This looks like an excellent library, the demo works nicely on my iPhone, but...
I think that simulating native UI is a bad idea all around. If it looks like a native app, acts like a native app, I expect it to do everything like a native app. This gets 90% of the way there, but due to the nature of the browser will never be 100%. I think you are better off with a unique look and feel that won't confuse users. You'll also spend less time developing it, as you won't struggle to get every little detail to match.
There is actually loads of sites out there, that duplicate the iphone functionality, when in mobile mode. There are other toolkits to make your web more iphone-like. It has its advantages and disadvantages. Most people don't even know what the different is between a web app and an iphone app, so I think it is a reasonably safe bet.
> Most people don't even know what the different is between a web app and an iphone app
Exactly! That is the problem. They don't know your web app is an iphone app. So, they get annoyed when it doesn't have all the functionality of an iphone app. They have higher bar of expectation that a webapp inherently can not reach.
If it was obviously a "web page" then user expectations are much lower and they are likely to be impressed by what it can do.
The key to success is not being good. It's being better than expected.
I tried in on my second gen iPod Touch, and although it doeen't lag, I got a lot of flicker, as well as UI elements getting stuck in the "on" position.
I like the idea, though, and would love to have a framework that just works on devices that I can't test on.
I definitely need to test more on Android and Pre - hence the beta. With Android, I'm aiming primarily at "cupcake" release, as it's a newer version of WebKit. Hopefully, as they all get updated with newer and newer versions of WebKit, we'll see more ubiquity in general.
I'm running Cupcake here, and it's pretty painfully slow on my ADP1. Scrolling is a bit unreliable, as is trackball navigation. It looks great, though. Best of luck getting it working there.
Many thanks. Definitely need to get some test devices — Would love to focus on making it functional/accessible on these devices, but then forwards compatible. Love the fact that more and more modern devices are including auto-update features.
Unfortunately, I think you'll find a lot of the newer WebKit features missing from the Pre. For example, the canvas implementation is stripped down and lacks, among other things, gradients.
Yes, I've seen- it's definitely lacking. Hopefully they'll update with more features, but ultimately, my main goal is to provide the page animations, history management, AJAX, etc. — Someone could create a Pre theme which doesn't use CSS gradients, etc-
Agreed. Also something isn't quite right with the toggle switch animation itself. Lack of easing perhaps? Hard to tell. Throw me off though. Otherwise looks and feels superb on 3GS and 3.0
I downloaded the Iris Browser which is based on webkit which was hard to find because Rim bought Torch Mobile and you can't download it from their site anymore. That may have been the last hope for a decent browser on Windows Mobile. Anyway, some of the features worked but it doesn't look as good as the video. Sometimes the back button didn't work and the About window wouldn't close. Mostly everything else worked but Page Flip. Keep up the good work.
I think that simulating native UI is a bad idea all around. If it looks like a native app, acts like a native app, I expect it to do everything like a native app. This gets 90% of the way there, but due to the nature of the browser will never be 100%. I think you are better off with a unique look and feel that won't confuse users. You'll also spend less time developing it, as you won't struggle to get every little detail to match.