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iPhone optimised version of Digital Spy news site
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ALanJ
05-03-2009
Hi,

We are testing an iPhone optimised version of the main site http://iphone.digitalspy.co.uk

It would be useful if people with iPhones could have a play and give us any feedback this is still a work in progress so please be gentle

Thanks and enjoy.

Regards
Alan
Ricardodaforce
05-03-2009
Just had a look using my Ipod Touch. This looks identical to the normal version.
flagpole
05-03-2009
the link in the announcement is broken which maybe why i'm only the second person to post here.

and the iphone link just seems to redirect back to the regular url. unless you are detecting the user agent and redirecting. i'd advise against this.

what are the standards for the iphone friendly version?? i post from my non-iphone all the time and would love a version that was a bit lighter. this is why i say you shouldn't detect the user agent. because it would stop people with other phones using it.

how about just phone.digitalspy.co.uk ??? I don't know if the world is PC enough to consider discriminating against people who don't buy an apple phone to be a problem.

ricardo wap your iPhone out and have a look then. i've heard that you went and bought one.
ALanJ
05-03-2009
Originally Posted by Ricardodaforce:
“Just had a look using my Ipod Touch. This looks identical to the normal version.”

Do you know what the iPod touch browser USER AGENT says?

I'll have a look but it should look different and be on a different URL.

Thanks for the feedback.

alan
sicknote10
05-03-2009
iphone.digitalspy.co.uk looks good on my n95, didn't get redirected to the full version
Ricardodaforce
05-03-2009
Originally Posted by flagpole:
“
ricardo wap your iPhone out and have a look then. i've heard that you went and bought one.”

And sold it prior to my move to Spain.
Kargo
05-03-2009
It looks and work great on my ipod touch

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/2855/ds1p.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/985/ds2zjq.jpg
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/8453/ds3.jpg
flagpole
05-03-2009
ah looks all right on my n95-2, so you are just redirecting the standard PC browsers?

Looks ok, if i had to level a criticism if anything it's a bit too light. needs to a little bit more media rich i think. that big list of headlines is a bit overwhelming.

but it's ok. just the iphone label that jerks my gerkin. why not ditch the old mobile site. nobody uses lo-tech phone browsers anymore anyway.

if you want some n95 screen shots then do ask.
ALanJ
05-03-2009
It should only redirect people using full PC/Mac based browsers.

When I use a version with a test tool it seems to work as an iPod Touch or iPhone as when I use a live iPhone.

Haven't tried with many other phones but the mobile.digitalspy.co.uk site is also available for less capable phones

Alan
Ricardodaforce
05-03-2009
Originally Posted by Kargo:
“It looks and work great on my ipod touch

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/2855/ds1p.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/985/ds2zjq.jpg
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/8453/ds3.jpg”

Hmmmm strange. I've just cleared my cache and reloaded and I still get the original version.


Sorted. I had a www when I shouldn't have.
ALanJ
05-03-2009
Originally Posted by flagpole:
“ah looks all right on my n95-2, so you are just redirecting the standard PC browsers?”

Correct - I hope

Originally Posted by flagpole:
“Looks ok, if i had to level a criticism if anything it's a bit too light. needs to a little bit more media rich i think. that big list of headlines is a bit overwhelming.

but it's ok. just the iphone label that jerks my gerkin. why not ditch the old mobile site. nobody uses lo-tech phone browsers anymore anyway.

if you want some n95 screen shots then do ask.”

That would be useful. We may well rename it once it is working OK and we get a better feel for what else it looks good on.

It was initially designed with the browser window of the iphone in mind.

I'll be interested to hear peoples views on the number of article headlines on a page our feeling on the iphone it was ok as you can easily flick through it.

Rich media is always complicated - no flash on iPhone - and people are not always on fast connections but we are still working on it and happy to get comments and thoughts on how we can make it better.

So thanks for the comments and feedback.

Alan

PS one of the reasons for not dumping the old site immediately is that for some users it still looks better - and some modern phones don't like the iphone font selection so look odd (we think from the emulators we have played with).

So as many different browser images as possible that would be great.
flagpole
05-03-2009
couldn't be bothered to post individual links so here's them all

http://nigelcoldwell.co.uk/test/n95iphoneds.zip

when i say richer i mean just a bit more colour really. see in number 11 (there aren't actually 11 pictures,) it looks a bit like the internet in 1995?

on reflection i think it might be in part because the text appears so damn big on my phone. means you can't see any of the formatting or page layout.

the last picture is of the regular site.
gottago
05-03-2009
It's good but the main page could do with a forums link near the top of the page. The forums are a bit easier to browse even if the only difference is that the DS banner isn't there.
ALanJ
05-03-2009
Originally Posted by Ricardodaforce:
“Hmmmm strange. I've just cleared my cache and reloaded and I still get the original version.


Sorted. I had a www when I shouldn't have.”

Phew - though I might ad a www to the DNS as an option so thanks for the feedback
The Phazer
05-03-2009
Originally Posted by ALanJ:
“
I'll be interested to hear peoples views on the number of article headlines on a page our feeling on the iphone it was ok as you can easily flick through it.”

That seems okay, but I do think it feels a bit like an impentrable wall of text. I'd use some colour and headings to split the list up a little bit.

Phazer
ALanJ
05-03-2009
Originally Posted by flagpole:
“couldn't be bothered to post individual links so here's them all

http://nigelcoldwell.co.uk/test/n95iphoneds.zip

when i say richer i mean just a bit more colour really. see in number 11 (there aren't actually 11 pictures,) it looks a bit like the internet in 1995?

on reflection i think it might be in part because the text appears so damn big on my phone. means you can't see any of the formatting or page layout.

the last picture is of the regular site.”

Thanks for the images. This I suppose is why it is an iphone optimised site for things like the Blackberry Storm and your N95 it appears that they render the fonts completly differently so the requirements are different to get a good balance on size.

If you compare the images of the iPod Touch with yours you can see the difference.

We will overtime endeavour to create a site that is more suited to these super phones.
call100
05-03-2009
When hitting the forum links it reverts to the normal site....Is that going to be optimised for the IPhone?
Or am I not doing something I should be?
Halfnew
05-03-2009
I dont like it - I think its too basic and compared to the full site its hardly great Perhaps it needs a little direction: ie.. do you want it to just be a small little portal for people with phones to grab your headlines and have a quick read?

Or why not just make it more optimised for rotating the screen 180 degrees to Landscape and populate more information on there Afterall advertising revenue is where you gain the money, so I question the usefulness and usability of a small compact iPhone website version.

I'd much prefer a kind of cut down version in Landscape with a list of links to the same sections (well your major news sections) and then just format the dynamic content you have to fit the iPhone screen for each article.

I think it would be far more usable - as right now I dont really see where the cutdown iPhone website fits in the model of DigitalSpy. For the content and format you provide I'd rather navigate to the mainsite and then just use the iPhone's rather good zooming facility to get to the content and read the articles.

I'd guess there are two options:
- More feature rich, iPhone formatted website (which other phones can utilise)
- Develop a DigitalSpy iPhone / iPod application - ideally if it can offer some kind of content advantages - like Top News stories, order by section (like 5 articles from each group you could select) etc. This way you could just embed small advertisements at the bottom of the application and generate some revenue that way.

Afterall the model is simply hit driven - the more people seeing the adverts and content - the better. I just think its a bit misguided to use a cutdown site version for the iPhone - you provide less content and information than one can get on the actual website - and loading of data is irrelevant on Edge / 3G connections.

Just my opinion anyway!
ALanJ
05-03-2009
Originally Posted by call100:
“When hitting the forum links it reverts to the normal site....Is that going to be optimised for the IPhone?
Or am I not doing something I should be?”

There is very little difference on the forums it should just not have the LH menu bar to make reading slightly easier.
ALanJ
05-03-2009
Originally Posted by Halfnew:
“I dont like it - I think its too basic and compared to the full site its hardly great Perhaps it needs a little direction: ie.. do you want it to just be a small little portal for people with phones to grab your headlines and have a quick read?


Just my opinion anyway!”

Thanks for the feedback. This is just the first dip in the water at trying to do this to see what people think and see if it is worth doing more work on it. So thanks for the ideas - very useful. We have certainly thought about creating an application but don't have the manpower at the moment to develop such a project.

But adding more features certainly is on the plan and making it easier to navigate is on the plan hence asking for feedback and comments so thanks everyone for the comments so far and keep them coming.
PR.
05-03-2009
I like it, think the frontpage links need spacing a little more, on the iphone it was difficult to hit the right link as they are so close together.

Can't see the spoilers on the soap page which is what I look at quite a lot.

Finally another vote for a slimmer version of the Forums, as they are a bit of a pain to read atm.

Good start though!
sahmraw
06-03-2009
Just aded to my iPod touch and it is good. Could you not try an app for the forums akin to the Facebook app or something. that would be great!!
kyussmondo
06-03-2009
My iPhone always redirects me to the full Digital Spy version.
ALanJ
06-03-2009
Originally Posted by kyussmondo:
“My iPhone always redirects me to the full Digital Spy version.”

Very odd you are heading for http://iphone.digitalspy.co.uk and your iphone is running the current release of Safari as its browser?

Have you changed any of the settings on Safari?
Ricardodaforce
06-03-2009
Originally Posted by kyussmondo:
“My iPhone always redirects me to the full Digital Spy version.”

Are you doing what I did? There is no "www" in the address.
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