Hello.

In a previous post, I discussed screen recording from Android. This post details how I automated the process of adding a device frame to those recordings, making them look more professional. Previously, this was a tedious manual process involving Screenflow, but now I've automated it using ffmpeg. The ffmpeg command scales the screen recording and overlays it onto a background image of a device frame. The code, available on GitHub, handles the entire process, including setting up the Android device for recording, pulling the recording, and applying the frame. While the current solution works well, I'm open to suggestions for improvement from ffmpeg experts. Read More

Wrinkles, Crinkles and lumpy bits. Read More

Tired of typing in usernames and passwords? So are your users. Autofill helps, but the Credential Management API gives developers more control. It lets you securely store and retrieve user credentials, simplifying logins with just a couple of taps. This Chrome-only API allows access to a PasswordCredential object, rather than raw passwords. It works with other improvements like proper autofill fields (email, username, new-password, current-password) and offers a potential future where landing and login pages are obsolete. Imagine a web where users stay logged in seamlessly, only re-authenticating when necessary. This post covers how to implement the API, including a demo and sample code. Plus, explore how it might combine with the Web Payment Request API to streamline e-commerce. Read More

TL;DR - Went well. Lots to learn. Read More

If there is no one around to read your tweet, does it make a difference? Read More

I've successfully integrated WebTorrent streaming and bit torrent URLs into my blog! This allows me to distribute content like this test podcast without relying solely on my website's bandwidth. It uses the WebSeed BEP, meaning my site acts as a permanent, unchocked seed. I'm excited to experiment further with this tech and explore analytics tracking. Read More

This blog post discusses the implementation of a Service Worker for my blog, with a focus on the caching strategy. I've chosen a "Stale While Revalidate" approach, which prioritizes speed and resilience. The Service Worker intercepts network requests and serves cached content if available, while simultaneously fetching updated content in the background. This ensures the latest version is available after one refresh. The post also details the requirements considered when choosing this strategy, including development simplicity and compatibility with the existing hosting setup (Hugo and NGINX). The provided JavaScript code snippet demonstrates the Service Worker implementation. Read More

This post explores using WebTorrent for serverless data synchronization in web apps, demonstrated by modifying the Voice Memos PWA. The goal was to enable data sharing between devices without a backend server. The solution involves generating magnet URLs that allow peer-to-peer data transfer via WebTorrent. The demo app allows recording audio, saving it locally, and generating a shareable magnet link for access on other devices. This approach offers an interesting alternative to traditional client-server models, especially for scenarios where scalability and serverless operation are desired. Read More

Feel free to ignore. Read More

This post revisits the UX issues that contributed to the demise of Web Intents. We never adequately addressed the wide array of potential actions and data types, leading to a generic and confusing user experience. Handling data return from a long-running operation in another app proved problematic, especially if the initiating app closed. The lack of an explicit API for expecting returned data, similar to Android's startActivityForResult, further hindered the development of intuitive UI affordances. The open nature of Web Intents resulted in a proliferation of schemas and protocols, making standardization difficult. Users were forced to choose an app for every action, and developers lacked control over how apps launched, leading to inconsistent experiences. Finally, the absence of reliable fallbacks for unsupported intents eroded developer confidence and potentially left users stranded. In short, a combination of UX shortcomings ultimately led to Web Intents' downfall. Read More

This post explores how to use Android Intents to detect if a native app is installed. This technique is useful for web apps that also have a native app version, especially for managing push notifications. It allows developers to seamlessly redirect users to the app if it's installed or fall back to the web experience. The method involves creating a special intent URL that opens the app if present, or redirects to a specific URL with a hash fragment. By monitoring the hash change in the browser, the web app can detect if the app launch failed and proceed with web-based push notification registration. While helpful, this approach highlights the complexity of managing push notifications across web and native apps, reinforcing the argument for web-only solutions. Read More

Custom URL schemes for launching apps have limitations: single app handling, one-way data flow, lack of fallback, and limited mobile support. A better approach is needed, one that offers user choice, developer fallback, diverse data transport, web app registration, and online/offline functionality. Android's 'intent:' URL syntax offers a good starting point, abstracting service discovery and supporting fallback URLs. I propose exploring a new 'action:' scheme or 'web+action' to bridge web and native apps, providing a unified service resolution and registration system for a richer, more integrated user experience. Read More

Sharing content between web and apps is difficult due to platform incompatibility. Android's intent system offers a potential solution, but it lacks portability. This post explores a workaround for sharing actions, using a server-side redirect to handle intent URLs for Android users while providing a fallback to a web service like Twitter for other platforms. This approach allows cross-platform functionality while leveraging Android's intent system when available. Read More

It's not a pretty picture, but we have some solutions Read More

I have a little script that I use to keep me sane Read More

This story starts a long time, was tickled into existing after I visited FlipKart in Bangalore and was finalized after an internal conversation about the fact that it is impossible to trigger the share dialog in Android from the web. Lots of people want it, it turns out everyone thought it wasn't possible. It is.* Read More

Web Developers. It's a long road ahead Read More

You say Mobile, I say 'Mobile X'. Read More

I've spent this week in India doing more research about Web Development in India and how mobile is changing that. Publically at least it is not rosey, app development and app thinking is very high whislt building for the web with mobile in mind is very low. Read More

The web is changing, we need to adapt Read More