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As rich web applications are being built with larger JavaScript code bases, the need for JavaScript compression to keep bandwidth and page load times as small as possible is becoming more important for faster load times and more enjoyable user experiences.

Which JavaScript Compressor is the best? That can be a tough question to answer and in many cases it depends on your application. This tool can compress Javascript with several of the most popular JavaScript compressors, simultaneously and show you a detailed visual analysis of the results

With iOS 4.3, Apple improved Mobile Safari via the implementation of the Nitro JavaScript engine, which is supposed to more than double the performance of JavaScript. Just how much are these improvements compared to Mobile Safari on iOS 4.2.1?

a huge 2.47x performance increase

D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG and CSS. D3’s emphasis on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework, combining powerful visualization components and a data-driven approach to DOM manipulation.

1) Flash CS5 – At the moment is probably the most complete solution.  The packager for iOS allows you to compile apps on the windows platform.  If you’ve been using flash you can rejoice in Apple’s latest policy, it performs well, but don’t expect highest performance games, and Papervision to run in here.  No mac required. 2) Airplay SDK – The airplay SDK allows you to create games, and sign your app on Windows PC’s.  I have not tested this solution, but apparently many apps have been created this way. Both these solutions can compile to code that is native to the iPhone right on your windows PC and many apps available in the app store have been created using them. 3) Unity 3D – Game development engine and editor that utilizes Boo and C# and the editor works on both Windows and Mac. 4) Stonetrip S3D – Game develop engine and editor utilizing LUA, the editor runs within Windows. These game engines allow you to develop your apps on Windows, but you’ll need a Mac to test/compile. 3) Appcelerator Titanium – This is a good solution, and has a very popular and vibrant community.  Apps are limited in performance because while they can be compiled as native apps and sent into the app store they are html/javascript based. 4) Genuitec MobiOne – This is an interface designer that uses the Phonegap framework to deliver native functionality.  It only runs on windows.  HTML/Javascript based. These solutions allow you to create apps using web technologies (HTML/CSS/Javascript) and then run them through an Objective-C framework that responds to actions within a UIWebView, thus allowing you to access native functionality on the iPhone.  These frameworks are free. 5)Dragonfire SDK – An interesting option that allows you to develop apps using their SDK on windows.  Then you send them your uncompiled source which they compile and you download the compiled iOS application file.  I’ve been asked if this means they get a copy of your uncompiled source code.. I couldn’t tell you that, I just know that you have to upload your code for compiliation to their website — but hey you wanted to develop iPhone apps on Windows.  Overall this is a wrapper, I like the syntax and it’s pretty popular so I’ll mention it.

iUI is a framework consisting of a JavaScript library, CSS, and images for developing advanced mobile webapps for iPhone and comparable/compatible devices.

iUI has the following features: Create Navigational Menus and iPhone-style interfaces from standard HTML Use or knowledge of JavaScript is not required to create modern mobile web pages Ability to handle phone orientation changes Provide a more "iPhone-like" experience in your Web apps

Visual LightBox JS is a free wizard program that helps you easily generate web photo galleries with a nice Lightbox-style overlay effect, in a few clicks without writing a single line of code. Just drag&drop your photos into Visual LightBox window, press "Publish" and your own web gallery with beautiful LightBox 2 effects will open in the browser instantly! No javascript,css,html coding, no image editing, just a click to get your gallery ready.

OS 4.2 is a free update for every iPhone, iPod or iPad device available now. This new release provides some major changes on HTML5 and W3C future standards support, like WebSockets and Accelerometer support, print support, new JavaScript data-types and better SVG support.

Accelerometer & Gyroscope support through the DeviceOrientation API WebSockets API from HTML5 Updated HTML5 Form Support Partial XHR-2 Support Print Support New JavaScript data types New DOM events Enhanced SVG and Canvas support

In mobile browsers, you need to be especially careful about using timers because of the battery consumption. If you need to use many high-frequency timers at the same time, try to manage them using only one timer that will launch different behaviors from the same process.

The first question we need to ask ourselves is, what happens when our web page goes to the background because the user switches focus to another application (in multitasking operating systems) or opens or browses to another tab or window? Another problem is what happens when the phone goes to sleep (because of the user’s inactivity while the script is executing). The behavior of timers can be a little tricky in these situations.Yet another problem is that timers execute on the same thread as the main script. If our script is taking too much processor time (a normal situation with large scripts on low- and mid-end devices), our timers will be delayed until some spare execution time is found.If we use a low frequency for the timer (for example, 10 milliseconds), the timer will generally have problems meeting the timetable.Remember that the JavaScript execution time depends a lot on the device hardware and the browser’s engine. Even if they’re running the same operating system, like Android, execution times can differ: for example, an HTC G1 will be much slower than a Nexus One with a 1-Ghz processor.

As shown in Figure 4, the real times are very different on different devices. On low- and mid-end devices, if they work at all, the result is far from our 200 ms intention—some low-end devices don’t even accept timers with a frequency of less than 1 second.

Want to write apps for OSX, the iPhone or the iPad? You can learn JavaScript and use a frameworks like PhoneGap or Titanium. Or you can learn the official language of Apple operating systems:  Objective-C. The debate over whether to build mobile apps in JavaScript or Objective-C is beyond the scope of this blog post. But if you want to learn Objective-C, these resources will get you started.

A scalable real-time backend for your web app Build apps really fast without the hassle of managing servers

Meteor is a set of new technologies for building top-quality webapps in a fraction of the time, whether you're an expert developer or just getting started.

with the launch of Wikitude 7 and Wikitude’s new ARchitect Engine, developers are now able to create AR gaming experiences using industry standard development tools such as HTML, Javascript, and CSS for Android and iOS platforms. These new tools are designed to target both existing AR developers and the games developers community.

Today Apple released a free Mac App called Configurator which lets you administer multiple iOS devices at the same time. Perfect for schools! This is the app you need to deploy your iPads at your school and it’s easy to use. You can deploy iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touch devices in mass. You can set up 30 at a time and quickly at that. Configure settings, install apps, set preferences, you name it.