML5, some organisations are still using IE6 to this day for their enterprise browsers, will they ever adopt to HTML5?

When Microsoft stops supporting Windows XP with security updates, these corporations will be forced to migrate. Until then, there's nothing we can do. They have internal applications that rely on quirks
in IE6 -- they don't even work in IE7. Even getting them up to IE8 will be a big improvement, and I suspect many of them will simply skip
to the latest version at the time (IE9 or IE10).

Finally, what official list of features does Google Chrome support for HTML5? You've also listed some features that IE9 don't support on your website, do you have the full list at all?

[These are not guaranteed to be up to date, but they are the best resources I know of.]

http://www.chromium.org/developers/web-platform-status
http://www.chromium.org/developers/web-platform-status/forms

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/ff468705

Hope this helps,
-Mark

HTC HD 7 Review

As the second and better of the two devices I will be getting from Microsoft, this is the device that’s really popular with the developers that I want to have, it is the HTC HD 7.

At first impressions, the device is certainly the bigger and classier at 162g, although it feels big, and making calls on it a bit cumbersome, the thinness of the device makes up for it and it feels more comfortable than the Omnia 7.  It has a whopping 4.3 inch screen with surfing the web, using the camera, and watching videos a luxury using this device. With it interface at 800 x 480 pixels capacitive touchscreen, it is lovely, and the processor is the same at Qualcomm 1Ghz Snapdragon but feels much more responsive than the LG Optimus 7. Everything from the tiling to the transitions, it slides, swoops and bounces with responsiveness on the device.It has an aluminium kick stand at the back for watching movies as well.

It has the usual specifications like the other Windows phones are the Wi-Fi,3G, and GPS, including HSDPA support a 7.2Mbs download with five megapixel camera, but the outstanding feature is the browsing experience. The thing however that is let down is the battery at only1,230mAh for such a large device, it only lasts less than a day. However it is the browsing experience that wins the order of the day with tabbed browsing enabled and browsing history although it does sometimes display to upgrade your flash player and the browsing speed isn’t always up to optimum speed. Other than that, the the framework allows caching, and loading up previous sites is fast, you can see more information as well as the offering more when zooming in, at times almost feeling like a tablet in terms of the browsing experience.

Read more: http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobile-phones/htc-hd7-review-50001091/

Summary of Windows Phone 7 Application Certification Requirements.

Updated for Version 1.3 released September 2010.

For reference, and having seen so many talks/slides/websites of the Windows Phone 7 Application Certification Requirements, and I may be releasing an app soon into the Windows phone 7 market, I decided to place a summary of the Windows Phone 7 Application Certification Requirements, from Shazami Design.

Here it is: -

Size:

· Over the air install up to 20MB;

· disclose additional data package if greater than 50MB;

· max XAP size 400MB;

Images:

Description
Pixels
File Type
Required
Location

Application Icon
62 x 62
PNG
Required
XAP

Application Tile Image
173 x 173
PNG
Required
XAP

Device application icon
99 x 99 small173 x 173 large
PNG, 262 dpi
Required
Marketplace catalog

Desktop application icon
200 x 200
PNG, 262 dpi
Required
Marketplace catalog

Panoramic background art
1000 x 800
PNG, 262 dpi
Optional
Marketplace

Screenshot
480 x 800
PNG
1-8 Required
Marketplace catalog

Performance:

· First screen render within 5 seconds (use splash screen)

· Responsive to user input within 20 seconds

Prompt User:

· Chat, instant messaging, or other person-to-person communication applications that all creation of accounts via phone device, must verify that user is at least 13 years old

· “Opt-in” consent for publishing personal information to any service or other person

· “Opt-in” consent for push notifications

· User-friendly error message on exception

· Visual progress bar with cancel option for time consuming activities

· Back button in games to present in-game pause menu or main menu with resume option

· Message if Location Service turned off in a location-aware application

· Explicit permission on first use of toast or tile notification

· Explicit permission on first run of application under a locked screen

· Apps that play their own background music must ask before stopping or adjusting music playback from Music + Video Hub

Settings screen:

· Enable/disable toast notification

· Enable/disable tile notification

· Enable/disable application from running under a locked screen

· Use/Override music from Music + Video hub

· Control own background music/adjust hub music (ex: volume)

Restrictions:

· May not require the user to pay outside of Windows Phone Marketplace to activate, unlock, upgrade, or extend usage of the application

· May not sell, link to, or promote mobile plans

· May not consist of, distribute, link to, or incent users to download, or otherwise promote alternate marketplaces for applications and/or games

· Must not jeopardize the security or functionality of phone devices or Marketplace

· Advertising must comply with http://advertising.microsoft.com/creative-specs

· Apps that allow purchase of music content must include Windows Phone music Marketplace as an option.

· For music not purchased through Windows Phone music Marketplace, app must include its own playback

· Content restrictions include: licensed, copyrighted, illegal, obscene, indecent, violent, defamatory, libelous, slanderous, threatening, hate speech, discriminatory, adult-related, promotes illegal activities, excessive alcohol, tobacco, weapons, drugs, violence, profanity

· PInvoke, COM interoperability, debug symbols, reflection were it affects phone capabilities, uncaught exceptions

· Must not include viruses, malware, or malicious software

Windows Phone 7 so far is doing fine in terms of growth rates in marketshare

I had randomly stumbled upon a blog site called myapplenewton.blogspot.com, and this person gave some interesting facts about WP7: -

His views are: -

* MS shipped 2 million units in the first 10 weeks after WP7 was launch.
* Google took 6 months to reach the 1 million mark with Android
* Apple took 10 weeks to sell its first 1 million iPhones
* 93% of WP7 users are satisfied or very satisfied
* 90% of WP 7 users would recommend it to others
* The market for Smart phones is huge and these WP7 sales figures are small in comparison
* It took Apples App Store 105 days to reach 7,500 apps
* It took WP7 Marketplace 83 days to reach 7,000 apps
* It took MS 135 days or 4 months and 15 days to add copy and paste to its OS
* Apple took 722 days or 1 year 11 months and 22 days to add copy and paste to its OS

* 9 months after its initial release Androids market share was at 2.8%. It took 18 months from initial release for Android's market share to reach 9%.

The last one being the most significant in my opinion, although it will slow down in the subsequent months later on this year it will be interesting what total market share it would by the end of the year, as PC World claims it has already reached 7% in the smartphone market, over double the growth of Android in the same period. But remember that Android was a relatively unheard of smartphone player at the time, and it took a lot longer to market the product as oppose to Microsoft which already has a brand established already.

If it trebles to 21% at least, then it is on course to be a contender, and also if Android increases more to 60-65% considering it is reaching its peak then they will be the major player. Will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Removing Latebinding using Pushpins to Bing Maps in WP7

 

Here I have specified an Bing Map Control XAML in WP7, and if you wish to add a pushpin with the content “you” on the map, the best way is inside that map control: -

<map Name="Map" CredentialsProvider="{Binding CredentialsProvider}" ZoomLevel="{Binding Zoom, Mode=TwoWay}" Center="{Binding Center, Mode=TwoWay}">
</map>

You write the following code:-

<map:MapLayer Visibility="{Binding UserPosition, Converter={StaticResource GeoCoordinateVisibilityConverter}}">

<map:Pushpin Location="{Binding UserPosition}" Content="you" />

</map:MapLayer>

This allows you to insert a pushpin in a layer, and collapses the layer as well, thus reduces the need for late-binding for setting a data context in Loaded event.

Hope that helps.

Asus EEE 1201N Review

Today, I collected my Asus EEE 1201N I had bought at Maplins, and I will explain why it was a fantastic deal and specification for a netbook, I reserved and bought it at Tottenham Court Road for £275 plus a notebook bag and screwdriver on a special discount offer taking £25 off £300. It is an amazing value for its price, and I haven’t seen any other netbook at that price that can top its graphics performance.

The chassis is reasonable, but a little plastic laered, but it is very good in terms of stability. The glossy surface does let it a little down, but the keyboard is clear and big to use for accurate input as it has a width of 280 mm.

The netbook is conventionally larger at 12.1 inch screen, at 1366 x 768 pixels due to HD resolution with fairly low distribution of brightness which can be seen as good and bad, good in terms of battery usage, bad due to poor lighting conditions and having a reflective display surface.

It houses an awesome 250Gb of hard disk, 2GB RAM to keep multiple programs running fine, if you use power hungry intensive applications, so switching them is at ease, and very responsive with chance to upgrade to 8Gb RAM.

The processor is so so as it uses the more power intense and older processor Atom 330 dual processor with clock rate of 1600MHz, although it can handle most things, it does deplete battery life to 4-5 hours leaving with disappointing battery life at average 4 hours 28 minutes.

The best thing of this netbook, clearly by a  mile is the graphics processing card, it is an Intel ION graphics, enough to play World of Warcraft at 30fps and FEAR 2 at 20.7fps, and Call Of Duty 4 at 33fps, and playing HD video perfectly fine as well displaying images very bright and vivid with HDMI support, it is a fantastic netbook for games and multimedia quite simply. It even has Asus’s Super Hybrid Engine that allows integrated overclocking in it for a plus 2% in the CPU performance. Its what I got it for frankly, and I hope to write more about it in the next months or so.

Windows 7 Experience Index

Processor

Calculations per second 3.3

Memory (RAM)

Memory operations per second 4.5

Graphics

Desktop performance for Windows Aero 3.9

Gaming graphics

3D business and gaming graphics 5.1

Primary hard disk

Disk data transfer rate 5.9

Nokia E7 Phones 4 U Advert

Here’s my Phones 4 U press advert for the Nokia E7, applied on facebook for a chance to win the Nokia E7, which I initially wanted to test out.

The competition will select the best definition of Succss is, and I hope mine can win it, as my definition is more of a caring, thoughtful, and meaningful definition of success.

Success is… not gaining in life or accomplishing for yourself. It’s what you can do to help others.