Jens Oliver Meiert

“handheld” Media Type, RIP?

Published on Jun 30, 2009 (updated Jan 31, 2025), filed under , (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)

This and many other posts are also available as a pretty, well-behaved ebook: On Web Development.

Website authors don’t use handheld as it’s barely supported; mobile browser vendors don’t support handheld because it’s barely used.

This is kind of the situation I think we’re facing—please prove me otherwise—, and it’s a problem. CSS’s handheld media type would be valuable to tailor content and services to mobile devices. The catch-22 we’re dealing with instead means two things:

The CSS Working Group may disagree with my thinking but I like the idea that vendors meet consumer needs to make the second point a reality: providing us with smart software and reasonable prices to avoid a mess caused by… yes, who.

About Me

Jens Oliver Meiert, on November 9, 2024.

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)