Adobe Acquires TypeKit and PhoneGap to Broaden its HTML5 Toolset
Adobe made some big announcements yesterday at their Adobe MAX conference. Adobe announced two new acquisitions: Nitobi (creators of PhoneGap) and Typekit. PhoneGap is an impressive platform for developing native mobile applications using web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. TypeKit is a popular service used for enabling developers and designers to embed custom font faces on websites – enabling web content to be beautiful as well as accessible and search engine-friendly.
With these acquisitions, Adobe’s clearly proclaiming their support for web standards and sees standards as playing a large role in their future. There’s been an obvious controversy around Adobe’s position on standards-based web technologies like HTML5 when they’re also promoting the use of their Flash product. But today, it’s even more clear that Adobe is vying to maintain their position as a leader in publishing for the web.
After watching the responses around the web regarding these two acquisitions, it’s clear there is some hesitation and doubt that Adobe will be able to maintain the integrity of these two companies. There are some questions around whether or not Adobe will simply just introduce more corporate bureaucracy and ultimately be the demise of these acquisitions.
Personally, I’m more inclined to be optimistic about the entire situation. Adobe’s goal in this area is simple: make it easy to make rich content for the web. Whether it be Flash or HTML5, it doesn’t matter – the market decides that. Right now, users are looking for standards-based solutions. Adobe is adapting to support just that.
No Plugins (Like Flash) in Internet Explorer 10 Metro
In a recent blog post, Microsoft announced that plugins such as Flash and Silverlight would not be bundled with the Metro version of its Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, Metro simply refers to the default presentation of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. Users are, of course, allowed to switch to a more traditional view of their Windows operating system that will give them access to a browser with these plugins enabled. But for the majority of users, the default experience will be that of one with only support of standard web technologies such as HTML5.
To me, this is a significant move on Microsoft’s part. Adding Flash support to Internet Explorer wouldn’t require much effort on their part – yet they insist on only supporting the standards-based web technologies. This is a bold shift. In the blog post, Steven Sinofsky notes how many sites support HTML5-based solutions when Flash isn’t present and that transition won’t hurt as many users as it may seem.
While this move is surprising (especially for Microsoft), in some respects it shouldn’t be. The advancement of the web shouldn’t hinge on any particular plugin. The advancement of the web should be driven by the collective influence of developers, designers and browser manufacturers. When the advancement of the web is regulated by one profit-driven entity, nobody wins.
Making Web Content Rich with CSS Shaders
A recent CSS specification to hit the streets is the CSS Shaders spec. While still in its infancy, I’m very excited to see the development of this particular spec. Adobe, Apple and Opera came together to create a new method for adding beautiful 3D effects to web content. While this technology is years away from being implemented in mainstream browsers, it’s a quick insight into what we could potentially be implementing in the years to come. These new 3D filter effects allow developers to create natural-feeling interfaces and a completely new form of rich experiences. With the addition of CSS Shaders to the already growing suite of web technologies, we’re going to begin to see some serious competition between native and web applications.
I can only imagine what this will inspire others to create when this technology is brought into browsers. I could try to explain the details of this new proposal, but I’ll let the demos speak for themselves.
Slideshare Ditches Flash, Opts for Standards-based Web Technologies
Slideshare, a popular service for hosting presentations online, recently announced they’re dropping their Flash slideshow player for a standards-based implementation. As you know by now, this direction to move away from plugin-based technologies to support vital content is not a new one – and there are a number of reasons for this.
Slideshare notes three main reasons for their decision to move towards web standards: mobile-compatibility, speed and search engine performance. When we design solutions around standards-based technologies, any browser that properly implements them receives the experience. That includes desktop browsers and, more importantly, mobile browsers as well. We don’t have to worry about creating a separate “fallback” or “lite” experience for browsers that don’t support a particular experience – we design one, and deploy everywhere. And these experiences are typically fast when there’s no need to invoke a plugin in the browser. With the heavy competition we’re seeing between the various browser manufacturers, we can only expect these things to get magnitudes faster. Lastly, with solutions that use accessible web standards, search engines are able to properly crawl and index the content. Need any more reasons to ditch Flash?
Amazing WebGL Demo Showing Ultra-Realistic Human Face
I just had to include this demo when I saw it. It’s a WebGL demo showing a 3D model of a man’s face and shoulders. In the demo, you’re able to rotate this 3D model to see all of the intricate details of the impressively realistic textures. But the most amazing part of this demo: it runs in a browser. This isn’t a special download, it’s not a native application, and doesn’t require a plugin. It’s simply using web standards. I should note that the demo requires a modern browser that supports WebGL such as Chrome or a recent version of Firefox.
While my description might sound boring, the visuals are absolutely stunning. This demo is just a sneak peak into what we can expect in (hopefully) the near future. Immersive 3D environments, desktop-quality gaming, and so much more. Exciting.
