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Apple's HTML5 and Standards Gallery Not Standard

snitch writes "Apple has created an HTML5 Showcase that presents its vision for the next generation of the WWW. The fact that this page is only accessible using the Safari browser, while Apple advocates about web standards, has caused many to criticize the company's lack of broader platform support. The showcase demonstrates several HTML5 capabilities and features that have to do with video, typography, transitions, audio, etc. Further, on the front page the company states that 'Standards aren't add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.' The latter statement falls short by the fact that the featured examples only work with the Safari browser, and in the case of the CSS 3D transforms demonstration, require Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Safari PC or plain Leopard won't do)."

527 comments

  1. Chrome by bbqsrc · · Score: 5, Informative

    Worked for me in Chrome.

    --
    Disagree != mod troll.
    1. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Worked for me in Chrome.

      How about you actually try clicking one of the showcase items before you claim that it 'worked'?

    2. Re:Chrome by f3rret · · Score: 3, Informative

      No it didn't. I use chrome and I got a 'download safari' dialog box when I tried to view any of the showcases.

      --
      Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
    3. Re:Chrome by Taagehornet · · Score: 2

      I don't know about Chrome, but it definitely works on Android (HTC Desire), front-page as well as the individual demos. So whatever bug Apple may have had in their browser detection code has apparently been fixed by now - at least partly.

    4. Re:Chrome by f3rret · · Score: 1

      Oooh like that!

      Clever, clever.

      --
      Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
    5. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Hmm, why should I have to?

      Every new Apple mobile device and every new Mac -- along with the latest version of Apple's Safari web browser -- supports web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. These web standards are open, reliable, highly secure, and efficient. They allow web designers and developers to create advanced graphics, typography, animations, and transitions. Standards aren't add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.

      The way they say it, makes it seem that you know any HTML5 enabled browser should run HTML5 enabled content.

    6. Re:Chrome by ShadowEFX · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, it did. Many of them also work in Opera. You're just - no offense - too stupid to change your browser's User Agent string so that it identifies itself as Safari, which is the only thing these demos check for.

      You are - no offense - an arrogant prick who has missed the point. They claim to advocate standards across the intarwebs for all, putting up a page to view a new whiz-bang standard, but are forcing you to either download their browser, or take (what are to normal users) extraordinary means, to view the content.

      Ability to change the User Agent has nothing at all to do with anything in this case.

    7. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or how about I DON'T?

      This is an interoperability demo, dumbass!

      Which means that Firefox's "failing" is really Apple's own epic fail.

    8. Re:Chrome by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You seem to be missing the point: The fact that UA spoofing works is generally proof of either laziness or malice. Laziness is certainly common enough(remember the good old days when large numbers of sites would shriek for IE; but render just fine if FF was set to IE's UA string?); but malice also occurs from time to time(The old Opera/MSN story, for instance).

      In this case, the fact that Apple is just UA sniffing is shabby at best. Just checking for feature support isn't rocket surgery. Neither would be sending the least interesting summer intern to test the demos on a couple of other browsers that are likely to work and accepting those UAs as well. The fact that their "HTML5 demo" is just "transparent Safari propaganda" isn't illegal or anything; but talking up "web standards" and then hardcoding your demo to only work with your browser doesn't exactly scream "intellectual honesty"...

    9. Re:Chrome by tepples · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Why can't web pages do object detection instead of user-agent detection?

    10. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I'm well aware of how to change the UA strings, and I've done that to view the samples. But nowhere did bozo up there say anything about doing that. That seems like a pretty important piece to his 'it worked for me' argument, no?

    11. Re:Chrome by Cryacin · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'd of bought an iPad if it ran flash. I will not be buying another iPhone, as it does not run flash. I will never buy another piece of apple anything because Jobs is a narcissistic prick, who's only trying to wall everyone into his magic garden named the iStore at the cost of splintering the web.

      Good lord let's get some universal standards in place, no matter what the hell they are.

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    12. Re:Chrome by suso · · Score: 1, Troll

      (remember the good old days when large numbers of sites would shriek for IE; but render just fine if FF was set to IE's UA string?)

      The good old days? Oh, I see, you mean 5 years ago. I thought you were talking about the ancientweb when Netscape roamed the net and sites held out signs like "Explorers only, we don't serve nomads here".

    13. Re:Chrome by MrNaz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Criticizing Apple for making a showcase of what they can do with standards not comply with standard browsers is trolling?! What does Apple have to do for fanboys to realize that they are just another GenericBigCompany(tm) who will rape you to death if they thought it'd add 1% to their quarterly bottom line?

      Trolling... Indeed... *shakes head*

      --
      I hate printers.
    14. Re:Chrome by Low+Ranked+Craig · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I ran the entire demo in Chrome and I had issues with the video, which is to be expected at this point, because they still can't pick a standard, and the CSS3 3-D transforms which I don't understand because Chrome supports 3-D transforms.

      open /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app --args -user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.22.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Safari/531.22.7"

      In this case I think Apple is right to limit the demo to Safari, because at this point not even Chrome works for all the demos. I don't like everything that Apple does, but in this case what are they supposed to do? Due to no standard being set on video, no other browser will properly render the demos. I do question what the deal with the CSS is.

      Remember, this page is a showcase of Apple's products based on the not completely baked HTML 5 standard - it is not a general HTML 5 showcase:

      The demos below show how the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.

      I think the submitter is twisting the purpose of the html5 page on apple.com, and there is a whole lot of piling on Apple in this discussion without any real basis. Again, right there on the page it says this that it shows how Apple's latest products support HTML 5. It doesn't say that apple.com supports the latest version of Firefox or IE.

      --
      I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
    15. Re:Chrome by crmarvin42 · · Score: 0

      I agree that UA sniffing for a demo that is supposed to be of a Standard is stupid. However, if you want a crack at the demos without the UA spoofing or using Safari, you can go here. All of the same demos are there. It looks like these demos have been available on their developer site for a while and just recently got moved to the main page.

      This is sheer stupidity on Apple's part, it undermines the whole idea of standards. However, the reason could be that HTML5 implementation is incomplete in all browsers (including Safari) and they didn't want the hassle of determining which other modern browsers could correctly render the pages. Not an excuse, but a reasonable guess as to the motivation for UA sniffing on their part.

      --
      Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
    16. Re:Chrome by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 1

      Worked for me in Chrome.

      I tried the demos on both Safari on a Mac and on Chrome under Windows with a User Agent string that identifies itself as the latest build of Safari. The Chrome version had considerably fewer options on a number of the samples (no 'rotation' option on the video sample, only about 1/3 of the transition effects for the image gallery, etc). Just pointing out that while some of it works, there's quite a lot that doesn't, and apparently it doesn't even let you see those incompatible options.

      --
      This guy's the limit!
    17. Re:Chrome by Dracker · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It actually means one very important thing: The demos Apple are using actually are standard, by and large, and that it is only Apple being dicks preventing other users of browsers from enjoying the content, not actual incompatibility at the browser level.

    18. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Many Brits do the "would of" error as well. It's common among all native users of the English language who border on illiteracy.

    19. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Universal standards... like HTML 5? Retard.

    20. Re:Chrome by eulernet · · Score: 1

      It doesn't work with IE6 !!!

    21. Re:Chrome by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Criticizing Apple for making a showcase of what they can do with standards not comply with standard browsers is trolling?!

      How does it not comply with standards? Sure it filters users by agent string, but lots of Web sites do that. It's not non-standard at all.

      What does Apple have to do for fanboys to realize that they are just another GenericBigCompany(tm) who will rape you to death if they thought it'd add 1% to their quarterly bottom line?

      This is the strawman logical fallacy paired with the implicit statement fallacy. You implicitly state in your question that fanboys don't realize Apple is simply profit minded. Since no one but you made that statement, it's just a strawman.

      We're talking about Apple's demo of some new portions of the spec that are in the process of becoming a standard. Sure they want to do that because it will profit them in the long run, but the organic farmer down the street only works in the field because it will profit him in the long run. Just because someone is working for a profit does not mean what they're doing is "evil" or not beneficial to me, or for that matter that I don't realize they're working for a profit.

    22. Re:Chrome by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      chromium-browser --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_5_8; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.22.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Safari/531.22.7"

      You have to change the user agent string, for any of it to work. There is no GUI method for doing so with Chromium. Modify as needed if you're on a Microsoft operating system.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    23. Re:Chrome by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      Criticizing Apple for making a showcase of what they can do with standards not comply with standard browsers is trolling?!

      Since "comply with standard browsers" is complete gibberish - yes.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    24. Re:Chrome by BlueStraggler · · Score: 0, Flamebait
      You guys are all tards. Read the fsking page:

      The demos below show how the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.

      It's a Safari demo, numbskulls, not an acid2-style test case page.

    25. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Find any ordinary user who is going to do that. I'll wait. I'm still waiting. Oh, right - there aren't any. I know all about user agent strings, but 99% + of people don't and couldn't care less. They will go to the site and see "it doesn't work" and leave. They aren't going to install Safari to see the site. It's yet another way for apple to try to foistware Safari on folks (like when they included it as an "update" in the Apple updater).

    26. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      If you had said "what they can do" as opposed to "what they can do with standards" then maybe I'd let you off the I'm-a-fucking-retard train.

      As it is, however, you have a concession card entitling you to free travel whenever you want.

    27. Re:Chrome by jo_ham · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It's called the iTunes Store.

      Also, what?

      You would have bought an iPad if it had flash, yet you won't buy anything Apple because Jobs is a narcissist?

      He was a narcissist before flash was excluded from the iPhone OS for performance reasons, so what has changed? Or are you just trolling?

    28. Re:Chrome by Lars+T. · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The way they say it, makes it seem that you know any HTML5 enabled browser should run HTML5 enabled content.

      And they do. What does that have to do with Apple blocking access to their showcase - at least for the lazy ones? See what they also say?

      The demos below show how the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Not all browsers offer this support.

      The showcase does exactly what it says on the box. When you go around the block, it does even more - what they said before.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    29. Re:Chrome by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      your link doesn't work, too. it just lets you go one step further then again pops the fucking "you have to download safari". no, you steve assfuck jobs. i dont have to download apple anything.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    30. Re:Chrome by meuhlavache · · Score: 0

      Just try this link "Safari" demos.... most demos work with "HTML5 Ready" browsers (no browser check).

      I found it under the "Developpers : Learn how to do it yourself.".

    31. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are - no offense - a computer illiterate who shouldn't be discussing this without having read up on facts. The functions used in these demos are all part of the *standardized* sets new to HTML5 - they contain no vendor-specific magic whatsoever. It only happens to be that Safari is the one browser that is currently most up-to-date in implementing these parts.

      Why would they allow these demos to be played in a broken manner on one of the browsers not nearly up-to-date? What good would that do for the case of HTML5?

    32. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The demos below show how Apple's Safari web browser supports the capabilities of web standards such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript."

      Moron.

    33. Re:Chrome by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      chromium-browser --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_5_8; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.22.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Safari/531.22.7"

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    34. Re:Chrome by carlhaagen · · Score: 0, Troll

      You are - no offense - too busy up the ass of "political correctness on the web" to realize what this showcase is about. It's a showcase for HTML5, meant to look good, to show what HTML5 is capable of. Why ever would they want HTML5 to look bad by having these demos run on one of the other browsers that so far haven't caught up the point Safari/WebKit has with implementing HTML5? How would this work in favor of the HTML5 cause? Not one bit in these demos use vendor-specific hacks. It's all parts of what the W3C has specified for HTML5.

    35. Re:Chrome by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      chromium-browser --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_5_8; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.22.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Safari/531.22.7"

      I had to spend a minute figuring out how to change Chromium's user agent. Give it a try. But, it doesn't work if there is already an instance of Chromium running - you have to close other instances, then run this command. The audio didn't work, nor did the VR, but the rest worked.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    36. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Er, no, there's still a browser check when you click on the "view demo" button even if you reach it via that link.

    37. Re:Chrome by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      it doesn't work.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    38. Re:Chrome by meuhlavache · · Score: 1

      oops, you're right.... but it's a little bit more permissive...

    39. Re:Chrome by Gulthek · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      How does the app store "splinter the web"?

    40. Re:Chrome by meuhlavache · · Score: 1

      worked for me with Google Chrome 5.0.375.70, except the "VR" demo.

    41. Re:Chrome by eggnoglatte · · Score: 1

      Yes it does (chrome on mac).

    42. Re:Chrome by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      try firefox. they still sniff, but let in all types of webkit i suppose.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    43. Re:Chrome by Low+Ranked+Craig · · Score: 1

      Exactly. This submission is basically a troll.

      --
      I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
    44. Re:Chrome by Low+Ranked+Craig · · Score: 1

      It's a showcase for HTML5, meant to look good, to show what HTML5 is capable of

      Not quite, but close:

      The demos below show how the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Not all browsers offer this support. But soon other modern browsers will take advantage of these same web standards — and the amazing things they enable web designers to do.

      --
      I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
    45. Re:Chrome by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 1

      You've completely missed the point. Apple's page is to show how Safari implements the proposed standards. Viewing the page in other browsers doesn't demonstrate how Safari implements them. Apple's message is two fold. First, there are these standards coming up that they think are important and useful. Second, here's how they are going to work in Safari.

    46. Re:Chrome by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      no, it doesn't (firefox on linux/vista/seven/xp). even though firefox supports more html5 than safari.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    47. Re:Chrome by Alex+Zepeda · · Score: 3, Informative
      Except that they're not.

      From http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/gallery.php

      By animating the -webkit-transform CSS property in your code, you can enable hardware-accelerated animations and deliver a top-notch experience in web pages on iPad and iPhone.

      * Photos are positioned with -webkit-transform.

      * The spotlight effect is drawn with -webkit-gradient.

      Those aren't standards. Those are propietary CSS extensions.

      --
      The revolution will be mocked
    48. Re:Chrome by Snover · · Score: 4, Informative

      css3-transform is not proprietary. Nor is css3-images, which describes gradient properties. The reason that these properties are implemented using the -webkit- prefix is because these standards have not reached candidate recommendation status and are still subject to change. A vendor prefix doesn’t mean “proprietary”—it means “experimental”. Once the standard reaches final recommendation status, which can only occur once two independent implementations have been created, then the vendor prefixes will be dropped.

      For what it’s worth, there are a good number of people within the development community that are not happy with vendor prefixes, but it is the best option that currently exists to ensure that incompatible implementations do not use the same property name.

      --

      [insert witty comment here]
    49. Re:Chrome by catbutt · · Score: 1

      I would've said would've. Presumably the "of" comes from the fact that "would've" sounds a bit like "would of". I suppose you could even say "I'd've". Probably not considered correct written English to have a double contraction, but it's clear you know the correct form, but are just being informal.

    50. Re:Chrome by Mr2001 · · Score: 1

      If you'd be even an ounce investigative or knowledgeable in HTML, CSS and JS, you would've checked the source code of these demos and quickly noticed that no vendor-specific CSS magic or alike is used in any of these demos - every piece of them use "web standard" parts as per the current HTML5 draft from the W3C.

      If you had been even an ounce investigative or knowledgeable, you would've checked the source code of these demos -- or even the text on the page -- and quickly noticed vendor-specific CSS extensions like "-webkit-transform" and "-webkit-gradient". And then you could have avoided embarrassing yourself with your angry, inaccurate post.

      --
      Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
    51. Re:Chrome by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually I'm afraid it is you who are mistaken, although I won't call you names. If you would have clicked on the first link you would have seen a massive banner that reads "HTML 5 and web standards". Now if "web standards" only work on OSX, we might as well say that IE6 quirks mode is the standard the web should be based on.

      The WHOLE POINT of having web standards in the first place is so we DON'T end up with another broken web with some things only working for client a, others only on client b. If this page where put out by MSFT, and only worked correctly on IE8 on Windows 7, wouldn't everyone have a fit? Of course they would.

      Look, I really respect old Steve, I really do. He took a company on life support and brought them not only back from the dead, but back to the top of the heap. And I understand to a point why he wants to make everything only work the way he wants it to and that is because he wants to control the experience, so that everything "just works" the way he designed it. I get that. But what we have to be careful of is his "vision" polluting web standards so that the ONLY way to get the full web is HIS way. We have already been down that road with MSFT and IE6, just because old Steve is good at making iShiny doesn't mean we should head down that road again, okay?

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    52. Re:Chrome by EriDay · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In this case I think Apple is right to limit the demo to Safari, because at this point not even Chrome works for all the demos. I don't like everything that Apple does, but in this case what are they supposed to do? Due to no standard being set on video, no other browser will properly render the demos. I do question what the deal with the CSS is. Remember, this page is a showcase of Apple's products based on the not completely baked HTML 5 standard - it is not a general HTML 5 showcase:

      If we are to accept what you say then the following can't be true:

      Standards aren't add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.

      Standards aren't standards if they're not standard.

    53. Re:Chrome by bennomatic · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A vendor prefix doesn’t mean “proprietary”—it means “experimental”. Once the standard reaches final recommendation status, which can only occur once two independent implementations have been created, then the vendor prefixes will be dropped.

      Likewise, it is not a standard, then. If people code their pages to fit what Apple are currently touting as a standard, they will find in many cases that once the standards are solidified, they will have to recode to ensure cross-browser. support.

      --
      The CB App. What's your 20?
    54. Re:Chrome by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Informative

      The point is that "other browsers", by and large, actually support HTML5 better than Safari.

    55. Re:Chrome by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Informative

      I thought you were talking about the ancientweb when Netscape roamed the net and sites held out signs like "Explorers only, we don't serve nomads here".

      Ancient days were when many sites held out signs like "Netscape Navigator required", pissing off IE users to no end.

    56. Re:Chrome by E+IS+mC(Square) · · Score: 0, Troll

      How about you fuck off from here and go back to applefanbois.com?

    57. Re:Chrome by wealthychef · · Score: 1

      Whether it is Apple's failure that Firefox fails is not the point. This whole discussion is confusing "standards" with "interoperability." Standards should in theory lead to better interoperability by giving folks an agreed upon, um, standard to operate on. But if nobody follows the standard, then A) maybe it's not a standard after all and B) interoperability will not occur. In this case, A is not the case as HTML5 is definitely a standard. Apparently Firefox does not follow this standard. Neither HTML5 nor Firefox nor Apple is evil here. Apple is advocating a standard. Firefox is not following it. OK. Disclaimer: I have not reviewed Apple's site for actual complaince with HTML5 standards. I am assuming it complies. If not, then yes, they are being silly at least and perhaps hypocritical.

      --
      Currently hooked on AMP
    58. Re:Chrome by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      Friend of mine picked up an HTC EVO. It has an implementation of Flash 10 running on it.

      I wanted to test 4G speeds from his place, and popped over to speedtest.

      The browsing experience was so slow and painful, I do not know why everyone is up in arms to get Flash on portable devices.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    59. Re:Chrome by dmesg0 · · Score: 1

      Only 4 of the demos manage to work on my Nexus1 (with Froyo FRF50). Video demo doesn't find h.264 codec, VR wants CSS 3D. The rest are very slow, especially Gallery (and doesn't look 3D at all, probably not the way it's supposed to be).

    60. Re:Chrome by VGPowerlord · · Score: 1

      Criticizing Apple for making a showcase of what they can do with standards not comply with standard browsers is trolling?!

      How does it not comply with standards? Sure it filters users by agent string, but lots of Web sites do that. It's not non-standard at all.

      Besides HTML5 not being standardized yet, it also uses vendor extensions rather than the proposed extensions in the HTML5/CSS3 documents.

      --
      GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
    61. Re:Chrome by RulerOf · · Score: 1

      I'd of

      Read a book, you fucking moron.

      Well... while he may be a moron, for all intensive purposes, you're an asshole.

      --
      Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
    62. Re:Chrome by BooRolla · · Score: 1

      Again, right there on the page it says this that it shows how Apple's latest products support HTML 5. It doesn't say that apple.com supports the latest version of Firefox or IE.

      I may be daft right now, but isn't the point of standards to avoid having pages determine what browsers they support? In fact, shouldn't it be the opposite - browsers identifying what's on the page and rendering what they understand? Apple.com doesn't have to support anything, but just stop blocking to be intellectually honest.

      Overall, this isn't a big deal (Ad on a com site) but filtering on UA string and requesting a unique download for a standards demo is hamfisted. The download may as well be Flash at that point.

    63. Re:Chrome by impaledsunset · · Score: 1

      Hey, a strawman logical fallacy is a logical fallacy only when you use it to draw a conclusion. I don't see a conclusion here - just an assumption that the grand grandparent is a Apple fanboy based on his reaction, which might be inconsiderate, but nevertheless likely. Anyway...

      Saying that checking user agent string was standard is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I'm not sure if a page can be considered standard compliant if it does this, but even if it can, it is compliant only on paper. Such checks go completely against the intent of the standards. A page that only works if your user agent has a certain value isn't standard. Period. That's almost like saying that a page that is complete gibberish on anything but IE, but otherwise passes fine on all validators, is standard.

    64. Re:Chrome by crmarvin42 · · Score: 1

      Try using Chrome. It could be that it's checking for webkit. I loaded the demos fine in safari and Google Chrome, but not in camino or firefox. I should have tried the other 2 before posting. My bad.

      --
      Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
    65. Re:Chrome by silanea · · Score: 1

      [...] what's wrong with asking users to download Safari if that's the only way currently to see the demos in their full glory?

      Apple does not ask, it makes it a prerequisite. A simple recommendation and a "I don't care, show me the goods" link would have done perfectly.

      --
      Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
    66. Re:Chrome by silanea · · Score: 1

      [...] I don't like everything that Apple does, but in this case what are they supposed to do? [...]

      Add a link to the demo below the Safari message that says "I understand that my browser may not fully support this demo, but I want to try anyway". Y'know, plain and simple cross-browser usability 1x1. It is not that hard.

      --
      Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
    67. Re:Chrome by Low+Ranked+Craig · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Standards aren't standards if they're not standard.

      Not sure what your point is. Apple's point at face value is that you can start using their products to start browsing HTML5/CSS3 sites today. If one company implements the agreed to standard and other companies don't that doesn't make the standard a non-standard...

      I opened the page in Chrome and it didn't work 100%. Now, if you want to analyze Apple's source and point out where their site breaks standards, that would be something more interesting

      You might have missed this bit as well:

      Not all browsers offer this support. But soon other modern browsers will take advantage of these same web standards

      --
      I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
    68. Re:Chrome by Low+Ranked+Craig · · Score: 1

      Not at all. The purpose of the page is to, and I quote:

      The demos below show how the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Not all browsers offer this support. But soon other modern browsers will take advantage of these same web standards — and the amazing things they enable web designers to do.

      This is NOT a showcase for HTML 5, this is to show that their products render HTML5/CSS3 today. There is no intellectual dishonesty there at all, especially since once I changed the agent string the pages didn't render completely in Chrome, Opera or FIrefox. Didn't try IE8, but then again I don't feel it worth the effort...

      --
      I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
    69. Re:Chrome by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      Hey, a strawman logical fallacy is a logical fallacy only when you use it to draw a conclusion.

      It is used to draw the conclusion that the grandparent post was not a troll.

      on paper. Such checks go completely against the intent of the standards.

      In a perfect world you don't need to check for browsers because everyone follows a standard, however, not all browsers do, especially for emerging standards (through no fault of their own). In those instanced, browser checking is a very, very useful technique. Would you argue that YouTube is hurting standards because they use browser checking and supply HTML5 video tag versions of pages to some browsers that support the new standard and Flash to everyone else?

      A page that only works if your user agent has a certain value isn't standard. Period.

      I reject this as an unsupported assertion... oh and writing the word "period" with a period on either side of it is idiotic. "Period period period"? It makes sense if you're vocalizing the punctuation in speech for emphasis, but not the way you're writing it.

    70. Re:Chrome by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      Besides HTML5 not being standardized yet, it also uses vendor extensions rather than the proposed extensions in the HTML5/CSS3 documents.

      What extensions are they using that have not been proposed as part of the spec? I didn't see any.

    71. Re:Chrome by Alex+Zepeda · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Woosh. Vendor prefixes are all good and well, but they're *not standard*.

      --
      The revolution will be mocked
    72. Re:Chrome by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      p>Well... while he may be a moron, for all intensive purposes, you're an asshole.

      Ha ha. That's funny. I assume you were baiting someone (like me).

    73. Re:Chrome by RulerOf · · Score: 1

      Blast! You ruined my "woosh!"

      :P

      --
      Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
    74. Re:Chrome by Low+Ranked+Craig · · Score: 1

      Why would they do that when the express purpose of the page is to sell Apple products. It isn't in Apple's best interest to push Chrome (my browser of choice) or Firefox... Are you going to start demanding that Microsoft post code examples in Objective C on MSDN?

      --
      I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
    75. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd of

      Read a book, you fucking moron.

      Well... while he may be a moron, for all intensive purposes, you're an asshole.

      ...for all intents and purposes...

    76. Re:Chrome by RulerOf · · Score: 1

      THERE you are!

      Woosh.

      --
      Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
    77. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are proposed parts of the HTML5 standard, but W3C forces new extensions to be tagged with the name of the only browser they're implemented in until a second party implements them.

      This is why I have never bothered to get a slashdot UID. Apple's reward for creating something of public value by donating these proposed capabilities to everyone, both through contribution to the standards process and an open source implementation in WebKit? A bunch of fuckhead slashtards like you seizing on the flimsiest of excuses to cry about how EEEEEVIL and HYPOCRITICAL they are. A low digit /. UID, especially one still posting these days, isn't a badge of honor, it's a badge of someone who willingly associates with idiots. So I hide my shame and post AC.

    78. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HTML5 is a standard which is STILL IN THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS YOU FUCKING SLASHTARD. Web standards do not spring forth fully formed from the forehead of Zeus.

      Apple is pushing HTML5 hard, since they've decided to try to make a serious try at no longer being dependent on Adobe (like it or not, Flash has become a key piece of every browser). So it is only natural that Apple is the first to propose and implement a lot of the stuff in HTML5. This is why not everything in those demos works right in other browsers just yet.

      If they were trying to make the Web proprietary, why the hell would they be working with the standards body to, you know, standardize this stuff? Or giving away a working implementation in the form of webkit?

      Morons, all of you.

    79. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For someone dishing out insults, you are just completely ignorant about the evolution of HTML.

      Guess what? Every single "proprietary" feature in IE was actually a "proposed standard" at one point. Releasing a cool new bleeding edge feature while simultaneously emailing the W3C is exactly how the game is played you fucking slashtard moron.

    80. Re:Chrome by Yakasha · · Score: 1

      I guess you didn't click through and look at the website? See, like so many other articles reposted around, this one is misleading. The site is to demo new technologies that are supported by Safari. The page is to demo Safari. Kind of misses the point to use another browser, doesn't it?

    81. Re:Chrome by toddestan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The site can't break standards because there isn't a standard to break yet for HTML5/CSS3. All it really is just Apple showing what they think the standard should look like. However, it doesn't seem to stop Apple from claiming that their version is the "standard".

    82. Re:Chrome by MrMarket · · Score: 1

      This demo link works in Chrome without changing the user agent.

    83. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is sheer stupidity on Apple's part, it undermines the whole idea of standards.

      No, it makes anyone who wants to see it think only Apple is capable of doing it and trying to get more people to switch to its Safari browser by tricking users into thinking any other browser is just inferior to theirs. Just another attempt at a smear campaign against the competition like those misleading 'Mac vs Pc' ads.

    84. Re:Chrome by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      I'm a master of the obvious. It's my special ability.

    85. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy shit: you sound like the fucking stupid fanboy you are.
      I run a Mac, and I think the fact that it *ONLY RUNS* on their own OS in Safari (which is the shittiest browser of all time) is absolute crap. You CLEARLY are not a developer and CLEARLY have never had to create something on the net.

      We're finally to a point on the net where everyone should realize that to design something that isolates you from the rest of the net, is clearly 2 steps back. I'd never design a site that ONLY ran on a specific version of OSX using a specific browser. Go look at some web site statistics and see how many hits your site gets, now filter those results by the number of people running that verison of OSX *AND* Safari. You'll see you're hitting a MUCH smaller percentage.

      Apples whole secret-internet-garden is a fucking joke, and all of the iSheep who think this is even a remotely good idea remind us of how short your attention spans are. Remember why a lot of developers *HATE* IE? It's not standards compliant! You have to design your site with all kinds of little patches to make it cross compatible. Remember the inconveniences several years back, some sites displayed all fucked up in Safari because the jackass developers wrote and tested the whole thing in IE. People bitched and moaned and NOTICED, think it wont happen again on Safari?

      GTFO my /.

      /nerd rage

    86. Re:Chrome by BZ · · Score: 1

      > if you want to analyze Apple's source and point out where their site breaks standards

      For example, by using Apple's proprietary "3d transforms" extensions to CSS, which are not a standard of any sort.

    87. Re:Chrome by BZ · · Score: 1

      > A vendor prefix doesn't mean "proprietary"--it means "experimental"

      It can mean either one. There are -webkit properties of both kinds (and -moz properties of both kinds, and -msie properties of both kinds, last I checked).

    88. Re:Chrome by smash · · Score: 1

      Or would've which sounds similar. But isn't the same.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    89. Re:Chrome by Mr2001 · · Score: 1

      They are proposed parts of the HTML5 standard, but W3C forces new extensions to be tagged with the name of the only browser they're implemented in until a second party implements them.

      In other words, they're non-standard features that Apple wishes other browser makers would implement so they'd become standard, kinda like Internet Explorer's old <marquee> tag. Got it.

      Apple's reward for creating something of public value by donating these proposed capabilities to everyone, both through contribution to the standards process and an open source implementation in WebKit? A bunch of fuckhead slashtards like you seizing on the flimsiest of excuses to cry about how EEEEEVIL and HYPOCRITICAL they are.

      No, please try to keep up. That's not their reward for creating something of public value; it's their reward for restricting their supposed "standards showcase" to users of their own browser.

      --
      Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
    90. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      didnt work in chrome linux.. Well, maybe if you change your UA string but the site complains otherwise (didnt try chaning my UA).

    91. Re:Chrome by wallsg · · Score: 1

      The site can't break standards because there isn't a standard to break yet for HTML5/CSS3. All it really is just Apple showing what they think the standard should look like. However, it doesn't seem to stop Apple from claiming that their version is the "standard".

      Sounds like what Microsoft is constantly accused of here. I've never understood why Apple always gets a pass.

    92. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does not work at all in chrome 5 on Fedora Linux.
      All it does is display a popup asking to install Safari (which does not work under linux, please don't tell me about Wine).

      The strange thing is I suppose this is all supported by webkit, and webkit is open source and the base of Google Chrome, Espial Browser 6, and a few others. So I bet it could display just fine in those browsers.

      So Apple should not filter which browser is able to view their page, just let us try them!

    93. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      99BottlesOfBeerInMyF.....anboy?

    94. Re:Chrome by delinear · · Score: 1

      We know it's slow and painful, that doesn't mean the best option is to just not have it! There are a lot of instances where you need it, some people are unfortunate enough to need to access it as part of their job, slow and painful as it may be. When the web was new, downloading images took forever, but we didn't ban images, we demanded faster connections. Now flash is slow, we shouldn't ban flash, we should ask for adobe to make flash better, while at the same time encouraging those critical services that rely on flash with no alternative to consider how they can make their service more universally accessible - hopefully in time we'd end up with either a nice lightweight, fast mobile flash (the worst case) or all sites having a non-flash alternative solution (best case) but at least w'd be able to do everything we need to in the meantime. Removing a broken service when there is no alternative is rarely a good idea. There's nothing stopping Apple from adding flash as an option, even if they make you jump through hoops to enable it and tick all kinds of EULA about how rubbish it is and how it'll ruin the iPhone experience, just to make it abundantly clear that it's not their hardware but the third party plugin that's the issue.

    95. Re:Chrome by delinear · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't usually be this pedantic, but since you specifically used the term "HTML5 is definitely a standard", I have to point out (emphasis mine):

      HTML5 is currently being developed as the next major revision of HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the core markup language of the World Wide Web. HTML5 is the proposed next standard for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and DOM Level 2 HTML.

      In fact HTML5 is currently a bunch of proposals - okay some are a lot firmer than others, but theoretically none of them are yet "definite" standards, any of them could be pulled or modified before HTML5 is a finalised standard - to that end, Safari, Chrome, Opera and Firefox all have varying degrees of HTML5 support, but it's difficult for any of them to give a full implementation of a standard that doesn't technically exist.

      Furthermore it appears (from the comments above about the tests working in Chrome when you fudge the user agent string, admittedly I haven't tested this myself) that Apple are skewing the results to make it appear their browser is the only one capable of supporting the latest HTML5 developments. If that's intentional then that certainly isn't very sporting on Apple's part and definitely isn't what I'd expect from a corporation who claim to be trying to drive forward standards for the web.

    96. Re:Chrome by delinear · · Score: 1

      Fair enough if it's meant to be a showcase of Safari's abilities rather than HTML5's features, but it does still seem that, unless they explicitly point it out, they are artificially hobbling some other capable browsers in order to make Safari appear better. At the very least they should have the option to "see how these tests run in your current browser" for comparison purposes.

    97. Re:Chrome by delinear · · Score: 1

      Actually, while they allow non-standard proprietary extensions to be brought in via the back door, for good or bad, vendor extensions are valid according to the standards, although their use is discouraged. Pretty ridiculous as they allow for non-standard behaviour to be introduced while still allowing the page to pass a technical validation, they were added primarly because browser vendors wanted to add new functionality from CSS3/HTML5 etc without causing sites to fail validation to combat the fact that the W3C moves at a glacial pace. A good intention, but we all know what the road to hell is paved with...

    98. Re:Chrome by delinear · · Score: 1

      Woosh. Vendor prefixes are all good and well, but they're *not standard*.

      They shouldn't be, but unfortunately, by the very definition that they're in the standards, they are standard.

    99. Re:Chrome by delinear · · Score: 1

      Then it's this part that is probably causing issue:

      The demos below show how the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Not all browsers offer this support. But soon other modern browsers will take advantage of these same web standards — and the amazing things they enable web designers to do.

      By physically disabling certain browsers from even attempting to show the demo, the indication is that those brosers don't offer any level of support, when in many cases (particularly Chrome) the browsers do support those features. This just comes across as a shallow marketing attempt to suggest Safari is the only browser capable of supporting HTML5/CSS features at the moment, they could at least state that they've physically disabled other browsers in case the demos cause issues (and then perhaps provide a link to try them anyway), but just suggesting your browser may or may not offer HTML5 support then putting a popup message to download Safari when you try to view them is sending a pretty clear message which has nothing to do with standards or Safari's support of them and everything to do with wanting to increase market share (and of course they're perfectly entitled to do that, but just don't come here and defend it as being something other than marketing, that duck won't quack).

    100. Re:Chrome by delinear · · Score: 1

      The site can't break standards because there isn't a standard to break yet for HTML5/CSS3. All it really is just Apple showing what they think the standard should look like. However, it doesn't seem to stop Apple from claiming that their version is the "standard".

      Sounds like what Microsoft is constantly accused of here. I've never understood why Apple always gets a pass.

      It's because Apple are the plucky, counter-culture underdog to Microsoft's corporate might. Oh, wait...

    101. Re:Chrome by delinear · · Score: 1

      Do you not see how, by saying "not all browsers offer this support" and then, when the user clicks a link, prompting them with a "you need to download Safari to view this" type message might give the impression that your browser is one of the ones that doesn't offer support, even when that's not necessarily the case? And in that case, don't you think it's a tad misleading and biased in favour of Safari being the one true standards compliant browser? I'm happy for Apple to spread the word about HTML5 and even about how great Safari is at supporting it (and it really is!) but I draw the line at them giving the false impression that it's the only browser that's great at supporting it.

    102. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Netscape Navigate signs were needed because IE fail at so many standards.

    103. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Standard != status quo. Just because something has been decided on as a standard, doesn't mean all the browsers are following the standard yet. Apple is using the bleeding edge standards here and the other browsers haven't kept up with the pace.

    104. Re:Chrome by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 1

      Are you aware of how the HTML5 spec is going to become a standard? Two independent browser implementations are required for any particular feature to be put in the standard.

      Every browser maker is free to implement whatever new features they want to propose become standard. In CSS, these features will get prepended with attributes like -webkit-* or -moz-*.

      Often times browsers differ in how they implement proposed features such as border-image. A lot of this stuff does not at all behave the same way in different browsers, and that's okay!

      Safari is doing nothing wrong here, and while I am personally very angry at Apple for the app store, this isn't evil, it's just the nature of how HTML5 is being developed.

      --
      Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
    105. Re:Chrome by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Nope, they were needed because people were using <layer> and other proprietary NN features, which IE didn't have (or rather it did have them, but done differently).

      Standards compliance, at that point, wasn't particularly interesting because W3C HTML spec was lagging very much behind what browsers were implementing.

    106. Re:Chrome by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      The real problem isn't that flash is slow, it's that it's proprietary.

      The real solution is demand that Adobe submit Flash as a W3C standard. :)

      Hence the difference between Apple and Adobe in this fight.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    107. Re:Chrome by Snover · · Score: 1

      This is a red herring.

      Either the experimental features get to be used today and the code might need to be changed in several years to extend support to other browsers by adding non-prefixed properties, or they don’t get to be used at all and the code has to be changed later to add support anyway.

      Nobody has been forced to recode anything in order to continue to receive support for -webkit-border-radius or -webkit-box-sizing, which have both been around for years (and in the intervening period have entered CR status), and I doubt you are going to see the WebKit guys suddenly break all the sites on the Internet that rely on them by removing their vendor-prefixed properties.

      If you think you need to wait for a standard to become a final recommendation before you start using it, you’re going to have a hard time keeping up, since HTML5 (for example) isn’t going to become a final recommendation until 2022.

      --

      [insert witty comment here]
    108. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't like everything that Apple does, but in this case what are they supposed to do?

      They could stick to the standards that have been released and quit claiming that the things they are showcasing are html5 standard features. Regardless of the reasons, it is a lie.
      I'm sure Apple will submit these for consideration in the standard, but there is no guarantee they will be accepted, or accepted in this format. That means that people who buy into this "these are part of the standards that will soon be coming to everyone" will code sites that will have to change when the standard is set.

    109. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's for all intensive porpoises you illiterate jackass!

    110. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have been warning people about this for many years. Every time I find some Microsoft-hating user, guaranteed they are obsessed with some other group. I include Apple, Linux, Google, Microsoft, and so on. Remove yourselves from the label, remove yourselves from the brand, and just make rational and logical analyses. Just because you can dress it up in a scarf, plop down a penguin, or give it some ridiculous name doesn't make it the correct product.

      In this case, we have a company who has made technology cool and accessible to people that are not very likely to patronize this site. We all know the issue here.

      Lastly, it is a simple fact: if something is a standard, that means any client should be able to access it. Modifying the user agent string is a cheap gimmick that we can see through, but most people can't. So I have to say, this is not standard...yet. Before anyone panics, just remember evolution applies in many ways with technology, as well. May the best 'standard' win.

    111. Re:Chrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How does it not comply with standards?

      Because it uses proprietary webkit-* selectors.

  2. Standards and "Standards" by allo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple is Microsoft 2.0

    1. Re:Standards and "Standards" by meatplow · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      And no mod points when I could really use them.

      Such predictable behaviors.

    2. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Funny

      Apple is Microsoft 2.0

      When they hit Microsoft 3.1, they will have finally achieved a usable level of evilness.

    3. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does that make Google the successful 3.0 version?

    4. Re:Standards and "Standards" by DaMattster · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I am starting to agree. Microsoft is looking less evil now. In fact, they provided some generous assistance last summer to Samba 4 developement. They helped the Samba 4 developers figure out why DRS (Directory Replication Services) was not working.

    5. Re:Standards and "Standards" by DAldredge · · Score: 1

      The Microsoft AntiVirus package is free.

    6. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except the fact that Apple has continuously been increasing in exploits and been very slow to fix them. As more and more people use a Mac, more and more hackers will find it worthwhile to find exploits. This is exactly what is happening and if you knew anything about system security you would realize the only thing that protected Max in the past was because an exploit on the PC would compromise more users than the entire Mac community put together. This is still the fact now.

    7. Re:Standards and "Standards" by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      Were talking about why Corps make closed "standards" so they try to create a monopoly. Like when MS created IE6 and stillborn ActiveX their plan was to make all the web use that, and you know how well it ended. Seems like you like Apple, sorry, Apple is trying shamesly to do exactly what MS did in the 90's - And don't be so proud about MAC OSX security, there is already Botnet kits modified for MAC OSX, so your point is moot.

      So this magical wwwalled garden is the reason HTML5 is being pushed?, let me say that all my interest in HTML5 is now dead Jim. Everything Apple touches ends up being a toy, an OCD friendly and worthless techonology. Thank Jebus they let the cat out of the bag early, I will not waste my time in HTML5.

    8. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Draek · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah. With their desire to subvert industry standards for their own gain, their love for releasing overpriced, crippled and locked-in products and their ability to convince their fanboys that Big Brother Knows Better(tm), Apple is more like the v2.0 of the '80s IBM than Microsoft or Adobe.

      --
      No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
    9. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft. sure we pick on them for the bugs and virus's and spyware. That's not why we dislike Microsoft and has nothing to do with their "evil"

      This would and also does not impact apple's "evil".

    10. Re:Standards and "Standards" by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      Better lay off that Android phone then, which uses Webkit, or anything that uses CUPS, or storing your email messages in mbox format, or anything that is included in Darwin that is also used in other Unix and Unix-like OSes.

      On second thought, better just avoid Unix altogether - better to be safe, eh?

      And since you're avoiding HTML5, I assume you won't use Youtube any more.

      --
      Your criticism might be valid if they were pushing some proprietary Apple-only standard (like ActiveX with MS), but they are pushing HTML5 - a standard that they do not control (and as yet is still draft). While they very much want you to use Apple products to access your content, they have a history of making your *data* transparent and movable in and out of their ecosystem.

      I think the user agent sniff is a little silly - I would have preferred a big warning page that stated that some of the demos would possibly fail in other browsers, but such is life.

    11. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Alrescha · · Score: 1

      "Apple is Microsoft 2.0"

      Ridiculous.

      Microsoft, in it's heyday, managed to extort payments from computer manufacturers for copies of Windows that they didn't sell. e.g., if computer manufactures wanted to buy any copy of Windows, they had to buy copies for all the computers they sold - whether those computers came with Windows or not. *that's* evil.

      Microsoft, when it could, adopted open standards and then quietly extended them - making them incompatible with any other OS. If you used Microsoft's spec for the standard, you'd find out when you wanted to port your program that the 'standard' was Windows-specific. *that's* evil.

      The Apple page referenced by the article is a *Safari* demo. It's no surprise that it works only with Safari.

      A.

      --
      ...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
    12. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Looking less evil? Please. They're marketing the IE9 preview as being more standards compliant than every other browser by cherry picking only standards that they have implemented. And then trying to convince the world that developers only want to use the ones they are implementing - well duh, the developers are going to target the browser with the most market share and guess what, it's a hobbled together piece of shit as always. No, I'm pretty sure they're just as evil as always. They look less evil if you put them relative to Apple, which is on its way to parity. Fuck'em all.

    13. Re:Standards and "Standards" by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You say "less evil". I say "more scared". If Microsoft is working on interoperability, you know they're frightened of becoming irrelevant. Of course, helping Samba will severely cut into their share of the server market, because Samba4's unreadiness is still selling Windows licenses, but perhaps they're expecting to fail there anyway.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your criticism might be valid if they were pushing some proprietary Apple-only standard (like ActiveX with MS), but they are pushing HTML5

      Which part of "-webkit-animation-iteration-count: 1; -webkit-animation-duration: 0.75s; -webkit-transform: scale(1) translate(0,0); -webkit-transform-origin: 50% 50%; is a non-standard extension to css" you don't understand?

      Damn, this is the VS fight all over again.

    15. Re:Standards and "Standards" by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      Yes, theres only one CUPS and only one WebKit. Did you see the source code? Safari specific stuff, how standard is that? Is it betther compared what you can do with FLASH now?

      I can use Youtube in IE7 if I please, and on Chrome most of the videos are delivered in FLASH, html5 video had failed on me sometimes on youtube. `*fires _IE6_ on W2K test machine* ZOMFG! VIDEO! it works! but thats actually a bug from EVIL FLASH!

      Wait until "Website Requires Safari 5 or better and Mac OSX 10.x"

    16. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      NOW it is. Remember, they couldn't sell it, so they finally gave it away. And, NOW it is a pretty decent AV that actually works as advertised!

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    17. Re:Standards and "Standards" by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      What part of "not Apple-only" do you not understand?

      They used some Webkit-specific CSS extensions to deliver a site designed specifically for Safari. The beauty of CSS is that you can easily deliver specific stylesheets to each browser that comes along, so you can throw specific stuff at specific browsers.

    18. Re:Standards and "Standards" by jo_ham · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It was a demo designed to show off HTML5 and also promote Safari.

      It was Webkit-specific CSS, which is a little funny in a demo designed to show off full web standards, but targeted engine CSS is not unique. One of the benefits of stylesheets is you can send specific CSS to different browsers. If the demo were tuned to Firefox, it would easily have delivered Gecko-specific CSS instead. As it is, they decided to use a user agent block, which was not all that great (the bulk of the talk is about the block, rather than the demo), when they should have just warned that the demos might fail on other browsers.

      A properly designed website won't need to say "requires Safari or better" it'll just give the right stylesheet to the right browser. As long as they all support the (eventual) final HTML5 standard (and appropriate CSS), you can tailor a site to your browser.

      Perhaps the ultimate goal is platform independence, but even with CSS2 and HTML4 that was just never on the cards.

      Should there be engine-specific CSS? Ideally no, but all of the engines have it. It's up to the site designers themselves how they use the tools they have though - you don't have to use the specific stuff.

      In the case of this demo, it might just be stopgap while they work on the generic html5 implementation - on the other demo someone posted below, Safari has some trouble with a couple of the generic ones, usually related to external borders. Who knows. It's all a bit up in the air until everything is finalised.

    19. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they have a history of making your *data* transparent and movable in and out of their ecosystem.

      Erroneous, I will not even justify that ridiculous statement with a proper response.

    20. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NOW it is. Remember, they couldn't sell it, so they finally gave it away. And, NOW it is a pretty decent AV that actually works as advertised!

      Microsoft Security Essentials was announced as free from the start, long before it was released. And "Defender" mentioned by OP has always been free as well.

      What you might be thinking of costing money was the subscription and "cloud" based Windows Live OneCare service. That was a different beast in many ways. It did contain antivirus, but also a lot of other stuff, like online backup service, packaged together.

    21. Re:Standards and "Standards" by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      Samba4 is still in alpha, yes. But, it is useable for the more basic elements of AD. And, I stand corrected ... they are doing it more out of fear than altruism.

    22. Re:Standards and "Standards" by CarpetShark · · Score: 1

      Apple is Microsoft 2.0

      As horrifying as that (reality) might be, the upgrade is still welcome.

    23. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think they expect to keep the server market; they want to make sure that they keep their place on the desktop market.

    24. Re:Standards and "Standards" by jo_ham · · Score: 2, Informative

      Citations please.

      What makes it erroneous?

      Other than the original iTunes music (which had DRM at the RIAA's insistence, but is now gone) and iTunes movies (with still have DRM due to the movie studios), Apple's data formats are open.

      You have mbox for email, documented XML for their iWork and iLife apps, AAC for audio, H.264 for video, .ics for calendars, vcard for address book, human readable plist files, support for NFS out of the box, CUPS for printing, use of png for screencapture format by default...

      I think your anonymous anti-apple nerd rage is blinding you to reality.

      So, if you would like to attempt a proper response (and not posting AC is a good start - tends to look better), then I'd like to hear of some cases where Apple makes it hard to move your data into and out of Apple systems.

    25. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple is a lot more "evil" than MS ever was, just MS was more sucessful as company by a major margin for a long long time
      MS tried to leverage their OS domination to expand into other areas for greater profit, Apple are just out and out control freaks

    26. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, duh! Microsoft has learned that interop is more than simply interop with their own software. I can go and use MSDN online help from a Linux browser, no problems. I can develop apps for Microsoft Windows under a VM running in Linux - makes my job much easier.

      Apple's demo page is ridicules, even worse than during battle of www browsers (IE & Netscape) circa 1999.

      You’ll need to download Safari to view this demo.

      This demo was designed with the latest web standards supported by Safari. If you’d like to experience this demo, simply download Safari. It’s free for Mac and PC, and it only takes a few minutes.

      FU Apple! "Web standards" my ass!

    27. Re:Standards and "Standards" by coaxial · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well Microsoft is also irrelevant.

      Hating Microsoft today is like hating Prussia.

    28. Re:Standards and "Standards" by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      I agree 100% with your post. Is just that I can't trust Apple. Nothing good can come out if you make someone crave about the new and shinny HTML5 and lure them with a demo but they find you have to use X and X to be able to see this new future.

      My IE6 example says it all, Youtube nags you to update your browser 2 times: "YOU BROWSER IS NOT SUPPORTED!!!1", but even then, You can play the goddamn video on IE6 thanks to flash.

      Last time I checked I didn't created a website for me, so it runs flawlessly on my machines, everyone creates sites for the average tube sailor, they don't give a f*** about html5, js, flash, as, css, activex.... --

      1. got to a site to see demo about stuff
      2. get invited to download X browser
      3. "well this is retro" remarks
      4. ???
      5. Alt + <-

    29. Re:Standards and "Standards" by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      Does developing to an specific language for the iToys excluding you from porting to other platforms fill in your "hard to move your data in and out Apple systems?

    30. Re:Standards and "Standards" by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      You mean a specific language like C or C++ - those are totally proprietary to Apple, right?

    31. Re:Standards and "Standards" by EriDay · · Score: 1

      A generation ago Microsoft was the "less evil" version of IBM. Look at how Microsoft knocking off IBM as the leader has made IBM a better company. Now Apple is doing the same thing to Microsoft.

      In a generation will someone on Slashdot be pointing out the same similarity between Apple and Google?

      Even a benign dictator sucks.

    32. Re:Standards and "Standards" by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      Can I drop that C code blob in HTML and work? Why would I spend asstons of time developing something in C when I can do it in 3 hours in Flash with better UI and make it run in Android, Windows and Linux?

      Trying to argue that Apple is not a closed environment is moot, in various levels of "closed" not in this specific subset of openness that Apple offers in your original example.

      This HTML5 demo IS CLOSED for anyone not using Safari, change user agent you say? I don't need to do that on any site I enjoy regularly, do change useragent will help average joe with IE7? IE8? Last time I checked that IE disease still gets more than 50% of browser share.

    33. Re:Standards and "Standards" by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Don't forget that Microsoft was successfully sued for anti-competitive practices. It's still in the spotlight over this, so it has to be very, very careful in all its moves so as not to trigger another round of hurt - a fine of 2 billion euros is no chump change, even for a company of this size.

    34. Re:Standards and "Standards" by BatGnat · · Score: 4, Funny

      It is only fair! Andrew Tridgell, helped them understand their own SMB protocol.

    35. Re:Standards and "Standards" by phoenix321 · · Score: 1

      Just because you CAN throw specific stuff at specific browser, it doesn't make it the best idea.

      Specific stuff for specific browsers is the exact antithesis to "standards".

      I know this is Apple, so /. becomes Miniluv 2.0 and Minitrue 3.0, but I will not accept any re-framing of the word "standard" so that it describes a concept that is different for every instance and audience.

    36. Re:Standards and "Standards" by impaledsunset · · Score: 1

      A company isn't a human entity, so its goodness can be judged almost only by its actions. If Microsoft are becoming less evil because they are scared, they are still becoming less evil. In the end, the only way to have non-evil big companies, even those built around good intentions, is to force them. So whatever the reason is, Microsoft has helped Samba, and that's a good thing, and Microsoft are currently behaving less evil than Apple.

    37. Re:Standards and "Standards" by jo_ham · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why can't I just drop my game's C code into an HTML wrapper and have it work? Is your "better" UI in flash better than a native widget set provided by the OS your app is running on?

      Also, I assume your Flash app is going to "run" on those android phones with no flash support, right?

      We're not arguing that Apple is strongly vertically integrated - this is clearly the case, but you data is free to move in and out.

      Your core C code is portable - you can take it right over to Android, and just connect it up to native UI widgets. For your email you just take your mbox files with you if you don;t want to use Apple's Mail app any more (unlike, say Outlook .pst files). If you don't want to use iWork all your files are easy to convert since they are fully documented XML files (unlike, say .docx), if you don't want to keep using iTunes for your music you can just move it to any music software that supports AAC (an open standard that Apple does not control).

      This HTML5 demo is DEMONSTRATING WHAT SAFARI CAN DO WITH HTML5, which is why YOU NEED TO USE SAFARI - it is not a generic HTML5 demo suite for your browser of choice - there are plenty of those out there. You're trying to equate this demo page with some overarching "Apple wants to close off the web" mantra, which is simply not the case.

      You can view the page by changing the UA string, but some of the demos might break. That was not the intent of the demo - the purpose is to show what Safari can do with the state of it's HTML5 support to this point (as far as possible with the draft standard).

    38. Re:Standards and "Standards" by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      Funnily enough, Microsoft's HTML5 test pages also deliver Webkit-specific CSS to Safari in their demos - the border demo shows it up the best.

      I'd have expected MS to not bother and just serve the same CSS it gives to IE9 and let the demo break in Safari (it works just fine), unless it is also serving this CSS to IE9 too?

      So, the question is - why is there a specific webkit CSS extension for borders? It seems like a pretty basic part of the spec that shouldn't really call for anything special, unless there is something about the way Webkit renders those elements that necessitated a special extension.

      And of course, you're right - it's not "standard", but we have to wait for the finalised standard before we actually see if that specific selector remains. It might be a stopgap measure.

      The last thing we really need is "code this for x, y, z browsers, then spend time tweaking it to work in a and b browsers".

    39. Re:Standards and "Standards" by silanea · · Score: 1

      No. Google may be evil, but it is not intentionally annoying.

      --
      Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
    40. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would thank the EU (in particular Neelie Smit-Kroes) for that.

    41. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "One of the benefits of stylesheets is you can send specific CSS to different browsers. If the demo were tuned to Firefox, it would easily have delivered Gecko-specific CSS instead."

      I thought one of the benefits of a standard was that everyone adopted it and complied so you only need one stylesheet.

      while companies keep interpreting the standard differently you might as well have a propriety solution like flash, at least you know it will render properly across all the browsers.

      lets not forget the root of all this- apple wants to maintain their cash cow appstore which flash compromises so they have to explain away their ban on flash with other arguments. but of course people are very keen on lots of what flash is good for (games, video, animation, slick presentation, custom interactvity, fonts etc...) so apple are offering a fledgling html5 as a viable alternative which it clearly isn't yet so you can have some of the key features from flash you want but apple still get to keep people buying from the appstore. without the appstore people wouldn't be that bothered with iphones as other handsets have caught up. apple are losing their dominance of the smartphone market and pushing html5 is a strategy to try and maintain their dominance by making a feature of other smart phones (flash support) seem irrelevant. once android matures and has some good apps/access to the full web with flashplayer 10.1 and free online apps, i can't see so many people wanting to stick with apple when they can get the apps for free online with a different handset.

      apple aren't interested in an open standard, they're interested in making money, it just happens that an open standard might be favourable for them to make money.

    42. Re:Standards and "Standards" by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      That might be true if the app store was a cash cow: it isn't.

      Of course they are interested in profits - they are a business. This does not mean they are not also interested in promoting open standards.

      The Microsoft HTML5 demos also send Webkit-specific CSS to Safari when you load the demos, so they are either well known CSS calls that exist to plug a hole in some implementation that Webkit is doing (ie, it may still be a work in progress) or MS also wants to make Safari look good with HTML5.

    43. Re:Standards and "Standards" by BZ · · Score: 1

      But the thing is that most of what they're showing off isn't "HTML5" but in fact Safari-proprietary CSS (and for that matter CSS that only works in Safari on Snow Leopard and Mobile Safari, not any other Safari).

    44. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They forgot the feature that makes your OS or filebrowser crash at random intervals.

    45. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Acaeris · · Score: 1

      The reason for the -webkit, -msie, -moz and -o prefixes is that CSS3 isn't finalised yet. For example, the format of parameters for background gradients is still being worked on and both Webkit and Mozilla have different ideas for how to implement it. For Example:

      background: -webkit-gradient(linear, top, bottom, from(rgb(0,0,0)), to(rgb(255,255,255)));

      background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, rgb(0,0,0) 0, rgb(255,255,255) 100%);

      The above would generate the same linear gradient, but as the format of gradients isn't finalised, there is no standard to the parameters

      It should also be noted that Webkit currently processes anti-aliasing before it processes any CSS transformations making things like text-shadow and CSS rotations look awful

    46. Re:Standards and "Standards" by delinear · · Score: 1

      That might be true if the app store was a cash cow: it isn't.

      The app store isn't a cash cow? That's odd, because the way they mention it on every single iPhone/iPod/iPad advert I've seen in the last few years, I almost suspected for a while that it was a major selling point for their hardware, and as such it was in their best interests to limit this as much as possible only to their own platforms. How naive I have been!

    47. Re:Standards and "Standards" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, if you would like to attempt a proper response (and not posting AC is a good start - tends to look better), then I'd like to hear of some cases where Apple makes it hard to move your data into and out of Apple systems.

      I was telling my gf about some free tracks I downloaded to my Android phone that were pretty catchy and she wanted to use one as the ringtone on her iPhone. I couldn't remember the site, so naturally my first instinct was to send my copy via bluetooth. Apparently Apple don't like their iPhone users using bluetooth. Okay, I thought, we'll work around this, so I sent it via email. Apparently Apple won't let you import a track from email. Well fine, here's the netbook, it's a bit of a hassle but go into the email on there, download the track, USB transfer onto the... oh what, no USB transfer? You have got to be kidding me. In the end I think we had to go to her PC, rip it into iTunes and then sync that with the phone - end result, 30 minutes of arsing about to do something that should have taken 30 seconds. Still, it's good that Apple don't make it hard to move your data into and out of their systems.

    48. Re:Standards and "Standards" by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      Why "rip it to iTunes" - just drop the file into iTunes, then connect the iPhone via USB and press "sync".

      Why did you need to rip it?

      The point is not the methods, but the formats. You don;t like iTunes any more? No problem, you can take your music with you to another app.

    49. Re:Standards and "Standards" by blai · · Score: 1

      I am starting to agree.

      What took you so long?!

      --
      In soviet Russia, God creates you!
    50. Re:Standards and "Standards" by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      In a generation will someone on Slashdot be pointing out the same similarity between Apple and Google?

      Actually, in a generation, we could all be working for the world government of google :)

      While I would prefer freedom, somehow I suspect that most of the world would settle for competence.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by Superken7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, HTML5 is the future and as soon as we get rid of flash the better, but if you are going to try and show how its done, then do it right or don't do it at all, Apple.

    Have a look at this: http://apirocks.com/html5/html5.html#slide1

    This is a very nice demo that doesn't tell you to get XYZ browser. Sure, some parts might not work at all if you are not running on the latest chrome or webkit browser, but most demos work and I find it to be a nicer way of doing things (IMHO).

    (This was part of a presentation done by some googlers about HTML5 a few months ago)

    1. Re:A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Works fine on Opera, but whats impressive about it? It does not have a preloader nor transitions nor custom design. Flash can do the same since flash 5? You don't even need Flash IDE to do it.

      HTML5 is not the future, it's a probable future, really really think if you'd like to support HTML5 when this show us that Apple have an agenda there, You think the web will be "more free (tm)" if Apple gets to decide what is a standard? Really?

    2. Re:A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by Cryacin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      HTML5 will be great! It will just take about 5-10 years for all the other browsers to adopt the standards carefully laid out today.

      hmmm... I wonder what the web will look like in 5-10 years?

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    3. Re:A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Works fine on Opera, but whats impressive about it? It does not have a preloader nor transitions nor custom design. Flash can do the same since flash 5?

      And you've been able to do the same thing with Silverlight and numerous other plug-ins... not with native HTML. That's what is impressive. Functionality using standards and not proprietary plug-ins.

      HTML5 is not the future, it's a probable future, really really think if you'd like to support HTML5 when this show[sic] us that Apple have an agenda there, You think the web will be "more free (tm)" if Apple gets to decide what is a standard?

      Apple has an agenda? What agenda is that, beyond making HTML5 more functional and useful for media and Web apps? And how does Apple decide what is the standard when they're one of several major companies contributing to the creation of it? You might as well say it's Google or Mozilla deciding the standard, as that has just as much support.

    4. Re:A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 2, Insightful

      HTML5 will be great! It will just take about 5-10 years for all the other browsers to adopt the standards carefully laid out today.

      Thanks to Google, I don't think so. There are a lot of big players pushing hard at getting these adopted. MS will be a holdout as much as they can, but losing share in mobile Web use and overseas browsers share combined with Google's Chrome plug-in will make them much less able to pull it off. Web standards have stagnated a long time because of MS, but times are changing.

    5. Re:A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by Xamataca · · Score: 1

      it will be WWV (world wide Video)

      --
      ***Game Over***Insert Coin***
    6. Re:A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Step One: Claim the moral high ground.

      "Do it right or don't do it at all"

      Step Two: Claim to have the answer.

      "This is a very nice demo that doesn't tell you to get XYZ browser."

      Step Three: Now assured of your superiority, make excuses as you see fit

      ".. some parts might not work at all .. but most demos work .."

      Congratulations! You are now just like every other hypocritical scum politician that ever walked this earth.

      Meanwhile, people getting on with reality will at least assess Apple's demo for what it is: a proof of concept that due to the immaturity of HTML5 support, had to choose between a working demo or a browser-neutral demo. Anyone with professional experience of producing demos for general consumption will be familiar with the unfortunate necessity of locking down the environment.

      Remember, geeks are able to appreciate how amazing it is that the bear can dance at all. The general public wants Swan Lake.

      If you follow your own link, you should have noticed that it looks like shit, and the no doubt excellent technical content would be irrelevant to most browser users. This should have given you a bit of a hint that it is not a relevant example to a discussion on how to put up a demo for general viewing.

    7. Re:A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by BZ · · Score: 1

      > What agenda is that, beyond making HTML5 more functional and useful for media and Web apps?

      Controlling all content delivery to as many users as it can manage. Replacing as many web apps as it can get away with with iPhone apps. Making sure that as much of the mobile web as possible only renders well in their browser (hence recommending that people effectively design sites wrong then use -webkit-* properties that are only supported in Mobile Safari, not even desktop Safari, to "fix" the rendering for Apple's mobile devices).

      That sort of thing, in addition to the agenda you listed.

    8. Re:A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by cbhacking · · Score: 1

      Microsoft is actually less of a holdout than you might think. The current IE9 preview (a new one was released just a few days ago) has some very nice HTML5, CSS3, and SVG support. They currently seem to be emphasizing JavaScript speed and hardware acceleration at present, rather than implementing as much of the upcoming standards as possible, but they're doing quite well nonetheless. Besides, IE9 is still a long way from release, and at the rate they're progressing I don't think MS will be as far behind as you expect.

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
    9. Re:A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      What do you mean by "other browsers"? Opera, Safari and Chrome all have decent HTML5 support, and IE is coming.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    10. Re:A very nice HTML5+CSS3 demo that actually works by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      The current IE9 preview (a new one was released just a few days ago) has some very nice HTML5, CSS3, and SVG support.

      Not really. It looks nice on their site because it only lists Microsoft's own tests. Compared to other browsers, their HTML5, CSS3 and SVG support sucks.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  4. Re:It works in Safari... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Uh, yeah Apple considering you can't even access the demos with anything other than Safari. Repeat, you cannot even try them because it gives you a Download Safari popup. It won't let you in. So it's not that other browsers aren't HTML5 compatible (Chrome) it's that Apple won't even let you try.

  5. A hard choice by Shin-LaC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    HTML5 is still a work in progress. They could have made a demo that only uses those features which are already widely supported, but it wouldn't have been as impressive. Or they could have made a demo that uses the latest bleeding-edge proposals for HTML5, and let it fail on most people's browsers - perhaps even worse.
    Given that it's meant to be a showcase of things to come, it makes sense to require you to use the one browser that currently works with it. Even Mozilla sometimes releases demos that require the latest Firefox beta to test. Using browser sniffing to enforce it is certainly bad form, but they probably thought that otherwise people would just click through, see a broken demo, and not even realize they aren't seeing what they're meant to see. Hopefully they'll relax the restriction once (if) more browsers implement support for these proposed new features.

    1. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      On Snow Leopard, the demos work on Chrome 5.0.375.55 (latest official version) - I didn't even get a pop-up. The demos don't run as well as on Safari but most of them do work.

    2. Re:A hard choice by seanadams.com · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Who modded this offtopic? I hope that was an error as this is most certainly to the point.

    3. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would agree with you, except that other browsers support basically the same things that apple's does. Also, apple's code uses specific things to safari.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_%28HTML5%29

      As you can see, all the browsers support about as much html5 as safari. The only exception to that would be internet explorer.

    4. Re:A hard choice by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      HTML5 is still a work in progress. They could have made a demo that only uses those features which are already widely supported, but it wouldn't have been as impressive. Or they could have made a demo that uses the latest bleeding-edge proposals for HTML5, and let it fail on most people's browsers - perhaps even worse. Given that it's meant to be a showcase of things to come, it makes sense to require you to use the one browser that currently works with it. Even Mozilla sometimes releases demos that require the latest Firefox beta to test. Using browser sniffing to enforce it is certainly bad form, but they probably thought that otherwise people would just click through, see a broken demo, and not even realize they aren't seeing what they're meant to see. Hopefully they'll relax the restriction once (if) more browsers implement support for these proposed new features.

      This person was not fairly modded. HTML5 is still a work in progress. However, if HTML5 is to be standard, it must be patent-unencumbered and free/open-source.

    5. Re:A hard choice by Draek · · Score: 1

      They could have made a demo that only uses those features which are already widely supported, but it wouldn't have been as impressive. Or they could have made a demo that uses the latest bleeding-edge proposals for HTML5, and let it fail on most people's browsers - perhaps even worse.

      The problem of using the "latest bleeding-edge proposals" is that there's no certainity that they'll be approved, so showcasing them to developers in hopes of getting them to use them is extremely irresponsible if not downright 'evil', as if the devs use them and the proposal falls through your browser would be the only one their websites works in without rewriting potentially substantial parts of it.

      --
      No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
    6. Re:A hard choice by tsa · · Score: 5, Funny

      They should have made a demo in Flash so everyone could see it.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    7. Re:A hard choice by Skal+Tura · · Score: 3, Insightful

      that's not the point. The point is they advertise this as standards demo, not Safari demo. Ie. saying Safari is the only standards compliant browser, just like Microsoft telling IE is standards compliant.

    8. Re:A hard choice by doodlebumm · · Score: 1

      Safari for Linux? Not likely. Apple's afraid to do that, or maybe just not competent enough to do it (which I doubt). Or maybe they are just too arrogant and self-centered.

      Why does Apple want to make you download and install Safari?

      Since they are already checking your browser to see the demo, why not have an alternative video file for each demo if your current browser doesn't support the individual demo? Why not try to show what their browser can do instead of making you install it in order to see what it can do. They could even put 1080 videos on Youtube (oops, that might allow someone to comment on the video).

      What is Apple afraid of?

    9. Re:A hard choice by Aphrika · · Score: 1

      I'd agree that HTML5 is a work in progress, but I'd like to point out that as that's the case, sticking a honky great link to it on your company homepage is misplaced and stupid.

      What Apple should've done is written something like Microsoft's IE9 HTML5 demos that actually work in multiple browsers, and maybe just linked to it from their developer portal. I suspect they've tried to be too clever and shot themselves in the foot in this little 'standards' skirmish...

    10. Re:A hard choice by Shin-LaC · · Score: 1

      The problem of using the "latest bleeding-edge proposals" is that there's no certainity that they'll be approved, so showcasing them to developers in hopes of getting them to use them is extremely irresponsible if not downright 'evil', as if the devs use them and the proposal falls through your browser would be the only one their websites works in without rewriting potentially substantial parts of it.

      That's a good point. Someone would have to look through the various features to see what their status is (draft, approved...). At any rate, it's true that this is a showcase of "what we would like HTML5 to be", rather than "what it is".
      On the other hand, it's quite unlikely that people are going to start building websites that rely on those features, given Safari's small market share. What might happen is that web designers get interested and ask other browser makers to hurry up and add support for Apple's flashy stuff. You might say that's a bit underhanded, but it probably won't be a bad thing in the end.

    11. Re:A hard choice by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      HTML5 is still a work in progress. They could have made a demo that only uses those features which are already widely supported, but it wouldn't have been as impressive. Or they could have made a demo that uses the latest bleeding-edge proposals for HTML5, and let it fail on most people's browsers - perhaps even worse.

      It's not the fact that the demos only work on Safari that is offensive here, it's the hypocrisy. Did you even RTFSummary?

      on the front page the company states that 'Standards aren't add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.' The latter statement falls short by the fact that the featured examples only work with the Safari browser,

      In short, these are not standards yet, and since they are not standards, you can't start using them today. Or well, you can, but not as standards. So Apple is baldly lying. You can be offended by this or not, but you can't change the fact that Apple is lying.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    12. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately, Linux has virtually no market share.

    13. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 5, Informative

      that's not the point. The point is they advertise this as standards demo, not Safari demo.

      No they clearly advertise this as a demo of Safari, and it's support for HTML5. Here's the text:

      HTML5 Showcase The demos below show how the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Not all browsers offer this support. But soon other modern browsers will take advantage of these same web standards — and the amazing things they enable web designers to do.

      They specifically call out this as a demo of what they've implemented in Safari so far.

      Ie[sic]. saying Safari is the only standards compliant browser, just like Microsoft telling IE is standards compliant.

      No they actually state that "Not all browsers offer this support" which very, very strongly implies that some other browsers do offer this support. They go on to briefly mention how other modern browsers are adding support for HTML5 features so everyone will be able to use these new standards.

    14. Re:A hard choice by tronbradia · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It would be nice if they were this well-meaning, but they're not. Actually they do have a version of the same showcase that doesn't do a browser check: in the developer's page.

      This is the showcase that checks your browser:
      http://www.apple.com/html5/
      On that same page, scroll down and click on "Developers: Learn how to do it yourself," which I'm surprised no slashdotters have clicked on yet. It brings you to a new version of the gallery:
      http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/
      Which is exactly the same, except it works on Google Chrome, and presumably any standards-compliant browser. My bet is, it actually does feature-sniffing, although I haven't checked (everything works fine in Chrome).

      The message is clear: Are you a consumer? If so, Apple has the world's best browser which does all kinds of fancy stuff your browser doesn't.

      ...Oh wait, you mean you're a developer? Oh actually just kidding this is all standards compliant, any browser can do this stuff, how great is that?

    15. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      Safari for Linux? Not likely. Apple's afraid to do that...

      I think it's more a case of Apple has no motivation to spend the time and money doing that since it doesn't get them anything.

      Why does Apple want to make you download and install Safari?

      Because this is a demo of Safari's new HTML5 support. If you don't have Safari, you can't see what Safari's support is. This page is aimed at normal users or potential users of Safari.

      Since they are already checking your browser to see the demo, why not have an alternative video file for each demo if your current browser doesn't support the individual demo?

      Because they didn't think of it or get around to it? Besides, interactive features are much cooler because you can actually play around with them.

      What is Apple afraid of?

      Why didn't you make the demos yourself post them somewhere and link to them. Are you just incompetent? What are you afraid of?

    16. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What Apple should've done is written something like Microsoft's IE9 HTML5 demos [microsoft.com] that actually work in multiple browsers, and maybe just linked to it from their developer portal.

      Umm, Apple does link to all of these without the user agent filtering from their developer site. They also just posted these so Safari users could come take a look.

      I suspect they've tried to be too clever and shot themselves in the foot in this little 'standards' skirmish...

      Actually they tried to be open and cutting edge, but people with a chip on their shoulder insist on bashing them here, although I'm not sure why. The number of slanted summaries and absurdly negative interpretations make me wonder if it is an astroturf campaign.

    17. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just trued out those demos in Epiphany browser (WebKit) on Ubuntu with gstreamer plugins installed.
      Surprisingly, I didn't get any browser popups, I guess they check for WebKit version in also.

        I could play h.264 video just fine as well as the AAC audio example. The transform3D stuff from CSS3 didn't work, nor custom font/type example. Other than that everything else 'worked.'

    18. Re:A hard choice by ivanwyc · · Score: 1

      HTML5 is an open standard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5 It's nothing to do with whether one of the implementations is free/open-source or not.

    19. Re:A hard choice by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      Nothing, but the demo was for Safari. You can get the benefits on Linux due to the engine - Webkit is GPL, and all the work done to make that demo work is going into Webkit. It does use some Webkit-specific CSS calls, but I am putting that down to the nature of the demo.

      It was first and foremost a demo of Safari's (and by extension, webkit's) HTML5 support, rather than an HTML5 demo per se. The same demos are on Apple's dev site for other browsers to look at.

    20. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      You really think Web developers are so stupid in general that they're going to implement bleeding edge HTML5 code and not test it for browser compatibility? That's just dumb.

    21. Re:A hard choice by Homburg · · Score: 1

      Or they could have made a demo that uses the latest bleeding-edge proposals for HTML5, and let it fail on most people's browsers - perhaps even worse.

      Why would that be "worse"? They could include a link to an image of how each demo is supposed to render, and thus show people what they are missing out by not using Safari, which should be great publicity for Safari. Unless HTML5 is equally well supported by other browsers, which would make this HTML5 demo less effective as an advert for Safari. So it might be "worse" for Apple's marketing, but only if it is intended to create a false impression about how much better Safari's HTML5 support is. If it actually demonstrates Safari's superior HTML5 support, it would clearly be better for everyone to allow other browsers to view the demos.

    22. Re:A hard choice by Dr+Herbert+West · · Score: 1

      Welcome to the nightmare scenario that I see coming with HTML5-- build a million different exceptions to everything in order to have consistent user-facing functionality.

      We have users AND clients trained to expect all the stuff that Flash video provides (good looking compression, easy on the bandwidth, custom skin/players, easy implemetation of user-tracking metrics and ads) and no one is going to want to hear "well, we can do some of these things in Safari, a few of them in Firefox/Chrome, two of them in IE version X and one of them in IE version Y".

      Disclaimer: I'm no fan of all the odius sins Flash has committed (security, CPU abuse, etc) but let's get real-- HTML5 is not going to be the universal machine that everyone seems to think it will be. It's going to triple production time for something clients and users expect to be simple, cheap, and easy to implement.

    23. Re:A hard choice by doodlebumm · · Score: 1

      Safari for Linux? Not likely. Apple's afraid to do that...

      I think it's more a case of Apple has no motivation to spend the time and money doing that since it doesn't get them anything.

      Maybe they could be nice?

      Why does Apple want to make you download and install Safari?

      Because this is a demo of Safari's new HTML5 support. If you don't have Safari, you can't see what Safari's support is. This page is aimed at normal users or potential users of Safari.

      So why not show what the other browser won't do it, but safari will - in video?

      Since they are already checking your browser to see the demo, why not have an alternative video file for each demo if your current browser doesn't support the individual demo?

      Because they didn't think of it or get around to it? Besides, interactive features are much cooler because you can actually play around with them.

      Didn't think my ass. And get around to it? Ditto.

      What is Apple afraid of?

      Why didn't you make the demos yourself post them somewhere and link to them. Are you just incompetent? What are you afraid of?

      So, you want me to install Windows on my computer, (and given your fanboy status, I don't think you really want me to do that), or buy a Mac (you'd like that, wouldn't you?) so that I can promote Apple products? Are they going to pay me? Please look at your first comment to my posting for more information.

    24. Re:A hard choice by e4g4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      HTML5 is still a work in progress. They could have made a demo that only uses those features which are already widely supported, but it wouldn't have been as impressive.

      Spot on. This is a Safari demo - they appear to be desperately trying to demonstrate why they aren't allowing Flash on their iDevices. At the very bottom of the page, there are two image/link thingys, one that says "iPad Ready" and another that says "Thoughts on Flash". Apple's goal here was to provide the shiniest, flashiest (but not Flashiest) html 5 demonstration they possible could, and only show it to the browser that will render it all perfectly. They're using published standards, that other browsers can (and probably will, eventually) support, and they're publishing the source code for all of the demos.

      I really don't understand what all the vitriol is about on this thread. When your browser of choice can do the things with HTML 5 that Safari can in these demos, you'll be thrilled. What the hell is wrong with Apple pushing open standards? Okay - I get that the h.264 standard, while in some senses open, has some issues, but still - isn't this a good thing? Isn't it good for everyone that Apple is using some of that mountain of money they're sitting on to push an open standard, and at the very least reduce the necessity of the beast that is Flash?

      --
      The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein
    25. Re:A hard choice by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      What Apple should've done is written something like Microsoft's IE9 HTML5 demos [microsoft.com] that actually work in multiple browsers, and maybe just linked to it from their developer portal.

      Umm, Apple does link to all of these without the user agent filtering from their developer site. They also just posted these so Safari users could come take a look.

      I suspect they've tried to be too clever and shot themselves in the foot in this little 'standards' skirmish...

      Actually they tried to be open and cutting edge, but people with a chip on their shoulder insist on bashing them here, although I'm not sure why. The number of slanted summaries and absurdly negative interpretations make me wonder if it is an astroturf campaign.

      no, they don't. give me a link that works.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    26. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that's not the point. The point is they advertise this as standards demo, not Safari demo. Ie. saying Safari is the only standards compliant browser, just like Microsoft telling IE is standards compliant.

      The demos below show how Apple’s Safari web browser supports the capabilities of web standards such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. (From header on the demo.)

      Can You read? It is clearly labeled as a Safari demo.

    27. Re:A hard choice by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      Which is exactly the same, except it works on Google Chrome, and presumably any standards-compliant browser.

      as far as i know, firefox 3.6.4 is as html5 compliant as chrome. but the link you have given does not work on firefox. it does on chrome. on firefox it says you have to download safari.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    28. Re:A hard choice by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      What I meant was, that the underlying codecs which handle the video must be patent-unencumbered and free/open source. It must not be MPEG4!

    29. Re:A hard choice by tronbradia · · Score: 1
      Just tried a bunch of UAs, and your'e right they are UA sniffing, only letting webkit through I guess.

      This is really just even more damning though: they're sniffing UAs, and they sniff a different set of UAs when they think you're a dev than when they think you're a consumer.

    30. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      as far as i know, firefox 3.6.4 is as html5 compliant as chrome. but the link you have given does not work on firefox. it does on chrome. on firefox it says you have to download safari.

      The problem is that many of the CSS attributes aren't final and use the -webkit- prefixes. Other browsers use -moz-, -o-, -ie- (Firefox, Opera, IE9). CSS3 is not final and the browsers are currently using their own namespace for the new features.

      The reason Google works is because it is a Webkit based browsers and thus recognises the -webkit- namespace

    31. Re:A hard choice by Haeleth · · Score: 1

      Linux not worth bothering with? Adobe doesn't think so. Flash supports Linux just as well as the other platforms -- in fact Linux is currently the only platform for which there's a 64-bit Flash client!

      I know which side I'm rooting for in the Apple vs Adobe fight. It's the side that actually believes in cross-platform development, the side that actually believes you should be able to run all content on any device you choose. It's not the side that comes up with arbitrary constantly-shifting rules to restrict what you're allowed to run on their hardware, and claims to love web standards while simultaneously giving anyone who doesn't use their proprietary software a slap in the face.

    32. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      Maybe they could be nice?

      So Apple should spend resources and time to "be nice"? They're a business not a charity. And does anyone even want Safari for Linux? Enough to make it worthwhile?

      So, you want me to install Windows on my computer, (and given your fanboy status, I don't think you really want me to do that), or buy a Mac (you'd like that, wouldn't you?) so that I can promote Apple products?

      Clearly you missed my point. You want Apple to go out of their way and do random things you seem to want and accuse them of being afraid for not having done so. Yet when I tell you to go out of your way, you throw a hissy fit. If you want something done, do it,. Don't bitch and moan that other's are afraid so they haven't gone out and done a pile of work for you.

      And for the record, I don't give a rat's ass what OS you run or if you do or don't install OS X, Windows, or BeOS.

    33. Re:A hard choice by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 1

      The point is they advertise this as standards demo, not Safari demo

      "The demos below show how the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript". It's advertised specifically as a Safari demo.

    34. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I really don't understand what all the vitriol is about on this thread.

      It's just haters doing what they do. If Apple announced a cure for cancer tomorrow, the haters would lambaste them for "promoting overpopulation" or some such nonsense.

    35. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      no, they don't. give me a link that works.

      The URL http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ works fine for me in Chrome. Each link opens a page that says they work best in safari but the demos load and work without issue (although with some bugs for some) if you click the "View Demo" button.

    36. Re:A hard choice by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      it does not work in firefox. shows the same "you have to download safari". though if i spoof the useragent, then most of the demos work.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    37. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "HTML5 is still a work in progress. They could have made a demo that only uses those features which are already widely supported, but it wouldn't have been as impressive. Or they could have made a demo that uses the latest bleeding-edge proposals for HTML5, and let it fail on most people's browsers - perhaps even worse."

      Yes, of course it is a work in progress. Although you'd think that the first thing a cutting-edge new standard would implement is a way to reliably and easily detect whether or not a particular browser supports a particular new feature, so that the site delivering the content could gracefully resort to other approaches.

    38. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mod parent up.. and mod grandparent down. Parent is spot on... this is exactly the reason why they made that showcase. While a nice demo in itself, it also demonstrates exactly why Steve Jobs is doing the right thing for the wrong reasons by disallowing Flash onto the iPad and iPhone. HTML5 is not ready YET, but the reality distortion field is up in full force.

    39. Re:A hard choice by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 1

      There is nothing wrong with open standards.

      The problem is the manner in which Apple has gone about their open standards push.

      At the heart of it, Apple is right, in that openness should be our goal. However everyone knows that Apple is not about openness. Apple has always been about strict control.

      The manner in which they've shut Adobe out, is what is suspect. If Apple were for true openness, they would allow Adobe to make flash apps for iphone / ipad.

      Here you have a conflict of interest. Apple is developing a competing product to Flash. Apple is using the excuse of openness, to strong arm Flash out of the market and their devices.

      After all, openness is a good thing, so how could anyone disagree with Apple right? Its just not that simple.

      If you read their "Thoughts on flash" thing... it is full of egotistical garbage with lines as "Apple has set the standard for Mobile browsing". This is typical Apple as its worst. They're flat out telling us that Apple sets the standards. And while they did develope webkit, and for all its openness.... Its this arrogance that Apple has, and the way they do things that defines the problem, and its all in that statement. "Apple has set the standard"

      Apple wants to define what is standard.

      Apple goes on to say that Adobe is multi platform focused, and how Apple doesnt want third party layers on their iphone because it "ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform" This is another selfish and arrogant statement. Here Apple is saying that you can code for their platform, as long as it is difficult for you to code for others.

      If Apple cared about openness, they would let developers do what works best for them, not just for Apple. Apple simply wants to make it hard for you to develop for other platforms. This is to Apple's advantage. Just like iTunes, Apps, closed iPod sync ability, Apple Store, Quicktime, OSX... Its all about Apple, and how they set the rules. A Mac is a standard intel PC... but you cant run OSX on regular intel PCs. You have to buy them from Apple. You can buy an iPod, but you cant sync it with other software because they dont want you to. iTunes uses only quicktime containers, and they're programmed like shit on windows on purpose. You can only buy Apple stuff, at Apple stores (granted there are a few exceptions to that).

      Apple makes their argument using openness, but no one has seen an ounce of openness from Apple ever. They have remained a company, like most... that do for themselves, and at their own benefit. There is more than meets the eye to this transformer. The question is, why is Apple keeping Adobe from doing their thing? Because Apple feels openness is better? Sure, but thats not the real reason. Openness doesnt include hurting another company's succesful standard. Openness would include allowing the choice between plugins, and standard html code. JUST as all browsers have for a long time now. Apple wants to change that... because Apple has a financial interest.

      I welcome HTML 5, and apple's open features... but at the same time, they come with a price. That price may not even hurt the end user in the long run (although it does stall user experiene. Flash is a standard now). What it does do is benefit Apple, and hurt Adobe. Why would Apple want to do that?

    40. Re:A hard choice by Nyeerrmm · · Score: 1

      No, they're saying consumers aren't going to understand that its an incomplete standard at this point, and they want it to be rock-solid, which means using a single known browswer.

      Developers will realize that chrome, firefox, etc. are at different stages of implementing different things, so if something doesn't work its not that HTML 5 is bad, its just that its not quite there yet.

    41. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HTML5 is still a work in progress. They could have made a demo that only uses those features which are already widely supported, but it wouldn't have been as impressive.

      Spot on.

      Please take your common sense and leave. We're not done with our daily Apple bashing.

    42. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suspect that maybe Microsoft or perhaps Google have agents that have infiltrated Apple and those agents are now sabotaging Apple by putting up demos such as this, banning Flash, rejecting apps and possibly even more insidious stuff.

      Rob

    43. Re:A hard choice by seanadams.com · · Score: 1
      Perhaps I might have asked _why_ it was modded as such.

      I have mod points and I get to assign them anyway that I want.

      You can certainly TRY, but meta-moderation will sort that out and if you keep it up the system will just stop giving you mod points. "off topic" is not a catch-all for "I don't like this".

    44. Re:A hard choice by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2, Funny

      I know, I know! Let's write an HTML5 renderer in Flash!

    45. Re:A hard choice by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      When your browser of choice can do the things with HTML 5 that Safari can in these demos, you'll be thrilled.

      Not only my browser can do that, it can do many other things. Does Safari support MathML?

      What the hell is wrong with Apple pushing open standards?

      It's not a standard if I have to download Apple's browser to view it.

      Isn't it good for everyone that Apple is using some of that mountain of money they're sitting on to push an open standard

      "Embrace, extend, extinguish."

    46. Re:A hard choice by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      The parent post is designed to be read with Netscape Navigator.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    47. Re:A hard choice by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      They're using published standards, that other browsers can (and probably will, eventually) support, and they're publishing the source code for all of the demos.

      The most HTML5 compliant browser using my simple counting technique is Opera.

      Trident scores a 9
      Gecko scores a 20
      Webkit scores a 15
      Opera scores a 28

      Are they requiring the use of the latest WebKit nightly build? No? Then WHAT THE FUCK, dude?

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    48. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The number of slanted summaries and absurdly negative interpretations make me wonder if it is an astroturf campaign.

      This isn't astroturfing, it's the modern /. All the kewl kidz blowing themselves to spew the latest rant without taking time to read or think.

    49. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      :-) That's what I was thinking: most of the criticisms miss the point.

      It's not a demo of Safari, or web standards, or even HTML5 really. It is a demonstration of a future with flash and open standards instead of Flash and closed standards. It says, 'You will be fine without Flash. Don't worry. You won't miss Flash in your phone for the same reasons you won't miss Flash on your laptop.'

      Is Apple's refusal to add Flash to the iPhone not also driven by the implications of the Eolas plugin patent?

    50. Re:A hard choice by indiechild · · Score: 1

      It's the usual zealous nutters hating on Apple no matter what they do. This is reflective of most of the stories posted about Apple on Slashdot.

    51. Re:A hard choice by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Given that it's meant to be a showcase of things to come

      Given that it's meant to be a showcase of things to come they should not have put in any implementation details at all, this is not a standard and apple is purporting it as such as well as giving details on a non-standard implementation. So in the end developers look to how apple says to do things, do it that way and then some parts are likely to not be standards conformant when we do get a HTML5 standard we end up with Apple's HTML5 and the real HTML5.

    52. Re:A hard choice by BZ · · Score: 1

      The only problem with this line of reasoning is that if you actually _look_ at the demos:

      1) Most of what's involved isn't parts of HTML5 _or_ proposals for HTML5.
      2) Some of the things involved are "proposals" that they submitted (something anyone can do
              anytime) to the CSS working group and that no one else is really interested in so far
              last I heard.

      There's no problem publishing demos that only work in your browser due to you using proprietary things you added to your browser. The problem is calling that sort of thing "HTML5" and making it sound like it's a standard or likely to become one soon.

    53. Re:A hard choice by BZ · · Score: 1

      But the point is that the demos are using random proprietary Safari features that are not part of HTML5, not planned to be a part of it, and will never become a part of it (for example, because they're CSS features, not HTML ones). So calling it a demo of "support for HTML5" is just a bald-faced lie. Call it "support for some stuff we made up", which is what it is, and no problem.

    54. Re:A hard choice by BZ · · Score: 1

      > Actually they tried to be open and cutting edge,

      No, they very purposefully tried to create the impression that "HTML5" support in other browsers is worse than in Safari (which happens to be not true, if you actually look at HTML5 instead of the things Apple decided to demo).

      In other words, this is a pure deceptive marketing ploy, and deserves to be called out as such.

    55. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      In other words, this is a pure deceptive marketing ploy, and deserves to be called out as such.

      The only thing I've seen that's deceptive is the Slashdot summary. Apple's page is very clear that they're not the only ones with support for HTML5 and that other browsers and Safari are in the process of adding support for the spec. They also clearly state on the page that this is a Safari demo, showing what works in Safari, contrary to the title of the Slashdot article. Seriously, Apple does crap regularly that I think deserves calling out, but this? It makes a good portion of Slashdot sound like bitchy whiners that will complain about anything, even a vendor demoing the level of support they've added for cool new open standards. You have to be biased as hell and looking for a way to interpret this negatively.

      Seriously, Apple is dumping resources into an open source project (Webkit) and writing demoes of how cool that is in their browser bringing good PR to the open standard while fighting the proprietary, closed source competitior. And that's what you choose to whine is "evil"? Weak.

    56. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      But the point is that the demos are using random proprietary Safari features that are not part of HTML5, not planned to be a part of it, and will never become a part of it (for example, because they're CSS features, not HTML ones).

      What the hell nonsense are you talking now? HTML5 is being developed in parallel with CSS3, which is vital for it to be used. It would be hard to write an HTML5 demo without CSS. Using CSS and javascript and Webforms 2.0 in conjunction with HTML5 is generally referred to as "HTML5" by both the layman and the people writing the specs.

      So calling it a demo of "support for HTML5" is just a bald-faced lie.

      No, it is not. Seriously are you being paid to spread FUD or are you just so unbelievably biased that you're willing to twist the truth so badly to attack Apple for putting up a technology demo of cool new open specs. Seriously, show me the code that Apple is including that is not proposed as part of one of the new WHATWG specs.

    57. Re:A hard choice by BZ · · Score: 1

      > HTML5 is being developed in parallel with CSS3

      No, it's really not. Different groups of people are involved, different working groups, different schedules.

      > which is vital for it to be used

      No, it's really not. You don't need CSS3 to use the new types of form controls in HTML5, to use video, audio, canvas, the new sectioning elements, to implement the HTML5 parsing algorithm. In fact, you pretty much don't need CSS3 for anything related HTML5 other than additional styling (which is he point of CSS, of course).

      > It would be hard to write an HTML5 demo without CSS.

      No, it would in fact be trivial if you wanted to demo HTML5 as opposed to CSS stuff. Here's a simple example:

      This is a demo of a useful new HTML5 capability that makes whole classes of flash/java uploader applets not needed anymore, and requires absolutely no CSS.

      There are plenty of other HTML5 demos out there that aren't CSS-bound.

      > is generally referred to as "HTML5" by both the layman and the people writing the specs.

      Speaking as one of the latter... no, it's not. Though Google and Apple are both trying hard to expand "HTML5" to mean "all next-generation web technologies, including the proprietary ones" (both of them have been doing this recently). I'm sorry they got you to buy into their marketing.

      > for putting up a technology demo of cool new open specs

      Except that a bunch of the stuff they put up isn't specs; not even really spec proposals.

      > Seriously, show me the code that Apple is including that is not proposed as part of one
      > of the new WHATWG specs

      Well, since no CSS specs are whatwg specs... that's easy. As a particularly egregious example, the demo at http://www.apple.com/html5/showcase/vr/ uses 3d transforms, which are not associated with anything in the WHATWG, are implemented only on some versions of Safari on only some Apple operating systems (because they need significant OS-level support, apparently), and the closest they come to a spec is a CSS3 draft published by 3 apple employees (note that any CSSWG member can just put up a draft saying anything they want to; the bar for initial draft publication is _very_ low).

    58. Re:A hard choice by BZ · · Score: 1

      > and that other browsers and Safari are in the process of adding support for the spec

      Which makes it sound like what they're demoing is part of "the spec". It's not. It also makes it sound like Safari is just ahead of the other browsers in implementing HTML5 (a line Apple has been pushing hard), which it's not.

      > You have to be biased as hell and looking for a way to interpret this negatively.

      No, you just have to be willing to call entities on actions that are not acceptable even if you otherwise like what they're doing.

    59. Re:A hard choice by BZ · · Score: 1

      > Here's a simple example:

      Gah. Slashdot ate the tags. Here we go:

          <form action="someurl">
              <input type="file" multiple>
              <input type="submit">
          </form>

    60. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      Which makes it sound like what they're demoing is part of "the spec". It's not.

      Apple says it's demoing Safari's support for the spec. That is what they explicitly state. Are you claiming that is not true. Please be specific.

      It also makes it sound like Safari is just ahead of the other browsers in implementing HTML5 (a line Apple has been pushing hard), which it's not.

      How does it make it sound like that? This is a demo of Safari as the page says. Clearly that is what they're focusing on, but where do they say other browsers are behind?

      No, you just have to be willing to call entities on actions that are not acceptable even if you otherwise like what they're doing.

      Yeah, those bastards putting up a demo of Safari, how terrible. I reiterate... weak.

    61. Re:A hard choice by BZ · · Score: 1

      > Are you claiming that is not true.

      Yes. I am claiming that the demos include all sorts of stuff that's not in "the spec" if "the spec" is HTML5, nor is it in any drafts likely to become specs in the near future. So they're basically demoing proprietary Safari extensions and trying to claim that they're part of HTML5.

      > Clearly that is what they're focusing on, but where do they say other browsers are behind?

      In the "other browsers don't implement this stuff" verbiage.

      > Yeah, those bastards putting up a demo of Safari,

      Which is fine, if you don't then advertise it as a demo of HTML5 (complete with the url claiming it has something to do with HTML5).

    62. Re:A hard choice by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      Their demos aren't even using HTML5. It's all CSS3 with vendor prefixes to block non-Webkit browsers. So not only are they calling it "open" and only allowing Safari, but they aren't even using HTML5 in their so-called "HTML5 Showcase"!

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    63. Re:A hard choice by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      No they clearly advertise this as a demo of Safari, and it's support for HTML5.

      Actually, the title is "HTML5 Showcase", and they brag about it being "open" despite blocking other browsers than Safari.

      First of all, the demos hardly use any HTML5. It's only used for video and audio.

      Secondly, blocking other browsers clearly gives the impression that "if you want to use HTML5, you can only use Safari".

      No they actually state that "Not all browsers offer this support" which very, very strongly implies that some other browsers do offer this support.

      That strongly implies that only Safari does, further underlining their "only Safari" messaging.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    64. Re:A hard choice by hkmwbz · · Score: 1
      Except the title is "HTML5 Showcase", despite the fact that it hardly uses any HTML5. And calling it open while blocking other browsers? The irony...

      "This is all about making it seem like other browsers need to play catchup when in fact they may be ahead of you on actually implementing HTML5. You do that by putting out a demo that doesn't really demo HTML5 much and calling it an HTML5 demo."

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    65. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jesus Christ you'd have to be obtuse to not read the implication that "other modern browsers" are having to play catch up to Safari. If you know the state of "modern" browsers then you should be able to clearly identify the wording as INTENTIONALLY DECEPTIVE. "Not all browsers offer this support" is supposed to imply SAFARI does, but others don't, without actually saying it.

      You're either stupid or a liar. Which is it?

    66. Re:A hard choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The intentionally deceptive wording that implies that Safari is the only or best browser for displaying HTML5 content (don't try to deny it.) The fact that HTML is supposed to be platform-neutral, so the act of blocking everything but Safari is another intentional act to help conceal anybody with another browser to clearly see just how well Safari stands up.

      Many people don't like it when they feel someone is trying to deceive them.

    67. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      Yes. I am claiming that the demos include all sorts of stuff that's not in "the spec" if "the spec" is HTML5, nor is it in any drafts likely to become specs in the near future.

      Well, clearly they use some other proposed specs as well, like CSS3, Webforms 2.0, 3D CSS transforms, but I don't see anything that isn't a proposed Web standard.

      So they're basically demoing proprietary Safari extensions and trying to claim that they're part of HTML5.

      Most people are lumping several technologies into the term "HTML5" in the press and common usage. Even the wikipedia page mentions the term has come to include more technologies in common use. But claiming that open specs submitted as standards with an open source reference implementation is the same thing as "proprietary extensions" is way way way more disingenuous than anything Apple has said on the issue.

      In the "other browsers don't implement this stuff" verbiage.

      You mean in the Slashdot summary, because I don't see it on Apple's page. Please provide a specific quote and citation.

      ...don't then advertise it as a demo of HTML5 (complete with the url claiming it has something to do with HTML5).

      Apple didn't. Slashdot did. Apple says right in the title of the page that it is a Safari demo of HTML5 features, which is completely true. It does have something to do with HTML5, since it demoes features HTML5 allows Safari to support.

    68. Re:A hard choice by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      > HTML5 is being developed in parallel with CSS3

      No, it's really not. Different groups of people are involved, different working groups, different schedules.

      What are you talking about? Both are under the purview of the WHATWG working group.

      > is generally referred to as "HTML5" by both the layman and the people writing the specs.

      Speaking as one of the latter... no, it's not.

      The last sentence of the first paragraph on the HTML5 wikipedia page reads: "In common usage, HTML5 may also refer to the additional use of CSS3, as both technologies are under development in parallel." Apparently you are not the average layperson.

      Seriously, show me the code that Apple is including that is not proposed as part of one > of the new WHATWG specs

      Well, since no CSS specs are whatwg specs... that's easy.

      Gee WHATWG disagrees on that.

      As a particularly egregious example, the demo at http://www.apple.com/html5/showcase/vr/ [apple.com] uses 3d transforms

      Oh no! Apple implemented a demo with CSS 3D transforms, which has been a fully published working draft since early 2009. The horror! When will those bastards stop implementing openly published Web technologies with open source reference implementations. Clearly they are trying to take over the Web and make it proprietary or something? They do use HTML5 in that demo, they just go on to use another technology as well WHICH THEY SPECIFICALLY MENTION TWICE on the page for that demo. And that's what you find misleading? Yeah, you're just a hater looking for something to bitch about.

    69. Re:A hard choice by BZ · · Score: 1

      > What are you talking about? Both are under the purview of the WHATWG working group.

      That's bunk. No part of CSS is under the purview of WHATWG except insofar as CSS specs say the document language determines how something works.

      >>> is generally referred to as "HTML5" by both the layman and the people writing
      >>> the specs.
      >>
      >> Speaking as one of the latter... no, it's not.
      >
      > The last sentence of the first paragraph on the HTML5 wikipedia page reads: "In common
      > usage, HTML5 may also refer to the additional use of CSS3

      Yes, the Apple and Google attempt to create confusion around the term has somewhat worked, especially thanks to people like you.

      > Apparently you are not the average layperson.

      I said "the latter" (as in, person writing the specs), not "the former" (which would have been layperson). Reading comprehension, please.

      >> Well, since no CSS specs are whatwg specs... that's easy.
      >
      > Gee WHATWG disagrees on that.

      I call bullshit. Citation, please?

      > which has been a fully published working draft since early 2009

      You seem to be under some misapprehension as to how working drafts work in the W3C. Anyone who's a working group member (which entails only ponying up money) can propose one. If it fits within the working group's charter, the bar to publication is very low. So any member can implement any proprietary extension, document it, and propose it for standardization by publishing a working draft describing it. What typically happens after that is that either other implementors get on board and implement and the draft proceeds along the standards track or competing proposals are made (say WebGL in this case), and then the competing proposals fight it out. There are plenty of working drafts around that were proposed unilaterally and never went anywhere. http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-AS is a good example (the competing proposal for that was CSS).

      > with open source reference implementations.

      3d transforms is only supported in Safari and only on certain Apple operating systems, because it's implemented by directly calling into the closed-source and proprietary Core Animation framework to actually do all the work. If you call that an "open source reference implementation", you either have a strange definition of "open source" or have no idea what you're talking about.

      > Clearly they are trying to take over the Web and make it proprietary or something?

      As a matter of fact, that's the only way to interpret some of the things they're doing with Mobile Safari, yes. They would like to control as much content delivery as they possibly can, on their own terms (and are actively encouraging development of content that only works in Mobile Safari and will continue to only work in Mobile Safari).

      > Yeah, you're just a hater

      Or perhaps you're just and underinformed apologist?

    70. Re:A hard choice by BZ · · Score: 1

      > Well, clearly they use some other proposed specs as well, like CSS3, Webforms 2.0,
      > 3D CSS transforms, but I don't see anything that isn't a proposed Web standard.

      As I said elsewhere in this thread, the bar for "proposed web standard" is very low if you mean "W3C working draft" by that. Pretty much any W3C member can create a proprietary extension to their product, lightly document it, and publish the result as a working draft. Most of these go nowhere. Claiming that they're a "spec" of any sort is just preying on people who don't understand how the W3C process works.

      > Most people are lumping several technologies into the term "HTML5" in the press and
      > common usage.

      More precisely, there has been an intensive media campaign by Google to so lump them together and expand the "HTML5" term to cover various proprietary extensions they're making to their browser (more or less trying to redefine "HTML5" to mean "whatever Chrome implements". Unfortunately, thanks to people like you, they're succeeding. So now Apple is feeling the need to do the same but with Safari.

      > Please provide a specific quote and citation.

      The apple site says: "This demo was designed with the latest web standards supported by Safari. If you'd like to experience this demo, simply download Safari." The obvious implications are: 1) What's used are standards (not proposals) and 2) your current browser doesn't support them. I don't know how the verbiage could actually be any clearer, really.

      > since it demoes features HTML5 allows Safari to support

      Not really. It just demoes features Safari supports, whether or not they have anything to do with HTML5. Which is fine, but calling that an "HTML5 Showcase" is bunk.

    71. Re:A hard choice by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      This is a Safari demo

      Then they shouldn't keep going on about how is is a showcase for open standards.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  6. Apple's just pushing existing standards by Oceanplexian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple tends to take standards that are in their infancy, and make them mainstream.

    I don't see anything wrong with this, other than it making other browsers like FF3 look like they haven't been innovating.

    1. Re:Apple's just pushing existing standards by indi0144 · · Score: 0, Troll

      Opps you badmouthed Apple. I can foresee my future karma hell for the mere reason of talking straight about Apple.. as if I care.

      I got to /. so I can learn about open source, is this forum turned out to be a chapel for Apple? Everyday I see more articles about Apple than about open source. Anyone knows a good site free of stupid fanboyism where I can learn and get news about open source world?

      Oh oh oh and don't forget the /. ghost! he will DELETE your post when moderation is not effective in hiding what you say.

      In distopian slashdot the memo better gets you.

    2. Re:Apple's just pushing existing standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, you know what you should do if you hate reading Apple articles? You should click on every one of them, as many times as possible. Then post comments on them too. This is the most effective way to demonstrate to Slashdot and other news sources that there is no interest in Apple stories.

      That or you could uncheck the "Apple" checkbox in your preferences and stop reading them. Nahhh, go back to clicking and commenting on every Apple story, makes a lot more sense.

    3. Re:Apple's just pushing existing standards by TheTurtlesMoves · · Score: 1

      What wrong is that it doesn't matter if your browser supports all the features. It only matters that the browser identifies as safari/mac. The explanations are either incompetence or malice. I suspect both.

      --
      The Grey Goo disaster happened 3 billion years ago. This rock is covered in self replicating machines!
    4. Re:Apple's just pushing existing standards by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      I don't see anything wrong with this

      You don't see anything wrong with calling something "open" when it only works in Safari?

      other than it making other browsers like FF3 look like they haven't been innovating

      BINGO!

      See, you fell for it! You bought into the "Safari is HTML5" bullshit. You actually believe that if you want the latest and greatest HTML5 stuff, you need Safari. Thanks for proving everyone's points about Apple's dishonesty! You are living proof that their misleading ad is in fact confusing people.

      Thank you!

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    5. Re:Apple's just pushing existing standards by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      Hey! ADD much?

      This is not an Apple article is about HTML5

      Last time I checked Universe=!Apple The fact that you twist every article to end up talking about Apple is not my business.

  7. Re:It works in Safari... by niks42 · · Score: 1

    I would have some sympathy with your comment, if the Apple web page didn't pop up a box telling you to download Safari. (on this GNU/Linux machine, not something I am going to do).

  8. Re:It works in Safari... by grahamd0 · · Score: 1

    It's not that other browsers can't view HTML5, it's that Apple is sniffing for other browsers and not allowing them even try viewing it.

  9. Re:It works in Safari... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know that Chrome is in fact basically a Safari with different, well, chrome. It's based on Apple WebKit engine.

    But yeah, this demo was done pretty poorly, unfortunately. But that does not say much about HTML5, WebKit, or anything, just that this particular demo flopped.

  10. some works in firefox with user agent switcher by modestgeek · · Score: 2, Informative

    Some of this (about a third) worked for me in Firefox with the user agent switcher add on. The default user agent switcher doesn't include safari but you can import them from the following URL. http://techpatterns.com/forums/about304.html

    1. Re:some works in firefox with user agent switcher by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah but not fully, when viewing a video example under WebKit nightly I got a perspective switch that was not event present in Safari 4.

      I really recommend downloading Safari 4 or even WebKit nightly (sorry Chrome users, no transform3D for you) and trying those demos, it is pretty neat, something to get really exited about.

      Oh, and as for the QuickTime thing on windows machines, Safari uses it to handle html5 media playback, same as iTunes uses it for its media.

    2. Re:some works in firefox with user agent switcher by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      WOW how innovative! I need to use X browser to access some web features and the sibling media player to access media! I hope someone tell Microsoft, they're going to miss the future boat /sarcasm

    3. Re:some works in firefox with user agent switcher by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      and you could have done the same thing in flash in about 1/100 of the time.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    4. Re:some works in firefox with user agent switcher by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it's a joke. Now that Apple has show us their intentions I'm so out of the HTML5 bandwagon, I don't have time to give away to Apple and help them in their despotic views of how technology should be. We have had enough with MS for this new challenger in the world of monopolies.

      In other news - Apple has made ILLEGAL to change your browser user agent. NEXT: Apple checks you website to see if the indentation of your HTML follows the rules of iChing, slackers will be prosecuted.

    5. Re:some works in firefox with user agent switcher by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I really recommend downloading Safari 4

      No thanks, I'd rather use a browser that properly supports open standards and is NOT A PIECE OF SHINY CRAP.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  11. Selling mine by harris+s+newman · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I've never thought much of apple, but my one purchase (an ipod touch), was a mistake. I hate the DRM, the control over my asset, etc. I'll be selling it soon, going to a droid.

    1. Re:Selling mine by jo_ham · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What DRM? Do you have movies on it from the iTunes store?

    2. Re:Selling mine by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      What DRM? How about the inability to manage the device from ANY computer using ANY tool of one's choosing and avoiding iTunes.

      This is really handy when iTunes decides to stop working on your XP configuration (like the latest version of iTunes does).

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:Selling mine by Skal+Tura · · Score: 1

      iTunes is the DRM.

    4. Re:Selling mine by jo_ham · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's not DRM.

      The device is vertically integrated, and tied to iTunes, but DRM is a very specific term that relates to the "protection" of media content.

      But it's ok, because copyright infringement is the same as piracy right? It's ok to play fast and loose with the definitions when it suits you.

    5. Re:Selling mine by Duradin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So DRM has gone the way of "bricked" and "literally" then.

      Maybe the French were on to something with managing their language.

    6. Re:Selling mine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, when I found out I couldn't sync my iPod touch using Photoshop, ipconfig.exe or the plan 9 installer I was so pissed, that downright evil and draconian of Apple!

    7. Re:Selling mine by BooRolla · · Score: 1

      that is sort of DRM since it is restricting his options with his own device

    8. Re:Selling mine by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      No, it's not. Unless the term "DRM" becomes meaningless.

      We make a great deal of fuss about the RIAA's attempts to brand copyright infringement as piracy, yet when it's us trying to apply terminology that does not apply then it's suddenly ok? It's hypocrisy if that's the case.

      Tying the iPod to iTunes is vertical integration, it is not DRM.

    9. Re:Selling mine by toddestan · · Score: 1

      Apple uses DRM to restrict what you can do with the database file on the iPod Touch - mainly writing to it with a program other than iTunes.

    10. Re:Selling mine by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      You mean like Amarok?

      Or Rhythmbox.

      Or gtkpod?

    11. Re:Selling mine by stdarg · · Score: 1

      We make a great deal of fuss about the RIAA's attempts to brand copyright infringement as piracy

      Well I've seen people make jokes about the piracy thing, but the serious issue is when they call it theft. Not only do they misuse the word, they base whole analogies on the misuse of the word. "Would you also... STEAL A CAR????" etc

      That goes beyond simple misuse.

    12. Re:Selling mine by toddestan · · Score: 1

      None of which work with the iPod touch.

    13. Re:Selling mine by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_managers#iPhone_.26_iPod_Touch_compatibility

      Claims Amarok works with iPhone and iPod Touch with all firmwares up to 3.1.

      Same for gtkpod, Media Monkey and Rhythmbox.

    14. Re:Selling mine by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

      I have the latest iPod Touch firmware upgrade. I am not sure what they mean by "compatible" but that stuff does not work for me. However, those products do work with my iPod Shuffle.

    15. Re:Selling mine by toddestan · · Score: 1

      What that page doesn't tell you is that you need to jailbreak it to get it to work.

  12. Re:It works in Safari... by pizzach · · Score: 1

    If that was the issue, then it should have been included in the summary. As is, this sounds like just another version of http://www.chromeexperiments.com/, and some people are commenting that the website works with chrome. Does Chrome experiments allows IE9 now that it has the canvas tag native?

    --
    Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
  13. Testing in Firefox by MalHavoc · · Score: 1

    If you'd like to see how well it works in firefox, you can override the about:config setting for the useragent. I changed the general.useragent.override string to

    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.22.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Safari/531.22.7

    And I was able to view the tests without the message about requiring Safari. That message appears to get stuck in a cookie so you you might need to reload the base apple.com/html5 page before trying again.

    1. Re:Testing in Firefox by WebManWalking · · Score: 1

      Good post, thank you. Much more light than heat.

  14. User agent switcher helps a bit by CdXiminez · · Score: 1

    User agent switcher turns some things on in Firefox.

    http://chrispederick.com/work/user-agent-switcher/

    with following settings:

    Safari
    Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; ja-jp)
    Mozilla
    Safari
    4.0.5 Safari/531.22.7
    MacIntel
    [empty]
    [empty]

    A lot is broken though.

  15. Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    1) Select the Typography demo
    2) Select "Pincoya Black fonts"
    3) Enter a couple of lines of lower case "o" (they are underlined)
    4) Rotate slowly so you see the step by step motion

    What you'll see: spacing between each "o" varies at each rotation step, and you can see "steps" in the underlining. That wouldn't happen with flash.

    Basically while the fonts are anti-aliased, the position of each letter is computed as an integer. In flash, every coordinate is computed in floating point.

    Welcome back to pixel world.

    1. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by BlueBoxSW.com · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure I'm never, ever, going to be asked to do that in the real world.

    2. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by icebraining · · Score: 1

      What browser are you using? It seems fine in Chrome.

    3. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by ultranova · · Score: 1

      What you'll see: spacing between each "o" varies at each rotation step, and you can see "steps" in the underlining. That wouldn't happen with flash.

      It wouldn't happen with SVG either. Which, I might add, is supported by every modern browser and will be supported even by IE in the next version.

      Basically while the fonts are anti-aliased, the position of each letter is computed as an integer. In flash, every coordinate is computed in floating point.

      Shouldn't you simply turn the whole thing to bezier curves, and then apply a rotation matrix? This sounds more like a rendering bug than anything else.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    4. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just tested with Safari on Tiger and I see the problem, the "o" are slightly jumping around, easier to see with black fonts.

    5. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by Skal+Tura · · Score: 3, Informative

      Flash uses pixels just like everything else too.

      The thing is, Safari hasn't implemented sub-pixel calculations yet, thus you get that "jerkyness". That "pixel world" you meantion really means lack of sub-pixel calculation and only means lackluster implementation.

    6. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by pushing-robot · · Score: 1

      Works perfectly in Safari 4.0.5 / OS X 10.6.3 here. Curiously, Chrome 5.0.375.55 on OS X has the pixel-positioning bug. It's actually more noticeable to me if I keep the default settings and text, turn on the shadow, and watch the letters jump around as I slowly rotate the text.

      It's pretty minor compared to some of the glitches I've seen in Flash rendering, however, and Google tends to fix Chrome glitches pretty quickly.

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    7. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by indi0144 · · Score: 0, Troll

      Don't bring rational arguments on this discussion Apple's HTML5 is magical, you don't need to know anything else dude. That stupid designers and their kerning

    8. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by cynyr · · Score: 1

      does it need to be that perfect? or even AA'ed for a freaking website? a major motion picture, sure. but a website?

      --
      All of the above was encrypted with a Quad ROT-13 method. Unauthorized decryption is in violation of the DMCA.
    9. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      Die in a fire Apple fanboys!

      I'm not 12, I have no fear for downmoderation, I don't need to post AC because I can stand for what I believe. Unlike, you know, irrational fanboys.

    10. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by BZ · · Score: 1

      That's a Safari/webkit issue, not an HTML5 one. Gecko performs sub-pixel layout and positioning, for example.

    11. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by ArAgost · · Score: 1

      If this means I don't have to hear the fans spinning, yes, I'm glad to be back in pixel world.

    12. Re:Shows why HTML5 is not ready to replace flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I tried this at work on XP and was very disappointed to see that you're correct, the font rotation does bounce around. When I got home I tried it on OS X and did not see the same issue. The fonts rotated flawlessly. Vista is able to rotate the fonts perfectly as well.

      If you want out of that pixel world you should probably update your OS more than once a decade.

  16. Re:It works in Safari... by MrMr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If that were true you might have a point. But this is just Apple being the biggest company in IT. I checked the canvas pixel manipulation and the 360 deg demo on Linux x86_64 with firefox by faking a safari 4 user-agent string.
    I'd say Microsoft 2.0 is quite to the point.

  17. Re:It works in Safari... by initdeep · · Score: 1

    you do know that apple merely took existing code and "created" webkit from it right?

    it was called khtml.

  18. Its Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Once again Slashdot jumps to conclusions. The showcase is to promote Safari not web standards. The way the write up reads is that these are the web standards, and these are what they can do. Its blatant in the second paragraph, "The demos below show how the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript." that they are promoting Safari and not web standards. This our toy and this is why it works better then yours is the message. Its Apple. If Apple were not so full of themselves all the time I'd think they were not following their mission statement. Showing me web standards that no one has implemented yet and only works on your browser is akin to giving me a 100 GHz processor writing a really graphics heavy OS (that only you sell), and has no application base, when the rest of the world has Windows 3.1.

    1. Re:Its Apple by jedidiah · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not quite.

      This was supposed to be an HTML5 demo served up with a heaping helping of FUD.

      "The demos below show how the latest version of Apple's Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Not all browsers offer this support."

      Their nonsense with browser sniffing is clearly a crass attempt to perpetrate a fraud on the unsuspecting user. They want to give the false impression that no one else supports this stuff. They want to create the myth of your "100Ghz" supermachine when the reality is quite different.

      Apple is indeed the new Microsoft: Microsoft 2.0.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    2. Re:Its Apple by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      They want to give the false impression that no one else supports this stuff.

      Which they cleverly do by stating "not all browsers offer this support" which implies very strongly that some other browsers do? Are you just looking for crap to complain about or what? I have a different opinion about who's serving up the FUD.

    3. Re:Its Apple by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      How do you read "not all browsers offer this support" as "no one else offers this support"?

      Especially when the very next line reads "But soon other modern browsers will take advantage of these same web standards — and the amazing things they enable web designers to do."

      It seems like your usual default hate position of anything related to Apple is clouding your comprehension.

      The user agent sniffing was boneheaded, but let's not try to stir up FUD about the nature of the demo itself. It is obviously a promotional Safari thing, but they are not "offering the false impression that no one else supports this stuff". The words are right there in grey-on-white (which I assume could be easily changed via some HTML5 trick).

    4. Re:Its Apple by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 1

      Apple has always been only about Apple.

      The openness they speak of, is complete bullshit.

    5. Re:Its Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By Microsoft 2.0 you must mean that they're the new paper tiger people bitch about on the Internet.

      On the other hand, Apple wants to make these standards public without letting you play with them outside of their sandbox. This is how this company has behaved for the better part of three decades. It's not going to change, but since no one cares about Microsoft, we need somebody else to bitch about. The problem with Apple's philosophy is that everyone assumes you can only play inside their sandbox. Let Opera, Mozilla, and Microsoft build in these implementations, and we can compare all three equally. Chrome can play on the developer's site, which shows this is really a webkit demo, which is still Apple's domain.

      To address Opera and Mozilla specifically, since both companies spoke out about this. What is either company's plan? Opera seems to thrive on making the kitchen sink browser and getting the EU to sue US companies for being too dominant. Mozilla has been in crisis mode since the release of Chrome. Not only was Google's browser chewing up their market share, it was developed by one of their biggest sources of revenue. I don't mind people taking pot shots at Apple's mentality, but can we get companies who can actually compete?

    6. Re:Its Apple by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      Which they cleverly do by stating "not all browsers offer this support" which implies very strongly that some other browsers do?

      No, it strongly implies that only Safari does.

      As someone else wrote:

      "This is all about making it seem like other browsers need to play catchup when in fact they may be ahead of you on actually implementing HTML5. You do that by putting out a demo that doesn't really demo HTML5 much and calling it an HTML5 demo."

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  19. Re:It works in Safari... by badpazzword · · Score: 1

    Durr...

    "The fact that this page is only accessible using the Safari browser..."

    --
    When ideas fail, words become very handy.
  20. Re:It works in Safari... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As a very long time KDE user (but not recently) I do know that. I also do know that KHTML at that stage and WebKit are as different as codebase released by Netscape and what is now in Firefox. KHTML was a good solid base but 90% of work in WebKit was done by Apple. Actually, even now KHTML is barely usable. It doesn't even work properly with GMail (I believe. as I said I dropped out of Linux world a bit a year or two ago).

  21. http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Its odd that the examples at http://www.apple.com/html5/ browser sniff..

    Whereas the same examples at http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ work fine in other browsers.

    1. Re:http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ by pushing-robot · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not that odd, really. Developers want to bang on things until they break. End users just want things to work. Ergo, the dev site lets you try the demos in any browser, while the end user site makes sure you have a browser that supports the demos 100%.

      Why this is a story I have no idea. Mozilla, Google, and the WebKit team have been adding non-standard features and making tech demos that only work on specific versions of their own browser for years, but no one thinks they're trying to fragment the industry. Apple puts a browser detect on a page to ensure an end user demo works without a hiccup and geeks everywhere are up in arms. Go figure.

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    2. Re:http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      no http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ works only on chrome. still no firefox.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    3. Re:http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ by aitan · · Score: 1

      I don't think that I've ever seen a demo page done by Mozilla that forced the user to switch the browser. They just state what it's being demo, some of those demos don't even work in the last public release but only on nightlies, but they allow you to test it with whatever browser you are using and many times they provide a video to show how it should behave if your browser did support that API.

    4. Re:http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ by tukang · · Score: 1
      Why this is a story I have no idea.

      The title of their demo is "HTML5 and web standards". Do you not understand the meaning of the word "standards" and the hypocrisy of requiring a certain browser to demo said "standards"? I would have no problem if they title the page "HTML5 and Safari"

    5. Re:http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's genius marketing by Apple at work - nobody cared about the demos at http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ even so they have been up for months. Now that Apple created a page to access the exact same demos, but only if you use Safari, people suddenly care.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  22. In Wine? by tepples · · Score: 1

    I really recommend downloading Safari 4 or even WebKit nightly

    Does Safari 4 work in Wine?

    1. Re:In Wine? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It appears to pretty well... though this isn't a clean install. Running an upgraded Ubuntu 10.04, and have used winetricks in the past: http://wiki.winehq.org/winetricks

    2. Re:In Wine? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could try it and see. I assume you have wine installed so installing safari wouldn't take much effort.

  23. Re:It works in Safari... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

    In the same way that Firefox was "created" from existing code.

    It was called Netscape.

  24. Works on my iPad by QuincyDurant · · Score: 1

    Apple has every reason to want this working on the iPad. The source code for the CSS, Javascript, and HTML looks standard to me, but I am not a professional web developer or software professional. I have seen IE source code that only worked on Windows, however, and the extra MS-Specific stuff was obvious. This code does not look like this. The comparison between Apple and Microsoft is suggestive but not entirely reasonable. Apple is not the only hardware manufacturer to differentiate its products with proprietary technology. And, unlike Microsoft, Apple does not require every PC-compatible machine to use its OS (if PC compatibility is desired).
    There are good reasons to criticize Apple for its business practices (capricious APP rejection policies, for example), but it's a bit premature to cry wolf about this HTML5 demo. Think of Adobe's zero day warning yesterday before you slam Apple for at the least attempting to get to open standards. This is a technical forum. What, exactly, is non-standard in the demo code?

    1. Re:Works on my iPad by Xamataca · · Score: 1

      What, exactly, is non-standard in the demo code?

      "-webkit" extensions in the css file?

      --
      ***Game Over***Insert Coin***
    2. Re:Works on my iPad by QuincyDurant · · Score: 1

      I believe webkit is open source. Again, if there is anyone reading this with above-average web programming skills, I'd like to learn more about Apple and HTML5. If what they've said is an out-and-out lie--not permissible sales talk--I'd like to know. Surely a careful reading of the developer pages and an examination of the demo source code could provide some insight. For now, I take Jobs at his word on this question. He certainly was telling the truth when said that Flash sucks.

    3. Re:Works on my iPad by exomondo · · Score: 1

      What, exactly, is non-standard in the demo code?

      The whole thing, the 'standard' it's based on is not a standard. When it becomes a standard those implementation details are likely to have changed.

    4. Re:Works on my iPad by exomondo · · Score: 1

      I believe webkit is open source.

      Open Source != Standard

  25. Would you like some cheese with your whine? by BlueBoxSW.com · · Score: 1

    Would it help if they added the word "beta" to the title, like all those other sites on the web that don't want people complaining that not everything works yet the way it is supposed to?

    1. Re:Would you like some cheese with your whine? by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      No, it would help if they didn't claim it to be a HTML5 showcase even though it hardly uses any HTML5, and if they stopped talking about "open" while at the same time outright blocking other browsers.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    2. Re:Would you like some cheese with your whine? by BlueBoxSW.com · · Score: 1

      From the link. I think it is pretty clear what the site does and what the goal is.

      "Every new Apple mobile device and every new Mac — along with the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser — supports web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. These web standards are open, reliable, highly secure, and efficient. They allow web designers and developers to create advanced graphics, typography, animations, and transitions. Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today."

    3. Re:Would you like some cheese with your whine? by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      Yes, the goal is to create the impression that if you want to use HTML5, you need Safari. They are trying to hijack the term for their own purposes. And it's just amazing hypocrisy to go on about "standards are the web", and then create a walled garden to demonstrate that. LOL.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    4. Re:Would you like some cheese with your whine? by BlueBoxSW.com · · Score: 1

      Oh god that's ridiculous.

      They're helping standardize the standard. They're making it a reality by integrating it into webkit, and they're giving that code back to the community, so it can be included in FireFox, Chrome, and others.

      If you want to complain about someone keeping web standards from happening, complain about microsoft's poor support of the standards, because they want to push Silverlight.

      Apple is doing good, and all I ever see is a bunch of whiners complaining that they don't do this or don't do that.

      Stop repeating everything you hear and get a life.

    5. Re:Would you like some cheese with your whine? by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      They're helping standardize the standard. They're making it a reality by integrating it into webkit, and they're giving that code back to the community, so it can be included in FireFox, Chrome, and others.

      The code will not be used by Firefox (or Opera). The standard is what matters. And Apple claims to support "open standards" while at the same time blocking other browsers. They are basically trying to create the impression that if you want to use HTML5, you need Safari.

      If you want to complain about someone keeping web standards from happening, complain about microsoft's poor support of the standards, because they want to push Silverlight.

      I have. Frequently. But this time I'm pointing out Apple's disgusting actions.

      Apple is doing good, and all I ever see is a bunch of whiners complaining that they don't do this or don't do that.

      All I see is a bunch of Apple apologists who can't come up with valid arguments, so they try to change the subject.

      Stop repeating everything you hear and get a life.

      Says the guy who mindlessly repeats everything Steve Jobs tells him to...

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    6. Re:Would you like some cheese with your whine? by BlueBoxSW.com · · Score: 1

      You are wrong. Apple's code goes into WebKit which powers Firefox and many others.

      Simply wrong.

    7. Re:Would you like some cheese with your whine? by BlueBoxSW.com · · Score: 1

      From the WebKit site itself:

      "Apple employees have contributed the majority of work on WebKit since it became an independent project. Apple uses WebKit for Safari on Mac OS X, iPhone and Windows; on the former two it is also a system framework and used by many other applications. Apple's contribution has included extensive work on standards compliance, Web compatibility, performance, security, robustness, testing infrastructure and development of major new features."

      http://trac.webkit.org/wiki/Companies%20and%20Organizations%20that%20have%20contributed%20to%20WebKit

  26. Re:It works in Safari... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    KHTML was a good solid base but 90% of work in WebKit was done by Apple.

    Please provide a citation.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  27. Re:It works in Safari... by Dogun · · Score: 2, Funny

    Which in turn was given to us by an Apple engineer with a time machine.

    Take that, causality!

  28. Re:It works in Safari... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, like it's possible to do. But just think about it - WebKit was forked from KHTML is 1998. Were you using a web browser in 1998?

  29. Re:It works in Safari... by phatcabbage · · Score: 1

    Yeah, yeah it is. Apple doesn't give you the option of trying to view it in another browser -- you are presented with a box saying "You'll need to download Safari to view this demo."

  30. Apple's the next microsoft by bl8n8r · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not the popular opinion, but think about it. M$ started out the same way.
    - Get people hooked on the new-exciting-and-different (windows 3.1)
    - you were a Luddite if you weren't adopting it
    - People that new almost *nothing* about computers could "use" a computer

    After the customer base was established, Microsoft Works came in and locked everyone into a proprietary format (they didn't know better). This was followed by Excel, Word and Access, and then Exchange.

    Apple is taking the same road and once again people who don't know they don't know, don't know.

    --
    boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
    1. Re:Apple's the next microsoft by noncaptusest · · Score: 1

      Well, not all people, if not most, have CS degrees. A large percentage of those people do not even care. A decent portion of those people are customers of Apple. Do you want to get them involved in terminology, alpha, beta or RC stages of development or just give them something that works for them. My guess i tshe last one.

      So ye, maybe this is quite fishy on Apple's part for all the "rest" of us considering their declaration not long ago, e.g. Flash bashing by Jobs etc.. However, instead of bashing Apple we should get people thinking about things; even if it is kind of hard at the beginning.

    2. Re:Apple's the next microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, except that Apple's not locking anyone into any proprietary formats. HTML5, seriously? It's not proprietary. It's still in development, and not widely supported, but not proprietary.

    3. Re:Apple's the next microsoft by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      Except Apple aren't even showing off HTML5 in their "HTML5 Showcase"...

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  31. MS have some generic HTML5 demos here... by Aphrika · · Score: 1

    http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Default.html

    No user agent checking, and they work (or don't work in the case of older IE versions) in different browsers...

    The way I see it, it's just Apple using their current 'standards' press coverage to increase browser share among the general populace. Microsoft 2.0 indeed.

    1. Re:MS have some generic HTML5 demos here... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      Those are pretty good in Safari.

      The border radius one is interesting - it feeds webkit specific CSS to Safari in the demo, eg: -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 152px 152px;

  32. Re:It works in Safari... by Draek · · Score: 1

    Dunno if it supports IE9, but Chrome Experiments does allow Firefox (well, IceWeasel if it matters), Opera and Midori just fine, not just Chrome. Meanwhile, all of the above give an "You'll need to download Safari to view this demo." message on Apple's HTML5 website, all with the default UA.

    --
    No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
  33. Re:It works in Safari... by Skal+Tura · · Score: 1

    By far Apple ain't biggest in IT, they are way smaller compared to some other companies. Say, HP, Dell, Microsoft, Nokia.

  34. Exactly by copponex · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The hypocrisy can be summed up on that single page:

    Apple CEO Steve Jobs explains why iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad do not support Flash and why open standards are the future of the web.

    This demo was designed with the latest web standards supported by Safari. If you’d like to experience this demo, simply download Safari.

    The next keynote should just have two massive murals of Stalin flanking the podium while Big Brother Steve tells you what you'll be allowed to do with your own equipment. And when he announces that they are no longer preventing you from running certain applications, that will become a feature. I guess he did learn a thing or two from Mr. Gates.

    1. Re:Exactly by m509272 · · Score: 1

      I kind of think it more like North Korea. Dear Leader Steve. Rumor has it the next major OS X version will be codenamed Red Apple.

    2. Re:Exactly by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      heil, stevie!!!!!1

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    3. Re:Exactly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The next keynote should just have two massive murals of Stalin flanking the podium while Big Brother Steve tells you what you'll be allowed to do with your own equipment. And when he announces that they are no longer preventing you from running certain applications, that will become a feature. I guess he did learn a thing or two from Mr. Gates.

      No, it shouldn't.

      Because if it does, the commercial for Windows 8 will feature Steve Ballmer sprinting towards the podium, his moobs flapping up and down with every pace, as he heroically hurls a chair through one of the murals.

      No. Just. No. Don't give either of their marketing departments the idea.

    4. Re:Exactly by MickDownUnder · · Score: 1

      I'm a senior developer and I've worked with "open standards" and many systems which implement these standards. I've always been somewhat amused by the endless bitchings about one vendor or another not following a standard (as intepreted by someone else). A standard is just a specification. Every developer knows when handed a specification, once implemented, the resulting application is unlikely to behave exactly the same as another app developed by another developer who was handed the same specification. No matter how small, there's always going to be some margin of deviation. The fact of the matter a "standard" only works when the same binaries or at least source code are used. This is why Flash and Silverlight work, its why WebKit is pretty much the only way html will ever work. I think software systems are just like highlander, in a world where everything is interconnected and seamless, there can really only be one.

    5. Re:Exactly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Am I missing something here?

      demo

      future of the web.

      This is a tech demo showing off a few things in safari. From the sound of both the summary and most of these comments, it's not even meant to demonstrate *current* standards, but to demo future *possible* standards.

      Kinda like how nvidia's demos only run on nvidia without hacking, ATIs only run on ATI without hacking, intel's only run on intel, Microsoft's ANYTHING only runs on microsoft, and so on.

  35. Re:It works in Safari... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah, like it's possible to do. But just think about it - WebKit was forked from KHTML is 1998. Were you using a web browser in 1998?

    I was using Mosaic on Linux back when you had to have Motif and build it yourself.

    It should be ENTIRELY possible to figure out where the code came from in WebKit. But keep in mind that it first started with KHTML and further has received significant contributions from a variety of sources. Apple claims only to have done the "majority" of work since the fork. The WebKit Wiki in fact credits other developers for many major features.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  36. Re:It works in Safari... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

    Actually, it works fine with GMail, but requires setting the user-agent.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  37. Use Epiphany by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That masquerades as Safari.

  38. How dare Apple advertise their own products! by itsdapead · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Shock! horror! Apple are using their own website to push Safari and claim that their own browsers are ahead of the game on standards support? The bastards!!!

    In large friendly letters on the page in question (my emphasis):

    The demos below show how the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser, new Macs, and new Apple mobile devices all support the capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Not all browsers offer this support. But soon other modern browsers will take advantage of these same web standards — and the amazing things they enable web designers to do.

    Note how that doesn't say "Here's a handy resource to allow you to objectively compare different browsers' HTML 5 implementations"? That is because you are looking at an advert for Safari! As is traditional in these "adverts" it is trying to get you to download and try Safari, not find out how close the competition comes. In other news, if you go to a Mercedes dealership they're not going to offer you test drives in a BMW...

    Wake me up if anybody smart enough to spoof their browser ID finds out whether Apple's demos use undocumented or non-standard features (rather than ones which don't work in Firefox, yet).

    --
    In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    1. Re:How dare Apple advertise their own products! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are using CSS that is non-standard, see http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/06/apples-html5-showcase-less-about-web-standards-more-about-apple/ .

      Worse, Apple’s CSS code uses only WebKit-specific selectors — for example, -webkit-border-radius instead of the actual CSS 3 selector border-radius. WebKit is the open source engine that powers Safari and Google Chrome. Firefox, IE and Opera can’t understand this code as clearly.

    2. Re:How dare Apple advertise their own products! by BZ · · Score: 1

      > whether Apple's demos use undocumented or non-standard features

      They do, yes.

      So to use your car analogy, this is like Mercedes having a car with a parachute it can use to brake in an emergency and putting up an ad saying "we sell cars that comply with federal safety standards; check out this feature that not all other car makers offer" and showing the parachute in action. The result is the viewer getting an impression that the other car makers don't comply with federal safety standards, of course, which is bunk.

      So you're right that it's an advert, but the problem is that it's a deceptive one.

    3. Re:How dare Apple advertise their own products! by Phroon · · Score: 1

      Shock! horror! Apple are using their own website to push Safari and claim that their own browsers are ahead of the game on standards support? The bastards!!!

      Shhh! You're interrupting the two minutes' hate!

    4. Re:How dare Apple advertise their own products! by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      And you are misrepresenting the criticism. The demos aren't even using HTML5, and Apple created a walled garden while claiming that they are "open".

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    5. Re:How dare Apple advertise their own products! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Advertisers confident they have a superior product do in fact encourage you to compare products. They generally don't if they are selling a commodity product or an inferior one.

      The insult is not in what is says but what it tries to get you to think.

      "Not all browsers offer this support. But soon other modern browsers will take advantage of these same web standards"

      This copy started its life in a boardroom as a broad, clear statement they wanted to transmit: "No other browsers offer this support yet, therefore Safari/Apple is the superior product."

      That of course is a lie, so soften it up a bit and most people won't even notice, in particular because of the convention of softening harsh truths with the _possibility_ of not such a stark outcome. Then it becomes the statement they used. It's intentionally ambiguous if "not all browsers offer this support" implies the population of browsers that are not safari, or if browsers that do offer this support besides safari might exist though unnamed.

      Maybe people are made because they hate deceptive ads, Apple are the master of creating ads that just barely don't qualify as a a flat lie, and that as soon as something else becomes the new big thing, they silently drop all their pompous bullshit from their website. Like the superiority of the PowerPC right up to the point the Intel switch was announced, or how much better the Mac Mini was for having discrete video hardware over integrated until the refresh switched to integrated.

  39. Re:It works in Safari... by jo_ham · · Score: 1

    That's a violation of the Temporal Prime Directive.

    Please reverse the polarity of the deflector dish and press F1.

  40. It is an amusement park by ladislaio · · Score: 1

    When Apple says 'Standards' they do not mean documented requirements that exsist so that all may have access, but a 'You must be THIS tall in order to ride' enforced upon the user. *Clearly* Apple should not lower it's standards to serving just anyone.

  41. and in Chrome for mac by crmarvin42 · · Score: 1

    They have the exact same demos on the Apple Developer site with no User-Agen sniffing involved. If you really want to try them and see if they work on your favorite browser, just go here.

    --
    Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
    1. Re:and in Chrome for mac by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      you are wrong. it still doesn't work.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    2. Re:and in Chrome for mac by crmarvin42 · · Score: 1

      It could be that it's checking for webkit. I loaded the demos fine in safari and Google Chrome, but not in camino or firefox. I should have tried the other 2 before posting. My bad.

      --
      Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
  42. Developer Link by ThrowAwaySociety · · Score: 2, Informative

    At the bottom of every page, there is a link to
    http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/

    On this page, there are duplicates that are not UA restricted, which you can test with whatever browser you like, and download the implementation code.

    User agent detection is appropriate on the consumer (www.apple) page, since that's an executive summary. Most people on that page are not going to understand why it isn't working, since they don't even know what browser they're using, unless Apple actually bars the door.

    1. Re:Developer Link by aitan · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you bother to follow the link and click on any of the demos, you'll see that it opens a page with a description, and when you click the "view demo" button, you get the SAME message stating that you need Safari to view some HTML5 demos.

    2. Re:Developer Link by perryizgr8 · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ doesn't work, too. shows the same "you have to get safari". atleast you could have opened the link in firefox before posting.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    3. Re:Developer Link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      BULLSHIT!

      http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/typography.php

      You’ll need to download Safari to view this demo.

      This demo was designed with the latest web standards supported by Safari. If you’d like to experience this demo, simply download Safari. It’s free for Mac and PC, and it only takes a few minutes.

      http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/photo-transitions.php

      You’ll need to download Safari to view this demo.

      This demo was designed with the latest web standards supported by Safari. If you’d like to experience this demo, simply download Safari. It’s free for Mac and PC, and it only takes a few minutes.

      Enough said.

    4. Re:Developer Link by Smurf · · Score: 0, Redundant

      BULLSHIT!

      http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/typography.php

      You'll need to download Safari to view this demo.

      ...

      http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/photo-transitions.php

      You'll need to download Safari to view this demo.

      ...

      Enough said.

      BULLSHIT!
      I was able to run both demos without any complaint whatsoever using the latest nightly build of Chromium for the Mac:

      http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/6917/screenshot02yl.jpg

      Of course I didn't change the User Agent (apparently you need an extension that I don't have for that).

      So, the problem may be that you are using an older version of a browser that still does not support these features.

      Enough said.

    5. Re:Developer Link by bennomatic · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I see your point, but I think they could have done it better. The warning coud have said...
      • You're not using Safari; do you want to download it?
      • Some of the features being shown off here aren't yet implemented on other browsers, hence this warning. Do you want to go on anyway? [link to go on]

      Beyond that, of course, I've seen it mentioned that it's disingenuous to talk about standards while using webkit-specific tags. While I'm a happy user of many Apple products, I agree with this statement; if Apple are going to make webkit-specific tags, they should have full feature compatibility with their standarized equivalents.

      --
      The CB App. What's your 20?
    6. Re:Developer Link by BooRolla · · Score: 2, Insightful

      those 'developer' links still filter on browser. Why is there so much justification for this?

    7. Re:Developer Link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the problem may be that you are using an older version of a browser that still does not support these features.

      If that's the case, then the site still has a problem since it says "You'll need to download Safari".

    8. Re:Developer Link by silanea · · Score: 2, Informative

      Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; en-US; rv:1.9.3a5pre) Gecko/20100606 Minefield/3.7a5pre

      Same annoying Safari nag message here. Lame, just lame.

      --
      Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
    9. Re:Developer Link by multi+io · · Score: 0

      http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ doesn't work, too. shows the same "you have to get safari".

      Not in recent Chrome builds. The demos all work here without problems (Chrome 5.0.375.55 beta / Linux).

    10. Re:Developer Link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      to go one step further maybe the warning could have said something to the effect of...

              * You're not using Safari; you might not be gullible enough to believe all this bs about html5 being a flash killer.

      Seriously though, this is a great story. Great to see the loyalty of even the most rabid apple/html5 fanboy stretched to breaking point

    11. Re:Developer Link by gnud · · Score: 1

      Open the link in a new tab, or copy-paste the adress linked to, in order to circumvent the evil javascript :)

      Pretty stupid that Apple doesn't have a "view anyway" button on the warning message, though.

    12. Re:Developer Link by dogmatixpsych · · Score: 1

      Maybe they fixed it now. It works in Chrome without changing anything.

    13. Re:Developer Link by AlterEager · · Score: 1

      Uh, "recent chrome builds" are not firefox. Learn to read before replying to someone.

    14. Re:Developer Link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because it's Apple and not Microsoft doing it this time, of course.

    15. Re:Developer Link by Ash+Vince · · Score: 1

      On this page, there are duplicates that are not UA restricted, which you can test with whatever browser you like, and download the implementation code.

      Great, so they provide a fail over standards compliant version in addition to their mac only all bells and whistles version. This is not really embracing web standards though is it?

      User agent detection is appropriate on the consumer (www.apple) page, since that's an executive summary.

      I really dont understand why you are saying this, since something being an "executive summary" does not in my count give you an excuse for using poor deign techniques. Sniffing the user agent and trying to use this to determine what my browser supports is a poor approach since it relies on Apple knowing the development roadmap of all competing browsers. A better approach is to fail over each individual element of the page that you know to be suspect.

      Now in this case you are going to be showing an incomplete experience since these will be new techniques that without HTML5 are not possible but that is easily explained without resorting to a "Go download our browser" box before even attempting to figure out what the users browser actually supports. This is the key point, this is not an HTML5 showcase, it is an Apple Safari showcase designed to get more people to use their browser.

      --
      I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.
    16. Re:Developer Link by hardeep1singh · · Score: 1

      Why would I want to install some Apple Spyware on my PC just to watch some demos? Last I checked the word standard meant the industry standard.

    17. Re:Developer Link by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Why is there so much justification for this?

      Because it's Apple. If MS did this everyone here would (quite rightly) be pissing all over them.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  43. Snow Leopard Requirement by OOSCARR · · Score: 1

    I'm using Leopard and I can't run the VR demonstration on Safari, but I can run it using the iPhone SDK on Leopard. I read on Wikipedia that "Apple quietly stopped providing software updates for Leopard."

    1. Re:Snow Leopard Requirement by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      well, you can't expect support on old versions. seriously, name one os that is supported even after two years. and leopard has been out almost 3 years. just upgrade, man.

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    2. Re:Snow Leopard Requirement by JonJ · · Score: 1

      I read on Wikipedia that "Apple quietly stopped providing software updates for Leopard."

      Oh, it was on wikipedia, then it must be true! Seriously, Leopard still gets security fixes and other small patches, but not a lot of new features. It's like running RHEL or Debian stable, it's feature frozen.

      --
      -- Linux user #369862
  44. Re:It works in Safari... by oztiks · · Score: 1

    While its true that Apple were the ones that originally started turning the wheels for WebKit, its also true that was well before the days of HTML5.

    Currently with the creation of Chrome, I'd safely say there are more Google Committers to the WebKit then what Apple has now.

    http://trac.webkit.org/wiki/WebKit%20Team

    I'd say the in spirit of things what Apple's is doing is a little Microsofty. Considering that Nokia, Microsoft (yes Microsoft) and naturally Google contribute to the WebKit.

    Apple's website promotes web compliant solutions with the use of HTML5 but blocks all other browsers inferring that Safari is the only compliant solution.

    Kind of petty considering they are drinking from the same stream as Google but I've come to expect this sort of crap when it comes to Apple, they are such a "microsoft-wannabe" when they want too ... and If they just quit the shit and got on with things I probably would hold them in a higher regard.

  45. They work with all browsers by ninjacheeseburger · · Score: 1

    The demos themselves work with html 5 browsers. Its just that apple have blocked all the other browsers from that link. If you don''t believe me try this link in google chrome http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ (they should all work apart from the video one).

    1. Re:They work with all browsers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The demos themselves work with html 5 browsers. Its just that apple have blocked all the other browsers from that link.

      How open web minded of Apple.

    2. Re:They work with all browsers by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      The demos themselves work with html 5 browsers.

      No they won't. First of all, they aren't HTML5. Mostly CSS. Secondly, they are restricted to Webkit.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  46. Re:Not apple's failing by thoughtsatthemoment · · Score: 1

    How about this: they are showing what Adobe can do with a pluggin vs what someone could do with a scripting language. Still not clever enough to your taste?

  47. Clarification by ThrowAwaySociety · · Score: 1

    At the bottom of every page, there is a link to
    http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/

    On this page, there are duplicates that are not UA restricted, which you can test with whatever browser you like, and download the implementation code.

    User agent detection is appropriate on the consumer (www.apple) page, since that's an executive summary. Most people on that page are not going to understand why it isn't working, since they don't even know what browser they're using, unless Apple actually bars the door.

    The demos themselves are restricted, but the sample code is not.

    1. Re:Clarification by ericlondaits · · Score: 1

      No, I was able to see all demos with Chrome just by following that link.

      --
      As a Slashdot discussion grows longer, the probability of an analogy involving cars approaches one.
  48. not anymore... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it seems to be doing some sniffing now... viewing it from mozilla seamonkey, it just pops up an error about requiring safari as soon as you click "view demo" on any of the demos.

  49. Re:It works in Safari... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did you check the video one and the gallery with 3D perspective? Oh no you didn't, because FF or Chrome don't support it yet.

    This is demo of future, upcoming standards and technologies, not just HTML5, but also CSS3. How else can you show off future technologies with browsers that don't support them yet?

    Try faking UA in IE6 and see how great it looks. Gee, it is same breakthrough technology from a decade ago. /s

  50. Re:Missing the point by mischi_amnesiac · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://i.imgur.com/cT08B.png Well, seems like Chrome is more compatible with HTML5 than Safari is, so why limit the demo to Safari only?

    --
    "Die endgueltige Teilung Deutschlands - das ist unser Auftrag." - Chlodwig Poth
  51. Re:Missing the point by Taagehornet · · Score: 1

    No, I'm saying that the default Android browser is allowed access as well. I have no idea what string it uses to identify itself, but I seriously doubt that it claims to be part of the Safari family.

  52. User Agent by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

    chromium-browser --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_7; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.1 Safari/533.4"

    It actually took me a minute to figure out how to change Chromium's user agent string, lol

    It works. I hope I don't contribute to the bitter argument between Apple Fanbois and Apple Haters - but it does work, if anyone really wants to try it.

    Audio fails, probably because I don't have iTunes, and the VR demo fails because "This demo requires a browser that supports CSS 3D transforms." All the rest work just fine.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  53. Re:Missing the point by Flipao · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's a demo of Safari's HTML 5 capability. Of Course you need safari to use it.

    Frankly that's the equivalent of Microsoft doing an HTML4 showcase on IE6. If you're locking out other browsers you're indeed missing the point of what a standard is for.

  54. Re:Missing the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, it is. In principle that's fair. But the title on the page says "HTML5 Showcase" and "HTML5 and Web Standards", not "Safari HTML5 Showcase" and "Safari HTML5 and Web Standards". Safari is mentioned prominently as Apple's implementation, of course, but they don't mention that the demos are specifically restricted to Safari only. They do say:

    "Not all browsers offer this support. But soon other modern browsers will take advantage of these same web standards — and the amazing things they enable web designers to do."

    Which is a joke, because several browsers do offer "this support" right now and people could see that was the case if Apple had not checked the User Agent string to forbid them from viewing the relevant pages.

    I'm all for Apple touting their latest product. But when touting "web standards" it seems a bit silly to exclude all others rather than the actual web standard of checking for features and gracefully degrading if they are not available. "Only works in browser X" is so last decade.

  55. Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by aristotle-dude · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This is a technology showcase by "Apple" for developers targeting the iPhone OS which uses "safari". They added in the user agent sniffing code so that average Apple users stumbling upon the story would not be able to try the demos with an old build of Chrome which did not support everything or other browsers which supported none of it (IE, older builds of Firefox).

    This was the executive summary for general public consumption.

    If you wanted to look at the demos on other browsers, all you had to do was go to the http;//developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ link. Again, not everything will work on non-safari browers but most of them will work on the latest chrome.

    This is all about presenting the technology to the average user in the best light when other browsers are still playing catchup.

    --
    Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    1. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by getNewNickName · · Score: 1

      But you have to admit that it wasn't very smart to showcase standards compliance by restricting the demo to Safari. A better way to do it would be to use feature detection instead.

    2. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      If you wanted to look at the demos on other browsers, all you had to do was go to the http;//developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ link . Again, not everything will work on non-safari browers but most of them will work on the latest chrome.

      You people keep saying that, and that link doesn't block you outright, but actually trying to run the demos on that link give the same message - "you'll need to download Safari to view this demo". Heck, even Microsoft let other browsers into their IE9/HTML5 showcase.

    3. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by Trelane · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you wanted to look at the demos on other browsers, all you had to do was go to the http;//developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ link. Again, not everything will work on non-safari browers but most of them will work on the latest chrome.

      Contrast your claim with the dialog which I just got from one of the demos, http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/video-effects.php (Firefox 3.6.3) when I click on the "View Demo" button:

      You'll need to download Safari to view this demo.

      This demo was designed with the latest web standards supported by Safari. If you'd like to experience this demo, simply download Safari. It's free for Mac and PC, and it only takes a few minutes.

      Or http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/threesixty.php. http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/audio.php http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/canvas-pixel.php So far we're 0 for 4 attempts.

      --

      --
      Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    4. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by Trelane · · Score: 1

      (none of the Demos I attempted to View did anything but pop a "Download Safari for Mac + PC" (which is itself not helpful; my browser info clearly shows me using Linux!) I need to do more stuff. Please post any that you can get to not just pop a "Download Safari" dialog. Thanks!)

      --

      --
      Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.
    5. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by aitan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Wrong, the pages at http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ also state that Safari is required.

      The average user will think that this "HTML5 thing" is just something of Apple and not a real Standard.

    6. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      Wrong, the pages at http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ [apple.com] also state that Safari is required.

      No, the page says "Best Viewed: Safari iPhone OS, Mac OS X, Windows" but the demos work just fine in Chrome. Did you even try them?

    7. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple seems to have changed the developer pages to NOT allow other browsers now. This is pure propaganda on the part of Apple.

    8. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by Carlos+Laviola · · Score: 1

      I did, and I get the same damn message. That "best viewed" disclaimer precedes the actual demo. Did you actually click "view demo" on Firefox or Chrome?

    9. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      Did you actually click "view demo" on Firefox or Chrome?

      Yes, it worked fine in Chrome. I later tried Firefox after someone said that did not work, and discovered they were correct. But, it certainly does work in Chrome, at least for me and several others.

    10. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by aristotle-dude · · Score: 1

      If you wanted to look at the demos on other browsers, all you had to do was go to the http;//developer.apple.com/safaridemos/ link . Again, not everything will work on non-safari browers but most of them will work on the latest chrome.

      You people keep saying that, and that link doesn't block you outright, but actually trying to run the demos on that link give the same message - "you'll need to download Safari to view this demo". Heck, even Microsoft let other browsers into their IE9/HTML5 showcase.

      Yeah, i tried it with Chrome and most of them worked but then I tried it with Firefox and it didn't work. Guess why? Apple can detect Chrome and assume that since it is webkit, it will support most of the features found in Safari but Apple has no way of knowing what your particular build of Firefox will support.

      It's just not worth the effort at this point to try to support Firefox when the public builds have very little support for HTML 5.

      Chrome was blocked from the VR demo because Chrome does not support all of the features used in the demo yet.

      --
      Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
    11. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by BZ · · Score: 1

      No, this is all about making it seem like other browsers need to play catchup when in fact they may be ahead of you on actually implementing HTML5. You do that by putting out a demo that doesn't really demo HTML5 much and calling it an HTML5 demo.

    12. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by BZ · · Score: 1

      > It's just not worth the effort at this point to try to support Firefox when the public
      > builds have very little support for HTML 5.

      Oddly enough, shipping Firefox has more support for parts of HTML5 than shipping Safari, last I checked (and likewise when comparing unstable to unstable). But of course Apple and Google are hard at working trying to convince people like you that they invented HTML5...

    13. Re:Ok, you nerds need to get a clue. by hkmwbz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except the URL is apple.com/html5, and it's titled "HTML5 Showcase" even though it doesn't really use a lot of HTML5, and the purpose of this marketing crap is to give the appearance that Apple is ahead of everyone else, even though, again, it isn't even showing off HTML5.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  56. Re:Missing the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a demo of Safari's HTML 5 capability. Of Course you need safari to use it.

    I'm not sure if this is meant as irony, but in case it's not. Why is if of course that you can only experience it in Safari, and not fx in Chrome (capable)? Haven't Apple been tooting HTML 5 as this great open web standard? That you need to download Safari to experience? Even Microsoft let other browsers in to their HTML 5 demo pages, and run demos according to capabilities.

  57. Learning from Bill Gates by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1, Troll

    Embrace and Extend...

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  58. Re: Don't you get it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    An interwebs only accessible by apple proprietary software IS the future of standards they are looking for

  59. Scary - location? by Dan+East · · Score: 1

    In that demo, how did my browser know my exact latitude and longitude? That doesn't make sense to me. Did that come from Google or something (google maps on my cell phone?). Even then what does that have to do with the laptop I'm browsing from or this landline IP address? That's pretty damn scary to me.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:Scary - location? by chebucto · · Score: 2, Informative

      See http://www.seamonkey-project.org/doc/2.0/geolocation for a description of the how & why. In short, yes, the geolocation info comes from Google.

      When you visit a location-aware website, SeaMonkey will ask you if you want to share your location.

      If you consent, SeaMonkey gathers information about nearby wireless access points and your computer's IP address. Then SeaMonkey sends this information to the default geolocation service provider, Google Location Services, to get an estimate of your location. That location estimate is then shared with the requesting website.

      If you say that you do not consent, SeaMonkey will not do anything.

      --
      The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
    2. Re:Scary - location? by Acaeris · · Score: 1

      It wasn't particularly accurate for me, pointing to London and I'm a good hour's train journey from it.

      You'll be glad to know you have to opt in on each website and there are good uses for it. Just like at the moment various apps on the iPhone and Android can tell you the nearest restaurants, events, weather, news, etc. The internet will soon be able to do so as well, if you want it to.

  60. Here is the "360" demo done right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm wondering what was the point of Apple's demo pages. Seems like it's more a showcase of their products than HTML 5. Plus with the lock to Safari and the use of browser specific tags it looks like we're back in 1995 with the battle between Microsft and Netscape to *own* the internet... Pathetic.

    To really show something interesting, here is a rewrite of the "360" demo done right:
    http://www.warpdesign.fr/html4/showcase/threesixty/

    It's HTML 4, just like Apple's demo, and will work in anything from IE to Safari/iPhone.

    1. Re:Here is the "360" demo done right by e4g4 · · Score: 1

      the use of browser specific tags

      There are no browser specific tags. There are some webkit specific CSS properties (-webkit-box-reflect, -webkit-transform, etc.) but the tags are all HTML 5. The HTML behind the demos is very slim (as it should be), and the javascript is pretty standard and readable (they use script.aculo.us and Prototype to power most of the javascript). The script powering the TRON flavored video demo is only about 200 lines.

      --
      The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein
    2. Re:Here is the "360" demo done right by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

      no, you've got it all wrong! without steve jobs' magical pixie dust, and some generous dollops of html5 love, you can't do ANYTHING!

      --
      Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
    3. Re:Here is the "360" demo done right by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 1

      Mac users are fragile.

      I sense that you just made several hundred people cry like babies.

    4. Re:Here is the "360" demo done right by BZ · · Score: 1

      > The HTML behind the demos is very slim (as it should be)

      Should it, for an "HTML5" demo? Especially if the HTML doesn't actually do anything? If it's actually a demo of scripting or proprietary CSS extensions or something else, then call it that.

  61. AC +1, GP -1 by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 1

    Getting modded up for describing HTML 5 as a proprietary format is beyond me.

    --
    http://www.rootstrikers.org/
  62. Re:It works in Safari... by cynyr · · Score: 2

    That page does't do useragent checking, all it does is fail(maybe) on other browsers.

    --
    All of the above was encrypted with a Quad ROT-13 method. Unauthorized decryption is in violation of the DMCA.
  63. Re:Missing the point by GIL_Dude · · Score: 1

    The default android browser is based on webkit (like safari) so it probably works because of the common rendering engine.

  64. This is a violation of Apple's own guidelines by lethe1001 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Back when the iPhone first came out, and people were shrieking for native development, Steve Jobs announced his "sweet spot", which was the ability to write web apps for the thing (??). To support this position, Apple posted on their development site guidelines on best practices for modern web apps. These guidelines specifically advise against using browser sniffing (except under certain rare conditions which are not met here). One should instead use object detection.

    Here are those guidelines. The document lists at length all the reasons not to engage in browser sniffing which are rehashed here. Basically there may be low or no correlation between the information in the user agent string and the browser's abilities. For example all browsers claim to be Mozilla, but it doesn't mean they all have the same feature set as Mozilla's Firefox.

    Apple's developers who wrote this gallery appear not to have read this document, or more generally to understand the purpose of web standards at all. Apple's new HTML5 gallery touts standards, but it flouts all the goals of standards. The point of standards is that we can target a standard, rather than a browser. Apple violates the entire purpose, and deserves censure for this hypocrisy.

    1. Re:This is a violation of Apple's own guidelines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah good thing this is a DEMO and not a PRODUCT. tinfoil hats are out in full force today.

    2. Re:This is a violation of Apple's own guidelines by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      This is a walled garden that isn't even actual HTML5. Why didn't they call it a Safari showcase since that's what it is?

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  65. Is Safari a browser? by betso.net · · Score: 1

    Safari is actually not a real browser!

    --
    xoda.org
  66. Re:It works in Safari... by FilipeMaia · · Score: 2, Informative

    By far Apple ain't biggest in IT, they are way smaller compared to some other companies. Say, HP, Dell, Microsoft, Nokia.

    Apple is the largest company, by market capitalization, from the ones you mentioned.

    • DELL Mkt cap 25.92B
    • Nokia Mkt cap 35.88B
    • HP Mkt cap 107.99B
    • Microsoft Mkt cap 226.02B
    • Apple Mkt cap 232.91B
  67. Re:It works in Safari... by Khyber · · Score: 1

    "But this is just Apple being the biggest company in IT."

    Umm, NO. HP is FAR larger. Apple doesn't do medical devices, for instance.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  68. Re:It works in Safari... by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

    Does Chrome experiments allows IE9 now that it has the canvas tag native?

    yes, it does.

    --
    Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
  69. Sorry, Apple didn't say that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The fact that Safari is required to showcase certain impressive features of the HTML5 should in no way detract from the developing standard. All it says is that the community as a whole still a ways to go--which of course isn't news, because we all know the standard isn't ratified.

    Apple never said Safari is the only standards compliant browser. Apple doesn't even claim Safari is standards compliant. Such a claim would be tantamount to saying the standard is finalized and Safari has all bases covered, which is untrue.

  70. Evil moderators by Yo,dog! · · Score: 1

    This developer link should be modded to 5, even though it detracts from the anti-Apple message /. is trying to promote. Sorry, /., but you're simply evil in this way.

    1. Re:Evil moderators by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clicking "View Demo" gives me a pop-up telling me to download Safari on Firefox 3.6.3. So instead of "We're not going to show you our cool shit" it's "Here's all the cool shit we're not going to show you."

    2. Re:Evil moderators by Mr2001 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The fact that you claim the developer link doesn't require UA spoofing, even though any attempt to actually view the demo through that page brings up the very same "You’ll need to download Safari to view this demo" message, shows how absolutely blinded you are by your need to defend Apple. Slashdot isn't the evil one here.

      --
      Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
    3. Re:Evil moderators by Yo,dog! · · Score: 1

      The fact that the developer link works semi-adequately in Google Chrome--and not just for me but for other users posting here, too--indicates that you just don't recognize how helpful Apple is trying to be and what anti-Apple trolls you and the slashdot moderators truly are . My sincere guess is that you're using a HTML5-braindead browser--Firefox perhaps. Apple would prefer you see the demos as functional works. I'd think you'd prefer that, too, unless your agenda is also to stifle HTML5 adoption.

    4. Re:Evil moderators by Yo,dog! · · Score: 1

      That makes perfect sense, since Firefox can't handle the demos. Why bother letting users load nonfunctional or broken demos--possibly even crashing their browser in the process--when the whole purpose of Apple's website is to showcase what HTML5 allows?

    5. Re:Evil moderators by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And here we have the quintessential argument distilled to its purest form. Apple wants you to see things the way they do, and for that you need to use their technology and they're not prepared to give you a choice. Many /.ers don't mind seeing things a little differently and would happily take away a slightly lesser experience if it meant they at least had a choice in the matter. /. after all was formed on the basis of open standards, it's a community with a large FOSS following, so why do so many Apple users flood here then bemoan the fact that nobody likes their walled garden approach to life? Is it any wonder they're usually viewed as either zealots or trolls? NOTE: I'm not saying they are zealots or trolls, but if I, as a supporter of one football team, walked into a bar full of supporters of a different team and started shouting at the top of my voice about how great my team was, you'd have to believe I was either driven by a near religious zeal to spread the word which has blinkered me to my audience, or I was just looking to cause trouble. Face facts, Apple fans, a lot of /.ers would love to embrace Apple's products if they were just more open and gave us the choice as consumers that we demand.

    6. Re:Evil moderators by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What color is the sky in your world? Your perception of reality seems a bit distorted.

  71. But Apple took the other fork - no lock-in by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    After the customer base was established, Microsoft Works came in and locked everyone into a proprietary format

    And how is Apple doing this? The webkit tags they are using, work in pretty much any up-to-date webkit browsers - which included Android or just about any other popular mobile device.

    Apple is explicitly not locking you in, instead of going down that road they are strongly promoting a standard (HTML-5) and a powerful rendering engine (Webkit) that anyone can use.

    Where's the locki-n?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:But Apple took the other fork - no lock-in by ianare · · Score: 1

      iTunes.

    2. Re:But Apple took the other fork - no lock-in by BZ · · Score: 1

      > The webkit tags they are using, work in pretty much any up-to-date webkit browsers

      That's actually false. The 3d transforms stuff they're using works in Mobile Safari and Safari on Snow Leopard. Doesn't work in Safari on Leopard or earlier, Safari on Windows, other webkit-based browsers (does something quite different from what's intended on some of these, in fact).

    3. Re:But Apple took the other fork - no lock-in by TheTurtlesMoves · · Score: 1

      Then why doesn't apples html5 demonstration work in my html5 browser? Because I don't have a mac?

      --
      The Grey Goo disaster happened 3 billion years ago. This rock is covered in self replicating machines!
    4. Re:But Apple took the other fork - no lock-in by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Where's the locki-n?

      Apple wants to get everyone using their broser (Safari) in the same way that MS wanted everyone to use their browser (Internet Explorer).

      You can argue (as MS did) that they were just offering another browser, and it was just lucky they had 90%+ market share at one point. No-one was ever strictly speaking "locked in" to IE, it was just that almost everyone happened to use it. You always had Netscape/Mozilla/whatever as an alternative if you really wanted it, even though most people just used the default browser that came with Windows.

      If Apple ever got 90% of the broser market they'd be able to control things like MS did for a while.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  72. Re:Missing the point by perryizgr8 · · Score: 1

    even firefox scores much more.

    --
    Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
  73. Embrace, Extend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't just for Microsoft anymore.

  74. Typical Apple Evil. by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 1

    Apple is in this for themselves, just like they have always been about control. Their OSX runs on standard PC hardware, but they dont allow you to run it unless you buy it on Apple PC hardware (which is the same thing).

    Talk about not supporting open standards.

    Apple is the smoke monster. Stay away.

  75. Evil moderators by Yo,dog! · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The fact that the /. moderators give your post a 5 and don't highlight the developer link which doesn't require UA spoofing shows how absolutely evil /. is.

  76. Can you block HTML5 ads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hate flash ads, and so I block flash. Is there a way to do the same with HTML5-based ads?

    1. Re:Can you block HTML5 ads? by broken_chaos · · Score: 1

      Not specifically, but you can do it the same way you block non-Flash ads -- by using a plain old adblocker with a correct filer set.

  77. IE5 by flyingfsck · · Score: 2, Funny

    So Microsoft Internet 5 cannot do HTML 5? Damn, who woulda thunk it...

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  78. Fundamental Misunderstanding by wesgray · · Score: 1

    The title of this "submission" indicates that author cannot read and does not understand basics of standards compliance. Everything in the demo adheres to HTML5 as it stands right now. Also this demo is a showcase for Safari's compliance to HTML5, so please tell me how Apple is breaking the the HTML5 standard as the heading states.

    1. Re:Fundamental Misunderstanding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The misunderstanding is yours, I'm afraid. This is Slashdot. Critical thinking is neither required nor desired here. Someone submits an inane article with glaring factual inaccuracies and hilariously thick bias, the editors post it (sometimes multiple times), the posters fall for the lead-in hook, line and sinker, and then the ones with mod points take the posts most in tune with the groupthink and call it +5 Insightful.

    2. Re:Fundamental Misunderstanding by hkmwbz · · Score: 1
      Considering that only the audio and video examples come even remotely close to using HTML5, how can you claim that "everything in the demo adheres to HTML5"? How can something that isn't HTML5 adhere to HTML5?

      Apple calls this a "HTML5 Showcase", not a "Safari CSS3 Showcase". They are creating their own walled garden and basically saying "HTML5 doesn't cut it" (since they aren't even using HTML5, and have to block other browsers). Great ad for Flash.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    3. Re:Fundamental Misunderstanding by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      The submission is actually accurate. Apple is creating a walled garden that isn't even using HTML5, and calls it a "HTML5 showcase". It would have been more honest and accurate to call it a "Safari CSS3 showcase".

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  79. Re:It works in Safari... by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 1

    The only thing that Market cap tells you is how much people think the stock will go up in the (near) future. These days, it has very little correlation with actual, current performance in a given market. For an example, see your list above. Apple's market cap is starting to be disjointed from reality. I won't even touch your generalization of a company offering server software to being "big in IT", which is like saying that Toyota is big in commercial trucks.

    --
    Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
  80. Re:It works in Safari... by mfraz74 · · Score: 1

    I managed to get them working on Kubuntu 10.04 with Konqueror by installing kpart-webkit. It worked on all of them apart from the Audio and Video.

  81. Windows users require Quicktime... by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 1

    So Apple's poorly written plugins are ok, but Adobe's is not.

    Interesting.

    1. Re:Windows users require Quicktime... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Quicktime on Windows is vile, pure and simple.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  82. I've said this before Apple is more Evil than M$ by Ice+Station+Zebra · · Score: 1

    I hear the iPeople out there saying "Apple. Apple is better". No they are WORSE. Proprietary software and PROPRIETARY HARDWARE. Think IBM Mainframes baby.

  83. Re:IT'S "I WOULD HAVE" by CubicleView · · Score: 1

    CAPS LOCK abuse, religion, profanity, and a hint of mystery, awesome post!!

  84. Mozilla needs to fix their HTML5 support by maccodemonkey · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It was odd seeing a Mozilla dev talking about them fully supporting HTML5. They may support almost as many features, but they all run like ass. Seriously, most HTML5 demos I see on Firefox aren't unusable because some feature isn't implement, but that they are just far too slow.

    Safari's and Chrome's JavaScript engines are running circles around Firefox right now. I don't know why anyone interesting in HTML5 would even bother with Firefox. WebKit is eating their lunch.

    1. Re:Mozilla needs to fix their HTML5 support by aitan · · Score: 1

      Just the lack of support for window.onerror makes me think that they don't take web developers seriously.
      With Acid3 they rushed to make the changes so they claimed to pass it, but implementing correctly features that are used everyday?, no way man, that ain't cool

    2. Re:Mozilla needs to fix their HTML5 support by thoughtsatthemoment · · Score: 1

      No, the bottleneck is not the JavaScript engine. From the HTML5.0 demos I've seen do far, graphics rendering is the key, and hardware acceleration is the difference maker. It seems now Microsoft and Apple both have a lethal weapon on their own platform. It's interesting to see how Chrome, FireFox and Opera can compete with them.

    3. Re:Mozilla needs to fix their HTML5 support by BZ · · Score: 1

      Amusingly enough, neither Safari's nor Chrome's JS engine is actually part of WebKit...

      Which pretty much sums up your post. You complain that JS performance is slow in some cases in Firefox (a legitimate complaint, by the way!) and then say that this means HTML5 is not supported... But the HTML5 parts are fine; it's the specific scripts operating on them that has issues. And the worst issues are specific to some sets of use cases people love to use for benchmarking (e.g. emulators). So you see the worst-case scenario and assume that's the way the entire world works. It doesn't.

    4. Re:Mozilla needs to fix their HTML5 support by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

      HTML5 is HTML5, not JavaScript. Never mind the fact that Apple's demos hardly use any HTML5 (so why call it a HTML5 showcase?)...

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  85. Who's profiting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The people or the companies? Both? When companies like Apple and Adobe develop "standards" by which they intend the public to subscribe, then to what end have they? Is it truly a path forward for humanity, which standards intend to ideologically define? Does the "standard" bring an acceptably broad implementation of some technology that brings economies of scale and simplicity of use and development to the people, or is it a means for a company to corner a market and profit considerably off of human behavior?

    Someone said above "Apple is Microsoft 2.0". Can't disagree with that! Practically everyone is branded as Apple cattle (is there an iThing in your pocket?). Adobe is no different. To develop flash apps, you much purchase Adobe's development environment. We can't live without companies, but I propose that the companies should not dictate standards development. In this I'd hesitantly recommend government oversight. "Standards" should not be something companies profit off of, but instead guide company processes by which the companies can more easily create products that humanity can make use of quickly.

  86. Aye Matti, We Follow the Code. by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    Which I believe is more or less a lose set of guide lines, (apologies to Capt. J. Sparrow).

    Has anyone actually read the specification? and if so, where could an unwashed person like myself find it? Because I'm not seeing a Benjamin Franklin list of yes's and no's.

  87. Why is Apple blocking other Web Browsers? by ryan22 · · Score: 1

    Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.2+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/531.2+ Debian/squeeze/sid () Epiphany/2.30.0 Apple failed to block Epiphany. Chrome works perfectly using the default Epiphany userscript. Firefox fails. Why is Apple blocking other web browsers?

  88. Re: Don't you get it? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

    Well, duh. When Apple had 10% market share for their most successful product lines, of course they were all for standards! After all, standards mean that content targeted at the bigger players will also be accessible on their platforms.

    But now that they themselves dominate mobile appliances, and are clearly aiming at expanding downwards? Why, those pesky standards let them open source freaks use Android or even Maemo to see all the same stuff that a paying iPhone/iPad customer enjoys, which is patently unfair.

  89. Same on that page too ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I also get a "download safari" dialog on the pages linked from http://developer.apple.com/safaridemos/

    IMO and UA detection is not "appropriate" on any page that claims to be about web standards. I agree that the average Apple user might have trouble understanding, but even then, a warning or information page instead of a pathetic "download safari" plug would be just not quite so dumb.

    On the other hand, this is just the nonsense Apple is known for, so I am a bit surprised that everyone seems to be so surprised.

  90. Re:It works in Safari... by EriDay · · Score: 1

    Apple is the largest company, by market capitalization

    By that argument, aren't GE, Exxon, and Walmart all bigger in IT than Apple?

    Apple is not big in corporate IT; they are big in home/consumer devices. I work as a software developer at a major IT company. The only Apple products I see at work are the personal iPhones that employees carry. What this means in terms of the direction of standards is questionable.

    In the last few years I've spent roughly as much on home IT hardware as my employer has for my use at work. For the first time ever, my personal dollars went primarily to Apple. Due to a beautiful UI being crafted on top of BSD, Android not being ready for prime time when I wanted a smart phone, and XP being overdue for a major overhaul when I needed a computer.

    I think I'm done with my Apple binge. Android is ready, Apple laptops and desktops while nice, are overpriced. Apple has benefited greatly from Windows Vista/Windows 7 and Android product cycles.

  91. QtWebkit by TD-Linux · · Score: 1

    Safari isn't the only browser to support 3D CSS transforms. QtWebkit also added support for accelerated transforms a little while ago. Yes, that's only two browsers, but it's a rather hard thing to implement considering how complex it makes drawing code (and in its implementation, might use OpenGL). See http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2010/05/17/qtwebkit-now-accelerates-css-animations-3d-transforms/

  92. Spoken like a complete moron by namespan · · Score: 1

    Apple is Microsoft 2.0

    If you really believe this, you're probably so completely lobotomized that you won't be capable of understanding any distinction, so my followup post is probably pointless for 80% of you who spout this bullshit over and over and over again on slashdot.

    For the rest of you who have some hope of being rescued from this misconception, however dim...

    First off, just so it's clear -- particularly to the anit-fanbois who will undoubtedly struggle to do anything other than let the "you're just saying this because you're a fanboi!" completely overwhelm whatever capacity for thought they have -- distinctions don't absolve Apple of crappy behavior. I think they're being dicks. If you don't like Apple, fine. They're still not Microsoft.

    Why? Because they don't have now and they've never had anywhere near the market power that Microsoft has. They don't even have a quarter of the mobile market. If you consider tablets competitors in a space also occupied by netbooks, they don't have a plurality of the market there, either. In fact, I'm hard pressed to think of any arena in which they have plurality market share -- maybe the iPod at some point. Maybe.

    And while they erect barriers to entry to sell on their products, they don't erect barriers to entering any market they sell in.

    If Apple was Microsoft 2.0 -- if they had the market power MS had and the desire to use it -- you'd see them them:

    * telling record labels and publishers that if they wanted to sell through the itunes/ibooks, they have to sell exclusively through the itunes store
    * forbidding App Store developers from making/selling an app on any other platforms. You wanna sell Remember the Milk on the App Store? Can your Android implementation or else we'll ban your app. Or maybe just double our cut of your sales.
    * telling carriers that if they want to sell the iPhone, they'd better not be selling other smartphones.
    * buying up shelf space in retail outlets that sell smartphones/tablets so there's no room for other competitors

    --
    Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
    1. Re:Spoken like a complete moron by allo · · Score: 0

      drm, device locks, etc. apple behaves bad, whereever they can afford it. If they had the monopoly, the world would not be better than with the MS monopoly.

    2. Re:Spoken like a complete moron by m_gol · · Score: 1

      iTunes has a lot more than 50% of digital music sales market. So yes, Apple is close to be a monopoly in some areas.

  93. This is juvie Apple hate-spew by tickticktickfast · · Score: 0

    Grow the frack up.

  94. Best NPOV summary of Apple ever by Jay+L · · Score: 0, Redundant

    That just bears repeating:

    Look, I really respect old Steve, I really do. He took a company on life support and brought them not only back from the dead, but back to the top of the heap. And I understand to a point why he wants to make everything only work the way he wants it to and that is because he wants to control the experience, so that everything "just works" the way he designed it. I get that. But what we have to be careful of is his "vision" polluting web standards so that the ONLY way to get the full web is HIS way. We have already been down that road with MSFT and IE6, just because old Steve is good at making iShiny doesn't mean we should head down that road again, okay?

  95. Luddites! by Yo,dog! · · Score: 1

    No, that's not the point and it's also incorrect/irrelevant. The point is that HTML5 can/will support the behaviors displayed in the Apple demos. I think pretty much everybody here knows HTML5 hasn't been ratified, so it's technically not a standard. What apparently many people here, including yourself, don't know is that Safari is one of the best browsers around for HTML5 in its present state. (Safari was also one of the first--if not the first--main stream browser to pass the acid3 test).
    The developer page loads just fine in Chrome, but you'll notice the demos don't work as well as they do in Safari. That would suggest Safari supports HTML5 better than Chrome--at least in the ways tested by the demos. So you see, talking about HTML5 compatibility right now isn't really relevant, but it is entirely fair for Apple to want to showcase what HTML5 can/will do and to coax users into using to Safari to see the demos properly.

  96. Begging for trouble by Yo,dog! · · Score: 1

    Perfectly awful in other browsers. Why should Apple beg for trouble in its pro-HTML5, anti-Flash stance by allowing access to browsers that will make the demos look like crap?

    1. Re:Begging for trouble by silanea · · Score: 1

      If the demos suck in all other browsers Apple could point to that and say "Hey, told you so. Safari shows all of them correctly, by the way.". Since there is no way I can test them with Firefox I do not know whether they really "look like crap" there.

      This is not a pro-HTML5 stance, it is a pro-Apple stance.

      --
      Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
    2. Re:Begging for trouble by delinear · · Score: 1

      Are you saying they're unable to argue the merits of pro-HTML5, anti-Flash without skewing the facts? HTML5 stands on its own merits, it doesn't need Apple trying to hide the fact that other browsers can handle HTML5 pretty well (maybe not as well as Webkit, but still usable) and in fact that sounds counter-productive to me (since the average user who loves their current browser will be put off the HTML5 trail having been told it only works with Safari).

    3. Re:Begging for trouble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL! You can thank Apple for the early, but none-too-soon demise of Flash!

    4. Re:Begging for trouble by Yo,dog! · · Score: 1

      If the demos suck in all other browsers Apple could point to that and say "Hey, told you so.

      That's not the message Apple wants to send. If you're trying to promote HTML5 and terminate Flash, what you describe would be a stupid message. All people would say then is, "Clearly I'm not ready for HTML5. Just let me continue with Flash."

      Since there is no way I can test them with Firefox I do not know whether they really "look like crap" there.

      Poor baby! If you care, you can download Safari. If you use Linux, try the demos on the developer page in Google Chrome for Linux. They work in Chrome for the most part.

    5. Re:Begging for trouble by silanea · · Score: 1

      That's not the message Apple wants to send. If you're trying to promote HTML5 and terminate Flash, what you describe would be a stupid message. All people would say then is, "Clearly I'm not ready for HTML5. Just let me continue with Flash."

      Face, meet palm. People would say "Why does my fancy $browsername not work with this demo? I want it!", putting pressure on the other vendors to push forward with their HTML5 implementation, thus creating incentive for websites to actually use HTML5, thus eliminating the need for Flash, thus enlarging the potential user base for Apple products.

      Poor baby! If you care, you can download Safari. If you use Linux, try the demos on the developer page in Google Chrome for Linux. They work in Chrome for the most part.

      Hey face, remember palm? I do not give a damn about Safari, Chrome, IE or any browser besides Firefox. I want to know how well HTML5 implementation is going in Firefox.

      --
      Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
    6. Re:Begging for trouble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Impressive. Luddites galore on this site.

      You care about Firefox? Then beat up on the Firefox development "team". Firefox is one of the worst browsers right now for HTML5 support. Who knows, the demos might even crash your dear sweet Firefox. Even in Google Chrome, the demos don't look great.

    7. Re:Begging for trouble by silanea · · Score: 1

      I do not usually quote myself, but here it goes:

      I want to know how well HTML5 implementation is going in Firefox.

      How do I file bug reports over HTML5 issues when I cannot test those HTML5 demos in the browser? If you limit HTML5 demos to browsers which display them well, you gain nothing for overall HTML5 adoption.

      --
      Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
    8. Re:Begging for trouble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I want to know how well HTML5 implementation is going in Firefox.

      Oh, I believe the Firefox developers can handle that job for the most part all by themselves. Why should Apple make its argument for HTML5 look bad? It's not like Apple is establishing the demo site as an Acid test. It's just a showcase for what we can all hope to see widely on the Internet in the future.

      Why don't you just try the demo in Safari or Chrome? It's so easy. Nobody is saying you have to continue using Safari or Chrome. If everyone did this, it would avoid all the yammering and a boat load of our time. Apple's demos are about moving away from Flash and moving toward HTML5. These demos will be relevant for a very short time in the scheme of things and complaining about the lack of Firefox access is plain childish and completely beside the point.

    9. Re:Begging for trouble by silanea · · Score: 1

      Face palms do not cut it for this. Why should I try the demo in a browser that is useless to me? It is HTML5, so it is supposed to look and act exactly the same in any HTML5 capable browser. If it does not, then the implementation is lacking and needs to be improved. To see whether an implementation is working correctly you need to test it against the demo (and hope that the demo itself is standards compliant).

      Oh, I believe the Firefox developers can handle that job for the most part all by themselves.

      What are you trying to say? Did you even read what I wrote? I want to test Firefox's HTML5 implementation against Apple's demos. How hard is that to comprehend?

      If everyone did this, it would avoid all the yammering and a boat load of our time.

      Oh, I am so sorry for wasting your valuable time. God forbid you have to tolerate someone else's opinion.

      --
      Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
  97. English standards by Yo,dog! · · Score: 1

    We have standards in English for a reason, too!

  98. Opera already has own 2D acceleration by Ilgaz · · Score: 1

    Opera 10.5+ has its own 2D accelerated drawing engine, said to be so fast performing at software level that they don't even bother to do 3d things yet. If you try latest 10.5 or 10.6 alpha, you may agree that they did something after all.

    Firefox should be already accelerated with Cairo, isn't it so? Also they got direct3d accelerated nightly builds.

    BTW; Apple and MS, they are somehow forced to do such cool 3d acceleration on the latest operating systems _only_ and get away with it. On the other hand, Opera, Firefox, Chrome has to work fine on at least 1 generation earlier OS so they can't really say "We accelerated it but you need to use OS X 10.6/Win 7 to see it."

    1. Re:Opera already has own 2D acceleration by thoughtsatthemoment · · Score: 1

      The issue is Chrome, FireFox and Opera all rely on either MS or Apple at the OS level. It's like in the 90's, Application vendors replied on MS for win32 APIs. And that didn't end up well with some who competed with MS.

      Currently web pages are still using quite simple graphics. With HTML5, even 2D graphics might need hardware acceleration support from new APIs. MS is providing Direct2D (a new 2d, not 3d API), but I am not sure how good it is. Apple of course is doing its own thing but Safari will certainly be the one taking full advantage of it on OSX.

      On Linux, I don't know where the 2d acceleration will come from. Not a good prospect there. Cairo doesn't have acceleration in a practical manner.

      The real battle here is not just browsers. It's about who defines the next-gen application development. MS has been sitting on its existing code for a long time and I am sure it's watching the development closely.

  99. All they did is proving Adobe's point by Ilgaz · · Score: 1

    Adobe doesn't say HTML5 sux, they say it is not really mature yet and every browser has different implementation, e.g. there is no guarantee an Adobe Flash quality page replacement (with all UI tricks etc.) will work consistently across different browsers.

    Apple, not providing a part of it (3d) unless you bought their latest OS with latest hardware (Intel) even if you have a pro graphics card should be the last company to set such a "demo".

  100. Re:I've said this before Apple is more Evil than M by Shados · · Score: 1

    Don't forget that Apple is also the company that were able to push trusted computing to the mass with a round of applause...

  101. Re:Missing the point by MF4218 · · Score: 2, Informative

    On a Mac, Safari gets 120 and Chrome gets 142... Strange.

    Although why any browser supports Geolocation worries me. Maybe it's just because Google makes Chrome.

    I vote that someone makes a standards-only-compliant browser. No site-specific hacks, so that web designers can just test the page once in that, and if it works there, it should work in any standards-compliant browser.

  102. SL is tied to hardware by Ilgaz · · Score: 1

    In case of Snow Leopard, he gotta give up his working powerpc mac and replace it with an Intel Mac.

    While Steve Jobs and an idiotic lobby at Apple thinks otherwise, no person likes to throw away a working machine for installing a new OS.

    In fact, lots of PowerPC Mac owners thinks about moving to Windows 7 since Apple managed to make them hate from the brand with such policies.

  103. Bashing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Over the years I was getting tired of the MS bashing so it is really refreshing to finally witness the birth of a new evil. Long live to Apple bashing!!! MS looks friendlier every day,

  104. Re:It works in Safari... by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

    It works in Safari because Apple have been readying Safari to work with HTML5 for some time.

    The problem is that the demos mostly aren't using any HTML5 at all. It's all CSS3 stuff invented by Apple and stuff like that. Firefox actually has better actual HTML5 support than Safari.

    What have other browser vendors being doing to get their browsers ready? Nothing? Or more slowly? Well, who's to blame if it can't be viewed in other browsers? Not Apple, is it?

    The problem is that Apple are misrepresenting HTML5. They are making it look like HTML5 lacks important capabilities (why else would they hardly use any HTML5?), and like it doesn't work across browsers (why else would they block other browsers)? It all plays into the hands of Adobe and Flash.

    --
    Clever signature text goes here.
  105. Re:It works in Safari... by hkmwbz · · Score: 1

    This is demo of future, upcoming standards and technologies, not just HTML5, but also CSS3.

    Hardly any HTML5, actually. So why call it "HTML5 showcase"?

    --
    Clever signature text goes here.
  106. HTML5 revolution will be faster .. by sakari · · Score: 1

    I'm estimating more like a year or two at maximum. Remember, this is not 2000, things are going at an accelerated pace, exponential, not linear. The iPhone will have same support as Safari for HTML5, so that's already a lot. When all the major browser start to support HTML5 more in the next versions, we will have a new revolution of web design at our hands. This will happen within the next year I say, max two years. And remember, we already have most of the basework done. When HTML4 was introduced back in 1997 (damn, has it been that long?), the web was still relatively young and very different back then. Server side includes, maybe some javascript, DHTML. Forms. Lots of forms.

  107. Worked for me in epiphany (the gnome browser) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All tests except the last worked for me in epiphany, the official browser of the gnome project. Chrome and epiphany are based on webkit so the share the same internals as Safari. I hope that webkit developers will end up agreeing with Microsoft about common standards for the web.

  108. Re:Missing the point by Acaeris · · Score: 1

    The Geolocation spec says it has to be opt in. The reason for it's existence is the recent increase in internet use on mobiles. With Geolocation, your mobile could tell you where the nearest restaurant is, what's on at your local cinema, give you the phone numbers of local taxi companies and tell you what the weather is like without having to have multiple apps on your phone.

  109. Re:Missing the point by Acaeris · · Score: 1

    Chrome (and I presume therefore Android's browser) does actually contain Webkit and Safari in it's User Agent string. In fact the developer tools in Chrome still use Safari UI elements.

  110. Apple had to keep webkit open, since it wasn't the by Kartu · · Score: 1

    The code that would become WebKit began in 1998 as the KDE project's HTML layout engine KHTML and KDE's JavaScript engine (KJS). The name and project 'WebKit' were created in 2002 when Apple Inc. created a fork of KHTML and KJS.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webkit#Origins

  111. Re:Missing the point by alexandre_ganso · · Score: 1

    Weird. 10.6.3's safari shows 113 here, and a more recent webkit, 137: http://yfrog.com/j4skitchdj

  112. But but but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jobs said he wanted the web to be open.
    Well, he also said unlimited data for the iPad. You can see how far that got you.

    It is called getting "Jobs'd". And you all love it.

  113. HTML5 belongs to Jobs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obviously you guys didn't get the message: HTML5 is Steve Jobs' standard. He gets to decide what is best because he is the only one that knows what is best. Got a problem with that? How many world's largest tech companies have you created? I think he knows a little more than you do so your opinion doesn't really matter.

  114. Summary of the issue by Dashiva+Dan · · Score: 1

    So, to get this straight (There's been a lot of sidetracking and a metric ton of squabbling so far, so trying to distill this)

    The demos aren't actually 'HTML5 strict' as is implied, as they use -webkit experimental directives.
    Which means that in order to view them, Safari on OSx snow leapord is required.

    Which means that Apple is making false claims in an effort to get people to use it's hardware and software.

    Which really isn't very cool.

    Did I get it right, in summary?

    --
    "lt;dr" is the correct response to most of my posts.
  115. yeah and birds fly. by Asaf.Zamir · · Score: 1

    Apple is closing it's code more and more, The problem is, they are developing devices, So unlike Microsoft, they could pretty much close everything they want. The future of the web according to Apple, Is owned by Companies - not the People.