As software engineers, we take comfort in the idea of concrete specifications. As web developers, our hearts are either broken (frequently!), or we recognize the W3C's role is a delicate balance of leading the browser developers in new and exciting directions while, in their own words, "paving over the cow paths" of existing, de facto standards.

HTML 5 offers dramatic new improvements for page organization, offering out-of-the-box support for elements like header, footer, nav, section, and article. HTML 5 adds native support for form features such as placeholder text, autocomplete, autofocus, and validation. Additionally, there are a host of new form elements available (email, url, number, range, date, and search) that gracefully degrade in "classic" web browsers -- IE, I'm looking at you!

In this talk, you won't be subjected to discussions about the features that will appear in some distant future release of a web browser. Instead, you'll see the HTML 5 features that are already being used by Google, Apple, and others. You'll see the features that are supported by today's browsers, ready for you to use right now.