Under fire for its App Store not being more open, recently, Apple’s response has been that there is a portion of its devices that is totally open: the web. If developers don’t like some of the App Store’s restrictions, they should make a web app, Apple reasons. No shortage of critics think this response is disingenuous since it’s in Apple’s best interest for people to make native apps for their devices, not web apps that can be used anywhere. But a new site launched by Apple today looks to disprove that.
Apple’s new HTML5 page on its site is a showcase for what you can do with the technology. There are seven impressive examples of things you can do using only HTML5: Video, Typography, Gallery, Transitions, Audio, 360, and VR. “Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web,” Apple writes.
But what’s a bit odd is that you can only view the examples using Apple’s Safari web browser. Other HTML5-compliant browsers — like Google Chrome — are blocked. If you try to load the examples, Apple pops up a message that you need to download Safari to view the demo. “This demo was designed with the latest web standards supported by Safari,” the message reads.
This site serves another purpose for Apple too. While it shows some commitment to the web (alongside its commitment to WebKit, the render engine which Apple helped make into the dominant force it is today — as Apple likes to remind everyone), it also shows a commitment to web standards. In fact, the page is actually called “HTML5 and web standards.” Why? Undoubtedly because Adobe Flash is not a web standard. The first demo on the page shows the cool things you can do with HTML5 video.
All of these demos point to a “Safari Demos” page on the Apple Developer site — a page which can’t be found yet. It’s likely Apple is going to say more about this at its WWDC event starting on Monday.
Update: The Safari Demos link is now working, and you can find a few other HTML5 demos there. And interestingly enough, you can use the demos there without Safari (I just got them to work using Chrome).
[via Daring Fireball]
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