Weird Browsers @ TechDays NL 2016

Ever since the web has conquered the desktop, people have been trying to bring it to other devices. Everything from microwaves and fridges to cars. Sometimes these experiments were a success and other times they were complete failures. What are the current frontiers for the web? Are there still any weird browsers left?

The latest generation of Smart TV’s run on the same operating systems as our mobile devices. How weird can these browsers be? Perhaps Smart TV’s aren’t as smart as we all would like to think. But there are more weird browsers. How do game consoles like the Xbox One handle your websites and are e-readers really capable of browsing the web? And are the browsers in VR headsets like the Hololens any good? I will try to give an overview of all the problems you are going to face when you want to make your site work on these weird browsers.

Transcript

1. #weirdbrowsers Weird Browsers Niels Leenheer @html5test
3. 383
 Safari 10 499
 Chrome 53 463
 Firefox 49 555 0 desktop browsers results on html5test.com 460
 Edge 14
4. 383
 Safari 10 555 0 desktop browsers results on html5test.com 463
 Firefox 49 460
 Edge 14 499
 Chrome 53
5. desktop browsers results on html5test.com 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 19 33 113 265 312 360 433 460 Edge Internet Explorer
6. new since internet explorer 6
7. JSON encoding and decoding Canvas 2D graphics Video Audio Geolocation SVG graphics Semantic elements Video subtitles App-cache offline support File API’s Form validation HTML5 parser Color input type Drag and drop IndexedDB Page Visibility URL API Device Orientation Full Screen Pointer events Web Crypto Media source extensions Mutation Observer Typed Arrays Internationalisation ES6: Promises Responsive images Adaptive streaming Pointerlock ObjectRTC Blend modes WebAuthentication Fetch Beacons Speech synthesis Streams CSS border image
8. Content security policy PNG transparency support CSS opacity CSS transitions CSS transforms CSS animations Native XMLHTTP DOM3 events VP9 video codec WOFF fonts CSS Selectors CSS Grid Layout ARIA XPath CSS 3D transforms Selection API ES6: WeakMap Touch events CSS Gradients CSS calc CSS Snap Points High Resolution Timing Sandboxed iframes Navigation Timing Screen orientation WebDriver TLS 1.2 SVG External content Regions Image sourceset HSTS Data URLs
9. Local storage Session storage Web Workers Gamepad Notifications Session history Web Sockets WebGL WebAudio Async script execution Cross-origin Resource Sharing Access the webcam ECMAScript 5 CSS Multicolumn Cross-document messaging Device Motion HTTP/2 WebRTC ASM.js CSS Filters Exclusions CSS Flexbox Canvas 2D Path ES6 Classes Console logging CSS unset Date input types Encrypted Media Extensions HTTP/2 server push IME API Media Queries Level 4 Message Channels ES6: Template strings ES6: Subclassing ES6: Arrow functions ES6: Generators
11. weird browsers
12. no, this talk is not about internet explorer 6
13. the web is weird by definition
14. the web is not a single platform
16. ?weird browsers?
17. ?weird browsers?
18. game consoles
19. portable
 game consoles
20. smart tvs
21. e-readers
22. smartwatches
23. photo cameras
24. fridges
25. cars
26. vr headsets
28. smart tvs and 
 game consoles
29. “big screen browsers”
31. television browsers are pretty good the last generation of television sets use 
 operating systems that originate on mobile
32. 427
 LG WebOS 218
 Google TV 199
 LG Netcast 490
 Samsung Tizen 478
 Opera Devices 261
 Panasonic
 Viera smart tv results on html5test.com 555 0 371
 Panasonic
 Firefox OS 352
 Samsung
 2014
33. 289
 Playstation 4 57
 Playstation 3 258
 Playstation TV 108
 Xbox 360 256
 Wii U 65
 Wii 555 0 console results on html5test.com 428
 Xbox One with Edge
34. controlling the browser 1
35. the biggest challenge of 
 of big screen browsers
36. navigation (without mouse or touchscreen)
37. d-pad
38. d-pad
39. alternatives
40. analog controllers
41. remotes 
 with trackpad
42. remotes 
 with airmouse
43. second screen
44. many manufacturers also create apps for 
 controlling the smart tv, console or set-top box
46. text input (without keyboard)
47. d-pads
48. text input with the d-pad
49. alternatives
50. remotes
 with keyboards
51. wireless keyboards
52. and apps
54. gesture control (throw your hands up in the air,
 and wave ’em like you just don’t care)
55. navigation with gesture control
56. can we control these input methods 
 directly from javascript?
57. the d-pad maybe
58. 1 keyboard events window.addEventListener("keypress", function(e) {
 e.preventDefault(); // no navigation
 ... });
59. the gamepad maybe
60. the gamepad api var gamepads = navigator.getGamepads();
 for (var i = 0; i < gamepads.length; i++) {
 ...
 } 1
61. the webcam maybe
62. the getusermedia api navigator.getUserMedia(
 { audio: true, video: { width: 1280, height: 720 } },
 function(stream) { ... },
 function(error) { ... }
 ); 1
63. the difference between 
 a television and a monitor 2
64. overscan (let’s make it a bit more complicated)
65. due to historical reasons televisions will 
 not show the borders of the image
66. the television enlarges all images 
 from the hdmi input by 5% 1920 pixels
67. the television enlarges all images 
 from the hdmi input by 5% 1920 pixels
68. the image is then cropped to 
 1920 by 1080 pixels
69. the image is then cropped to 
 1920 by 1080 pixels
70. overscan causes blurry output +5%
71. solution 1 overscan correction
72. the browser does not use
 the edges of the image 1920 pixels
73. the television will enlarge 
 the image by 5% 1920 pixels
74. and the content is now fully visible, the unused border is cropped out of the final image
75. but not every television set enlarges the 
 image by exactly 5%, this can vary between manufacturers and models
76. configure the correct overscan correction 
 in the system preferences
77. the playstation 4 will always show the browser without overscan correction in full screen mode
78. the playstation 4 will always show the browser without overscan correction in full screen mode
79. solution 2 no overscan
80. it is possible to disable overscan 
 on many television sets ‘screen fit’, ‘pixel perfect’ or ‘just scan’
81. the playstation 3 always shows the 
 browser with overscan correction
82. the viewport (i really need some aspirin!)
83. the visual viewport determines which part of the website will be visible measured in 
 device pixels the visual viewport
84. the visual viewport determines which part of the website will be visible measured in 
 device pixels the visual viewport
85. the visual viewport the visual viewport determines which part of the website will be visible measured in 
 device pixels
86. the layout viewport the layout viewport determines the width in css pixels on which the site will be rendered
87. the layout viewport the layout viewport determines the width in css pixels on which the site will be rendered
88. the layout viewport the layout viewport determines the width in css pixels on which the site will be rendered
89. the default layout viewport is different on 
 every smart tv, console or set-top box between 800 and 1920 css pixels
90. nintendo wii 800 pixels
91. nintendo wii u 980 pixels
92. lg webos 960 pixels
93. microsoft xbox 360 1041 of 1050 pixels
94. microsoft xbox one 1200 of 1236 pixels
95. microsoft xbox one (with edge) 1200 of 1236 pixels
96. sony playstation 3 1824 pixels
97. sony playstation 4 1920 pixels
98. Nintendo Wii 800 LG WebOS 960 Nintendo Wii U 980 Philips 2014 series 980 Google TV 1024 Playstation TV 1024 Samsung Tizen 1024 Xbox 360 1051 Xbox One 1200 LG Netcast 1226 Panasonic Viera 1256 Opera Devices 1280 Samsung 2014 series 1280 Panasonic Firefox OS 1536 Playstation 3 1824 Playstation 4 1920
99. device pixels != device pixels (of course not)
100. sometimes devices pixels are not 
 physical devices pixels, but virtual device pixels the browser renders in a lower resolution 
 which is upscaled to the resolution of the display
101. distance to the screen 3
102. 20 inch
103. 20 inch
104. 10 foot
105. “Make fonts and graphics on the site larger to account for viewing distance. People sit 
 proportionally farther from a TV than from a computer monitor of the same size.” 
 – Internet Explorer for Xbox One Developer Guide https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn532261(v=vs.85).aspx
106. Make your text 
 and images two to 
 three times bigger
107. Make your text 
 and images two to 
 three times bigger
108. Make your text 
 and images two to 
 three times bigger
109. youtube on the big screen
110. youtube on the big screen
111. identifying smart tv’s (css for televisions)
112. css media types @media tv {
 body {
 font-size: 300%; } } × 1
113. css media types all television browsers use the 
 css media type ‘screen’ 1
114. screen size if (screen.width == 1920 && screen.height == 1080) {
 document.body.className += " television";
 } × 2
115. screen size monitors and phones often use 
 hd resolutions, television browsers 
 often use other resolutions 2
116. useragent sniffing if (navigator.userAgent.search(/TV/i) >= 0) {
 document.body.className += " television";
 } × 3
117. useragent sniffing not all smart tv’s are recognisable Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux; ko-KR) 
 AppleWebKit/534.26+ (KHTML, like Gecko) 
 Version/5.0 Safari/534.26+ 3
118. couch mode the only reliable way to optimise a website 
 for television is to make two different websites… or give the user the ability to switch on 
 couch mode 4
119. be careful with
 feature detection 4
120. “Basically every feature that talks to the 
 operating system or hardware, is suspect.” 
 – Me, just now http://blog.html5test.com/2015/08/the-problems-with-feature-detection/
121. if (!!navigator.geolocation) { navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(
 success, failure
 ); }
 else {
 // alternative
 }
122. failure is called with a “permission denied” error code 1 no callback at all to success or failure 2 if (!!navigator.geolocation) { navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(
 success, failure
 ); }
123. success is called with longitude = 0 and latitude = 0 3 success is called with the coordinates of 
 Mountain View, USA 4 if (!!navigator.geolocation) { navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(
 success, failure
 ); }
125. e-readers
126. e-reader results on html5test.com 555 0 154
 Pocketbook 280
 Kobo 147
 Sony Reader 152
 Kindle Touch
127. infrared touch screen
128. led’s sensors
129. mouse events down/up move touch events amazon kindle touch yes pocketbook basic touch yes kobo glow yes yes sony reader yes yes 1 finger
130. e-ink screens (slow, slower, slowest)
131. microscopic electrostatic charged balls
132. microscopic electrostatic charged balls + – – +
133. + – – + microscopic electrostatic charged balls
134. microscopic electrostatic charged balls
136. maybe css animations and transitions 
 weren’t such a great idea after all
137. two completely different colors can look 
 exactly the same in black and white
138. two completely different colors can look 
 exactly the same in black and white
139. identifying e-readers (css for e-ink screens)
140. css monochrome mediaquery @media (monochrome) {
 ... } × 1
141. css monochrome mediaquery all tested e-readers act like 
 they have a color screen 1
142. useragent sniffing there is no universal marker in the useragent string, but we can recognise individual manufacturers and models 2
144. vr headsets vr headsets vr headsets
145. oculus rift
146. htc vive
147. microsoft hololens
148. very expensive
149. but…
150. google cardboard
151. google daydream
152. samsung gear vr
154. webvr (webgl on steroids)
155. head tracking and camera geometry project the 3d scene to two different eyes
156. Chrome Firefox Samsung Internet Edge or experimental build nightly builds soon behind a flag or
157. Chrome Firefox Samsung Internet Edge or experimental build nightly builds soon behind a flag or
158. https://iswebvrready.org
162. ?weird browsers!
163. “We cannot predict future behavior
 from a current experience that sucks” 
 – Jason Grigsby http://blog.cloudfour.com/on-the-device-context-continuum/
164. but wait…
165. browsers! weird
166. browsers! weird
167. browsers! browsers browsers browsers browsers! browsers browsers browsers browsers browse browsers wsers! browsers
169. thank you niels leenheer
 @html5test