We have all heard the exciting news regarding the official announcement of Apple’s iPhone. If not, check out the stevenote on Apple’s website. I know it sounds cliché, but it is truly a revolutionary product in all sense of the word. This product will change the way we use our mobile devices and retrieve information. No more worrying about having to stop at an internet cafe or stop to get directions while on vacation. No more having to juggle between multiple devices in our pocket. No more having to wait for trivial information like movie times and weather.
After absorbing all of this, I started to think about how microformats fit into the picture. Now that we are able to retrieve a full XHTML webpage with Safari on a mobile device, we are also able to retrieve microformatted data. What does this mean in terms of how we add contacts to our address book, add events to our calendar or find a location on a map? It sounds like the processes can be streamlined. With hCard we can add a new contact (including a photo for quick recognition!) or find out the location of a business with Google Calendar. With hCalendar we can add an event to our calendar (assuming the calendar supports adding new events). All of this can be possible without typing anything or syncing data from our Mac/PC. Of course all of this is theoretical, but imagine how easy organization will be. It will be exciting to see if microformats ever make it to consumer devices for purposes such as this.
It was already demonstrated that the iPhone already has the ability to dial numbers from locations found on Google Maps. It seems that Google uses their own closed standards/algorithms to parse the information from websites and somehow sends the extracted information to the iPhone. What about the rest of the sites out there that have just as good information to offer? If the move to an open standard like microformats is made, similar functionality can be had on any website that implements the appropriate microformat.
Oh also, I bought an Apple TV today as an impulse buy. It ships out on March 2nd!
Subscribe in Reader
You know what? That never crossed my mind. But it would be so freakin’ easy. If they’d let *US* add apps, a Brian Suda or a Tantek could whip this up in minutes.
But the iPhone has an address book, a calendar, google maps. Crisskes this is the PERFECT application for Microformats. hCard and hCalendar are probably the most widely marked up micros, and would also be the most usable on the iPhone. Thanks for bringing this up.
Adam Darowski
February 9th, 2007
After the keynote today, I am excited to see how microformats will interact with apps. Open up a page, click to view the vcard (make call, email, etc), or click to add vcard to your contacts (Address Book).
I think it is exciting to think about.
Nate Klaiber
June 11th, 2007
Looks like the iPhone will have autodetection of phone numbers and addresses. So, I don’t think it will rely on Microformats. I hope it does, though, because this autodetection does not cover things like visiting a page with an hCal event and adding it to your iPhone’s calendar. Plus, hCard can be used to “aid” the auto-detection, which may or may not be perfect.
Adam Darowski
June 13th, 2007
[...] Nick Peters wrote a post a while back about how the iPhone can be a killer format for Microformats (standardized class names inserted into HTML to allow various functions to be performed on the data). It looks like instead the iPhone will have auto-detection of phone numbers (so you can call with one touch) and addresses (so you can map the location via Google Maps). Still, Microformats would add so much more since you would have more complex detection features such as events. With one touch, add it to your calendar, sync it back with your desktop. Perfect. For BatchBook, an application that relies heavily on contact information, the possibilities make me drool. [...]
BatchBlog » iPhone and BatchBook, Sitting in a Tree…
June 14th, 2007
If they’re not relying on microformats they’re probably using some sort of regular expression to detect phone numbers and such. RegEx aren’t as user-friendly to write, so I’m surprised Apple hasn’t encouraged the usage of microformats in their developer articles.
Nick
June 16th, 2007
[...] właśnie wpis na blogu Nick-a Petters-a, na temat możliwości wykorzystania microformats w aplikacjach na iPhone [...]
My iPhone » Blog Archive » iPhone i microformats
June 20th, 2007
I found your site by googling “iPhone should use microformats” because I was thinking about how easy it would be to add contacts to the address
book and events to the calendar because google supports and USES microformats in their search results. What blows my mind is how the iPhone doesn’t have a native microformats detector built in…..
Dan Wilt
November 2nd, 2009