From San Francisco

The Mac and iOS development community just finished attending five days of intensive sessions led by Apple engineers. Developers are now heading home to start implementing everything they’ve learned this week. Like any other deluge of information, I think it’s going to take a while for everything to sink in. From my point of view, some of the most exciting technology got the least attention, and I’m still thinking about what it will all mean for what I’m working on during the next year or two.

One thing in particular seems to be changing fast. It used to be widely agreed that Apple had fallen off the clue train when it came to helping us create rich experiences with web applications. Now, however, the technology has finally caught up to where Apple wanted it to be when the iPhone first launched. The company was loudly criticized three years ago for telling developers that web apps were a perfectly good way to develop iPhone apps. Three years later, it finally is.

Offline storage and CSS transitions are just the beginning. I strongly suspect that within a year or two, we won’t be so critical of that sandwich we were served back in 2007. I’m excited about what Mobile Safari will be able to provide web app developers.

Maybe the effects of the Reality Distortion Field™ haven’t yet worn off, but the future looks good from here.