There are a huge number of use cases for HTML 5 like mobility which is very promising. However, if the support of cross browser issues can't be resolved, HTML 5 can't leap forward. It is said that W3C is going to endorse HTML 5 in the middle of this year after API is finalized. Currently Chrome and Safari are on par with on another in terms of HTML 5 compliance. IE10 is also promising much better standards support and Aurora from Firefox will let developers to play with new stuff as they come out.

Currently here are some of the big must happens for HTML5

• HTML5 needs to be able to interact with a webcam
• HTML5 should allow recording audio from your microphone
• HTML5 must be able to add dynamic objects to go over the video, like captions, titles, or navigational items
• HTML5 Must be able to do some sort of web conferencing.
• HTML5 must support Peer-2-Peer
• HTML5 must do Full Screen Mode

If you test some of the things that is suppose to work on Android, Blackberry OS6 iOS and some 'not so future browsers', one finds that the HTML5 support is not so great for SVG, geo-location, web-sockets, notification API, Web-GL, Local-Database, ... and on So a lot of developers say that the hype is exaggerated. And the end users really don’t understand what HTML 5 is. All they think is that it is the next version of the web. But have no idea on details or the complexities.

But here are some really good things most people understand:

• Better Typography with use of custom fonts and web open font format (WOFF)
• Advanced FrameWorks like BoilerPlate and ToolKits.

On the Font front there are a lot of information out there. But on the HTML5 and Mobile BoilerPlate - not much info as they are really new.

HTML5 Boilerplate 1.0 was released on in March, 2011 with support for optimized build scripts, a custom boilerplate builder, and perhaps most excitingly for app developers — support for lighted, Google App Engine and NodeJS, as well as old favourites Apache and IIS. The number of websites using HTML5 Boilerplate continues to grow and evolve.

On the Mobile side, we now have Mobile BoilerPlate - If you have done any HTML5 development for mobile devices then you understand that you need to be quite careful with not pushing the envelope. When developing for the desktop you can be pretty lazy when it comes to files size, JavaScript libraries and the complexity of the code but for mobile devices there are major limitations.

So what is exactly  'Mobile BoilerPlate? MBP (Mobile Boilerplate) is based on H5BP (HTML5 Boilerplate)http://html5boilerplate.com/, a rock-solid HTML5 default for web developer to quickly start their mobile web development. This documentation contains docs specific to the MBP. The project is now also available on github

So now the Mobile Boilerplate 1.0 has just launched (@h5bp), providing developers with a trusted template for building mobile Web applications. The site provides templates and documentation that can help developers create cross-platform mobile Web applications which work on modern-day smartphones, but also offer fall-back support for older BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. The project itself is not a standalone framework, but works with jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch, Phonegap and Appcelerator. 

Here are the detail the many features provided by this new toolkit, such as:

• Cross-platform compatible (Android, iOS, Blackberry, Symbian)
• CSS class to target IE Mobile 7
• Home screen icon (Android, iOS, Symbian)
• Cross browser viewport optimization for Android,iOS,IE,Nokia,Blackberry, Opera
• Optimized viewport scaling (Android, iOS, Mobile IE, Blackberry, Opera)
• Option to enable iOS start-screen in full screen mode
• Better font rendering on IE Mobile
• Adaptable markup and CSS skeleton
• CSS stylesheet for low-end devices
• Mobile sitemap
• Mobile MIME type support
• Build tool for mobile
• Integrates well with PhoneGap and Appcelerator

And then, the "awesome-er" features like:

• HTML5 offline caching for smartphones
• Hide URL bar to maximize screen area
• Button clicks that don't wait for the default 300ms delayed click event
• Textarea autogrow
• Hide Safari browser chrome
• Mobile bookmark bubble
• Browser Database Wrapper API
• Robust optional User Agent Detection in .htaccess
• Mobile optimized default CSS
• Media queries polyfill for Windows Mobile
• Google Analytics for low end mobile devices

There is no doubt that there are a huge amount of effort is made for HTML5 by major players and therefore, it is going to play a big role in enabling web developers do more with pure web apps, without needing to rely on third-party plug-in or extensions. As browsers become better attuned and optimized for the evolving HTML standard, we all hope that the opportunities increase as currently the state of mobile web Developement is scaring regular buyers of the technology.

There is apparently a good Master Class for HTML5 by Ryan Carson - I have not signed up for this, but if anyone has can tell us if it is any good so I sign up for at least one months to check the some of the trainings that me and my team could do with.