Last week I was at FullFrontal 2014 in Brighton, a single day conference for front-end developers. Here is some interesting stuff from the talks:
Physical Web
Scott Jenson presented â The Physical Webâ which
is an experimental project from Google. The main principle is to transmit URLs on demand through Bluetooth Low Energy devices like iBeacon and then use the mobile web browser instead of native apps (which you have to install first).
I think it's a very good idea! For example, if you are in a bus station and you want to know when the bus arrives, you don't want to download a mobile application or enter the url of the bus company. With âphysical webâ, an iBeacon can transmit the url of the bus station with the time of the next bus directly to your smart device.
More info on Physical Web website and Documentation page on Github.
Offline, Online and synchronization
Caolan McMahon presented a talk named âMoving seamlessly through offline and onlineâ. He did a very quick and impressive live coding of a web app using offline mode and synchronization through pouchdb and couchdb.
More info on Offline first website.
Web Audio
Soledad Penadés presented the âTools for the 21st century musicianâ. The talk was some demos and examples using the Web Audio API. I was surprised by all the possibilities offered by this API. I'll definitely have to play with it soon!
More info on Soledad Penadés blog (you can try using web audio in slides) and W3C's Web Audio API draft.
Others talks
- Navigating Open Source : A talk from Hannah Wolfe about Ghost blogging platform and how to manage an open source project.
- Self-hosted JS : A talk from Andy Wingo about how to implement JavaScript in Javascript.
- Lean Mean CSS Machine : A talk from Tobias Ahlin about CSS best practice.
- A Single Page Story : A talk from Henrik Joreteg about â Native Web Appâ and AmpersandJS framework
- Getting Close with the Web : A talk and demo from Ben Foxall about Pixel phones and augmented reality.
Conclusion
At Liip, we do front-end every day. Browsers and Web technology move fast, so it's important to be up-to-date with new trends. âPhysical Webâ project, offline and Web Audio API seems very interesting for the future!