This week’s Tech Talk was on Sencha Touch, a cross-platform framework aimed at next generation, touch enabled devices.

Brandon went over a small sample Sencha Touch and Ruby on Rails app that we’re using as a “spike” on the Beltline for Bikes Project for the Matchstic “On the House” community service project.

It’s currently compatible with Apple iOS 3+, Android 2.1+, and BlackBerry 6+ devices. Sencha Touch is the world’s first app framework built specifically to leverage HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript for the highest level of power, flexibility, and optimization. We make specific use of HTML5 to deliver components like audio and video, as well as a localStorage proxy for saving data offline.

Basically, it plugs right into a Ruby on Rails application, and even has a similar MVC style structure. Sencha can help build out mobile applications that can be submitted into the app store (or just bookmarked on the device). Because they use HTML5 and are backed by a web application, there’s a great use-case for data-driven sites that don’t require native graphics or access to hardware.

Another neat tool for our tool belt.