Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Another HTML5 OS: Firefox

Mozilla's Firefox OS is based purely on web standards and everything in it runs as an HTML5 app. Yes, everything, including the phone's dialer.

That means whatever features you have on your phone run as web apps. 

This is great news for developers, because whatever apps they create for Firefox may also be used on iOS, Android and other OS via web browser. Develop once, work for all.



As noted in a previous blog about trends shown at this year's Mobile World Congress,a total of 18 operators have announced their support for Firefox OS, including Telefonica, Deutsche Telecom, Sprint, KDDI, KT, China Unicom, and Telecom Italia.

Adding to this list, as HTML5 apps do not depend so much on hardware, Mozilla has opted to target low-end phones in developing countries. South America has been noted to be their initial market with  Hungary, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, and Spain also on the list for the end of this year.


Mozilla says that Firefox does not aim to beat down iOS and Android, but rather "provide for a cheaper alternative with comparable if not better performance."


Firefox OS also allows users to easily customize and alter their phones, as long as they know how to work with HTML or CSS. General smartphone users may not have such expertise, but compared to jailbreaking an iPhone, it will make a lot of people's lives easier.


What can we expect from this new HTML5 OS? 
2013 will definitely be an interesting year.


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

HTML5 setting new ground for web games

For the last few years, web game apps have gotten a bad rep for its heavy plugins, 2D graphics,  and lack of functions. HTML5 may be the obvious answer for business apps, but it still hasn't shown to be quite up to par for games...until now.

World Wide Maze is a Chrome Experiment that allows users to sync their smartphone and PC browsers, then use their mobile phone as a controller, moving a ball out of a 3D maze you see on your PC screen. In other words, you basically move the ball on the PC by tilting or tapping your phone.

Of course, there is still a bit of lag and the tilt sensitivity is not 100% yet, but it's a huge step for smartphone gaming and brings a Wii-like experience to users.


But the really big thing about this game is that it is PURELY based on HTML5, using the WebGL standard. It's graphics are pretty good for a web game -- and really shows users what kind of potential HTML5 has.

Although the game itself is quite simple and may only interest you for the first few minutes, my point is that it is a good display of web technology and is a sign of a new wave of HTML5 games that is to come.


Here is a video showing you what the game is like:



You can also try it out at http://www.chromeexperiments.com





Sunday, March 24, 2013

DaVinci Animator in action


Here is an introductory video, giving you a general idea of what the animator is like, how to use it, and what it can do.

It works just like Flash, so designers will be right at home.






After watching the video, I can't see how you wouldn't want to try it out and tinker around with it. Especially since it's free.


(You may can also visit Vimeo to watch videos about DaVinci Suite --> http://vimeo.com/davincisdk )


Have a successful week all!



Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Website Renewal and DaVinci Suite Release!




Lots of exciting things happening with DaVinci!


Website Renewal

Our website renewal is finally complete and is now available in English, Japanese, and Korean.
Enjoy it's new high-tech look as well as more to download.




DaVinci Animator Release

DaVinci Suite is now complete with the Animator available for download (of course, for FREE). Use it to create rich media content in HTML5.
Designers with be right at home with the WYSIWYG layout editor and animation timeline.



  • Easily manage and reuse complicated property values that you frequently use. Find an abundant amount of convenient presets divided in Style, Typography, Effect, and Motion categories.
  • Need to process events, but not familiar with JavaScript coding? Event handling is a piece of cake with DaVinci’s powerful Visual Action Editor.
  • High level script developers will find the light-weight animation framework handy for detailed control.


DaVinci Studio ver2.0 Release

Try out the latest version of DaVinci Studio today by downloading it for FREE at our website.



Major changes include:

1) Eclipse IDE will automatically install with DaVnici, so you no longer need to download/install each separately. Just click and go!

2) Mac OS X support

3) Version 2.0 is even easier to use and is completely based on jQuery. That means no more going through the DaVinci framework to use jQuery functions – freely use jQuery tags and codes. But DaVinci will still offer all the additional functions you need that are not originally included in the jQuery framework. All functions will be added and found within the framework for a perfect package.


Tizen OS Samsung phones to be released this summer!

Chipping away at the Android and iOS monopoly.



According to an interview with Samsung Mobile Chief J.K. Shin published in the Wall Street Journal, Samsung plans on releasing smartphones with Tizen OS sometime in the third quarter of this year.

Tizen is an OS based on web standards such as HTML and supports a wide range of devices from smartphones to tablets, smart TVs and the like. It also supports open-sources such as LiMo and Linux foundation.

The platform further encourages HTML5 app development, which Intel, Samsung, and many others are betting becoming mainstream in the next few years.








Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Think HTML5 is overhyped?

Well then you are the minority.


In a global developer survey conducted early this year by Kendo UI,
only 24% of devs strongly agree that HTML5 is overhyped, compared to a whopping 78%  that strongly agree that HTML5  is usable for building apps and 68% that strongly agree that HTML5 is important for all devs who build apps.



Let's face it, HTML5 is big...and will only get bigger within the next few years.

With all the new devices coming out and more support given to non-Android/iOS platforms (refer to my previous blog on this year's World Mobile Congress),  HTML5 provides real solutions for addressing fragmentation issues. re-developing the same app over and over is just not efficient.

Apparently, total of 84% of devs agree with me as they plan to integrate HTML5 in some way to deal with platform issues. (70% for complete HTML5 adoption and 14% for partial)



Currently for mobile devices, 36% of HTML5 use are for for mobile web apps, while 32% are for hybrid.


Further details on the developers for the HTML5 use breakdown -- global enterprises have the highest rates of HTML5 use (36% for hybrid and 39% for pure HTML5 implementation), but these rates are, in general, high all across the board. 

It's obvious that if you are thinking of going global, you will want to stay away from one native app for each platform and just go with HTML5.


These statistics are quite clear-cut -- there's no mistaking that HTML5 is not just a hype that will come to pass. I'm not saying to "jump on the bandwagon," but the majority of devs see the real benefits of HTML5. There is a reason why everyone is making the shift, so why let yourself be left behind and do things the old fashioned, one app per platform way?