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Study: HTML5 performs 8x slower on smartphones than desktop

In March, Spaceport.io released part one of its study of HTML5 performance on iOS and Android and concluded that iOS smokes the competition in this regard. Today, it released part two, which compares HTML5 performance on mobile devices to the desktop web. Spaceport.io found that on average, the very best smartphones run HTML5 content 8x slower than a laptop computer. The average comes from what Spaceport.io has found to be the best iOS phone and the best Android phone for HTML5: the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S II. Read more

Mobile Roadie now allows users to make iPad apps, mobile websites

Mobile Roadie, the web-based service that allows users to easily make iPhone and Android apps, is expanding to additional platforms – iPad and mobile web. The iPad app platform comes with a number of features, including live navigation widgets that turn the main menu into a dynamic feed of streaming content; hi-res graphics layers, parallax scrolling and slideshows; and the ability to sync content to an existing community with iPhone apps, Android apps and mobile websites. To make your iPad app with Mobile Roadie, you’ll have to pay either $499 Read more

Blackline TV launches HTML5 magazine for iPad

Blackline TV is doing something pretty unique for a podcast: it’s launching its own iPad magazine. Even more bold, it’s not trapped in the App Store or Newsstand under Apple’s developer terms and conditions. No, instead it’s living freely on the open web as an HTML5 magazine. Blackline is a podcast that specializes in delivering a weekly dose of satire and “bad comedy” based on the latest events going on around the world. Picture Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert writing for The Onion — that’s the perspective I like to Read more

56% of Opera’s 169 million worldwide users access the web on their phone

As a web browser, Opera gets its bacon cooked when its stacked up against anything like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari, but as a mobile browser, Opera fairs well against heavyweights: Apple and Google. Sparingly, Opera is ahead depending on certain statistics (that favors them). Well, according to a new Opera white paper, in which the company took a look at how its users around the world sparingly use the browser, and it found out its popular in developing countries. The research was conducted between November 2010 and November 2011, Read more

Men choose phones based on price, women features

Mobile video service Vuclip surveyed 560,000 men and women about their mobile phone buying habits. Besides asking the big questions like when they plan to buy their next phone, Vuclip also asked respondents what details they look for when they shop for a phone. When broken down by gender, the results from this latter question were surprising. Contrary to what you might think, more men ranked price as the number one consideration when buying a phone, while more women chose features.The study results show that 33 percent of men said price was the Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

StatCounter: Mobile Internet usage is doubling every year

Global internet usage through mobile devices, excluding tablets, is doubling every year. According to StatCounter, as of January 2012, the mobile Internet access accounted for 8.5%, which is up from 4.3% a year before. Moreover, in January 2010, the figure was at 1.6%, which again is more than double than in 2009 – 0.7%. StatCounter’s CEO Aodhan Cullen describes the pace of growth with a word “remarkable” and we really have nothing to add to it. When it comes to manufacturers, Nokia is leading the world, most likely thanks to Read more

iOS kicks Android’s ass at HTML5 gaming

Spaceport.io, the maker of a cross-platform development tool kit for games, decided to conduct a study pitting iOS against Android to see which platform HTML5 games perform better on. It did so by determining how many images their respective browsers can move across the screen while maintaining at least 30 fps. The test dates back to the iPhone 3GS of 2009 when the iPhone had virtually no competition. It scored a 53, which means it could handle 53 images moving all at once before dropping below 30 frames per second. Read more

Facebook sets out to make the mobile web suck less

How kind of Facebook. The social networking giant reached out to developers recently inquiring what it can do to help the mobile web thrive in ways that it has not been able to yet. Facebook found that the three biggest challenges developers face when creating web apps are app discovery, browser fragmentation, and mobile payments. While there are app stores to house native apps on mobile platforms, there’s no solution for mobile web app discovery. Facebook wants to change that. Without getting into specifics, the company said it will tackle the Read more

Telefónica, Mozilla team-up to create web-based phone architecture

After launching its mobile app store, Mozilla is taking another step forward to grow its mobile operations. They’ve teamed-up with Spanish Telefónica to create a phone architecture that relies entirely on web technologies, with the entire device capabilities developed using HTML5 and executed via the Firefox web browser. As part of this scheme, the two parties will improve the HTML5 standard with new interfaces that will enable them to access the full range of device features, including sensors, cameras, radios and so on. Furthermore, the plan is to standardize this Read more

Google helps launch Barcelona mobile website with 26 famous landmarks

Just in time for the Mobile World Congress, Google has teamed-up with the Government of Catalonia and the City of Barcelona to launch a brand new mobile website about Barcelona. Actually, it’s a set of 26 mobile websites for some of the city’s most famous attractions, restaurants, night clubs and businesses. The new initiative called Barcelona Go Mobile will allow anyone with a mobile phone to learn more about the city and its attractions. To that end, businesses participating include FC Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló (Gaudí), Aquarium, Picasso Read more

Google optimizes Flight Search for Android, iOS

Google added Flight Search to its list of services optimized for the mobile web. Android and iOS users can access Flight Search – which Google launched last September – as a desktop-exclusive search feature the mobile version may be a much more convenient way to identify flight schedules while traveling. Just like on a computer, Google baked Flight Search right into the standard search functionality. If you were to search “flights from San Francisco to New York City” in the regular search field, flight schedules for both cities would appear Read more