Does anyone know if there is a mobile link to STW? Can find anything on the search button.

Not as far as I know there isn’t.

Download opera mini. That’ll convert the site into a mobile friendly version

That’ll convert the site into a mobile friendly version

its not particularly mobile friendly still.

STW really ought to have a nice thin version for GPRS mobile.

Works as good as any other site for me

Stoner, you need a better phone!

😉

Works fine with opera mini for me. Pet hate is mobile versions that you get redirected to because you’re browsing from a phone, 99% of the time normal sites not tailored to mobiles work just fine for me.

http://www.google.com/gwt/n

http://www.google.com/gwt/x?u=http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/&btnGo=Go&source=wax&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

We’d love to have a mobile site but, honestly, we just don’t have the time to take on that task at the moment. Mobile browser support is much more of a minefield than desktop browsers are. Though CSS3 and media queries should go some way to aiding that situation.

you see all you iphone haters, it’s no different on my iphone than it is on my imac as is every other website i use

The forums work fine on my ipod. hth.

works ok on my N95?

you see all you iphone haters, it’s no different on my iphone than it is on my imac as is every other website i use

The great thing about opera mini is, on the singletrackworld forums at least, it’s often quicker to browse on my mobile than my laptop thanks to the clever compression thingamajig

Been browsing with mobiles since 2005, never felt the need for a mobile version of this site.

As above, you need a better phone if you can’t view this site properly, or at least try opera mobile.

My trusted Nokia E71 works just fine. You really need to stop using your 1985 Motorolla.

you see all you iphone haters, it’s no different on my iphone than it is on my imac as is every other website i use

Works fine on my HTC Desire too, Apple Geek 😉

I was pondering this ‘mobile site’ thing only this week, asking a clever mate who does all that kind of stuff about it. He said that the only real use for mobile sites is for quick information, such as travel, news, that sort of thing.

‘Who, if they want to visit a photography website, would bother with a stupid fiddly tiny screen?’

Tis a good point. Certain types of content work well on mobiles; the BBC’s mobile site is quite good. Travel info sites and that work fine too. But the limitations of a 300×200 pixel screen mean that large-scale content sites will always be compromised on a mobile ‘phone. Computer screens are getting bigger and higher res.

76% of screens are now higher than 1024×768.

So, with increased brawdbaynd speeds, main website content will become ever larger and higher res. Mobile ‘phones will always be restricted to tiny screens. Therefore, not a lot of point in shrinking loads of stuff down just to make it appear ok on a silly little screen.

you need a better phone if you can’t view this site properly

If you want to view stuff goodly, get an iPad or a laptop or something, and just use yer ‘phone for ringing people up on…

im using an iphone with Safari, its very small and clunky. It readable zoomed but too much going on on the page for a phone screen. Just thought there may be some form of “condensed site”. I’m no internet geek mind so i wouldnt have a clue if this is even achieveable. Just wondered.

Is there a better browser for the iphone than Dafari thats a bit quicker to move about the screen?

Elfinsafety – i have a laptop thanks, it gets used when i have Wifi. I would have thought forums were just the sort of site that were perfect for mobile use given their limited content?

Phones are no longer for just ringing people up on you know, they can do all sorts now. 😉

You can get opera mini for the iphone. Friends have said it’s quicker for browsing than safari

I would have thought forums were just the sort of site that were perfect for mobile use given their limited content?

Yeah fair enough, but don’t all the ads and banners cause the problems? ‘Cos the BBC mobile site is mainly text, and that works fine even on a basic ‘phone with internets. I think STW kind of need their ads to be visible. something to do with revenue helping to pay to keep the site running or sumfink…

Phones are no longer for just ringing people up on you know, they can do all sorts now

‘Phones are now marketed as wonderful do-it-all-you-can’t-possibly-live-without-it devices; if you don’t have the latest model, you are in some way losing out. It’s to get you to buy a new, betterer ‘phone, you see…

My techy mate says you can add some CSS function or something (I don’t bloody know do I?) to a site to make it auto-detect a mobile ‘phone, but it adds another layer of complexity to a site. And if you know any webby types, you will know that they want to make it as simple as possible for themselves, whilst making it sound as complex as possible to their clients, in order to charge vast amounts of money… 😉

Opera mini also reformats the page so it’s easily readable without zipping about over the screen

I think gizmodo mobile is a good example of a mobile site – they intersperse the story headlines with clearly signposted text ads. When you click a story it displays with a couple of resized pictures.

Though I keep trying to get lifehacker to display mobile, and it forgets even when I try and force it by going to http://www.m.lifehacker.com. One of those problems referred to above I guess! In my ignorance I assumed it was simply a case of using css to recognise the browser as a mobile one and then parse the page as required …

I’m running android on an HTC wildfire.

But the limitations of a 300×200 pixel screen mean that large-scale content sites will always be compromised on a mobile ‘phone.

300×200?? That’s a pretty old mobile these days.

iPhone 4: 960×640
HTC Desire HD: 800×480
Galaxy S: 800×480

But yeah, you’re right, certain content like photography portfolios are better viewed on a large, hi-res, calibrated screen with a colour profile aware browser.

Yeah but GrahamS; those are tiny screens. iPhone is 3.5″ diagonal. My 19″ monitor is, well, 19″! I have a 24″ and a 28″ too. My point is, that tiny screens like those on ‘phones are a strain to look at anything with any detail in.

But yeah, you’re right, certain content like photography portfolios are better viewed on a large, hi-res, calibrated screen with a colour profile aware browser.

You’re just being silly and obtuse now. You understood my point exactly, you just have to get all SimonFBarnes with me. To wind me up. Well, it won’t work, and I fart in your general direction. So there.

im using an iphone with Safari, its very small and clunky. It readable zoomed but too much going on on the page for a phone screen.

Erm… Zoom in then. Double tapping on the text of a thread sets the width so that the text fills the screen. Seems pretty readable to me.

It’s the main way I browse the forum these days.

TBH, when browsing on my Desire, I normally rotate it through 90 degrees as I think the text “flows” better

Ooh that’s clever!

That image appears on my screen at a larger size than it would on an iPhone, and it’s still a struggle to read properly. And when you increase the font size, you end up having to scroll all the time, which is a bit distracting, I find.

Do one in Landscape format, and see if you can get it to display at life-size on here.

Actually, could you do one with a picture, show what that looks like on a tiny screen?

My point is, that tiny screens like those on ‘phones are a strain to look at anything with any detail in.

But absolutely fine for text based sites with the odd picture like this one.

That image appears on my screen at a larger size than it would on an iPhone, and it’s still a struggle to read properly.

Erm… that was really just by way of an illustration. And it’s a compressed JPG. A pixel for pixel screenshot would be:

You will have to click on it and then zoom in to see it at 100% in your browser.

Actually, could you do one with a picture, show what that looks like on a tiny screen?

Erm.. not really. Not without knowing the dot pitch of the monitor you are viewing it on. And even then it would only give you an idea of the rough scale as the DPI would be completely different.

Do one in Landscape format,

And horizontally…

Again click through and then make 100% in the browser.

For “Life Size” you’ll have to imagine the same amount of detail shrunk down to roughly 7.5cm x 5cm

My point is, that tiny screens like those on ‘phones are a strain to look at anything with any detail in.

But that statement is fairly irrelevant in the context of discussing a mobile site. The images displayed aren’t really showing superfluous detail. OK, so you don’t think it’s easy to browse on a mobile, others disagree, but a mobile site wouldn’t change the situation.

What forum software is used here?

tapatalk is a good bit of software for browsing forums on a mobile if the code is based upon one of these:

phpBB3 3.0.x, vBulletin 3.7.x/3.8.x/4.0.x, Invision Power Board (IPB) 3.0.x and Simple Machine Forum (SMF) 1.1.x/2.0.x

http://www.tapatalk.com/

I considered making a phone app that consumed the RSS feeds and monitored for new posts. Thought I might get into trouble for spamming the site. Could be done with the co-operation of the site devs tho…

Iphone browsing in safari – its anoying clicking the report post link though

i post most of the rubbish i write on here from my HTC during the week, works like any PC view for me

iPhone 4: 960×640
HTC Desire HD: 800×480
Galaxy S: 800×480

Kinda unfair that as they are all in landscape there. And they are often just increasing pixel density.

mobile sites work well but the site does need to be thought of for mobile users and what they want.

Browser detection is pretty easy nowadays and mobile specific sites are not as hard as they were even a year ago as most handset manufacturers are moving towards a webkit browser and people upgrade phones faster than they upgrade computers and/or browsers (yes IE I mean you) so the move towards a harmmonic html 5 css3 and javascript mobile world will be there soon.

Oh and adverts on a site, check out admob. Bought by google a few months ago.

Iphone browsing in safari – its anoying clicking the report post link though

very true!

but not as annoying as clicking the middle button on

RRS feed for this topic

which then opens up a new window and pops up a dialogue box which I’ve seen so many times I can’t remember what it says anymore! (sony viao p series issue not iphone)

The RSS feed is the one that gets me too, although not on my mobile. Go to scroll upwards with the touchpad and end up clicking it because the stupid clickable link extends the full width of the forum not just the text.

Kinda unfair that as they are all in landscape there. And they are often just increasing pixel density.

? Unfair to what?

I was just making the point that mobile browsers have moved on since the “limitations of a 300×200 pixel screen”[/i] that Elfred was wittering on about. The browsers offered by those phones and other such mobile devices are more than capable of handling sites like this.

What forum software is used here?

bbPress. Apparently the Tapatalk developers are not keen to develop the required bbPress plugin, but have no objection to anyone else doing so: link.

Andy