buildAR.com's new web app is showing iPhone and iPad owners how Apple is blocking them from accessing open web standards that unlock the next generation of the web.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — iPhone and iPad users that have tried this app report feeling frustrated that Android users are already able to access the web of the future, while they cannot. "Many people are surprised to find out the expensive hardware inside their iOS device is easily capable of running the latest open web standards, yet commercial decisions made by Apple have left their high end iDevices looking old and outdated," said Rob Manson, CEO of buildAR.com, the developers of this app.
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Photo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/
This app shows you can now run Augmented Reality within standard web browsers. In this case it presents the projects from the weekly Kickstarter "Projects We Love" newsletter as images floating in the real world around you.
You can try this demo for yourself at https://kickstartAR.buildAR.
But open the same app using an iPhone or iPad you'll find that it works but you can only see a limited user experience. These limitations are not there because the developers have chosen to make it work this way. These limitations are there because Apple have made a decision to put their commercial interests ahead of their customer's. They decided not to support the latest open web standards.
These open web standards have been implemented by the other mainstream browser vendors. However, Apple's tight control over the iOS platform have ensured that these standards are simply not available to iDevice owners.
Technical background
One example of these open web standards is called WebGL. This allows web browsers to present interactive, 3D content without any plugins. "Every iPhone and iPad owner I've spoken to is down right angry when they find out advertisers can run WebGL on their iDevice, yet as the person who paid for their iDevice they are not able to," said Manson. It only takes a few lines of code to enable WebGL on any iOS based web browser, but Apple's App Store restrictions have ensured that any app that does this will be rejected. Out of the box a new Android device supports WebGL. Out of the box a new iPhone doesn't, it's that simple.
For more technical information see the blog post on buildAR.com
https://buildar.com/news/2014-
About buildAR.com
Think of buildAR.com as "WordPress for the Real World." It makes creating Augmented Reality as "easy as adding a blog post" or "sending a tweet." The buildAR platform enables you to embed your digital content into the physical world around you by linking it to images, locations and more. And now buildAR is bringing AR to the Web.
Contact:
Alex Young
+1 415 800 3458