mobiForge Articles Feed - Section: Developing

HTML5 for the Mobile Web - Part I: Introduction

ruadhan — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:57:05 +0000

There has been much interest lately around HTML5 and its readiness for production environments and whether HTML5 apps should be used over native apps. This has been due, in large part, to the high-profile defections of tech behemoths such as Facebook and LinkedIn away from HTML5 to native apps for their core mobile services.

The most common mistakes in smartphone sites according to Google

Veruska Anconitano — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 08:46:46 +0000

Google are paying ever more attention to the mobile market and so, developers pay attention when the Big G is making recommendations. Google recently published a document on the main mistakes people make when working on mobile websites for smartphones. If you look through the list you can definitely recognize a cornerstone of Google's approach: focus on the end user. Or put another way, "adopt the approach you want but be aware of your audience".

Global reach and dynamic page weight – is there a correlation?

ronan — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:52:09 +0000

Many reports on web page sizes issued in recent years point to the same conclusion: the web has a weight problem. The web seems to be gaining weight each year despite the fact that study after study has shown a strongly negative reaction from users to heavy web pages and resulting loading times.

Why HTML5 still presents some problems on mobile

Veruska Anconitano — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:14:46 +0000

One of the debates of 2013 centres on which approach you should adopt to deliver a great user experience, while keeping costs at an acceptable level. This question often gets parsed as “HTML5 or native applications?” or “HTML or mobile site builders” or even something else entirely. But with all the vaunted promise of HTML5, just what does that ‘5’ mean when it comes to real world deployments?

Why Responsive Web Design is not always the best option for a mobile SEO strategy

Veruska Anconitano — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:27:57 +0000

There are a lot of misconceptions about what Google is saying about mobile SEO. First and foremost, Google doesn't mandate the use of Responsive Web Design (RWD) as best practice for SEO. Google expressly says "Google does not favor any particular URL format as long as they are all accessible to both Googlebot and Googlebot-Mobile” the bots Google uses to crawl desktop and Smartphone specific content. And it’s worth noting here that Google is crawling desktop and mobile content separately.

BB10 tutorial: create Web apps that seamlessly integrate BlackBerry 10 native functions

BlackBerryLuca — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:49:28 +0000

The much-anticipated BlackBerry 10 operating system is already creating a splash with customers, analysts and developers alike. In this tutorial, BlackBerry developer evangelist Luca Sale teaches us how to develop a Web app for the new OS that hooks into the native functions of BlackBerry devices such as the camera and the ever-popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).

From 0 to BlackBerry 10

An introduction to Firefox OS for mobile developers: Q&A with Andreas Gal, Mozilla

AndreasGal_Mozilla — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:04:25 +0000

With the first device manufacturers expected to launch Firefox OS devices at Mobile World Congress this month and with major network operators inline to release them to consumers in early 2013, Mozilla’s new operating system (OS) is starting to make waves. Firefox OS is open-source, Linux-based and Web-friendly. mobiForge gets the low-down from Mozilla’s vice president of mobile engineering, Andreas Gal.

Q1. What is Firefox OS?

HTML5 for mobile developers

SantthoshSelvadurai — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:13:58 +0000

Why HTML5 and why now?

When it comes to touch-screen mobile devices, native applications have led the way in terms of performance, speed and tighter integration to specific platforms. Unbound by the need to conform to standards, native apps could rapidly take advantage of the latest hardware and operating system innovations, while Web technologies always had to wait for the international community to agree and implement standards first. But with the HTML5 specification coming to fruition, browser-based mobile apps are rapidly catching up with the natives.

Consuming JSON services in Android apps

weimenglee — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:39:05 +0000

Unless you are writing a Hello World Android application, chances are your application would need to connect to the outside world to fetch some data, such as live currency exchange rates, weather information, records from databases, etc. One of the easiest ways for your application to connect to the outside world is to use web services.

For the past few years, XML web services have dominated the arena for web services, as XML was touted as the ubiquitous medium for data exchange. However, using XML as the medium for your data payload suffers from the following problems:

Lightweight accordions & sliders with jQuery Mobile

mdagruma — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:23:26 +0000

Mobile developers are commonly confronted with clients who want everything – all the content and features – on their PC site crammed into the mobile site, rather than going for a streamlined mobile site. That might sound like a recipe for bloated code and a poor user experience – neither of which is acceptable on a mobile device – but it needn’t be, as long as mobile developers emphasize ingenuity over excess functionality. That’s where jQuery accordion menus and sliders come in very useful and, if used cleverly, they can help keep the mobile experience lean and mean.