Mutual Engagement in Mobile Music

Greetings from the ANU in Canberra where Ben Swift from the Information and Human Centred Computing Research Group is talking on "Engagement Relationships in Mobile Music". He is describing the "flow" which musicians experience when performing in a group and are "in the grove". He is researching this experience with multiple iPhones linked by WiFi to a "Viscotheque" server.

The Viscotheqe app for the iPhone allows for manipulating audio sampling. The samples from each iPhone of each performer are mixed by the server for a performance. Three groups of three performers tried the system and data was collected. Video cued recall was used t collect participant responses (video of the participants was played back while they commented to an interviewer). Ben discussed the results in terms of Bryan-Kinns work on enguagement networks. Ben is also involved in the organising of the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2010 at ANU, 24-26 June 2010 in Canberra.

This is an entertaining and scholarly use of ICT. It would make a good project for commercial development through the Innovation ACT program.

The app seems to use only the iPhone's touch screen interface. A useful extension would be to use the motion sensors, for an "Air Guitar" interface. Also it would be interesting to try with musicians blindfolded, or who are blind. Also it might be useful to aurally code each iPhone, so the musicians know who is playing what.

Engagement Relationships in Mobile Music

Ben Swift (SoCS CECS)

CS HDR MONITORING Info & Human Centred Computing Research Group

DATE: 2010-04-15
TIME: 11:00:00 - 11:30:00
LOCATION: Ian Ross Seminar Room
CONTACT: Michelle.Moravec@anu.edu.au

ABSTRACT:
Multi-user interactive music systems offer the possibility of accessible and engaging group experiences. Based on a recent user study of Viscotheque, an iPhone- based system for group musical creativity, this talk will present an analysis of engagement relationships in a group creative task and suggest directions for future research in this area. ...

Apple iAd for Apps

Apple have announced iAd animated advertising as part of version 4 of the operating system for iPhone and iPad touch mobile devices (presumably these will also work on iPads). Developers of Apps (applications) will receive 60 percent of the advertising revenue, making free to the customer applications possible. Perhaps more interesting is that the advertisements will make use of HTML 5 features for animation.

Flash has typically used for animation in advertisements. HTML 5 couldn't be used for general web ads as the advertiser could not be user that HTML 5 was installed on the viewer's computer, but they can be sure of this with the iPhone. It will be interesting to see if Google do something similar for the Android. While Google has had mobile ads for some time, they have not been very successful. Apple may be able to come up with a format for mobile ads which is popular with the advertisers and tolerated by the viewers.

Viewing a mobile web site

Some web sites automatically adjust for mobile devices. It is possible to see what these look like by using an add-on to a desktop web browser. Apart from previewing mobile pages, this can be useful for slow dial-up and wireless links and for netbooks as the mobile versions of web sites tend to be more compact.

In some cases you enter a different web address for the mobile version of a web site (as an example for the Australian Open). In most cases the same web address is used and a mobile device is detected automatically and different layout and content provided. To get the mobile version your web browser has to pretend to be a mobile device by sending a different user agent string This is described in detail in "How To Emulate A Mobile Web Browser In Firefox?"). The user agent switcher add-on for Firefox comes with an iPhone profile and I was easily able to add one for a Google Android phone.

It should be noted that the mobile pages will not necessarily display exactly the same as they will on a mobile. The version of HTML the browser uses may be different, the screen size is different and some plug-ins the phones have may be missing.

Some web sites provide the same content to the browser but offer a separate set of CSS style sheets intended for mobile phones. These use the CSS media type "handheld". Most desktop web browsers (and Apple iPhone) ignore the style sheets labelled as "handheld". The firefox "Web Developer" addon has option for manually activating it (you can also activate the "print" stylesheet if there is one). Opera has an option for this already built in. As an example, my home page has a handheld stylesheet which puts all the text in one column. Some web site have reduced image sizes and fewer images when using the handheld styles.

You need to be able to switch back to a web profile, as some mobile version of web sites leave out some functions. Some sites allow for this within the web site. As an example the mobile version of the Wikipedia leaves out the edit functions: you can view content but not change it (see the mobile Wikipedia entry for the Bauhaus for example). A footer offers the regular desktop version and also an option to permanently disable the mobile version.

There are specialist programs for emulating different models of mobile phone. But if you just want to see if there is a mobile version of a web site and what is in it, the switcher works okay.

iPhone Car Radio

Some time ago I suggested a car radio with a socket to hold an iPhone/i-Pod touch. Dual Electronics have now produced such a device with their Dual XML8100. This looks like an ordinary car radio, until the front panel is hinged down revealing an iPhone/touch docking station. This is not quite as simple or low cost as the design I suggested, but looks workable and reasonably priced at around US$100.

The unit is designed to work with older model iPods, not just the iPod Touch and iPhone. The full manual for the unit is available online.

It should be noted that to use the phone functions of an iPhone, the optional Dual BTM60 Bluetooth Interface Module is required. This is designed to clip to the sun visor and includes a noise cancelling microphone. It should be noted that the iPhone doesn't have an external antenna socket and so may not get good phone reception if mounted low on the car dashboard.

While it works with a large range of iPods, this has limited the options for the designer. The older iPods are designed to only be operated when upright, that is in "portrait" mode. The iPhone and iPod touch can also be operated lying down, in "landscape" mode. This is the way I suggested having them in the car, so they fit better with the standard radio slot on the dashboard. With the Dual XML8110 the iPod projects up above the radio slot, where it may interfere with other car controls.

Also the Dual XML8110 has increased complexity and cost due to having two sets of controls and displays: one for when an iPod is not used and another inside when the panel is swung down and the iPod inserted. It would have been simpler and cheaper to have the one set of displays and controls.

Hugh Fisher will give a free talk about Programming the iPhone, 4pm, 25 June 2009 at the ANU in Canberra:

DCS SEMINAR SERIES

Programming the iPhone

Hugh Fisher (Computer Science, ANU)

DATE: 2009-06-25
TIME: 16:00:00 - 17:00:00
LOCATION: CSIT Seminar Room, N101

ABSTRACT:
This seminar will give an introduction to the Apple iPhone (and iPod Touch) as a programming platform. Topics covered will include the hardware and OS capabilities, programming environment, the new styles of user interaction, and the restrictions on development and distribution. Don't expect any impressive demos or in-depth benchmarking: the target audience is people who've never programmed an iPhone but are curious about what is involved.

BIO:
Hugh Fisher is a long time owner and programmer of Apple computers, and also interested in human-computer interaction. (He is also a long time member of the Compter Science Dept.)

In car dash HTC Magic Google Android phone mount?

There appear to be few accessories
for HTC Magic Google Android phone, so far. This is to suggest a simple, low cost car dashboard mount. There are various holders for smart phones on car dashboard, but no one so far seems to have thought to build the mount into the dashboard. Like the Apple iPhone, the HTC Magic can be used in the landscape position. In this position, the screen is about the size and shape of a small entertainment/navigation screen in an upmarket car. Provide a low cost radio and amplifier with a socket for the phone to fit in the standard radio dashboard space and you could have a touch screen communications and entertainment system for under $US100 (not including the cost of the phone).

An example of this approach is the Eclipse AVN2210P: a dashboard media hub, with a removable TomTom navigation unit. This system got mixed reviews, some good and some bad. This is a large unit, so it will not fit some cars and it is designed to provide a CD and MP3 player, even without the TomTom installed and so is large and expensive. But a similar device, smaller and cheaper, could be made for a phone.

The HTC Magic is 113 x 55 x 13.65 mm ( slightly shorter and narrower, but deeper than the iPhone at 115×61×11.6 mm). This is 5mm taller than the standard slot in a car dashboard for a radio: 180 x 50 mm (the so called "DIN car radio size" DIN 75490 ISO 7736). The phone could be accommodated in a double DIN (180 x 100 mm panel) slot (as used by the Eclipse) or simply by having the phone protrude 5 mm outside the slot (the average car radio has a surround a few mm bigger). The unit could be made for a single DIN slot and be provided with spacers to fill a double DIN slot. The phone is 67 mm shorter than the DIN slot, leaving enough space for a volume control , digital display and some radio controls.

When the phone was not in place, the car would still have a working radio. With the phone plugged in there would be phone, MP3 and other functions provided via the touch screen. The car unit could be made at very low cost with simple analogue electronics, with all the sophisticated functions provided by the phone.

As the dashboard unit would only contain a minimum of electronics, it could be made about 5 mm deep and so could also be mounted on a flat surface or on a dashboard top mount, when a dashboard slot is not available. The unit could be made as a removable head, like some car radios. The same unit could then also be used as a desktop dock for the phone in the home or office, with some low cost speakers and a power supply attached.

See also:

• HTC Magic and accessories
• Books about Google Android

iPhone computer music concert, Canberra, 8 April 2009

The Australian National University will be hosting an experimental interactive computer music concert, using iPhones, 8pm, 8 April 2009. This is in the famous Room N101, CIST Building, ANU, North Road, Canberra:

As part of their projects in the area of Live Coding for Computer
Music, two of our PhD students will be presenting a concert tomorrow
evening (Wednesday 8th April) in N101 of the CS&IT building. This will be
the first in a series of concerts, tentatively badged as the "iMates"
series. Part of the concert will be a technical trial of audience
participation in music generation and, if you have an iPhone or iPod you
will be able to download software on the night and participate in this
event.

All are welcome. Enquiries to Ben.Swift(a)anu.edu.au

Just to clarify a few points:

- the concert starts at 8pm
- the series is tentatively called "inMates"
- you need to have an iPhone or an iPod Touch. Make sure they are fully
charged
- even if you don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch, the concert should be
interesting and enjoyable

Dr Henry Gardner
Reader and Head,
School of Computer Science
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Australian National UniversityCanberra ACT 0200 Australia
ANU CRICOS # 00120C

iPhone Netbook

According to Register Hardware, "OLO promises Foleo-style iPhone-Air laptop combo" (Tony Smith, 13th October 2008 10:50 GMT), company OLO is promising a netbook small notebook computer into which an iPhone fits. They are skeptical as to if this is a real product. It has some appeal. What might make more sense is a desktop iPhone PC.

Some months ago I went into the new Apple Store in Sydney and asked if I could plug a keyboard and screen into an iPhone, to make it a desktop computer. The staff looked at me sceptically and said they thought not. After some hunting around they found there was an adaptor for plugging an iPhone into a large screen. The iPhone also has a USB port and this should just need extra software to support a keyboard and mouse. What this would make possible is for that you could plug your iPhone into a charging cradle and then use it as a desktop computer with a large screen and keyboard. However, this would be hampered by the iPhone's limited memory and processing capacity. What might make more sense would be a low power low cost nettop computer which the iPhone would be plugged into.

A netbook could be similarly designed to slot in an iPhone, but it is not clear what advantage this would have. The netbook will have little extra battery power to recharge the iPhone and the iPhone touch screen will be little better than a netbook's pad. You might as well save all the trouble of a new mechanical design and link them with wireless.

Parrot RK8200 iPod car radio

With "In dash iPhone for Car?" I suggested having a dashboard car radio with a slot for an iPhone. Parrot have done something like this with their RK8200 car stereo / Bluetooth hands-free kit. This looks like a dashboard media unit with a small colour screen and removable head. But underneath where you would expect to find a blank panel, there is a slot to put an iPod, MP3 player or mobile phone.

The iPod or phone is plugged into the Parrot with a short cable, the iPod is then slipped into the cavity in the dashboard unit and the control unit placed over the top. The iPod or phone is then operated via the Parrot's front panel controls. The unit includes a Bluetooth handsfree unit for calls and music can be played via the car's speakers.

This is a lot more complex and expensive that I was proposing. The Parrot RK8200 is £278.10 on Amazon UK. What I had in mind was a simple car radio which could use the display and controls of the iPhone for complex functions. Instead of this the Parrot provides its own controls, display and MP3 functions. This makes it a better integrated device, but increases the cost by about ten times.

Another problem with the Parrot is that a mobile phone may not work well when inside a slot in a car dashboard. It is not clear if the Parrot has provision for an external antenna and units such as the iPhone have no provision for one. A phone may not be able to connect to a base station inside a box in the dashboard.

IFIP Digital Library on an iPhone

A few weeks ago I sent out a request for people to test the IFIP Digital Library I am helping set up. One reply complained about the sideways scrolling needed. I didn't understand what this was about until I happened to be in the foyer of Apple's offices in Sydney. There was an iPod touch on demonstration and so I typed in the IFIP DL address. The web page came up but with a very narrow column of text, too small to read. I used the iPod's pinch interface to zoom out and it was readable. I was also able to select a paper and read the full PDF text on the little screen. I don't know how many will want to read technical ICT research papers on a pocket size device, but it was impressive it worked.

But why did the text start out so small? I noticed the banner image in a thin strip across the top of the page. IFIP wanted the Digital Library to have the same corporate look as the rest of their web site. So I had to work out how to change the standard interface of the Open Journal Systems (OJS) free open source publishing software to have IFIP's colours and layout. Changing the colours was not too hard, but getting the layout was harder. I used an extra CSS style sheet, which OJS has provision for, to override the defaults. This was made a little more complicated as I wanted a design which would be efficient in the use of bandwidth, would be accessible for the disabled and work on hand held devices.

One compromise I made was to use the same banner as on IFIP's home page. But what I hadn't noticed was that this image was thousands of pixels wide. The image was trimmed to fit the full screen width, using CSS on their site. But in my implementation the banner made the page wider. This did not normally matter as the extra was off the side of the screen. But the Apple Safari web browser shrank the page to fit the whole width of the banner, reducing the column of text under it in proportion and making it tiny. The iPhone presumably does this as scrolling sideways on the tiny screen is a problem.

The most efficient way to fix this problem is to trim the image to the width of a typical screen (it is a waste to send an image and then have the browser throw away half of it). I did this and it worked fine on my own display. I then got more adventurous and decided to remove the text "International Federation for Information Processing " from the banner. Good design says that you should not have text in an image as this is harder to read and makes the image larger. So I carefully blurred out the text, told OJS to insert it as text and then changed the CSS to put the banner image under the text.

Aligning the text with the IFIP banner so it looked like the original took a lot of trial and error. The result is not perfect: the original text has a grey shadow around it which can't be reproduced easily with CSS (current browsers do not support CSS's text shadow function). I then spent hours trying to duplicate the shadow in a portable way, before realising this was a waste of time. But then I thought it did not look too bad and looks much better for people who can't see the image.

However, when I looked at the result on a higher resolution screen (at the National Library of Australia) I found the shortened image did not fill the whole screen and was being repeated. I will need to make the image longer, stretch it to fit or just fill the space with plain color.

Also I find that I had changed the "Contents" screen earlier to insert the banner. To do this I had to change the OJS source code. The result was that the system was inserting two copies of the banner one over the other. I will need to manually adjust the code.

Garmin nüvifone

Garmin have announced the "nüvifone", which is a sort of iPhone for sailors, with a 3.5-inch touchscreen GPS navigation and 3G mobile phone in a handheld gadget. It has a camera which will tag images with the latitude and longitude of where the photo was taken (but not what direction the camera was pointing). This can then be interfaced to Google’s Panoramio photo search. There are not a lot of specifications released about the unit, but I expect it will be much thicker than the iPod Touch (which is so slim I found it hard to hold). Also I expect we will see a lot more gadgets of this sort of device.

iPhone as a desktop PC replacement?

The Apple iPhone and iPod Touch both have DVI output and USB from the connector socket. In theory at least it should be possible to have a connector costing less than $100 to plug the Apple iPhone into a standard USB keyboard, mouse and VGA screen. This would allow the iPhone to be used as a web terminal. From the blogs I have read, the iPhone software doesn;t currently support standard keyboards and mice, .

Automatically Adjusting Web Pages for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch

About a year ago I wrote about how to adapt web pages for devices, such as the iPhone for emergency management. One problem pointed out was that the iPhone does not think it is a handheld device and so does not activate a stylesheet intended for such a device (using media="handheld"). Daniel K. Appelquist quoted Apple's suggested code for using a special stylesheet for and iPhone:

link media="only screen and (max-device-width: 480px)" href="small-device.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"

As he points out, this will not just detect iPhones, but any device with a screen width of 480 pixels or smaller. Few mobile devices have web browsers which support the media query syntax. Presumably this will work with an iPod Touch.

I have now included this in my code for "Adapting web pages for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch". If someone would like to try that on an iPghone or iPod Touch, I can then advise the Sahana developers if they should include it in their system.

In dash iPhone for Car?

There are various holders for iPhones and iPod touches in cars, but no one so far seems to have thought to build it into the dashboard. Unlike the average smart phone or PDA, the iPhone and touch can be used in the landscape position. In this position, the screen is about the size and shape of a small entertainment/navigation screen in an upmarket car. Provide a low cost radio and amplifier with a socket for the iPhone to fit in the standard radio dashboard space and you could have a touch screen communications and entertainment system for under $US100 (not including the cost of the iPhone).

An example of this approach is the Eclipse AVN2210P: a dashboard media hub, with a removable TomTom navigation unit. This system got mixed reviews, some good and some bad. This is a large unit, so it will not fit some cars and it is designed to provide a CD and MP3 player, even without the TomTom installed and so is large and expensive. But a similar device, smaller and cheaper, could be made for an iPhone.

An iPhone is 115×61×11.6 mm and the iPod touch is 110×61.8×8 mm. This is a bit taller than the standard slot in a car dashboard for a radio: 180 x 50 mm (the so called "DIN car radio size" DIN 75490 ISO 7736). The iPhone could be accommodated in a double DIN (180 x 100 mm panel) slot (as used by the Eclipse) or simply by having the iPod/iPhone protrude a few mm outside the slot (the average car radio has a surround a few mm bigger). The iPhone is 65 mm shorter than the DIN slot, leaving enough space for a volume control , digital display and some radio controls.

When the iPhone was not in place, the car would still have a working radio. With the iPhone plugged in there would be phone, MP3 and other functions provided via the touch screen. The car unit could be made at very low cost with simple analog electronics, with all the sophisticated functions provided by the iPhone.

As the dashboard unit would only contain a minimum of electronics, it could be made about 10 mm deep and so could also be mounted on a flat surface or on a dashboard top mount, when a dashboard slot is not available. The unit could be made as a removable head, like some car radios. The same unit could then also be used as a desktop dock for the iPhone in the home or office, with some low cost speakers and a power supply attached.

The iPhone does not have a GPS receiver built in. However, the connector on the iPhone includes a USB interface and so the docking unit could pass these signals through to a USB connector for use with an inexpensive external USB GPS receiver. Alternatively a Bluetooth GPS receiver could be used (the iPod touch lacks Bluetooth, but has USB).

See also:

• Eclipse AVN2210p CD receiver with detachable TomTom portable navigator
• Books about the iPhone
• iPhone and iPod Touch Accessories
• iPhone Car Mounts
  
• iPod Touch Car Mounts

Open Source Alternative to the iPhone

Recommended:

Australian Computer Society

Green IT Special Interest Group

In Conjunction with the ACS SQA SIG

August Canberra Meeting

Topic: Open Source Alternative to the iPhone

Speaker: Dr. Shayne Flint, Department of Computer Science, The Australian National University

Venue: Australian National University, Room N101, Computer Science Building, North Road, Canberra
Date: Wednesday 15 August 2007
Time: 5:30pm drinks/nibbles for presentation 6pm-7pm
Event Prices: Free.
Registration: Not required
Announcement: http://education.acs.org.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=3636

Summary

Dr. Flint will demonstrate the software development kit for the OpenMoko "Open Source" mobile phone. While the Apple iPhone has been getting media attention, another touch phone has been quietly under development by the Linux community and will be first to market in Australia. OpenMoko is set to revolutionize mobile communications by providing the power of Linux in a hand held touch screen device. Shayne will discuss some of the software engineering projects being formulated for use with the phones location sensitive and wireless communications features.

Shayne will use the OpenMoko device to demonstrate the ANU's new "ANU Mobile" web service, which has just been released.

Tom Worthington, Chair of the ACS Green IT Group, backs the move to mobiles, arguing that low power handheld devices with open access applications can be used to make a positive contribution to environmental sustainability. Power hungry desktop computers can in many cases be replaced with mobile devices. Some trips can be replaced with ad-hoc wireless meetings, using Web 2.0 "social networking" making further fossil fuel savings.

About the Speaker

Dr Shayne Flint is a Senior Lecturerat the Department of Computer Science, Australian National University, where he teaches Software Engineering. Dr. Flint is the originator of Aspect-Oriented Thinking, an approach that systematically develops, manages and integrates the knowledge and expertise of many disciplines to develop complex software systems.

About ACS Green IT

The ICT Environmental Sustainability Group ("Green IT") brings together professionals interested in balancing economic and environmental aspects of information technology and telecommunications. It is a special interest group of the Australian Computer Society. The group aims to hold joint meetings with other professional bodies interested in technology, the environment and sustainability. Sign up now to get updates on ICT and the environment.

iPhone for emergency management

The iPhoneWebDev is providing a discussion forum for developing applications for the iPhone. A simple way to provide an applciation is by adapting a web interface. So I asked the forum if the Sahana disaster management system works on it. So far I have had two replies. The first reply indicated that it worked reasonably well. The second indicated some problems:

* Sidebar too narrow: This could be fixed if the iPhone accepts the CSS media type of "handheld". We can then automatically replace the sidebar with a menu the full width of the screen, when an iPhone, or other smart phone is used. I have asked the community to test this using my old Sahana prototype on the iPhone. On a desktop PC the menu should appear as a bullet list on the right of the screen. On a handheld device it should appear as a numbered list at the top, taking up the full width of the screen.

* Incident / language too small: The text for the form on the top right of the page for setting the language and selecting the incident needs to be made larger.

* Wrong tab: Using "next" (equivalent to the TAB key on a PC) caused the pointer to jump from "Incident" at the top of the screen down to "login", skipping the menu. As per the web accessibility guidelines the logical tab order should be used. This can be changed using the tabindex attribute. But generally the natural order of left to right, top to bottom (for English readers) should be used.

Web development for the iPhone

The iPhoneWebDev is providing a discussion forum for developing applications for the iPhone. They refer to portable Web 2.0 applications. I have asked the forum if someone with a phone can try the Sahana disaster management system. The iPhone has a bigger screen than many other smartphones so may be useful for use by emergency workers (assuming it is robust enough).

Also Tom Yager has suggested using email to get around the lack of an accessible file storage on the iPhone. You email the data to the phone as an attachment and then the appropriate application can access it. Of course if you used something like the Open Moko Neo1973 Smartphone you would have the Linux file system available.

There was also an iPhone Developer Camp recently in the USA. But I would not want to become locked into developing applications just for the iPhone. I have provided some general tips on how to adapt web applications for smartphones, including the iPhone. The idea here is to avoid having to build web applications just for the phones and instead make pages for desktop screens compatible.

In several years of teaching web design I have seen many proposals for hand held web businesses come and go. So far few outside Japan and some other Asian countries, have
managed to make money from mobile data.

iPhone Smartphone problem for Olympics

On the second day of the China East Asia New Media Conference in Brisbane one of the speakers on a panel before me mentioned the Apple iPhone as an innovative product. Departing from my prepared talk, I pointed out that the Open Moko Neo1973 Smartphone may be more significant. The Neo may be seen as a poor man's iPhone, when in some ways it is more capable.

However, given iPhones are getting attention and may well be the first hand held web device most people see, I thought it was worth preparing a short item on how web pages can be adapted to the iPhone.

If such phones become common by 2008, the organizers of the 2008 Olympics could have a problem. The TV rights have been sold by the IOC. But if thousands of people use video phones to transmit coverage of the events, it would be possible to mashup a reasonable Olympic coverage from them. This would likely be illegal and something the TV companies which have paid billions of dollars for would not be happy about, but which BOCOG could do little about.

Even if this is not feasible for 2008, it is certain for the London 2010 Olympics. This is something the researchers from Westminster University, and other institutions researching for the 2012 Olympic Games in London should look into.

As an example of the type of technology which might be used,Microsoft's Photosynth Technology Preview shows how thousands of photos can be automatically combined to create a high resolution three dimensional image:

Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space.

With Photosynth you can:

* Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
* Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photo whether it's megapixels or gigapixels in size.
* See where pictures were taken in relation to one another.
* Find similar photos to the one you're currently viewing.
* Send a collection - or a particular view of one - to a friend.

From: Introducing Photosynth, Microsoft Live Labs, 2006

HTML 5 V XHTML 2 web schism

The HTML 5 Editor's Draft, 28 June 2007, was prepared by Ian Hickson at Google and David Hyatt at Apple:

"This specification defines the 5th major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web, HTML. In this version, new features are introduced to help Web application authors, new elements are introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention has been given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability."

HTML 5 appears to be a philosophical split from XHTML 2. Whereas XHTML 2 is for representing documents on screens and print, HTML 5 seems to be for interactive computer interfaces. For example:

"XHTML2 [XHTML2] defines a new HTML vocabulary with better features for hyperlinks, multimedia content, annotating document edits, rich metadata, declarative interactive forms, and describing the semantics of human literary works such as poems and scientific papers.

However, it lacks elements to express the semantics of many of the non-document types of content often seen on the Web. For instance, forum sites, auction sites, search engines, online shops, and the like, do not fit the document metaphor well, and are not covered by XHTML2. "

Much of the philosophy of HTML 5 seems to be embedded in the Apple iPhone. But that device can use ordinary old HTML web pages with CSS to adapt web pages for iPhones and other smartphones.

Also the tone of the document, especially the editor's comments, seem to be much more confrontational, than XHTML's academic style. The HTML 5 editors are essentially saying that they are going to produce a usable standard and so everyone either needs to get on board or get out of their way. An example is:

"Implementors should be aware that this specification is not stable. Implementors who are not taking part in the discussions are likely to find the specification changing out from under them in incompatible ways. Vendors interested in implementing this specification before it eventually reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage should join the aforementioned mailing lists and take part in the discussions."

Much of what the authors are saying makes sense, but the way they are saying it is likely to not go down well in consensus based forums.