HTML-based weather app
pattern.dk
pattern.dk
✓ Requires iOS for no apparent reason
✓ You must install to homescreen first, even if you are on iOS
What does this do and why did you make the above decisions?
EDIT: To get around this, open up your JS console, put a breakpoint on line 509 inside sunny.js and set `window.navigator.standalone = true;`. Things should be fine from that point on if you have "emulate touch events" turned on.
I can't talk for the creator, but I guess this app is meant to be stand-alone, launched straight from the homescreen (without address bar) and not as a regular website that you have bookmarked.
We don't know the context in which the creator made this, and who is to say that just because something is written in HTML you have a God-given right to be able to run it in your desktop browser.
I hope more apps like this do appear and push e.g. Android to sort out their home screen/web app integration. We should be able to have the experience this app provides on iOS everywhere by now, here's hoping Android get this sorted soon.
It isn't so much that we should be able to run it in our browser, it is that the author is intentionally looking for iOS, with the site added to your homescreen. Had the title been "HTML5 Homescreen App for iOS" I think people's expectations would be different.
Yeah that's one pretty major problem that shatters any illusion of feeling native on Android.
The other problem is that the ability to add to homescreen is not particularly obvious to users and most probably aren't aware it can be done:
>> Create a bookmark via the menu, find it in the bookmark list, long-press on it, and tap "Add to home screen". [1]
Personally, for instance, I wouldn't be happy if I shipped something as "cross-browser" that looked just awful in most browsers no matter what I tried.
Given that there's no apparent license agreement, this would presumably be copyright infringement.
I still don't think it's better than a native app because it took 30 seconds to actually show anything from a black screen and then a minute or so to load the data on stable fast WiFi (bet it'd be worse over 3G).
A native app has UI code and fancy animations on board and if this was an initial impression of something I wasn't really interested in observing, i'd uninstall it straight away. Granted it does load faster on subsequent launches (caching maybe?) but it's the initial launch which matters to me.
Would love to read a good illustrated blog post on the making of this. It'd be interesting to know what frameworks (if any) were used.
Hold the Volume Down + Power button and you should see a little camera flash and a notification about your screenshot.
This would make a great native app - Which I only say because HTML5 on iOS seems a bit choppy for such nice animations.
It's unfortunate to find such snark for something which I'll bet took a lot of effort to do. It makes sense for an HTML app to be friendly to all devices, and probably that is something to aim for.
Obviously has room for improvement, but I think we (myself included) can all do better at delivering feedback.
Really great work.
I did come across one bug, however. After changing the color scheme, Sun reloads, flashes "changing colors...", and then hangs on the loading indicator.
Its not sunny.
PS: Yes, its not a huge deal. If there was a 'feature' list, it wouldn't be listed. But trying to tell me San Diego will be 'sunny' at midnight is just wrong. </rant>
Install the app, and change the colors. Then, close the app. Its icon's colors have changed to reflect the color theme change.
- no preview on desktop
- landscape mode is broken
- no client-side caching