Hey! Welcome to The UP Beat!
On this site I am going to explore Javascript (lots of jQuery), HTML5 and Mobile development. I'm convinced that these are the wave of the future, and that one needs to be more than generally familiar with them. There are methodologies and techniques to be explored, developed and perfected, so that as more and more people move to mobile web browsers, developers can stay current with the best ways to serve those needs.
Frankly, if any company is not developing for mobile, they are going to get left behind and suffer serious loss in sales. The same is probably true for developers. In some countries, like Japan, PC sales (both desktop and laptop) have dropped to almost nothing. For most people, the phone already does what they need it to do, and they no longer buy PCs. So now, they use the phone not only for verbal communication, but for email, social networking, entertainment and more, but most importantly, for shopping.
If you or your employer sells products or services, you've got to be available on the mobile web. If not, your customers will be frustrated with you, and turn to someone that is on the web.
But, you say, "Can't mobile devices already surf the web?" Sure, but have you tried it lately? It's full of issues doing the current way. Screen size, bandwidth, user interface and many more things dictate that you can't simply design a mammoth site and expect mobile users to be happy with it. But at the other extreme, you can't simply provide them a text-based site and expect them to be happy with that either. So, the answer is somewhere in a happy medium.
We need to design flexible sites that are based on progressive enhancement. Start with a plain text based site for the flip phone surfers. If Javascript and CSS are available, then use those to update the content after loading to give a more enhanced experience. But keep in mind that not every phone will support the latest stuff. You will need to do some statistical research on your customer base to determine what you can and cannot do on your site. Simply wanting to do HTML5 does not mean your customers will all be able to take advantage of it. You have to prepare basic functionality for them first, and don't enable the advanced functionality if they can't support it.
So, with all that said, it's beneficial to explore all the possibilities, and then determine which ones can be used for mobile, and which ones can't. With that in mind, some of the things explored on this web site will be applicable to mobile development, and others will not. I leave that to you to decide what you think will or will not work.
Enjoy the website. I hope you find something useful here.
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