Ask HN: HTML5 Mobile apps that work?

[y0ghur7_xxx]

I am in the middle of a new project where we need to publish a new mobile app. We are a team of pretty good js web devs, so we went with the (for us) obvious choice of cordova + jQuery Mobile.

We implemented a prototype with most of the features we would like to use in our finished product, and the app does what it has to, but animations are very slow, and using the app just feels "wrong".

Should we ditch jQM and switch to something else? Has anyone of you experience in building a Hybrid app with HTML + JS with any framework where the result was a bit better than acceptable?

[mcrider]

I have a Phonegap App (Flapcast Mobile) that I think works quite well; The only thing that makes it feel like its not native is because I did the art and design myself and I'm not very good at that. There are plenty of (native) apps that don't use native UI controls, its just up to you to make it look and feel good.

My advice is to stay away from the UI libraries, they don't actually look that good and are slow and clunky. Just roll your own if you can, or find a lightweight UI library. But do use a JS framework; I used Backbone.js and it runs like a charm; LinkedIn also wrote a mobile app with Backbone.js (they may have gone native recently though?) and it was beautiful.

[cnp]

Keep it as lean as possible, use CSS3 animations everywhere via libraries like jQuery Transit and avoid jQMobile at all costs; it's a clunky, bloated beast.

[donfrancisco → cnp]

This is very true. Using jQMobile on phonegap can make your app slow down to a crawl. I would suggest CSS3 animations and Zepto.js as an alternative. See the discussion on HN of how tumblr built their iOS app http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4496150

[timmm]

What are you testing your app on? JQMobile on my new Samsung S3 looks and flows very well. Where as my old android would have had trouble loading it.