Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4-4.
FAILboard Pro:a native Android application
Native applications tend to be faster because all pieces of the application live in the
phone's memory and they also have deeper access to the hardware of the phone, which
the web browser does not have. By the same token, native applications come with
risksto the end-user; the application just installed might really be a trojan trying to steal
information, or the developers, in a haste to push out an update, did not pay attention to
what they were doing and left a security vulnerability in place. This is similar to what
happened to Skype in 2011, when someone discovered that usernames and
passwordswere being saved on users' handsets in unencrypted human-readable text,
which anyone could easily retrieve. Luckily, a fix for the problem was quickly made
available. For developers, developing a native application may take more time and may
also come with a steeper learning curve, especially if the developer is already versed in
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other web technologies.
Mobile Web Sites
A mobile web site, or website optimized for mobile devices, is generally viewed by users
after they navigate either directly to it or to the regular web sitewhich redirects them to
the mobile version. These are still websites, and do not normally store data on the user's
device or interact with it very closely. Essentially, they are just there to be a presentation
