Web Apps Made for iPhone, iPod touch Spark Mini Revolution
| by Joe Leo, Columnist |
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When the iPhone debuted, Steve Jobs touted it as the "real internet in your pocket." It was his intention to bring standard web browsing to mobile phones, though not just any cell phone, only on Apple's iPhone. It was WYSIWYG browsing like that on your notebook or desktop computer screen, but scaled down to size of your iPhone's screen.
The thing that made it work however was not some magic code or a new form of Safari. It was the multi-touch innovation that allowed you to zoom in on any area of the screen. So, anything you plug in there--pictures, maybe portable documents down the road?, and of course, the internet--will become full screen.
If regular cell phones all had multi-touch screens, no matter what the size of the screen, we're pretty sure you can zoom in on the web just the same as you do on the iPhone. And to be fair, if the iPhone didn't let you zoom in on a web page, Safari wouldn't work at all and you'd be down to a stylized form of the web like standard cell phone browsing in WAP.
You'd have to create a special version of Safari, as Scott McNulty feels this is all about.
But that's just the point. These stylized websites designed to be viewed on a 3.5-inch screen aren't a special version of Safari. It's the web developers who are designing pages made on standard HTML, or Web 2.0, to orient itself in a way that it's custom-made to run on your iPhone, or now, your iPod touch's screen. And it doesn't stop there.
Because it's for your iPhone or iPod touch, it has to function in a unique way that utilizes the interface of the device it's being accessed on. And in this case, a multi-touch interface. So, instead of clicking on underlined links, or eye candy buttons, the elements on the page must function the way the device works and how the user interacts with it.
It seems Apple has revolutionized the internet in a way they didn't intend to.
Yes, they accomplished what others haven't by allowing for web pages to be viewed the way they were originally designed and intended to be. But web developers chose to think different and cater to Apple's new device--whether they're Mac fans or not--unintentionally creating a "custom version" of Safari (it's not, mind you), a pseudo-Web 3.0 only for iPhone or iPod touch.
Now that Apple sees the fruits of other people's labor, it's starting to embrace the idea by encouraging others to do the same, ushering in a new wave of design: web design. But therein lies the dilemma, however. Wasn't the whole point of the iPhone to be able to use the real internet?
What does differentiate this stylized web design is that it does so in style. To side with Steve Jobs, have you ever tried accessing a normal web page on your non-iPhone cell phone? It's atrocious! Try loading Apple's website on your regular cell phone and you'll see.
Unless the site was specifically written/designed for mobile phones, it will appear jumbled and sometimes, not even load at all. And those types of websites--ones that have a normal site, and ones that have a special one designed for your mobile phone--usually only make use of text and forgo any images or fancy templates.
(PBCentral.com has a special cell phone page which looks nothing like the original).
The thing we've found however, and this site is a perfect example, is that some websites don't translate 100% on the iPhone or iPod touch when viewed full screen. It may have to do with coding or CSS (cascading style sheets) because major websites don't have that problem.
Such as the New York Times's website, as demoed by Steve Jobs at Macworld. Viewing their page on your computer screen is no different on the iPhone or iPod touch when viewed in full screen by zooming in. While others, like AOL's, work to a certain point, but because for some reason Safari on iPhone and iPod touch doesn't support Flash, the page will have some quirks.
What's interesting here is that developers are creating this content for Apple. In the years of smartphones and cellphones, the web has never been redesigned in this way. Because Apple likes what it sees, they're encouraging more of it, in the process, creating a new revolution in the way the internet is viewed and designed-- and they didn't even have to do a thing.
So, have Steve Jobs and his Apple Inc. inadvertently, "did a bad bad thing?"
Or, have we done a bad thing and referenced the wrong song here as a jump start to this article? Maybe the better song to use here is none other than that famous song from Apple--well the Apple Corps--whose legendary group, The Beatles, said a long, long time ago...
"You say you want a revolution. Well, you know... it's evolution."
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