Duration: Approximately 60 minutes.

Cost: Free

Watch the webcast in its original format

Cross-platform native mobile app development is often prohibitively resource intensive. Mobile web apps offer a relatively inexpensive solution based on a single codebase, but web apps can't access desirable device APIs like the camera, microphone, file system, and more. In this interactive webcast presented by Jonathan Stark, author of 'Building Android Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript' and 'Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript', you'll learn why PhoneGap solves this problem by wrapping open standard web apps in native code for all major smartphone platforms. This allows web development teams to build apps using their existing skills and tools, access native mobile device APIs directly from JavaScript, and package their web apps for sale in platform app stores.

What will be covered?

• Decision tree for web vs native vs hybrid
• Accessing device APIs with JavaScript
• Packaging apps locally
• Compiling apps in the cloud
• Using native code to extend PhoneGap

Who is this webcast for?

This webcast is for web designers and developers who are interested in leveraging their web skills to create native cross-platform mobile apps. A working familiarity with standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is recommended. iOS or Android development experience is helpful but not required.

NOTE: Jonathan Stark is presenting a series of webcasts that are held on the 3rd Thursday of each month.

About Jonathan Stark

Jonathan Stark is a mobile consultant, web evangelist, and confessed techno-utopian who believes that wireless computing will transform every aspect of human society.

Jonathan is the author of three books on mobile and web development, most notably O'Reilly's Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript which is available in seven languages.

His Jonathan's Card experiment made international headlines by combining mobile payments with social giving to create a "pay it forward" coffee movement at Starbucks locations all over the U.S.