The Web is Not Friendly to Mobile Devices

[Jason Dunn]

Yes, that title is an understatement, but let me tell you a little story. A few weeks ago I was out shopping with my wife, and I suggested we stop at a little Peking food restaurant for some Ginger Beef. We placed the order, and sat back to wait. A minute later, my XDA chimed - I had a Microsoft digital video chat to attend in fifteen minutes. 8O We had already placed our order, and I was really looking forward to the food. What to do, what to do?<!><br /><br />I had a hunch I knew what the results would be, but I thought I should try - I had the URL of the chat, and I had a fully connected mobile device, right? It might be a s-l-o-w chat with me being on my XDA, but it would save me having to rush home and miss dinner. I went to the URL, and what happened? An error message about not being able to load the chat client software - dead end. No solution. Get the food to go, rush home, do the chat on a "real" PC. The Pocket PC failed me.<br /><br />Microsoft talks about empowering mobile works, letting them work anywhere - but how much of that is talk and how much is reality? Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe that the Pocket PC is the best PDA on the planet right now for my needs, but this scenario was a big let down. Sure, I understand all the <i>technical </i>reasons - Pocket Internet Explorer doesn't support the technologies used on the chat page (I believe it's an ActiveX control for x86 machines). Technical rationalizations ("Maybe next version this will work...") don't help when you need a solution.<br /><br />As the subject line says, the Web is not a Pocket PC friendly place. Need more proof? Keep reading.<!><br /><br /><span><b>Who Said Online Shopping Was Easy?</b></span><br /><br />The first day I got my XDA, I was out at a local book store. I was going to buy a few books, then I thought "Why not check the prices online, and if they're better, order from there?". Amazon.ca had recently launched their Canadian site, so off I went. Problem one: Amazon.ca has no mobile version of their site. Fifteen minutes later, after much waiting and muttering, I finished placing my order. Did it work? Yes. Did it work well? No. The GPRS was anything but "high speed". The un-optimized site required a great deal of scrolling and waiting. It was painful and required far too much patience on my part. There was nothing "fast" or "easy" about that online shopping experience. <br /><br />Amazon.com has a Pocket PC version of their site, but apparently the people running the Canadian site didn't think it was important to support mobile devices. And can we blame them?<br /><br /><span><b>If They Come, Then You'll Build It</b></span><br /><br />It's a classic chicken-and-egg scenario. Most people don't buy technology - they buy solutions. Sure, the hard-core geeks among us will throw 2 gigs of RAM into our computer simply because we can, but most people buy technology or upgrade their computers to solve problems they have - or to enable them to do new things. If I went up to the average person on the street and said "For $500 you can buy PDA that has GPRS!" they'd stare at me blankly.<br /><br />If I said "For $500 you can buy this PDA and order books, movie tickets, music, plane tickets, or gamble your life-savings away...while you're standing in line for your Mocha-Frappa-Latte-Slush!" I'd get some interest - and an instant sale if the price were $200. People buy solutions, not technology.<br /><br />In the case of Amazon.ca, can we blame them for not having a mobile version of their site? Look at the numbers - I'm using one of perhaps a few dozen XDA-class devices in Canada (they're not sold here yet), and I'd be surprised if there were 50K devices used in Canada (whether Palm or Pocket PC) that were capable of a decent online browser experience. In a time where IT budgets are already stretched to the max, how much motivation is there for Amazon.ca, and indeed most sites out there, to spend money on deploying a mobile version of their site? How much revenue will they really generate from it? It's a vicious circle - they can't generate revenue from me, Mr. Mobile Buyer, until they build a mobile site, and they won't build a mobile site until there's critical mass. People like us lose out in that equation.<br /><br />The optimist in me wants to say that if more and more people buy wireless PDAs, services and solutions will magically appear for them. To a certain extent, that's true - where there are buyers (people with credit cards), sellers will appear, and a market is born. But will people buy these devices if the solutions aren't there? If I try to show someone how "easy" it is to shop online with my XDA, and they see that it's a struggle, will they buy it? Probably not.<br /><br /><span><b>Reality Check on Aisle 7</b></span><br /><br />One day I sat down with my XDA and decided I wanted to try out some new software - all from my Pocket PC. I went to <a href="http://mobile.handango.com">Handango's Mobile site</a> and I was quite impressed. Handango has a slick site, perfectly formatted for mobile devices, and I was able to download a few applications. But I noticed that the software selection was quite limited - some of the applications that I really wanted to try out weren't available. A comparison of the Top 10 selling applications on Handango (check out right-hand side bar) with the <a href="http://mobile.handango.com/ppc/PlatformSelection.jsp?siteId=368&jid=6E46A874DB1EXFXD9B319CXF9765DE19&platformId=2§ionId=3223§ionTitle=OverTheAir">Handango Best Sellers Over the Air</a> reveals something very telling: most of the best-selling applications are not even available for download! A comparison of the two lists reveals that only three of the ten best-selling applications are available for download. Even Microsoft's own Pocket Streets is missing from the mobile site!<br /><br /><i>[As a side note, I'm not a big fan of the mobile.site.com concept - how will consumers know that the sub-domain is there?]</i><br /><br />Undaunted, I thought I'd seek out the applications directly by going to Web sites of the top Pocket PC developers - and the results were even worse. Of the five or so that I tried, not a single one had a redirect for mobile devices, and none had their software in a CAB format that I could try out. If Pocket PC developers don't have mobile sites for their own customers who they know are using the devices, how can we expect mainstream Web sites to have them?<br /><br /><span><b>Is There a Solution?</b></span><br /><br />So what's the solution to this? Although I shudder at the concept, I wonder if we need...a committee. 8O We need Microsoft, Palm, Dell, HP, Sony and every other big-name company involved with mobile devices to sit down, hammer out a reasonable spec that will work with the majority of devices out there, create a toolkit for Webmasters, and start to evangelize it. Target the top 100 Web sites on the 'Net, and encourage them to create self-directing mobile versions for PDA owners. I'm not talking about WAP here - I'm talking about real HTML standards, dished out by normal HTTP servers. Or what if they created a free software gateway that would intelligently serve up mobile versions of a site on the fly? I know there are companies out there offering these services, but if it takes budget, it needs justification, and that's where we get back to being the egg (or was it the chicken?).<br /><br />Alternatively, what if every mobile device user, whether Palm or Pocket PC, banded together and started an email campaign targeted at one site at a time? If we speak in one common voice, are there enough of us to make a difference?<br /><br /><span><b>The Saviour Smartphone</b></span><br /><br />Perhaps, just perhaps, this will happen by default as the number of Smartphones (Windows or Symbian-based) flood the market. Consumers will buy them for the phone part, games, music, and email. And once there are millions of Smartphones out there, the market will form up around them. And, finally, the Web will be a friendlier place for our devices.

[daveshih]

Jason, you've said it right on!!!

While I don't have a XDA, I do have a Pocketpc with Wireless CF card, and I surf wirelessly at home, so I don't have to be clued to my computer in the basement.

Through my own surfing experience, I've run into many of the same experiences you've listed. Very frustrating.

Some people might say that this won't happen if I have a laptop or tablet pc with wireless capabilities, but I don't want to carry the bulky (comparing to my ppc) laptop or tablet, and don't want to foot the bill for yet another device.

My hope is that the new Opera (with special formatting features that can render a normal website viewable on a small screen) can come out soon, and the new NetFront browser won't be so expensive.

Pocket IE, when will you ever grow up?

Dave

[jwf]

Deja Vu!!!

Didn't you post this a couple of weeks ago, but then withdraw it or something. I was sure I saw this on the front page on my AvantGo channel, but then when I came to read the full article the next day at my desktop there was no sign of it.

John

[entropy1980]

Am I having Deja Vu or was this posted at some point earlier this month? :?:

[Bob Anderson]

Jason... nice article.

I have run into exactly the same problems... I use a Sierra Wireless Aircard (Verizon 1xrtt service) with my Ipaq, and while some things work great... others don't. (But when I plug that card into my laptop, watch out... I can VPN into work... I can VPN into my home network... I can truly do great things!)

My frustration with the web is that it is promised as the great access tool, but as you point out, it's not ... really... Too many dependancies on the client piece... and this is something that needs to be addressed as we get more and more devices connected to the internet that are of varying backgrounds (and I'm not just talking about differing PCs and browsers - I'm talking about refrigerators, clock radios and others...)

You mention a potential "committee" to set standards, and while I think there would be some merit to that, let's face it, by the time all the companies got together and hammered something out, the standard would be obsolete! :roll: (If not broadsided by some other consortium of companies that wanted to get into their own "standard"!)

I'm not sure what the solution is... but I do agree with you that if the Smart phones start flooding the market it may well solve the problem by sheer force. You get enough of these small, limited capability (as compared to a full PC) devices out in the market, and places like Amazon will have to cater to their needs.

[JonnoB]

The Saviour Smartphone

Perhaps, just perhaps, this will happen by default as the number of Smartphones (Windows or Symbian-based) flood the market. Consumers will buy them for the phone part, games, music, and email. And once there are millions of Smartphones out there, the market will form up around them. And, finally, the Web will be a friendlier place for our devices.

Which Smartphone? All the different OS (Symbian, Palm, Pocket PC PE, Smartphone 2002) use potentially very different screen resolutions and support a different subset of capabilities. Until there is some size standardizations or one majority form factor, it will still be hard for web designers to create content designed for viewing on such small screens.

[Jason Dunn]

Deja Vu!!!

Yup, you caught me! :lol: I future dated the post, then didn't get the new template working in time, so it "slipped" onto the front page for about 20 minutes before I pulled it. :angel:

[PhatCohiba]

You should share your Mobile site code with the PHP community. there are many PHP sites that might enhance their sites with it.

-John

[Jason Dunn]

Which Smartphone? All the different OS (Symbian, Palm, Pocket PC PE, Smartphone 2002) use potentially very different screen resolutions and support a different subset of capabilities. Until there is some size standardizations or one majority form factor, it will still be hard for web designers to create content designed for viewing on such small screens.

Hmm...I don't know about that. Most Smartphone devices, whether Symbian-based or Windows CE-based, have resolutions that are "close". They all support basic HTML, which is a good basis upon which to build.

I agree though, it could present problems for more advanced implementations (Flash, frames, etc.)

[Jason Dunn]

You should share your Mobile site code with the PHP community. there are many PHP sites that might enhance their sites with it.

You mean our code to re-direct to a mobile version? Sure, I think we can do that...

[gregh]

I'm trialling thunderhawk for wireless browsing, it auto rotates the screen to landscape for browsing, and goes thru their servers to reformat it to fit well on a PDA screen,

Not sure that I'd want to pay $50 a year to use it though....

http://www.bitstream.com

regards,

Greg

[Robert Levy]

Or what if they created a free software gateway that would intelligently serve up mobile versions of a site on the fly?

Microsoft did this LONG ago in the form of the "Microsoft Mobile Interent Toolkit." It is basically an add on to to IIS that optimizes for mobile devices. When a device requests a page from the server, the server says "What standards and features do you suppport?" and then returns a web page formatted accordingly. For more info, see here: http://devbuzz.com/content/zinc_dotnet_going_mobile_pg1.asp

And yes, it is free.

[PhatCohiba]

I bet you'd be perfect (if you have time) to write about How to make your site "Mobile Accessible."

The redirect to the News only view. You need to add an Ad to that view in my opinion. Probably a rotation of the top right ad. It would fit perfect above or below the Title gif.

[JonnoB]

I bet you'd be perfect (if you have time) to write about How to make your site "Mobile Accessible."


This is actually a good book idea for Jason (hint hint)... there are already hundreds of 'create a website / learn html books' but nothing that I know of that deals with specifically on creating content for mobile devices.... and that will soon be one of the largest 'net audiences.

[Jason Dunn]

Or what if they created a free software gateway that would intelligently serve up mobile versions of a site on the fly?

Microsoft did this LONG ago in the form of the "Microsoft Mobile Interent Toolkit." It is basically an add on to to IIS that optimizes for mobile devices. When a device requests a page from the server, the server says "What standards and features do you suppport?" and then returns a web page formatted accordingly. For more info, see here: http://devbuzz.com/content/zinc_dotnet_going_mobile_pg1.asp

And yes, it is free.

Yup, I know about that, but ask yourself how well they marketed and created that tool by looking around at the sites out there. :?

[pdantic]

Good article, Jason! :D

It seems that the majority of "mobile" sites these days are usually news/weather/sports (i.e., text) oriented and aren't really providing a great deal of service to those of us with XDAs or other wireless mobile devices. When you get the occasional "success", like I did purchasing movie tickets from my XDA from the movietickets.com non-mobile site, you tend to get excited about the future prospects of a wireless-enabled web. But at the present time things are somewhat bleak...

One thing that really irks me is that I'll occasionally use a site that is designed for mobile users, then come back in a month or two and find that the site has been abandoned or that something is broken. My guess is that the company wasn't getting a lot of hits so they just decided to drop their mobile site. Some of these folks need to start exercising a little patience; it's going to take a while for payback on mobile sites, since there just aren't a whole helluva lot of mobile users right now.

I definitely agree that if a critical mass of Smartphones builds up over the next year or so, you'll start seeing more sites/services that are specifically designed around the device (that is, if Smartphone 2002 devices other than the Orange SPV actually ever make it to market!!!).

Steve

[JonnoB]

Hmm...I don't know about that. Most Smartphone devices, whether Symbian-based or Windows CE-based, have resolutions that are "close". They all support basic HTML, which is a good basis upon which to build.

"close" but no cigar. If the sites are not targeted to a device, I fear we will end up with a WAP-like interface - yuck.


I agree though, it could present problems for more advanced implementations (Flash, frames, etc.)
ActiveX controls, embedded client side java, and the items you mention... It is possible that at some point there will be an x86 type processor serving our Pocket size PDAs. Perhaps a small PocketPC version of the Tablet PC OS of the future. Then... and probably only then... will we have true cross device web mobility.

[pdantic]

Whoops, forgot one other thing. :lol:

If you visit Microsoft's FrontPage 2002 add-in web page, you can get two tools that make it a bit easier to convert FrontPage websites to mobile devices. The first is a Mobile HTML Optimizer add-in, while the second add-in converts sites to WML. Both can be used with the Microsoft wireless device emulator to see how a site will look/act on a phone/PDA.

The site URL is:
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/downloads/addin/default.asp

Steve
PDAntic.com

[vincentsiaw]

i agree with jason when he says people is buying solution but not technology, but i do think, with current technology, it's just to expensive to deliver solution we all wanted, not everybody can afford $100 for wireless internet access a mont, which is very slow even compared to 56 k modem, unless the company paid for it.......

[Jason Dunn]

The redirect to the News only view. You need to add an Ad to that view in my opinion. Probably a rotation of the top right ad. It would fit perfect above or below the Title gif.

You're saying we should add advertising to the mobile version of the site? Bless your heart! :wink: It's something I've pondered doing for a while, but it would require the advertiser to create a mobile-friendly site, which would take a bit of effort. I might do it, but if I do, it would be kept very, very small, and it would probably link to a trial version of the advertizers software in CAB format for immediate download/install.

[Jorgen]

And know of a site that does not allow PPC's access their discussion forums. Yes, yours! Please provide a link to the forums. Or if a problem: get rid of the formatting until you are ready.

Jorgen

[Gary Garland, Esq.]

Ed had linked to a brief article i wrote on pocketpcaddict.com, "I want to take a quick .cab ride." - i described the frustration of not being able to download .cab files, particularly drivers from web sites, and i mentioned we actually need web sites almost designed for 14.4k baud modems - i.e. a stripped down web page so we can surf intelligently with the lower speed pdas while in the field...i doubt video conferencing can do it, but unless my lil buddy has a passthrough connection to my highspeed, or a bluetooth connection to same, i'm basically limited to using it for quick e-mails or minimal web surfing - very frustrating.

[Pony99CA]

It is possible that at some point there will be an x86 type processor serving our Pocket size PDAs. Perhaps a small PocketPC version of the Tablet PC OS of the future. Then... and probably only then... will we have true cross device web mobility.
You mean something like the OQO Ultrapersonal Computer (http://www.oqo.com)? :-)

Steve

[PJE]

Has anyone tried the NetFront v3.0 for Pocket PC with JV-Lite2 (http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=1&jid=X36A39912A46D7376C163ECAEEF6C9EA&productId=47769&optionId=1_2_2&productType=2&catalog=30&txtSearch=netfront&sectionId=0&platformId=2) browser?

I'm downloading it off the web (handango) at the moment but my iPaq has no memory left...

Regards,

PJE

[sponge]

That OQO is vapour in it's finest form.

Connection speeds are going to get faster, so soon it would be possible to download the windows setup file onto your PPC, and create a program that will extract the files, or perhaps even an interpeter/emulator that emulates Installshield, Packaged for the Web, etc.

[PhatCohiba]

Has anyone tried the NetFront v3.0 for Pocket PC with JV-Lite2 (http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=1&jid=X36A39912A46D7376C163ECAEEF6C9EA&productId=47769&optionId=1_2_2&productType=2&catalog=30&txtSearch=netfront§ionId=0&platformId=2) browser?

I'm downloading it off the web (handango) at the moment but my iPaq has no memory left...

Regards,

PJE

I've downloaded it but I get a DNS timeout when ever I open a internet site. Local (my Document) pages load fine, PIE still works fine.

(my config. Ipaq 3835, euu 3, Socket CF, Linsys 802.11b fw / router.)

[Jason Dunn]

And know of a site that does not allow PPC's access their discussion forums. Yes, yours! Please provide a link to the forums. Or if a problem: get rid of the formatting until you are ready.

Touche! :wink:

As for getting into the forums, click on any of the discuss links on the mobile site - problem solved.

[pdajunkies]

My hope is that the new Opera (with special formatting features that can render a normal website viewable on a small screen) can come out soon, and the new NetFront browser won't be so expensive.


Woah, you know something I don't. I would do anything to browse with Opera. But, I thought their release said, "We have no plans for PPC."

I know there are a lot of Mozilla fans out there, and more power to us "psuedo 3rd party" browser supports. But, I think hands down Opera is becoming an app with so many features I can't see why it doesn't have a bigger market share.

[JonnoB]

As for getting into the forums, click on any of the discuss links on the mobile site - problem solved.

Speaking of mobile forums... is there a known timetable for implementation? I for one would appreciate it - enough perhaps to depart with a few $$ occasionally.

[fmcpherson]

It's not that hard to implement a mobile site, see http://www.pocketpchow2.com. What you see there is pretty much straight HTML. The real problem is that we have grown so used to all the wis-bang stuff on the web today that it seems we can't live with vanila HTML.

IMHO, a mobile site needs to do three things: provide good content, load quickly, and provide good navigation. I turn images off when I browse on a Pocket PC unless I use WLAN, so I don't think the wis-bang stuff is that importnat.

[fmcpherson]

One more thought... fire up IE on a Pocket PC, and load the default home page. Tap the links and draw some conclusions...

PocketPC.com, while the top level formats decently on a Pocket PC, some lower-level pages are designed for desktops.

I don't think any of the OEM sites (Dell, Toshiba) go to pages formatted for Pocket PC screens.

MSN may be the best of the default home page links, but its heavy in the graphics and can load slow.

So, if this is the out of box experience coming from the companies providing the products, how can expect other sites to do any better? The truth is that some of the enthusiast sites like Thoughts look better on the Pocket PC than what Microsoft & the OEMs provide and should get the default home page links for a better experience.

[Peter Foot]

The solution (at least in the long term) should be to get the content right, not make more complicated browser software to squeeze more flashy features into the pocket pc.
The problem at the moment is there is little in the way of software or tools which will manage the desktop/mobile formatting so you don't have to. This is why the sites that are best with handheld browsers are those created by fans of the hardware - because it requires extra learning and extra effort.
In terms of page hits pocketpcs and similar devices only account for a small proportion of browsers so many sites can't see the gain for themselves to re-engineer their sites.
Several years ago we were all told that XML and such technologies would allow us to separate content and presentation so it would be easy to cater for a wider variety of output devices, most sites are still outputting html which has all manner of cut-corners and workarounds just to work on desktop computers, its all very messy...

Peter

[dml]

There are an awful lot of sites that assume everyone is using a Windows desktop PC with a screen resolution of 800x600. I agree with peter.foot that the solution is to get the content right - XML and related technologies do make it possible to separate content and presentation and to present the content according to the device in question.

There's not much you can do about an ActiveX component that will only run on a Windows desktop PC (cf. Jason's chat scenario) but it is possible improve the mobile browsing experience a little on the Pocket PC. This is something I've looked at in a recent review on the Foxpop site: http://www.foxpop.ndirect.co.uk/PocketPC/browser_01.htm

Apologies for plugging my own content, but as it deals with some of the issues raised here (including brief reviews of NetFront and Thunderhawk) I thought it might be helpful.

[daveshih]

Has anyone tried the NetFront v3.0 for Pocket PC with JV-Lite2 (http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=1&jid=X36A39912A46D7376C163ECAEEF6C9EA&productId=47769&optionId=1_2_2&productType=2&catalog=30&txtSearch=netfront&sectionId=0&platformId=2) browser?

I'm downloading it off the web (handango) at the moment but my iPaq has no memory left...

Regards,

PJE

I'm currently running an older version of the demo, which many features are limited, but still beats PIE hands down.

Will try it tonight. Thanks for the link. Hopefully this time it offers the encoding options, as I use it to surf non-English sites.

Dave

[Brad Adrian]

PocketPC.com, while the top level formats decently on a Pocket PC, some lower-level pages are designed for desktops.
I know, isn't that goofy? The ONE site in the universe that should be used to showcase mobility isn't even compatible with mobile devices.

[cherring]

I have a slightly different opinion:
Every new technology has its early adopters. I still think that the pocketpc is still a new device and with the capability increasing so rapidly with every iteration, it's going to stay in that "cutting edge" category for a while. People are just about getting their new technology out the door, it's possibly not even mature enough to deal with situations they intended it to, not to mention adopt it to something our community can use. It's like that with everything.

Early adopters don't buy solutions, they buy into technology for whatever reason. We are still early adopters, people outside the pocketpc community don't know of the capability of these devices already and cannot think to exploit them.

Yes you can say that microsoft should provide support for pocketpc devices lower down their site, but if you think about it, the people most likely to surf all the way there are probably regulars on this site and you have to ask yourself, how often do you surf pocketpc.com from "corner to "corner" on your pocketpc.

You may be a bit jaded from doing it so often, but I still get a kick out of going up to a palm user and saying "I have a web browser" or, "Look, here's my E-mail and it looks like E-mail and here's word and excel what do you have." (Most people here still have PALM vx's) I personally know of 3 pocketpc devices out in the wild in South Africa, one of them is mine.

[adamz]

Alternatively, what if every mobile device user, whether Palm or Pocket PC, banded together and started an email campaign targeted at one site at a time? If we speak in one common voice, are there enough of us to make a difference?

Yeah, we should start with all the sites that claim to be Pocket PC compatible, but really aren't. For example, the ones who's discussion forums don't work well on Pocket PCs. Then there's sites like mobile.msn.com that use too much imagery for the low bandwidth connections of wireless devices. Then there's the FedEx mobile site, which was only designed for AvantGo, and just does NOT work on a live connection. It's good to see that MyMobileStuff.com has redesigned their site such that the navigation is normal Hypertext, and is not dependant on images being turned on.
And I also wish the Movie Listing sites would allow us to buy movie tickets AGAIN! Moviefone USED TO allow this via their Pocket PC mobile version, but not anymore. To me that was always much more useful than being able to buy stuff from Amazon. Buying movie tickets is instant! I used to order them from restaurants all the time.

[newerjazz]

Can some of you post the 3 most useful mobile website address that you have? This will help all of us frequent those websites more often and maybe lead to critical mass for those websites.

Thanks

[JonnoB]

Can some of you post the 3 most useful mobile website address that you have? This will help all of us frequent those websites more often and maybe lead to critical mass for those websites.

Thanks

#1 - this site
#2 - Dales site (http://www.pocketpcpassion.com)
#3 - I like games, so this site (http://www.pocketgamer.org)

There are lots of good sites. Go to the Mazingo mobile page portal to get to alot of them.

[sweetpete]

I bet you'd be perfect (if you have time) to write about How to make your site "Mobile Accessible."


This is actually a good book idea for Jason (hint hint)... there are already hundreds of 'create a website / learn html books' but nothing that I know of that deals with specifically on creating content for mobile devices.... and that will soon be one of the largest 'net audiences.

There are 4 mobile.net books that I have seen based around the Mobile Internet Toolkit that Microsoft has.

Check out http://asp.net/Default.aspx?tabindex=6&tabid=44

[bdeli]

I regularly use these three mobile websites - other than pocketpcthouthts mobile version:

ESPN - http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/wireless/html/pocketpc
EVMO - http://www.evmo.com/mobile/ (mymobile stuff)
Plinkit - http://members.bellatlantic.net/~blumax/plinkit/ (mobile website directory)

[Jason Dunn]

Yeah, we should start with all the sites that claim to be Pocket PC compatible, but really aren't. For example, the ones who's discussion forums don't work well on Pocket PCs.

Please point out where I said these discussion forums are Pocket PC compatible. :!:

[jwf]

I think the point was that even the Pocket PC Thoughts site isn't 100% Pocket PC compatible. I'd love to be able to read the discussions on my Pocket PC too.

If enthusiasts like yourselves can't get it working, what hope have others?

John

[dma1965]

Even this forum is still a nightmare on my Pocket PC !

[Jason Dunn]

If enthusiasts like yourselves can't get it working, what hope have others?

We have something brewing, but it has to synchronize with the release of several other new features, hence the delay. All the work is being done by volunteers, so patience is a virtue here. :-)

[jwf]

We have something brewing, but it has to synchronize with the release of several other new features, hence the delay. All the work is being done by volunteers, so patience is a virtue here. :-)

That's good news.

:-)