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HTML5 may be the best thing since sliced bread, but some might argue it's not moving quite fast enough to keep up with the demands of the mobile market. APIs from W3C are slowly emerging, making it hard for pure HTML5 apps to take advantage of certain device functionality like high processor speeds, mobile cameras, accelerometers and even barometers. Meanwhile, clients and managers are bringing up HTML5 to developers, expecting them to get onboard, without fully understanding its limitations.

But MoSync, a small company from Sweden, has released the latest version of its open-source development environment, which it says combines the ease of development and UI slickness of HTML5 with the powerful capabilities of C++, giving developers the best of both worlds. Part of its latest (v2.7) release, it’s dubbed "Wormhole Technology", and offers several benefits for developers, while maintaining Mosync's core capability of enabling cross-platform development.

The main benefit is really...

Recently at MWC2011 we had one of our classic WIPJam discussion groups. Thanks again to all the discussion leaders and here are a few interesting notes and takeaways from those discussions.

HTML5

• HTML5 still has a long ways to go in terms of its own evolution and growth
• 2 big positives that HTML5 will offer is the speed of development and it will help solve cross platform problems
• Currently there is a lot that hinders HTML5, everything from performance to battery life
• More specifically a few of the issues include Geolocation, SQL storage and there are issues with fragmentation using tools like Modernizr, Has.js, Device Atlas and WURFL. 

Cross Platform Development

With so many platforms to address now do you have to provide less functionality to your app to ensure a successful port?

This is one of the major concerns when it comes to developing across platforms, along with the learning curve each platform requires. When it comes down to it there is not...

Another developer storyteller at our MWC Jam is Guy Rosen from Onavo, makers of an application for developers and travelers using iPhones that will be released in Barcelona. Guy's story is about the path of enlightenment from writing their app in native Cocoa to HTML5.

WIP: Hi, tell us a little about yourself and your company.

GR: I'm a developer by trade and entrepreneur by choice. Have been writing mobile apps for years and managed to touch almost every platform there is. I'm also something of a cloud computing geek and blog at Jack of all Clouds. As for Onavo, we founded the company last year to build an app that saves smartphone users like you and I money on data roaming. It sounds insane, but it really works. We're still kind of hush-hush on the details but I can reveal that we're launching it into private beta during MWC 2011, so looking forward to sharing it with fellow attendees.

WIP: Your story is about your company's experience building a native  app then...