Mozilla have today announced WebAPI – a new project tasked with standardising mobile web access to various phone-specific functionality.
“The goal [is] to provide a basic HTML5 phone experience within 3 to 6 months.” the announcement states.
WebAPI will allow web developers to create mobile-enhanced websites and web-apps without the hassle currently attached to developing for a variety of differing/competing browsers/platforms.
By developing ’consistent APIs across web browsers, operating systems and devices’ the project states that developers will be able to work on building services for everyone and ‘not just a specific device or vendor.’
WebAPI specifications and drafts will be submitted to W3C – the World Wide Web Consortium – for “standardization” across all browsers – not just mobile ones.
Some of the APIs to be worked on include: –
- Address Book: Contacts API
- SMS: Telephony & Messaging API, Contacts API
- Camera: Camera API, Filesystem API
- Games: Accelerometer API, Mouse Lock API
- Maps: Geolocation API, Contacts API
Sound neat? You can read more over at hacks.mozilla.org/2011/08/introducing-webapi or on the project wiki at wiki.mozilla.org/WebAPI