Apple Shows off Its HTML5 Skills…But With a Small Catch	Visited: 1530 4.3/5.0 (3 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Shannon Suetos June 07, 2010

The web programming circles have been buzzing for months, even years about HTML5 developments.  It has been nearly 10 years since anyone has updated the current HTML standards, and the anticipation of HTML5 is becoming more and more.

Although it is not fully functional yet, many web browsers are ramping up to be compliant with HTML5 code.  Internet Explorer 9, Google Chrome and now Safari are all HTML5 ready.

Steve Jobs over the past few months has not been shy about his contempt with Adobe Flash, and most of his devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) are all non-compliant with Flash files.  He believes that Flash is obsolete and HTML5 is the future of web design.

One of the main reasons most programmers (and Steve Jobs) is excited about HTML5 is the use of a new video tag .  This tag will now allow anyone to post video onto their site without using a Flash file.  No longer will be the days of having to be Flash literate to put great looking video into your website.  This will also allow for quicker loading time for video files, a plus if you are browsing on your smartphone, or trying to quicken that loading time for your PageRank.

To show to the world what HTML5 can really do, Apple is featuring a demo on their Safari browser.  And here is where the catch lies, you can see the wonders of HTML5, the video, typography, audio and more, but you have to download their browser.

Even in IE9 and Google Chrome, which are set up for HTML5 you cannot view the videos.  Instead you will be viewing this:

If you are not up on your latest HTML5 news, and many are not, you may think only Safari is capable of supporting HTML5 and download the browser, which in turn will give Apple more downloads.  This is really just a great marketing tactic for both his browser and showing off what he (and many others) believe is the future of the web.

If most browsers start supporting the early versions of the code, we may be seeing most of the new features way before the official release date.  Apple is known for their revolutionary products like the iPod, iPhone and even pos systems, and they can use that power to educate the masses on the new code.

Whether you agree with his tactics for using only his browser or not, the fact that there will soon be other options other than Flash seems to be exciting.  Until the full release of HTML5, which isn’t scheduled for years on out (some say 2022) we will have to wait and see.