Smartphone Thoughts Mobile Templates Now Live

[Jason Dunn]

If you hit Smartphone Thoughts from your mobile device, assuming you haven't implemented some sort of desktop-faking registry hack, you'll be redirected to our new mobile template. You'll be presented with a question: &quot;Do you have a fast/flat-rate connection?&quot; and there are two options for you to click on. One basically says &quot;I want to see all the pictures&quot; the other says &quot;I don't want to see all the pictures&quot;. If you're like me and don't have a flat-rate connection and you need to conserve bandwidth, you'll select the &quot;no pictures&quot; option. We've made the resulting page as fast as possible and very low-bandwidth. <br /><br />How much bandwidth savings are we talking about? Well, on a typical day the mobile version of Smartphone Thoughts would usually weigh in around 200 KB to 400 KB, largely depending on how many graphics we had on the front page. We had no way to put a graphic on a post and not have it show up on the mobile page - now we do. The nice part about this solution is that you're not locked out from seeing that graphic - there's a small link that says [image] where there's an image, so if you want to see if you can just click on it. If you're lucky enough to have a fast, flat-rate connection, you'll pick the &quot;show image&quot; option and it will show you all the images. But we've gotten smarter there as well - our new system resizes every front page image, so you're not going to see a 500 pixel wide image that's just squished down to fit on your screen, but still 90 KB in size. What you'll see instead is an image that's maybe 200 pixels wide, so it it will fit on the screen, and it will be re-sized as well, so that 90 KB image will be a 20 KB image instead.<br /><br />At any time you can change the bandwidth option by going to the SETTINGS option on the menu at the top of the mobile template. We'll be enhancing the mobile templates over time, so suggestions as welcome.

[onlydarksets]

That is very cool! I wish all of the forums I read were as "mobile-aware" as that!

One issue (not sure if you are looking for feedback yet or not) - when you click the link in an email notification, it takes you to the "full" site, not the mobile site.

[Jason Dunn]

One issue (not sure if you are looking for feedback yet or not) - when you click the link in an email notification, it takes you to the "full" site, not the mobile site.

Thanks, I'll pass that along - I *think* we can address that, but only Fabrizio the Master Coder knows for sure. ;-)

[nitestrike]

I am liking the the changes made both to the full and mobile sites. I am really liking the new options and features with the mobile formated site.

[Jason Dunn]

I am liking the the changes made both to the full and mobile sites. I am really liking the new options and features with the mobile formated site.

Glad you like the changes! Change is never easy, but it's usually a good thing in the long haul. :)

[Wyld1]

So far from my desktop I like everything.

It's another story from my Blackjack though. I can't seem to log in or post replies. Tried using IE and Opera Mobile 8.65. Tried in low and high bandwidth modes on each with different settings such as fit to screen, single column and still no luck. I did have the option for the 2 different mobile versions yesterday so I cleared my cookies, cache and history to start fresh with no luck also.
Also in high bandwidth mode the pics on the front page are showing as large black boxes with an X through them.

[onlydarksets]

I also can't login from my Q. I tried logging in through the main site, but it doesn't carry over to the mobile site.

[Jason Dunn]

I also can't login from my Q. I tried logging in through the main site, but it doesn't carry over to the mobile site.

Doh...I forgot to mention that this isn't any log-in just yet! Sorry, my fault...the mobile forums are read-only for right now. :o

[scottb]

Doh...I forgot to mention that this isn't any log-in just yet! Sorry, my fault...the mobile forums are read-only for right now. :o
That explains it. :rolleyes: When I select Login from the drop down, it takes me to the Home link.

[qyv42]

There appears to be no way to go to anything beyond the initial page of a multi-page thread. For example, in the thread "And we're live: Welcome to the new Smartphone Thoughts", which has 49 replies, I can find no way when using the mobile template on my device to access any of the thread beyond Rocco's post "no, don't touch that". That post is #10 of 49, and is the last post on the first page when viewing the desktop version.

Am I missing something obvious?

[Jason Dunn]

There appears to be no way to go to anything beyond the initial page of a multi-page thread.

Aha. Ok, it turns out that's something we need to finish coding. We've implemented a work-around which, for now, will simply load up to 100 replies on the same page. So you'll be able to read everything. We should have this fixed in a couple of weeks...(hopefully).

[SteveHoward999]

Links to SmartPhoneThoughts in the header of the PocketPCThoughts web site are not updating.

[qyv42]

Aha. Ok, it turns out that's something we need to finish coding. We've implemented a work-around which, for now, will simply load up to 100 replies on the same page. So you'll be able to read everything. We should have this fixed in a couple of weeks...(hopefully).

If I could make one small request, since your team is still coding: can you have a way to get to the next page that's not just at the bottom, but at the top as well? When returning to threads to read more comments at a later time, it's often useful to be able to skip straight to page 2, 3, etc. without having to scroll all the way down on each page (since you've likely already read all the comments on the first page or two). The desktop template does this beautifully with the [1, 2, 3] box in both the upper and lower right corners of the page.

Thanks for listening!

[Jason Dunn]

Links to SmartPhoneThoughts in the header of the PocketPCThoughts web site are not updating.

Noted, thanks!

[Jason Dunn]

...can you have a way to get to the next page that's not just at the bottom, but at the top as well?

Sure, we'll definitely consider that - I think it's a good idea since there's still no way in IE Mobile to quickly go to the top or bottom. I've been suggesting to Microsoft that a double d-pad down press to go to the bottom of the page would be a nice feature...but they don't seem to agree.

[onlydarksets]

Sure, we'll definitely consider that - I think it's a good idea since there's still no way in IE Mobile to quickly go to the top or bottom. I've been suggesting to Microsoft that a double d-pad down press to go to the bottom of the page would be a nice feature...but they don't seem to agree.

Not without hacking the registry:
Page Up and Page Down in IE

Key mapping for "Page Up" and "Page Down" in Internet Explorer
Open your favorite registry editor then navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
Create a new key 'KeyMaps' (without the quotes)
Under KeyMaps, create 2 new DWORD values:
50 with a value data 1 (this will make key "2" Page Up)
56 with a value data 2 (this will make key "8" Page Down)I created 2 more DWORD values:
52 with a value date 5 (this will make key "4" Page Left)
54 with a value date 6 (this will make key "6" Page Right)The key name is the keycode you want. 50 = Key 2, 56 = Key 8, 52 = Key4, and 54 = Key 6.

Other DWORD values available are:

1 - Page Up
2 - Page Down
3 - Top
4 - Bottom
5 - Left
6 - Page Rignt
7 - Horizontal Top
8 - Horizontal Down
9 - Default Layout
10 - Desktop Layout
11 - One Column Layout
12 - Full Screen Toggle
13 - Show Pictures Toggle

Keycodes Values for 0-9: 48='0', 49='1', 50='2', 51='3', 52='4', 53='5', 54='6', 55='7', 56='8', 57='9'.

4. Exit registry editor once you have mapped it to your favorite keys. I use:
49 3, 50 1, 52 5, 54 6, 55 4, 56 2, 69 1, 70 6, 83 5, 87 3, 88 2, 90 4

CREDIT: Gadget & the fine people at modaco.com forums
69 with a value data 1 (this will make key "E or 2" Page Up)
70 with a value data 6 (this will make key "F or 6" Page Right)
83 with a value date 5 (this will make key "S or 4" Page Left)
88 with a value date 2 (this will make key "X or 8" Page Down)Credit: Lars Dennert (http://67.122.16.97/lars/misc/smartphone/)

[SteveHoward999]

Links to SmartPhoneThoughts in the header of the PocketPCThoughts web site are not updating.

Well, it's worse now. All there is is a link to the SmartPhoneThoughts home page. No links to latest headlines.

[Jason Dunn]

Well, it's worse now. All there is is a link to the SmartPhoneThoughts home page. No links to latest headlines.

Working on fixing that now - Feedburner won't let me point to the new XML location because it says there's an error in our feed...Fabrizio is debugging it now.