Google Moves Rejected Google Voice App Online | Hacker News Reader

Google Moves Rejected Google Voice App Online

dailytech.com

9 pointsXichekolas10 comments

Awful article that doesn't even mention the webapp it's writing about isn't (as far as I know) actually available yet.

Also I highly doubt that Apple is busy "scheming to try and stop them [google]" from moving GV online.

Of course, a native app has advantages of its own: it is usually faster, and it can cache information and function without a network connection. Plus (iPhone developers, correct me if I'm wrong) you probably wouldn't get access to all the hardware, like the GPS and accelerometer. So I wouldn't say that an iPhone webapp is a complete workaround.

You can get GPS coordinates from web apps on the iPhone using the HTML5 geolocation API. (But no, you don't have full accelerometer access, or push notifications, or various other native app capabilities.)

HTML5 apps on the iPhone can:

- cache HTML, javascript and images for use offline - use HTML5 SQL data storage for offline data storage - use 2D and 3D GPU-accelerated CSS transitions for fast iPhone-style animation - hide Safari's UI when launched from SpringBoard - request GPS location information via JavaScript - receive orientation change events for UI switching

The main downside for Google's purposes would be the inability to read contacts off the phone, but they'll probably excuse that by suggesting that people sync their phone directly via their ActiveSync support.

My first (admittedly minor) iPhone app will not be written to the native API. Too much bullshit with Apple at this point to deal with.

It's a web app and thus no push to notification available to properly be a substitute for texting.

Myself, free over rides this nuance, though I don't think so for the majority?!?

Is it talking about this http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&... ? If so, this has been available for quite some time.

It's not. That site only allows access to a minimal subset of GV features. The site that the article is referring to is going to have an interface designed to appear at least similar to iPhone-native apps, and provide access to most/all of the available functionality.

IIRC Apple even suggested in the rejection letter to Google that it would better be implemented as a web app, so the sensationalistic tone of the article seems a wee bit hyperbolic to me.

You might be thinking about Latitude, another rejected iPhone app by Google. "Apple requested we release Latitude as a web application in order to avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone."

http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-latitude-now...

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