The HTML5 space saw some nicely varied activity this week, ranging from pay TV, to the upcoming DevCon5, to new graphics insertion technology. So, without further ado, let’s begin!
Starting off with that bit about pay TV, Cisco announced new solutions for delivering content within the Videoscape Unity platform. First, Videoscape Open UX Snowflake enables service providers to launch an adaptable user experience that is both cloud and HTML5 based. Next, Videoscape Software Solutions on RDK offers an end-to-end approach to implementing modular functionality. Lastly, Videoscape Express is meant to help digital pay TV services in rapidly growing markets.
Next, Famo.us said it is finally ready to let a small number of developers play around with its Javascript framework, which allows for the building of complex HTML5 apps that run smoothly on most devices. Specifically, a scant 40 developers out of the 57,000 that signed up for beta access will actually get to go hands on with this framework. However, they will enjoy complex, unbridled access to it right in Famo.us’ own office.
In other news, the agenda for DevCon5, a hands-on conference for HTML5 and mobile app developers, was unveiled. To start with, Margaret Schmidt, chief design officer and VP of design and engineering at TiVo (News
– Alert), will be delivering a keynote presentation at the event, while other sessions will cover a range of topics such as graphics, high-performance website development, video calling with WebRTC, enterprise apps and much more.
Meanwhile, Kickstarter has made the switch to HTML5 for primary video delivery rather than Flash. Previously, HTML5 video was used only as a fallback measure, but the desire to reach mobile devices, the vast majority of which don’t support Flash, made the switch a necessity. It’s been speculated that this could lead to more video functionality down the road, considering HTML5’s power and flexibility.
Finally, to finish off the week, e-publishing solution provider Web-e-Books has developed a new HTML5-based image insertion solution that allows authors and publishers to insert photos, graphs, charts, tables and other illustrations within text of books published on Web-e-Books. Called ImageDrop, this cross-platform solution is meant to enhance the visual quality of book presentations.
That about wraps up this week, but there’s more HTML5 news to be found on the HTML5 Report front page.