Inspired by PhoneGap, BigFive offers an extended web browser that adds additional functionality to your web apps such as geolocation, taking photos, tracking acceleration and causing vibration. This API allows web developers to access native iPhone capabilities without learning Objective-C.

The site contains several screen casts which outline the capabilities both from the users and the developers perspective, and give a practical example of how to use the technology. Since it’s a new program we feel there are some kinks, such as the prompts which are presented when loading your content into the BigFive browser, however once there the lack of a button bar at the bottom of the screen was a noticeable improvement.

This is definitely a sign of things to come and we look forward to seeing what can be done with Big Five, PhoneGap and other apps like LocationWEB, which we will discuss in an upcoming article.

Check out Dirk Holtwick’s site at http://www.big5apps.com and let us know what else you’ve seen that bridges the gap between web and native apps.

-Shaun Mackey

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