Week 4, Reading 1:

HTML 5: Could it kill Flash and Silverlight?
By Paul Krill

* HTML 5, a groundbreaking upgrade to the prominent Web presentation specification, could make obsolete such plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX.
* HTML 5 tackles the gap that Flash, Silverlight, and JavaFX are trying to fill.
* HTML 5 technologies such as Canvas, for 2-D drawing on a Web page, are being promoted by heavyweights in the Internet space such as Apple, Google, and Mozilla.
* Local storage enables users to work in a browser when a connection drops.
* Web Workers makes "next generation" applications incredibly responsive by pushing long-running tasks to the background.
* Web applications will become faster and will provide a better user experience, making the distinction between online apps and desktop apps blurred.
* The complete HTML 5 work won't be done for years, but parts of it are already showing up in browsers, e.g.video support is new in HTML 5 and new in Firefox 3.5.
* Google's new Chrome browser also has some capabilities, including video tags, derived from the HTML 5 specification.
* Microsoft has several HTML 5 features in Internet Explorer 8, such as local storage, AJAX navigation, and mutable DOM prototypes.
* Apple supports HTML 5 audio and video tags in its Safari browser, as well as the Canvas technology (which it invented).
* HTML 5 has the potential to offer Web experiences based on an industry standard.