Daily news and opinion for 250,000 industry executives and mobile fanatics.
We have a specially formatted mobile version of SMS Text News — the site is reformatted for most handsets so that it displays nicely. However I’ve got a few changes I’d like to make — most notably the ability to submit comments via mobile.
If you’re a mobile-user of the site, could you take a few minutes and tell me what you’d like so we can implement it?
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Your hub for mobile news blogged by Ewan MacLeod and his team of fanatics. Put this in your feed reader and have a scan every now and then to track what's cooking around the world.
Copyright © 2008 SMS Text News / Tollejo Media Group Web Design by Forty
Sorry dude - I only read this through Mippin.
Suits my needs perfectly…
Mipp it you Muppet!
(www.mippin.com/preview from your Mobile browser)
Posted by Whatleydude on October 5th, 2007 at 5:30 pm.I do indeed read SMS Text News on my mobile….(courtesy of 3’s X-Series).
- Submitting comments via mobile would be absolutely ace, but if you added the ability to read others it would be killer! Some of your blog-posts don’t really make sense without the comments!
- Now this is just plain fussy. When navigate to your mobile site I get:
“Your hub for mobile news blogged by Ewan MacLeod, CEO of Neo One. Put this into your feed reader and have a scan every now and then to track whats cooking around the world. Updated today”
It doesn’t look like much, but on my phone it takes up nearly the whole screen. I then have to scroll down past the ads, and then past the “Visit http://www.smstextnews.com for the main site” notice to see the latest news. If you could cut that down, move it or perform some other magic you could make it far easier to check out your latest and greatest.
- It would be really nice if you could somehow incorporate similar design, logo and/or CSS elements into your mobile site - enforces the brand a bit.
Thats all from me. Thanks for the regular updates and improvements!
Posted by Grant on October 5th, 2007 at 7:32 pm.Actually, been meaning to bug you about this… I can’t stand the mobile version of the site… I’d rather have to deal with loading and scrolling around the main version than use the mobile one.
I am especially insulted by the link on the main page that tells me to “Visit http://www.smstextnews.com for the main site” when that was where I went to begin with!
It even does it on my iPhone which is more than capable of rendering the full page usably… I can totally see the need for a mobile version but PLEASE let us choose!
Posted by Dan Lane on October 5th, 2007 at 7:35 pm.The normal site works fine using Opera Mini so i’d not noticed the mobile-optimised version.
Posted by Heavylight on October 5th, 2007 at 9:01 pm.Personally i don’t like using keypad navigation shortcuts - until a convention becomes established.
I look forward to seeing the new developments.
On my P1i, the Sms Text News web site is whack. Sometimes when you click on the news links, the links are unreadable. today, Ben Harveys column on the p1i, there is a lot of text then a error message, XML parasing failed : not well-formed (Line: 1, Character:4046). The site needs a proper web 2.0 change as all other web sites I visit on the mobile come out good.
Posted by SE Fanboy on October 5th, 2007 at 9:03 pm.I’ve sorted out the error messages and I’ve added the ability to view comments. Now, to sort out the abilty to ADD comments….
Posted by Ewan on October 6th, 2007 at 2:12 am.Ewan — I dropped you a note about this in the week. On the iPhone you get the mobile site and there doesn’t seem to be a way to get to the normal site. It looks like you’re detecting the iPhone as a mobile (but we all know it’s not just a regular mobile eh?). This site has more info on detecting the iPhone browser: http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/35532/1954?pf=true.
cheers!
Posted by Al on October 6th, 2007 at 2:37 am.I use the mobile version every day, so keep up the good work
Mark
Posted by Mark on October 6th, 2007 at 10:38 am.Ewan,
I’m with Dan on this. I can’t stand the simplicity and lack of features of the mobile version. We should have the option to go to the mobile version but going to http://www.smstextnews.com should bring us to the regular site. More and more of us have phones that can handle it.
Jeb
Posted by Jeb on October 7th, 2007 at 8:26 am.I’ve only ever read the mobile version - I don’t think I’ve even seen the full site!
It looks great on my phone (Blackberry 8707v) but there are a couple of things I’d change…
1) Lose the access keys, most phones use the keypad for phone functions (zoom, reload etc) rather than for navigation.
2) More stories on the front page. While some devices may choke, I’m guessing the majority of your readers have phones with more power than a T610i. Why not put, say, 10 stories there.
3) The “Your comment” box only covers half the width of my screen. Are you using a fixed pixel width? It might look better if all text entrry feilds were set to a width of 100%
That’s all for now - keep up the good work.
Terence
Posted by Terence Eden on October 8th, 2007 at 8:02 am.(Posted from a Blackberry - so it looks like the add comments thing is working!)
Excellent feedback! Who’s accessing this on their T610? Anyone?
I think I can make those updates!
Posted by Ewan on October 8th, 2007 at 8:06 am.Ok, accesskey links have been removed
Posted by Ewan on October 8th, 2007 at 8:28 am.Using Opera Mini makes the mobile version obsolete.
Posted by Marat on October 8th, 2007 at 12:29 pm.