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iPhone optimised version of Digital Spy news site
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dobsy
10-03-2009
Originally Posted by ALanJ:
“Thanks glad you like it.

If you know how some images would be good to see how it renders ”

I've taken a couple of screenshots but don't know how to display them on here. How do I do that?

To me, everything looks and acts like the .co.uk site, including the forums. I prefer the smallest size of text I can get so sometimes things overlap, but that happens on all sites I use.

I've no complaints at all.
ALanJ
10-03-2009
Originally Posted by dobsy:
“I've taken a couple of screenshots but don't know how to display them on here. How do I do that?

To me, everything looks and acts like the .co.uk site, including the forums. I prefer the smallest size of text I can get so sometimes things overlap, but that happens on all sites I use.

I've no complaints at all.”

What phone/device are you using?

I'll PM you details of where to send images if you don't know how to use an upload site.
ALanJ
10-03-2009
Originally Posted by dontpannic:
“Do you mind if I ask why its centered around the iPhone?”

Because we have lots in the office and we noticed that over 1% of traffic to the site is from the iPhone so that was our first focus.

Obviously seeing the reaction here we have tried to make the site work well with other modern large screen phones - but we don't have examples so optimizing is difficult

Originally Posted by dontpannic:
“There are plenty more mobile devices which are more popular than Apple products and to some potential readers it may put them off. Perhaps "mobile.digitalspy.co.uk" could be this version, with "wap.digitalspy.co.uk" being the smaller version, therefore not limiting the user base to iPhone/iPod users.”

WAP is for WAP 2.0 phones
mobile was originally designed for basic XHTML phones
I have now added www.digitalspy.mobi as a generic high end / large screen css and javascript capable phone browser - and with your help we can try to taylor the output against useragents where that only requires a change of css.
Finally there is iphone.digitalspy.co.uk which is the version that uses some of the iphone/ipod toch caperbilities (orientation for example).

Originally Posted by dontpannic:
“ As for comments, Opera Mini shows the full homepage as default, so there may be an issue with the user-agent, but its designed to show full webpages.”

I added Opera Mini to the list of PDA/Phone browser user agents yesterday do hopefully it should work today and show you the new site.

Originally Posted by dontpannic:
“It looks good on Pocket IE on my o2 XDA(HTC Artemis (P3300)), less some minor formatting issues probably related to screen resolutions.”

OK thanks. If you look at the example iphone screens that someone posted my goal is that headings should have a title on a maximum of 2 lines (occasionally 3) and that the abstract text should be the same size a body text and readable but not too big to allow a reasonable amount of content on a page.

Unfortunately each browser renders css differently so my first atempt using px (pixels) didn't work on many phones with different size screens; the current attempt use pt (points) and seems to be better but isn't perfect.
dobsy
10-03-2009
Originally Posted by ALanJ:
“What phone/device are you using?

I'll PM you details of where to send images if you don't know how to use an upload site.”

Using the N96. I don't know of any upload sites.
dontpannic
10-03-2009
Originally Posted by ALanJ:
“Because we have lots in the office and we noticed that over 1% of traffic to the site is from the iPhone so that was our first focus.”

I see! Thanks for clearing that up

Quote:
“Obviously seeing the reaction here we have tried to make the site work well with other modern large screen phones - but we don't have examples so optimizing is difficult ”

Understandable. If you need anything tested I have an XDA Orbit (HTC P3300) running Windows Mobile 6.1 with Opera Mini and Pocket IE available.

Quote:
“WAP is for WAP 2.0 phones
mobile was originally designed for basic XHTML phones
I have now added www.digitalspy.mobi as a generic high end / large screen css and javascript capable phone browser - and with your help we can try to taylor the output against useragents where that only requires a change of css.
Finally there is iphone.digitalspy.co.uk which is the version that uses some of the iphone/ipod toch caperbilities (orientation for example).”

Fantastic. www.digitalspy.mobi works very well on Opera Mini now, likewise with Pocket IE.

The only issue I can see so far is that in regular or mobile versions, the subpage headings don't scale very well - for example in the "Media" subcategory, you only see the "M" ot Media, you have to scroll across to see it. With the regular view mode, the same happens to the title blue bar "www.digitalspy.mobi", but in mobile view this scales down, but the Media bar is still too wide. I will attempt to get a screenshot ASAP.

Quote:
“I added Opera Mini to the list of PDA/Phone browser user agents yesterday do hopefully it should work today and show you the new site.”

Brilliant. Works a treat

Quote:
“OK thanks. If you look at the example iphone screens that someone posted my goal is that headings should have a title on a maximum of 2 lines (occasionally 3) and that the abstract text should be the same size a body text and readable but not too big to allow a reasonable amount of content on a page.”

Looks similar but very well laid out. Fonts are correct and the titles are correct too.

Quote:
“Unfortunately each browser renders css differently so my first atempt using px (pixels) didn't work on many phones with different size screens; the current attempt use pt (points) and seems to be better but isn't perfect.”

You've nearly cracked Opera Mini! Thats for sure!

Cheers,
Nick
ALanJ
10-03-2009
Originally Posted by dontpannic:
“Understandable. If you need anything tested I have an XDA Orbit (HTC P3300) running Windows Mobile 6.1 with Opera Mini and Pocket IE available.”

Well some screen shots always useful if you can post them via a site great or I can PM you an email address.

Originally Posted by dontpannic:
“ Fantastic. www.digitalspy.mobi works very well on Opera Mini now, likewise with Pocket IE.

The only issue I can see so far is that in regular or mobile versions, the subpage headings don't scale very well - for example in the "Media" subcategory, you only see the "M" ot Media, you have to scroll across to see it. With the regular view mode, the same happens to the title blue bar "www.digitalspy.mobi", but in mobile view this scales down, but the Media bar is still too wide. I will attempt to get a screenshot ASAP.”

Thanks screen shots would be very useful to try to get an idea.

Not sure I understand the difference between regular and mobile view.

Thanks for the feedback.

Alan
Hypnodisc
10-03-2009
I'm using a first gen iPhone.

Whenever I go to 'forums' on digitalspy.mobi - it just redirects me to digitalspy.co.uk/forums.

Are you using an agent identifier or something? Because if you are wouldn't recommend this..
ALanJ
10-03-2009
Originally Posted by Hypnodisc:
“I'm using a first gen iPhone.

Whenever I go to 'forums' on digitalspy.mobi - it just redirects me to digitalspy.co.uk/forums.

Are you using an agent identifier or something? Because if you are wouldn't recommend this..”

Everyone gets redirected to the main forums (there is only one) but we are then using agent identifier to remove the LEFT HAND menu which is useful for small screen devices.

Hope that makes sense and is what you see.
dobsy
11-03-2009
Em, not to worry
Last edited by dobsy : 11-03-2009 at 00:46
ALanJ
16-03-2009
Any more comments or suggestions?
daclick
16-03-2009
Shame the forums dont work
Analysethis
16-03-2009
On every single page, it asks me if I would prefer the iPhone or the normal web version. On every page I press web version, and select 'remember'. I then move to another page, and it asks me again. Sort it out, not everyone wants a watered down version rammed down our throats!
James Welsh
16-03-2009
Originally Posted by Analysethis:
“On every single page, it asks me if I would prefer the iPhone or the normal web version. On every page I press web version, and select 'remember'. I then move to another page, and it asks me again. Sort it out, not everyone wants a watered down version rammed down our throats!”

Hmm, I thought we'd fixed that over the weekend. Sorry - we'll look at that again.
ALanJ
16-03-2009
Originally Posted by daclick:
“Shame the forums dont work”

Depending on what phone you are using there is (or will be soon) a slightly modified version of the forums more suitable to a smaller screen.
ALanJ
16-03-2009
Originally Posted by Analysethis:
“On every single page, it asks me if I would prefer the iPhone or the normal web version. On every page I press web version, and select 'remember'. I then move to another page, and it asks me again. Sort it out, not everyone wants a watered down version rammed down our throats!”

Sorry about this.

Curious - all though I did see this on Saturday morning - I haven't seen it since I was told it was fixed and haven't seen it today when I look at the full site on my iPhone.

is this still a problem?

What do you feel is missing from the Iphone / mobile version?

ALan
aaronon
16-03-2009
Hey Alan and James

I'd like to congratulate the people involved. I have an iPhone 3G and browsing the forums (while I'm in work on a saturday ) has never been easier. The side bar is gone and the forums are therefore perfectly sized for viewing entire posts.

If you want me to tell you how certain parts of the site look then post what you need and I'll visit them and let you know.

Aaron.

P.S Analysethis, you seem a bit over the top in your posts
aaronon
16-03-2009
Here is a picture of my screen on the forums and it's perfectly size and stops me having to manually resize the screen zoom to get a good forum layout.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/3168/img0001b.jpg

I should add that I don't manually edit the address when I'm going on Digital Spy it just brings me to that version of the forums anyway which is great.

My sister has a Samsung i8510 which is quite similar to the Nokia N95 - I'll have a little look on her phone later to see how it lays out the webpages.
Skylover4life
17-03-2009
Both http://iphone.digitalspy.co.uk and www.digitalspy.mobi are redirecting to the main www.digitalspy.co.uk on my LG phone, even loading the flash adverts! But then again I am having issues with the website on my laptop, Firefox trying to download every forum page like newreply.php
Dan Sette
17-03-2009
I have come to this late as I have only just discovered it.

I don't have any constructive criticism because:-
a) I'm not knowledgeable enough
b) it seems to work fine
or
c) I'm easily pleased

and that is not to denigrate anything that Alan and his colleagues have done.

Living a split existance at the moment and therefore have no internet access other than from my iPhone during the week and this makes DS easier to use from my iPhone.

Frankly, that is enough to keep me happy and/or sane.

Thanks, therefore to DS.
t22design
17-03-2009
I love the iPhone site, but the missus likes the desktop one better

Is there a url to force the desktop version, without being prompted to try the iPhone version? (if I use www.digitalspy.co.uk it often asks me, even if I choose the remember option)

That way I can add both addresses to my bookmarks, and keep everyone happy?
JCUK
19-03-2009
The title says it all!
ALanJ
21-03-2009
Originally Posted by daclick:
“Shame the forums dont work”

We are looking into options for this...
ALanJ
21-03-2009
Originally Posted by Skylover4life:
“Both http://iphone.digitalspy.co.uk and www.digitalspy.mobi are redirecting to the main www.digitalspy.co.uk on my LG phone, even loading the flash adverts! But then again I am having issues with the website on my laptop, Firefox trying to download every forum page like newreply.php”

What LG phone is that - and do you know what the browser is?
ALanJ
21-03-2009
Originally Posted by JCUK:
“The title says it all! ”

Sorry about this a change I made was undone on the configuration but it was fixed after just a few hours and now shuold be working normally.


We are however looking at other options for accessing the forums from mobile browsers and will let you know how we get on.

Alan
nemulate
24-03-2009
Hmm, I'm using a Nokia E71 and althought the main pages are ok as soon as I go to the forums it changes to the usual pc forum pages and I do have the left hand menu, would be so much easier to use without it
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