5 reasons why HTML5 will be huge

Technology is an ever-changing alphabet soup of acronyms and hype, and here at Firstpost, we’ll help you sort the buzz you need to know from the buzz you can ignore.

An update to the mark-up language for web pages, HTML, doesn’t usually elicit much excitement, but then again, it’s been a while since the last major changes to HTML, HTML4 was standardised back in 1997. The fifth generation of the code that creates the Web is a leap forward, and it’s poised to jump-start the next wave of Web innovation online, offline and on the move.

Here are five reasons why you need to watch HTML5.

1. Offline storage: HTML5 brings a host of desktop like power to web applications, and one of the features that media organisations such as the Financial Times are already using is HTML5’s offline storage capabilities. That means that you can cache content or use a web app to use when you’re not connected to the Internet. An e-commerce HTML5 application could allow people to add items to buy later and then finish the purchase when they are back online.

Geolocation is one of the features being brought to the next generation Web. Marjan Krebelj/Flickr

2. Location: This isn’t part of HTML5, but geolocation is one of the features being brought to the next generation Web. If you use Safari, Chrome of Firefox 4 and newer, then you might have already seen a pop-up asking if you want to allow a website to access your location. That means, it’s not just your mobile phone that knows where it’s at anymore. Modern Web browsers can also access location on desktop computers or other non-mobile devices based on location information connected to WiFi hotspots. Businesses could deliver deals to you based on your location. You could get weather and traffic information based on where you are at without having to enter your location. Privacy-sensitive features are also being built into the specification to help keep your information and you safe.

3. Advanced graphics: Canvas is a new Javascript graphics library that brings a lot a host of animation effects that previously were only available via Adobe’s Flash. If you’d like to get a sense of the power of these applications, you can already play simple games all based in the browser. If you want to see the power of these graphics elements and other features of HTML5, check out this presentation all created using the new mark-up language. It’s like PowerPoint with nothing more than a web browser.

4. Multimedia: Good bye plug-ins. We all remember the bad old days when to play audio or video on the web, you often ran into a message saying that you needed this plug-in or that plug-in. It got better when Adobe’s Flash became the dominant way to play multimedia on the web, but now, HTML5 can easily allow audio and video playback without any plug-ins at all.

5. WORA – Write once. Run anywhere: The first generation of the Web was strictly about desktop computers, and the mobile web was a horrible experience. Until smartphones raised the bar for the mobile Web, there were literally hundreds of different mobile browsers. It made it extremely difficult to develop sites for mobile. With the rise of tablets and smart TVs, the Web is ready to conquer new devices. In the past, new devices meant new browsers, which meant a real headache for developers. With HTML5, browsers are much more standardised from the mobile Safari browser in the iPhone to the browser in Android handsets. Hitachi, Samsung and LG all use HTML5 browsers based on the Webkit technology that is the basis of Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome.

There were only 109m devices in 2010 that were HTML5 capable, but that is expected to jump to 2.1bn mobile devices by 2016, according to research by ABI Research. This is a huge opportunity, and while HTML5 won’t be finalised until 2014, that’s not stopping forward-looking companies

Microsoft doubles down on HTML5 and Javascript – Now Microsoft Office

Microsoft officials have made it clear that HTML5 and JavaScript are going to be key to Microsoft’s Office 15.

Microsoft is going to be creating a new generation of Office development tools that will focus on HTML5 and JavaScript. And it seems the tools will target not just Office, but also Office 365 as a development platform.

A Microsoft job posting for a software development engineer explains the plan:

“Now is the time to take Office programmability to the next level. We’re a small but strong team within Visual Studio that is currently in the planning stages for Office 15 programmability tools. One of our key goals is to enable professional developers to contribute to the Office platform by making development for Office as easy and fun as building applications for the next version of Windows! Integration of JavaScript/HTML5 will enable developers to create rich applications that span clients and server, integrate with Office 365, enhance the SharePoint experience, and unlock new scenarios that unleash the great potential that lies in the combination of Office and the cloud.”

انٹرنیٹ کتابوں کامحافظ بن گیا

نیویارک: چھوٹے گوداموں سے لے کر تاریک گلیوں میں انٹرنیٹ دنیا میں خطرے سے لاحق ایک چیز کے تحفظ کے لئے آگے آگیا وہ ہے لکھے ہوئے لفظ۔

50 سالہ Brewster Kahle نے ہر کتاب کی جو چاہے جہاں مرضی شائع ہوئی ہوان سب کو انٹرنیٹ پر محفوظ کرنے کا بیڑہ اٹھایا ہے۔

ان کا کہنا ہے کہ ہم کتابوں کو ہمیشہ زندہ دیکھنا چاہتے ہیں مگر موجودہ عہد کی ٹیکنالوجی نے عام کتابوں کا مستقبل تاریک کردیا ہے۔

اس وقت تک وہ 5 لاکھ کتابیں جمع کر چکے ہیں اور انہیں انٹرنیٹ میں منتقل کرنے کا کام جاری ہے۔

Brewster Kahle نے ایک کروڑ کتابیں جمع کرنے کا ابتدائی ہدف مقرر رکھا ہے یہ تعداد مجموعی طور پر ایک بڑی یونیورسٹی کے لائبریری کے برابر ہوتی ہے۔

ان کا کہنا ہے کہ اگرچہ دنیا کی ہر کتاب کی ایک کاپی کا حصول ممکن نہیں لگتا مگر ہمارا اصل ہدف وہی ہے۔

“Open” Web Browsers Now Majority Of Web — WebKit Continues Rise

A month just ended, which means new stats. In the world of web browsers, there are two particularly interesting ones of significance. One points to “open” web browsers now in the majority amongst those that surf the web. Another points to WebKit browsers passing Firefox, to claim the number two position amongst web surfers.

As first noticed by Google’s Peter Beverloo this morning, StatCounter’s July numbers show that Firefox and Chrome, when combined, now account for over 50 percent of web browsing. Technically, Firefox now has a 27.95 percent share, while Chrome has 22.14 percent. Combined, their 50.09 percent easily beat IE’s 42.45 percent.

“According to StatCounter, open-source browsers now serve the majority of the Web!,” Beverloo wrote this morning. Technically, that’s sort of inaccurate since it’s Chromium and not Chrome itself that is open-source, but we’ll let it slide. Any way you slice it, the milestone is pretty amazing. Especially when you consider that as late as 2006 by some counts, IE still had over 90 percent market share.

StatCounter’s numbers also show something else: Chrome is rising so fast that it should surpass Firefox in the next few months. As the numbers above indicate, the two are now just under 6 percent apart — the closest they’ve ever been. And while Chrome continues to rise, Firefox has been falling for the past year. If that trend continues, Chrome should surpass Firefox before the end of this year.

Of course, that’s just one measurement tool. There are many out there. And another shows something else interesting for the month of July: WebKit browsers are now second to only IE, as AppleInsider pointed out earlier today.

NetMarketShare’s numbers point to this milestone. They have Chrome at 13.49 percent and Safari at 8.10 percent. Combined, that puts the WebKit-based browsers at 21.59 percent, just ahead of Firefox’s 21.47 percent. IE still has 52.71 percent share, by their count.

Why the discrepancy between the two sets of stats? One reason is that NetMarketShare’s numbers include all browsers on all platforms, while StatCounter’s numbers focus on computer-based browsing. In other words, mobile browsing is included in one, but not the other. That’s why Safari is much higher in NetMarketShare’s numbers (StatCounter has Safari at 5.17 percent — still an all-time high there).

Another reason for the differences are is that the two services rely on different ways of getting their numbers. Regardless, the trends are clear when you look at both sets of stats: IE continues to fall, Firefox continues to dwindle, Safari continues to rise slowly, while Chrome continues to skyrocket. This means good things for both “open” web browsers (Chrome + Firefox) and WebKit browsers (Chrome + Safari).

For what it’s worth, TechCrunch’s own numbers show the same basic trends: Chrome and Safari have been on the rise for some time now, while Firefox and IE have been falling. The difference is that Chrome is already the dominant browser on TechCrunch (and has been for some time) — in fact, it’s now nearly a full 10 percent past number two, (and long-time champ) Firefox. Chrome had a 32.64 percent browser share amongst TechCrunch readers in July, while Firefox had 23.59 percent.

10 small but brilliant things about Google Plus

Have you heard about all the nifty things the new Google Plus social network can do? Of course you have. But have you dug around to see what’s really good beyond the headline items? Well we have, and we’ve brought back some small yet superb details to crow about.

1: Post-publish editing… Enough said

Inspiration comes a lot faster than clean, conscientious copy. On most social networks, that’s just too bad. Twitter and Facebook don’t let you clean up your words or remove photos — you have to delete your post entirely and destroy the comment or reply chain. Google+ provides a little arrow in the upper-right corner of all your posts that drops down to offer editing — as well as comment striking, turning off comments, and yes, post deletion if things really went the wrong way.

2: Handy chat client to unburden Gmail

Google+ has the same kind of built-in Gmail/AIM chat window in its lower-left corner that Gmail offers. Gmail, which now does far more than it was originally built for (including free phone calls), could use some help lightening its loading time and memory bulk. So consider keeping Gmail for email and opening Google+ when you are available to be social.

3: The universal Google toolbar

Once you’ve activated Google+, nearly every Google Web service shows a kind of universal toolbar, black and seemingly bolted to the top of your viewing window. It provides universal notifications about new Google+ happenings in a little red number square, quick posting to your Google+ stream, and a quick click to see your profile. But it also somewhat normalizes the links to other Google services you’ll see (Gmail, Calendar, Documents, etc.) and provides a consistent feeling to Google’s Web services, a win/win for both the search giant and its most dedicated users.

4: Drag-and-drop sharing

Technically, yes, you can grab links from other Web pages and drop them into Facebook or Twitter for sharing. But Google+ lets you snag photos, links, YouTube videos, and other items and just drag them into the sharing panel. You can even drag Web items into the Share box on that black Google toolbar we mentioned above for truly lazy content making.

5: Simultaneous YouTube video watching for groups

The group video chat Hangouts inside Google+ have received lots of attention and rave reviews, and for good reason. Hangouts are like group Skype chats, just with Google helping on the server side and with a more polite single-focus video window. But the part that gets less play is how everyone in the Hangout can see the same YouTube video at once, watching it in real time and commenting on specific moments (in text by default, but by voice if you’d like). That’s handy for training, presentation critiques, and other moments when you can’t all be around the same screen.

6: Keyboard shortcuts, both built-in and add-on

Like most Google products, Google+ has a good built-in list of keyboard shortcuts that let you run through stream items, start a new post, and generally navigate the social realm without reaching for your mouse or moving your fingers onto the trackpad. If you want even more no-pointer-needed functionality, try the Google+ Manager for Firefox or Goo Plus Manager in Chrome.

7: Profiles for better Google search results

Sensing some need to let actual people have a say over the machine math that produces search results, Google previously offered Google Profiles as a dedicated spot where you, the person, could have a say and show up in searches. But like the best advice about vegetables and tax receipts, Profiles weren’t widely adopted by the general user. As Google+ gains users, it’s making the Profile an essential tool in connecting to others and discovering interests, which in turn is causing users to more accurately and fully fill out their Profile. It’s a sweet syrup that helps us swallow the bitter bill of self-promotion, with the healthy result of having a say in what Google says about us.

8: Quick, easy, undo-able photo editing, with I’m Feeling Lucky

Photo presentation in Google+ is a nice, content-forward experience, with a black backdrop and easy sharing or deletion. Even nicer is that Google threw a few of the most helpful photo filters and editing tools in there, too. Click the Actions button just underneath a photo, and you’ll get rotation tools — and more important, Edit Photo. A right-hand sidebar pops up with some Instagram-like filters: cross-process, Orton, and black-and-white. There’s auto-color and auto-contrast and the ever-helpful I’m Feeling Lucky button, which helps non-photo-nerds by applying the most common light and color corrections to your shots.

9: Unlimited photo storage (pretty much) in Picasa

To make Google+ a place where people want to share their photos, among many, many competitors, Google had to pull out the big guns. In this case, those guns are server storage, something Google has more of than anybody else, by a good long shot.  Google can offer almost unlimited photo storage in Picasa, so that photos smaller than 2048 by 2048 in pixels and videos less than 15 minutes long don’t “count” against your storage space. Shoot and shoot and share and shoot again, and Google just keeps smiling at your feeble attempts to take up space.

10: Automatic photo uploading from your phone

At first, the Android app for Google+ seems like a nice way to check activity, post about how awesome it is to skip work for a ball game, and so on. But head into the app’s settings, enable Instant Upload, and the way you use your phone, and Google+, changes entirely. Everything you shoot is almost instantaneously synced to a private album in Google+. From there, it’s just one click to sharing the photo, but you’ll want to type out a sentence. Even if you don’t share your stuff, Google+ is basically freeing you from the need to find a cord, fire up a program, and monkey around with your phone storage — everything you shoot is in Google+, too. But you decide whether to put it out there.

Thanks & regards,

"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
System Engineer
send2raheel@engineer.com
sirraheel@gmail.com

http://raheel-mydreamz.blogspot.com/
http://raheeldreamz.wordpress.com/
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Microsoft patent applications reveal potential Windows 8 Tablet features…

Microsoft Touch Patents

Tom “The Man” Warren found a few interesting tidbits at the US Patent Office in patents filed by Microsoft.
More specifically, the patents reveal Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablet pen and touch gestures. These gestures hint at photo editing abilities using touch/pen inputs.
The patents that were filed reveal the company’s plans for picture releated gestures. The gestures allow for dual use of both fingers and pens..
Here is a rundown of the gestures:

• Cut gesture – this allows for objects to be cut simply by cutting across them by using the gesture.
• Punch-Out gesture – this gesture allows tablet users to manipulate an object and punch a section out of it.
• Rip gesture – this allows for objects to be separated into two different objects using two fingers and pulling in two different directions.
• Edge gesture – this allows for a tablet user to create a straight line from objects. Just think of a ruler.
• Stamp gesture – users can create rubber stamps of existing objects and reuse them as a copied item.
• Brush gesture – just like in Photoshop, this gesture allows you to remove a portion of an object and makes a copy of it.
• Copy gesture – allows for images and data to be copied simply by tapping on the object to select it and then dragging it with a stylus or pen to the left of the object.
• Staple gesture – allows tablet users to group objects together into stacks.

I have to say that this is pretty interesting as the dual pen/finger concept looks pretty incredible.

Thanks & regards,

"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
System Engineer
send2raheel@engineer.com
sirraheel@gmail.com

http://raheel-mydreamz.blogspot.com/
http://raheeldreamz.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Dreamz-Rebiuld-our-nation/176215539101271

Adobe steps into HTML5 design with Edge

Adobe is doubling down on HTML5 today with the public preview release of Edge, a new design tool for HTML5 web motion and interaction.

The company “sees a huge opportunity to help people be successful with HTML5,” Adobe’s Devin Fernandez told me in an interview last week. HTML5 is emerging as a competitor to Adobe’s dominant Flash technology, but the company clearly doesn’t want to be left out as HTML5 becomes more widely used.

Edge allows developers to easily edit animations and interactive Web page elements based on HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. Fernandez tells me that the software relies on strict HTML standards, so there won’t be anything additional to muck up your code.

Adobe’s Mark Anders demonstrated to me how Edge could be used to easily create an animated HTML5 ad. While the software doesn’t offer the same robust animation elements as Flash, it’s certainly going to be useful for developers who choose to work with HTML5, as there aren’t any professional-level editing tools dedicated to the standard yet.

“Edge shows that Adobe can remain a premier tools vendor for designers no matter what the runtime,” Al Hilwa, program director of applications development software at IDC told VentureBeat.  “The tool chain for creative design is how Adobe makes its money and there is a great need for HTML5 tools right now.”

Edge isn’t meant to replace Adobe’s existing web design tools like Dreamweaver or Flash — instead it’s just another option for developers. Adobe is making the software free during its initial testing period, and it’s encouraging feedback from developers. The company says it will update the software faster than anything it’s released before to keep up with the rapidly changing world of HTML5.

Thanks & regards,

"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
System Engineer
send2raheel@engineer.com
sirraheel@gmail.com

http://raheel-mydreamz.blogspot.com/
http://raheeldreamz.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Dreamz-Rebiuld-our-nation/176215539101271