AppleInsider Staff
A trio of Apple developers have officially joined the WebVR Community Group, a W3C-hosted community initiative that strives to deliver virtual reality experiences through basic web browsers.
While not an official company endorsement of the WebVR platform, three Apple employees are now listed on the WebVR Community Group's participants webpage, UploadVR reports.
Specifically, Brandel Zachernuk, David Singer and Dean Jackson join a cadre of web developers representing various internet services and like Google's Chrome, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Mozilla's Firefox. Developers from Intel, Facebook, Samsung and other top technology companies are also part of the working group.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Zachernuk serves as a senior front-end developer on Apple's marketing and communications team. Jackson is a WebGL spec editor, while Singer has worked in Apple's multimedia and software standards office since 1988.
As noted by the group's co-chair Brandon Jones, a Chrome WebVR and WebGL developer at Google, Apple's participation means WebVR now has input from every major web browser vendor. Apple markets the Safari web browser that ships with both macOS and iOS.
WebVR is an open API that seeks to provide VR hardware support through modern web browsers. Developers working on the standard are building in support for devices ranging from Oculus Rift to Google Cardboard to Playstation VR. The goal, according to contributors, is to broaden access to VR experiences.
Jones notes that participation in the affiliated WebVR Community Group does not necessarily imply commitment to the standard. However, given its penchant for secrecy, Apple's public presence at the community group suggests the company is at least investigating potential integrations.
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3 Comments
Not to sound cynical, but when the big players like Apple, Google, and Microsoft join open standards organizations and communities it is often part of a calculated "Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish" strategy. One of the reasons being that these communities often seek to level the playing field - which is great for the small players but not necessarily a desired outcome for the players who are already dominating, or intending to dominate, the domain in question.
I took a look at Brandel Zachernuk, David Singer and Dean Jackson, and found this mention on the W3C website:
"Dean Jackson is no longer working for the W3C.
You can find him at his personal sites: cuboidal.org and grorg.org.
This information is current as of: Thu Jul 6 2017.
Yes Dewme, but arguably, Apple has a track record of thinking differently.