Microsoft releases native Outlook Web Apps for iPhone, iPad
Microsoft on Tuesday launched its official Outlook Web App mail applications on the iOS App Store, with separate downloads optimized for both Apple's iPhone and iPad.
OWA for iPhone and OWA for iPad are both available to download for free, providing users with a native Outlook Web App experience on iOS devices. In order to use the app, users must subscribe to Office 365 and have the latest update of Exchange Online.
AppleInsider was first to report last year that Microsoft was working on a native version of Outlook Web App for iOS. As expected, the new application uses the same tiled "Metro" interface found on Microsoft's other platforms, such as Windows 8 and Windows Phone.
Outlook Web App for iOS requires an iPhone 4, iPad 2 or newer running iOS 6 or higher. Using OWA on iOS does not incur an additional charge for Office 365 subscribers.
Features of the application, as highlighted by Microsoft, include:
OWA for iPhone and OWA for iPad are both available to download for free, providing users with a native Outlook Web App experience on iOS devices. In order to use the app, users must subscribe to Office 365 and have the latest update of Exchange Online.
AppleInsider was first to report last year that Microsoft was working on a native version of Outlook Web App for iOS. As expected, the new application uses the same tiled "Metro" interface found on Microsoft's other platforms, such as Windows 8 and Windows Phone.
Outlook Web App for iOS requires an iPhone 4, iPad 2 or newer running iOS 6 or higher. Using OWA on iOS does not incur an additional charge for Office 365 subscribers.
Features of the application, as highlighted by Microsoft, include:
- Organize your email quickly with Conversation View, Mark as Junk, Flag, and Categories
- Quickly search or browse email in all folders including Outlook Favorites
- Manage your schedule with ease
- Schedule meetings using attendee free/busy and room finder
- View shared calendars including delegate support
- Use your voice to look up a contact or bring up your schedule
Keep business data secure - Remote wipe erases only your corporate data in OWA for iPad and leaves your personal data on the device alone
- Separate passcode for OWA for iPad provides an additional layer of security
Comments
Web Apps are not native, even if they are downloadable.
Well...
Mail, Voice search/dictation, Maps, Web Browsers and such "native" apps rely on a web server component -- so the distinction is a little bit fuzzy.
The first native iPhone app I wrote was an app that streamed Music Videos from a web server -- it was coded in Xcode, Installed on the iPhone, downloaded, then cached images and text descriptions of the Music Video files on startup. When the user selected a video, it would stream it from the web site...
I would certainly consider it to be a "native" iPhone app.
It would be rude if they graded it though....
"F for grammar? C'mon!"
edit: my bad, I need to learn to read better.
I buy software, I don't rent software.
Therefore there is no chance that I will be renting my access to MS Office (and for the same reason, I won't be renting the latest Adobe offerings either).
At some point, when all the other platforms are making people pay monthly or annually for continued access to their own data, then Apple (which seems to know how to do this properly, by augmenting their purchasable offerings with cloud facilities, rather than forcing you into the cloud) will clean up big time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
Well...
Mail, Voice search/dictation, Maps, Web Browsers and such "native" apps rely on a web server component -- so the distinction is a little bit fuzzy.
The first native iPhone app I wrote was an app that streamed Music Videos from a web server -- it was coded in Xcode, Installed on the iPhone, downloaded, then cached images and text descriptions of the Music Video files on startup. When the user selected a video, it would stream it from the web site...
I would certainly consider it to be a "native" iPhone app.
Nice save, but I think whomever wrote the headline just f*cked up.
If it's "native" it isn't a "web app" by definition.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
Well...
Mail, Voice search/dictation, Maps, Web Browsers and such "native" apps rely on a web server component -- so the distinction is a little bit fuzzy.
The first native iPhone app I wrote was an app that streamed Music Videos from a web server -- it was coded in Xcode, Installed on the iPhone, downloaded, then cached images and text descriptions of the Music Video files on startup. When the user selected a video, it would stream it from the web site...
I would certainly consider it to be a "native" iPhone app.
The distinction really isn't that fuzzy. Most native apps have some sort of server component. However, a Web app is something where the code is server based, except for the code delivered as HTML/CSS/Javascript or other web browser capable technologies.
On the iOS, it's simple... can it be run in Safari? If yes, then it's a Web app and not a Native App. Is it in the iTunes Store, or Cydia? If yes, then it's a Native App and not a Web App.
That's a pretty distinct differentiation that works well and is generally accepted. See Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_app
If one changes that definition to mean that web apps are native apps that have X amount of interaction with a server, then there's no point in using the term.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
Well...
Mail, Voice search/dictation, Maps, Web Browsers and such "native" apps rely on a web server component -- so the distinction is a little bit fuzzy.
The first native iPhone app I wrote was an app that streamed Music Videos from a web server -- it was coded in Xcode, Installed on the iPhone, downloaded, then cached images and text descriptions of the Music Video files on startup. When the user selected a video, it would stream it from the web site...
I would certainly consider it to be a "native" iPhone app.
Naturally what you characterise as native app is accurate.
However, whether an app is native or not, is not defined by the content it provides or accesses, since most apps these days pull content from the web or push it there. And yes, even a web browser is a native app.
The distinction is to be made by the underlying technologies. A native app is compiled into architecture specific machine code, whereas a web app is composed of web technologies, such as HTML, CSS, Javascript and/or other markup and interpreted languages. Those apps do not run standalone and require a specific environment, such as a web browser in order to run. Your iCloud Mail or Calendar are classic examples of web apps.
At this point this might get a bit confusing, but web apps may also run without being connected to the internet and they may run without having to explicitly open a web browser. In fact, there are many (often cheapish in appearance) iOS apps that are in fact web apps, simply packaged as an app and thus made downloadable through the app store. However, the underlying technology would not be native at all, merely the packaging. As such, the app would consist of a raw, native frame with a UIWebView, which is basically an embeddable WebKit component developers may use in their apps. All further app content would be written using web technologies, user interfaces would be rendered using HTML and CSS and so on.
That's what I meant when referring to web apps, and even though they might be packaged into standalone app frames, you can hardly call those apps native. In fact, Facebook has been using such web technologies within its official app until very recently, when they made the switch to native, simply because performance was too poor before.
Consequently, I stand by what I said: the headline is very confusing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by macslut
On the iOS, it's simple... can it be run in Safari? If yes, then it's a Web app and not a Native App. Is it in the iTunes Store, or Cydia? If yes, then it's a Native App and not a Web App.
I would disagree with this statement. As described in my example above, it is very easy to package a web app into a frame which is basically nothing else than an embedded web browser component in order to make it available through the App Store or Cydia for that matter. In fact most "build your own app without knowing how to code" websites do it this way.
I don't get this post, are you saying because the iOS Hotmail interface looks like the version found in Metro this somehow makes your entire iPad a Microsoft OS?
Quote:
Originally Posted by cynic
I would disagree with this statement. As described in my example above, it is very easy to package a web app into a frame which is basically nothing else than an embedded web browser component in order to make it available through the App Store or Cydia for that matter. In fact most "build your own app without knowing how to code" websites do it this way.
You know it is perfectly simple to write an app in Dashcode and then import it to Xcode and compile it. Depending what functionality it needs to perform, it may not need to even connect to the Internet. Other exceptions are, for example, iAds when used inside an app are essentially the same as Dashcode and need nothing more than Javascript to function. I would consider Siri a native application although it is more like part of the operating system but she will not function whatsoever unless connected to the Internet. So I agree with Dick, it is definitely a gray area on how one defines a native app.
I think what they are saying is that it is a native app for the purposes of settings and to customize the browser chrome. However, it is basically a web app. They clearly reference OWA which is Outlook Web Access. So this is just like any other crap native app using a browser window to make people think they have a real app when they actually don't.
Having spent almost two decades creating such apps, I'd categorize them this way (and even this doesn't hit all the variations)...
Native app - standalone client code meant to be installed locally. E.g. the GMail app from the App Store.
Online web browser app - requires browser to access and run client code that is always downloaded from a web server. E.g. GMail using Safari to access http://mail.google.com
Offline web browser app - also browser based, but uses HTML5 manifest to download core pages ahead of time and also create a desktop icon, so it can start up even if offline.
Dedicated webview app - native app with a webview that accesses remote HTML pages for all the client pages. E.g. simple bank access "apps" that are basically dumb browser wrapper shells hardcoded to access one URL.
Hybrid webview app - A variation that is also dedicated to a URL, and downloads all HTML pages from there, but also provides native resource access (e.g. radio status, file access, etc) via a smarter webview framework.
Native app with HTML UI - native app with a webview showing HTML UI pieces embedded in the app. E.g. most PhoneGap based apps. (Or a combo. I once worked on a Java Blackberry app that was mostly native UI but also had some HTML based pages.) These are often called "hybrid apps" in the press.
---
Here, Microsoft confuses things even more by using their term OWA (Outlook Web App), which usually simply refers to an online web app that used XMLHttpRequests to access an Outlook server.
Apparently this particular app uses OWA comms, but also gives the web pages access to native resources, such as voice input. So it's definitely not a simple webview app, but is at least more of a hybrid.
[URL=http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/am-i-using-office-365-after-the-service-upgrade-HA103982331.aspx]http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/am-i-using-office-365-after-the-service-upgrade-HA103982331.aspx[/URL]
That's incomprehensible.
Bin. Never again.
Yea, I think KDarling actually got quite a nice overview.
Regarding:
Quote:
Originally Posted by mstone
You know it is perfectly simple to write an app in Dashcode and then import it to Xcode and compile it. Depending what functionality it needs to perform, it may not need to even connect to the Internet. Other exceptions are, for example, iAds when used inside an app are essentially the same as Dashcode and need nothing more than Javascript to function. I would consider Siri a native application although it is more like part of the operating system but she will not function whatsoever unless connected to the Internet. So I agree with Dick, it is definitely a gray area on how one defines a native app.
Let's agree to disagree then, because there is not that much gray to it. Nothing you write in Dashcode is natively compiled whatsoever, not even when you move it to Xcode and hit the "build" button.
Again, whether you access the internet or not is not relevant.
Those Dashcode "apps" you are talking about remain web apps, because of the technologies they are created with and the wrappers they need in order to run. The same is true for iAds, which again are nothing more than a little embedded website.
The fact that you can just "compile" such web apps and distribute them has nothing to do with being native, because your scripts will still get interpreted at runtime, either by a webkit component or another type or virtual environment.
As for Siri, it is a native application in itself, just that it is being integrated by Apple in a totally different way. The fact that it accesses content through the internet does not make it a "web app".
As for operating systems, those are a totally different matter and as a user, you never really use it or interact with it. You interact with programs running on top of it. The operating system itself is responsible for managing hardware resources and for making them available to applications running on top of the system.
In fact this also nicely explains the difference between a native app and those web apps the confusion is all about. Whereas native applications are architecture specific and run directly on top of the operating system or even as part thereof, web applications and others don't. They require another layer or "application" on top of the operating system to interpret and run them.
By the way, the above is also a perfect example for why most Android applications minus most games, are not really native applications, despite JIT.