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WebKit is the browser engine behind Apple's Safari and a host of other browsers (on the desktop, and increasingly on mobile devices.) They are really pushing the boundaries of what can be done while making sure these new capabilities are defined as open standards (so, for instance, really pushing new ideas and technology into CSS3 and HTML5.) This post discusses new CSS animation capabilities which seem like another shot at knocking down Adobe controlled Flash (as well as a preemptive shot at Microsoft's somewhat similar SilverLight.) Presumably, if there is a free and open way to create some effect then developers will use that way rather than resort to a proprietary solution that costs money.
That's all great. And it's smart of Apple to be backing this sort of thing. But why oh why don't they leverage QuickTime better? If there were just decent javascript hooks into the QuickTime player it would take away the massive advantage that Flash has in terms of embedding media (especially video) into web pages. Absolutely everyone uses Flash to do this, even though (thanks to iPods and iPhones and iTunes) everyone has QuickTime installed on their computers. But there is just no reasonable and reliable way to create javascript controls for the player. I cannot understand why Apple doesn't fix this.
Appropriately ugly site of command line one-liners: commandlinefu.com.