Will HTML5 make app stores obsolete? Don't count on it.

HTML5 is a lovely platform for cross-device development. Basically, it's the only game going forward. But it's really not an answer for building a great app for a given platform. Apple is talking up HTML5 in order to combat Flash, but it's just talking about web sites, not apps. HTML5 will rule the [moribund] desktop, but for mobile devices I think it has major challenges.

HTML5 does not get the same level of access to the device that you need to build a rich experience.

• Integration with the contact list (is there anything really more important?)
• Access to phone status, history and actions
• Camera(s), proximity sensor(s), microphone(s), accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, multi-touch, speakers, etc (and a lot more to come)
• Local storage, access to SD-card files, application backup and restore
• Native configuration and management interfaces (sync, preferences, phone migration, privacy, network gsm-vs-wifi, etc)
• ... drumroll please: the app stores. This is the channel for getting apps for these devices. Otherwise they have to find your website somehow.

HTML5 apps will be good enough in some cases for all devices, but they'll always be step-children to the native environment. You could argue that we just don't care about the weird sensors and whatever else HTML5 doesn't give us access to. I disagree: the really useful apps for mobile platforms will take full advantage of these features, recording and correlating all sorts of information and drawing conclusions from it - where you are, where your customers are, when you're together, what you're carrying with you, how your spouses are getting along, what you've sold them, transcripts of your conversations, your body temperature, what they've bought recently, voice stress analysis, who else is around, what's mouldering in their warehouse, and what expression is on your face. Science fictional? Sure. "The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed." Mobile technology is going to level the playing field for these kinds of intelligent applications.

HTML5 will continue to evolve and will slowly add access to mobile functionality common to all devices, in a lowest-common-denominator way. The fact that Webkit will be on Blackberry by the end of the year makes HTML5 a cross-browser contender - it will lock up the entire mobile landscape, making cross-platform browser apps even easier. But so far, geolocation is one of the few things that work cross platform. The full list of things above will come over Steve Jobs' dead body. [I'm only half-joking.] PhoneGap is the only cross-platform development environment that currently has any viability at all, and it's risky because Apple routinely rejects PhoneGap-based apps; although they're written in JavaScript which is technically allowed, Apple takes a dim view of anything not *originally* written in Objective C. I don't expect Apple to be changing direction and opening up their platform and their store. If RIM survives [fat chance] its app store may go in a different direction - but I'm not holding my breath: RIM is completely beholden to [evil] carriers.

The app stores are large and getting crowded. But the publishers, labels, studios and carriers are in bed with the Google and Apple markets, and they have real legs. The markets are evolving extremely fast, especially Google's (which is moving into music and movies, and even has meta-markets like AppBrain) and Apple is s-l-o-w-l-y migrating to a non-desktop iTunes store. The smartphone market is exploding, and every one of these devices has an icon on the front screen for the app store. I don't expect these stores to go away any time this decade - there's just too much money to be made.

BlackBerry support in Ubuntu Gutsy

To charge or backup your BlackBerry device under Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, there is a nice little GPL package named barry put together by some nice folks in Ontario. It isn't part of the Ubuntu software catalog yet, so here are some steps to get this up and running. (Note: the authors give instructions on how to build it from source – take your pick.)

First, you'll need to install an updated version of libopensync0 (0.22). Add the following lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

#opensync
deb http://opensync.gforge.punktart.de/repo/opensync-0.21/ etch main
deb-src http://opensync.gforge.punktart.de/repo/opensync-0.21/ etch main

So, go get that along with some other prerequisites:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libopensync0 libglademm-2.4-1c2a libtar

Then, download and install barry.

wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/barry/libbarry_0.9-1_i386.deb?modtime=1192146928&big_mirror=0"
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/barry/barry-util_0.9-1_i386.deb?modtime=1192146873&big_mirror=0"
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/barry/barrybackup-gui_0.9-1_i386.deb?modtime=1192146747&big_mirror=0"
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/barry/libbarry-dev_0.9-1_i386.deb?modtime=1192146953&big_mirror=0"
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/barry/libopensync-plugin-barry_0.9-1_i386.deb?modtime=1192147004&big_mirror=0"
sudo dpkg -i libbarry_0.9-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i barry-util_0.9-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i barrybackup-gui_0.9-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i libbarry-dev_0.9-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i libopensync-plugin-barry_0.9-1_i386.deb

Note: you probably don't need the libbarry-dev package unless you plan to develop with this stuff, but I installed it anyhow. Won't hurt anything. The libopensync package should enable some sort of integration with your local copy of Evolution or Thunderbird, but I haven't tried it.

After all you can plug your BlackBerry into the USB port and it will finally charge. These packages don't put any entries in the Gnome menu system, but you can run "barrybackup" which will let you back up all data (and restore, if you want).

Smile!

When we bought our house in Toronto two years ago, we decided to get a Murphy bed for the guest room. We wandered around the city looking for the right one, astounded at every turn by the prices they charge for these things. A thousand bucks for a stack of compressed wood? Yup.

When we finally decided to cough up the dough, we were faced with a salesperson who mumbled curses in Russian under her breath, rolled her eyes, and sighed as we discussed options and paid her god-damned salary.

I was entranced.

I got out my phone and pretended to be playing around with it, and surreptitiously captured her image for posterity. (I had used a hack to disable the obnoxious snapshot sound effect. Hello, Motorola, it's my frigging phone, okay?) So here she is to brighten your day, too.

Perfect fit

The buzz is that Microsoft is buying RIM, maker of the BlackBerry mobile device.

I think this makes perfect sense. Blackberry is ubiquitous, practical, and ugly. The development platform is terrible – if you were there for DOS, the Blackberry will seem eerily familiar. The operating system crashes regularly. Wonderful error messages like: "Null pointer exception" and "VM: too many threads" are common.

Ugly though it may be, it is very popular (heck, I have one). Microsoft has to have this. Their mobile platform is dead in the water, and this is where the market is expanding. I suspect that Microsoft was waiting for RIM's recent patent difficulties to blow over – the last thing a convicted criminal organization needs to do is buy more trouble.

So there will be a marriage, and many children. Sometimes ugly parents produce beautiful children. Just not usually.