what exactly is a 'web app'

[sjleworthy]

Performance of Web Apps Saved to Home Screen Hampered in iOS 4.3 - Mac Rumors

with regard to the above article, what exactly is a 'web app'? example?

thanks

 

[Sjwred]

An app that takes you directly to a web page and then have choice of opening in safari (I think )

 

[twerppoet]

It is a website that uses several protocols like HTML5, CSS, and Javascript to run just like, or very like, an app on your iPad. Some of the more advanced ones can even catch themselves in the browser so that they will run later off line.

In short, you don't download a web app from the App Store. Instead you visit a page on the internet and run it from there.

 

[sjleworthy]

can you give a few well known examples of web apps then? i'm still in the dark a bit

 

[Tinman]

Web apps started with the original iPhone. Indeed they were THE only officially available "apps" for the first year of iOS's existence (unless you jailbroke). Indeed Apple's original stance was that that was all we needed. Then a year later, out came the App store.

Web apps have still hung around though, and are still here today. In fact many iPhone-formatted versions of Websites could be termed "web apps."

Indeed they are actually more like apps today than they were in 2007: they can hide the usual Safari elements so they look and act very much like a native app.

See here for an example of many Web apps... in fact this can be considered a Web app "store" (think almost all are free):

OpenAppMkt


(Indeed I overused the word "indeed" .)

Michael

 

[twerppoet]

can you give a few well known examples of web apps then? i'm still in the dark a bit

Don't use any myself. I've seen a few mentioned on review sites, but they didn't interest me, so about all I remember is that I've seen them. I did look into HTML5 games sites once. Those are web apps. Do a search for 'mobile HTML5 games'. That should turn something up.

 

[twerppoet]

See here for an example of many Web apps... in fact this can be considered a Web app "store" (think almost all are free):

OpenAppMktl

Thanks. I didn't know about that site. I'll have to explore it a bit.

 

[Gabriel1]

Thanks. I didn't know about that site. I'll have to explore it a bit.

I've still got some web apps on my old iPhone and I'm pretty sure they all still work!

The Archangel

 

[Diane B]

amazon/kindle has one in beta with most assuming it was how they were going to bypass the app store subecription costs. If you go here you'll be able to try itand read more about it.

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000579091[/ame]

Diane

 

[Tinman]

I have just gone to OpenAppMkt for the first time on my iPad... and it has been ages since I was there on my iPhone too.

All I can say is... wow! Some of those apps are in fact quite good. I was just playing around with a sketch app, harmonious, which felt every bit as responsive and functional as a native app downloaded through the app store. And very much iPad friendly.



Michael