HTML5 Web applications that enrich your web experience
What is an HTML5 Web application?
An HTML5 application or app makes use of the various specs mentioned in the HTML5 draft to provide users a more interactive web experience.
Some HTML5 Web apps
Offline web usage and application cache
Web applications will now be much more user friendly. HTML5 web storage and application cache enables users to overcome issues like limited offline usage and difficulties in data synchronization. This is done by way of a special storage file within the browser that stores key elements of a webpage to be displayed offline.
Mobile friendly websites
The Apple iPhone and iPad and Google’s Android have integrated several of these apps. For example Gmail has a special HTML5 version for users that access the mail client from an iPhone or iPad. This basically means that HTML5 is the technology of choice for designing mobile friendly websites.
Video and Canvas
An important point concerns videos and animation content which traditionally require a plug-in device to be played. Most new age devices like smart phones though are more comfortable rendering digital video content using HTML5 elements like the video tag.
The HTML5 Canvas feature lets users draw, paint and render images in 2D format making it a viable option to design banner images, presentation slides in slideshows and touch up photos for use in galleries. Here’s a demo of the Canvas element used to design a sketched version of pinball.
HTML5 Geolocation
Geo location is another popular feature of HTML5 apps used in desktop and mobile devices. It is based on network connection, location of nearest cell phone towers, IP address, GPS hardware, RFID and Bluetooth technology. The feature in most cases can provide you with your exact location.
Geolocation is mainly used to get directions to locate your destination or find any person or landmark in your vicinity. This facility has raised privacy concerns with most options requiring the express permission of the user to share location information. The Geolocation feature is also looked upon as a marketing tool of the future by online retailers. Click here to show your current location.
A note for Firefox users, please select the “Allow” tab, which comes up at the top right of the screen after clicking on the URL, to run the apps.