<input type=”file” >

Finally, it’s here. You can now upload photos and videos from the Photo Library using a regular input element. This was previously only possible via the use of Phonegap etc.

This is a real game changer for mobile apps.¹

Apple unveiled a lot of interesting things at the start of their WWDC this Monday. There’s been a lot of talk about new hardware, hardware that weren’t updated and new things in Mountain Lion and iOS but the fact that it seems like Safari in iOS 6 will support the <input type=”file” /> element has largely been overlooked.

I myself have a couple of ideas of apps that I’d like to build, but I don’t have the knowledge necessary to build them in Objective C and I currently don’t have the time to acquire that knowledge. I do, however, have the knowledge necessary to do those things using HTML, CSS and JavaScript with a PHP backend. The problem with this is that web apps in iOS can’t do some of the things that native apps can. For example, up until now it’s been impossible to upload pictures taken with your iPhone to your blog/web page/facebook/twitter etc. without using a natively built client.

To me, ”this changes everything”. Enabling the same (limited) access to the filesystem from web apps as from native apps is a huge boost for those of us that has an interest in web technologies. I can’t wait to try it out for real.²