I’m trying to list Web features (HTML, CSS, Javascript, APIs)
that can be used for mobile web pages, things we don’t usually
use on Desktop browsers.
So far, I have:
- geolocation
- orientation
- viewport (width, scale)
- touch-events
- tap-highlight-color
- map and youtube links open in a dedicated app
- tel: links support
- specific keyboard layout depending on the form (type=number, email, …)
What do I miss here?
The question would be: “If I am a Desktop Web developer, what should I consider to build a mobile version of my website?”
Actually, a lot of these are already in the HTML5 standard. They are not, in fact, Android/iPhone specific.
For example, the following are part of the HTML5 spec:
Your major concern when dealing with mobile versions of your site (assuming you mean touch-enabled smartphone) is the size of your icons/buttons/text/controls/etc. Anything else, including multi-touch, is simply an extra.
As for other extras, you could consider using something like JQTouch (http://www.jqtouch.com/) to provide a more “native” look and feel on the mobile client. JQTouch provides things like native animations, AJAX interface, specialized buttons/toggles/text fields, and themes that make iPhone web apps look better. It should also work on Android, since its browser is also based on Webkit.
For more information on iPhone/Android web frameworks, see http://distractable.net/coding/iphone-android-web-application-frameworks/.