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Comment by apike | Hacker News Reader

This makes a nice demo and highlights that in some ways, iOS 7 is easier to reproduce using web technology than iOS 6 was.

> There’s been a lot of controversy recently on whether Javascript could compete with native or not, both in terms of performance and of look’n’feel.

On the other hand, the controversially difficult to reproduce parts of iOS 7 aren't part of this demo. The real-time blur, the zooming "z-axis" navigation, the 3D animations, and the 60fps scrubbable gestures for going back in the navigation stack aren't here.

While those are all "bonus effects," they're also a lot of what makes iOS 7 delightful to use.

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Actually, I don't think JS can really compete with native, that's not the point I'm trying to make in this article. Nonetheless, webapps can be an acceptable tradeoff for small apps, that are not too resource-intensive. In such cases, I think HTML, CSS and JS can give good enough results.

Since iOS6 and iOS7 have different looks and feels, it is apparent that rigidly adhering to the one true native look and feel isn't mandatory. I'll bet HTML5 can get closer to either iOS version than they are to each other and so close that I, an iPhone user, wouldn't notice the difference for the kind of app that doesn't require native hardware access. I'll bet that someone will produce an HTML5 mobile UI that I'll like more than I'll like iOS7. I'll bet that this won't be the last iOS UI overhaul, and that some future Apple TV will have yet another "native look and feel" and that iPhone owners will use their TVs and Kindles and smart refrigerators and countless Web apps and eventually lose track of what "the native look and feel of an iPhone" looks and feels like.

(First, nice work!)

I think there's an argument either way on this, though. Even with a simple app, some would say looking very similar to native but being 1% off can be more detrimental to the experience than executing very well on a different, more HTML/CSS/JS-friendly approach.

That being said, I think this would be an interesting thing to start seeing around the web!

The z-axis stuff is possible. It's surprisingly how performant CSS3 3D stuff can be, but it's also difficult to do without going overboard.

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