Engadget reports that Geeksphone will start selling the Keon and Peak Firefox OS dev units next week. The Keon will retail for €91, while the Peak will retail for €149. It seems cheap, and that’s because developers will be getting cheap phones. The hardware isn’t going to win any awards and it isn’t meant to. Firefox OS hardware is targeting developing markets, and the cheap price reflects that.

If you do want at least a little power, you’ll want to go with the Peak. It’s a mid-range smartphone with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 and a 4.3-inch display. The Keon only has a Snapdragon S1 so developers will have to get a little creative when designing apps around the lower end of the hardware spectrum.

Thankfully, Geeksphone will be selling the phones worldwide instead of just in the countries where Firefox OS will be launching. Developers in the U.S. will be able to build apps to take advantage of the increasingly lucrative smartphone market in developing countries.

If you can’t afford or don’t want one of Geeksphone’s smartphones, you can always use the Firefox OS simulator. The simulator piggybacks off of your Firefox desktop installation to emulate the Firefox OS experience on the desktop. From there, you can test and debug any HTML5 apps you may have in the works.

In a post on its tech blog, Netflix says that its starting the move to HTML5 because Microsoft is putting Silverlight out to pasture in 2021. That’s not the only problem though. Some browsers, especially on mobile devices, don’t support plugins. This makes it hard for Netflix to deliver streaming video content to every browser on every platform. The move to HTML5 should readily fix that.

Of course, moving to HTML5 does present its own unique obstacles. For one, HTML5 is an open platform, and Neflix, as per its agreements with studios, must implement DRM on its streaming content to prevent people from pilfering the content from its site. Silverlight makes streaming DRM easy, but it’s a bit more complicated with HTML5.

Still, Netflix is moving forward with what it calls “HTML5 Premium Video Extensions.” In short, it’s DRM for HTML5 that comes in three extensions – Media Source Extensions, Encrypted Media Extensions and Web Cryptography API. The first two are already in effect, but the third is still being developed. In the meantime, Netflix is using its own Pepper Plugin API to take the place of the Web Cryptography API until it’s implemented in Chrome.

So, when will we start seeing HTML5 in broad use on Netflix? The company says that it will start testing HTML5 in Chrome once the Web Cryptography API is complete. Unfortunately, the test will only be available for Windows and Mac OSX computers. Those on Linux are left out, and those users are already voicing their displeasure in the blog comments.

So, what’s wrong with our current Web payment services? Sure, services like PayPal can sometimes be a pain, but it’s not like the entire system needs to be uprooted, right? Mozilla objects to that line of thinking and offers three reasons why the current Web payment system is broken:

To help solve these problems, Mozilla has introduced navigator.mozPay() in Firefox OS. Mozilla says the JavaScript API was inspired by Google’s Wallet API, but contains a few modifications that support multiple payment providers and carrier billing.

Here’s how navigator.mozPay() works in its current incarnation on Firefox OS:

When a web app invokes navigator.mozPay() in Firefox OS, the device shows a secure window with a concise UI. After authenticating, the user can easily charge the payment to her mobile carrier bill or credit card. When completed, the app delivers the product. Repeat purchases are quick and easy.

If that sounds interesting to you, you can start testing it out right now on test builds of Firefox OS. The API can’t accept payments just yet, but Mozilla encourages developers to start working on implementing the API into their Firefox OS apps now.

Interested developers can check out the Web payment API documentation here. If you want the code libraries, Mozilla currently has them available in Node.JS and Python. Other libraries for more languages are on the way.

Fremycompany reports that Internet Explorer 11, as seen in the recent leak of Windows Blue, contains hints in its code that Microsoft will finally be adding native support for WebGL. The only problem is that it’s not entirely functional yet:

I didn’t get webgl working, even by trying using iesl, hlsl and other combinations. So, it seems like WebGL interfaces are defined but not functional at this time.

As CNET points out, Microsoft did have a good reason to keep WebGL out of Internet Explorer until now. The company called it out as a security risk, and was concerned that malicious actors could hijack browsers using the technology. Still, this latest hint of incoming support may mean that Microsoft has patched up all the security holes it was concerned about.

There’s not much more to go on at this time beyond the initial hints, but it would be incredibly advantageous for the Web if Internet Explorer finally added native WebGL support. It’s quickly becoming one of the more important open Web standards as more people use it to make games and other graphic intensive content on the Web without plugins.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft to see if the Internet Explorer team is working on native WebGL support. We’ll update this story if they get back to us.

Mozilla and Epic Games announced at GDC that Unreal Engine 3 is now available to HTML5 developers. The epic achievement (pun so intended) was made possible through Mozilla’s work in developing “a highly-optimized version of JavaScript” that allows game developers to bring graphically intensive content to the Web.

To see it in action for yourself, check out this quick run through of Epic Citadel running on a Web browser:

It’s Mozilla’s hope that developers will use this to bring more visually striking, and maybe even AAA games, to the Web. Of course, HTML5 is still in its infancy and developer adoption is low. Still, it’s incredibly encouraging to see HTML5 progressing this fast especially when Flash only just got Unreal Engine 3 support at last year’s GDC.

Mozilla announced today that it will be hosting a number of Firefox OS App Workshops starting in April. The first will take place on April 20 in Madrid, Spain; the second on May 18 in Bogotá, Colombia; and the third on June 1 in Warsaw, Poland. Mozilla says that it plans to have more workshops in more locations later on in the year.

So, what will those attending the workshops receive? Mozilla says it will be offering the usual free swag, like t-shirts, and a free meal to all attendees, but the real treat is that all those in attendance will receive a Firefox OS Developer Preview phone.

All Mozilla asks is that those wanting to attend have “solid ideas and strong Web development skills.” In other words, it’s looking for developers who have built apps using open Web development platforms like PhoneGap, Chrome, webOS, BlackBerry Webworks, etc.

Those attending can also look forward to working one-on-one Mozilla’s own Firefox OS development team to create new apps for Firefox OS or port an existing app to the HTML5-centric mobile OS.

If you wish to attend, you’ll have to apply for a spot at one of the events. Mozilla says they’ll be approving applications on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mozilla announced that Firefox OS Simulator 3.0 is now available to developers. What sets this apart from previous Simulator builds beyond the obvious new features is that it’s a really early build that’s still “rough around the edges.” Still, Mozilla wants you, the developers, to have a go at it to help the team build the best product they can.

Here’s what you can expect to see in version 3.0 of the Firefox OS Simulator:

The most helpful update in version 3.0 is probably the ability to push apps to a device loaded with Firefox OS. Sony has recently released an experimental version of the mobile OS for its Xperia E smartphone. With the latest version of the simulator, developers can now test apps on these devices to make sure they properly work in a true mobile environment.

If you want to try out the latest version of Firefox OS Simulator, you can grab it for Windows, Mac or Linux. Be aware that it acts as an extension of Firefox so you’ll have to keep the browser open to play around with it.

Google announced today that Netflix is now available via HTML5 streaming on Samsung’s latest Chromebook. It’s a pretty big deal as this is the first time Netflix has moved off of Sliverlight. It’s also one of the first major video providers to use HTML5. YouTube has been beta testing HTML5 support for a year now, but Netflix may really push it to its limits.

Netflix users who also happen to own a Chromebook will be pleased to know that there are no hoops to jump through to start watching video content. In fact, it’s just as simple as watching Netflix on any Windows PC or Mac. All you have to do is head over to the Netflix Web site and start watching whatever content currently pleases your eye muscles.

Looking at the bigger picture, it doesn’t appear that Netflix will be free of Silverlight on other operating systems anytime soon. What this really means is that we start seeing Netflix appear on more operating systems that don’t support Silverlight – namely Linux. Native support for Netflix via HTML5 would be a huge win for the open source community. Let’s just hope Netflix can find a way to make it happen.

[h/t: Engadget]

The folks at Google have a new talk up today on how to best utilize HTML5 and Google App Engine Endpoints to create modern Web apps that can work in offline mode while supporting all the latest HTML5 technologies. Watch the video tutorial below, and follow along with the slides here.

The game takes advantage of HTML5 features like WebSockets, Canvas and CSS3.

To play, just go to the Super Sync Sports page on your computer, choose a game and select the number of players. From there, visit g.co/super in Chrome on your smartphone or tablet, and type in the code that is displayed on the computer. This syncs the devices, and puts you in gameplay mode.

“Use the arrow pad on your smartphone or tablet to select one of 50 athletes and prepare yourself for the competition,” says Steve Vranakis, Executive Creative Director, Google Creative Lab. “The motions you make on your mobile touchscreen will move your athlete on your computer screen. To move your athlete forward and win the race, you need to make the correct gestures as quickly as possible. The better you are, the higher your chances of making it to the global leaderboard.”

The game is available for Chrome v15 and up, and for Android 4.0+ and iOS 4.3+ devices.