JQuery Mobile 1.0 has been released and is available for download. The framework built on JQuery and JQuery UI supports all major mobile, tablet, e-reader and even desktop platforms. Using tools like PhoneGap, you can even transform JQuery Mobile code into hybrid or native apps that can be distributed through all popular app stores.
Following are some of the features of JQuery Mobile -
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Touch-Optimized layouts and UI widgets, which auto-adapt to different devices
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Themable designs
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Cross Platform and cross-device – supports iOS, Android, Blackberry, Bada, Windows Phone, webOS, symbian and Meego
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Progressive enhancement, that lets applications built on the framework degrade gracefully on lesser capable devices
JQuery Mobile 1.0 works on top of JQuery 1.6.4 – the latest JQuery release (1.7) has some breaking changes, and will be supported in JQuery Mobile 1.1 release.
The release has seen a mixed reaction – Sencha Touch is a popular alternative, and there is a divided opinion about which framework is better. JQuery mobile has wider device support, but Sencha seems to be more performant on the platforms it does support. You can check out both demos on mobile devices and decide for yourselves.