A lot is being said about HTML5 later, mainly after Steve Jobs wrote his “Thoughts on Flash” open letter. Despite of the controversy in the Adobe vs. Apple case, it seems HTML5 came to stay.
Of course, HTML5 is going to be recognized as a full standard in about 20 years from now, but the big players in the market are slowly adopting it – Apple, Google and Microsoft are the biggest sponsors out there. Mozilla is also getting into the game, although they still don’t like the idea of H.264 being the video standard due to the licensing stuff around it.
I’m not going to get into details about HTML5 here – you can read the current draft if you’re interested. Also, there are two more technologies that are complementary to HTML5 that will allow us to see all the magic people out there are talking about: CSS3 and DOM3. Ok, all nerd tech stuff. What interests the normal user is that the new technology will allow web publishers and designers to crate a lot of cool content without relying on external plug-ins.
Here are some examples:
-
Video streaming: you can watch video on your browser without relying on plugins like QuickTime or Flash. Try the Apple Video Showcase (on Safari) or theYouTube HTML5 Beta (Safari, Chrome and IE9).
-
360 degrees elements: you may have rotatable animated elements in webpages. Check Apple 360 and VR Showcases (Safari only).
-
Audio streaming: no plugins required for audio players anymore. Try Apple Audio Showcase (Safari only).
-
Animations/Transitions: any kind of animation that’s done using Flash or other video plugins can be done in HTML5. You may check Chrome Experiments(Safari, Chrome and IE9) and Apple Gallery and Transitions Showcases.
Pretty cool, huh? The technology isn’t top notch yet, but it works. And from my experience, it doesn’t waste processor time like the current existing plugins.
If you want to check out this stuff in the real world, take a look at this site list.