(Updated) Flame Research Forum.Different: Read AppleInsider Forums on your iPhone

nvidia2008

0.6a Update: Read posts in a thread much more clearly now. Try it if you can...

0.6a Update: Still working on speed issues, though I think the "flow" is more smooth now...







(Open this link in your iPhone / iPod Touch)

http://flame-research.110mb.com



Hi all, the app in *alpha* testing stage has been updated, and I've got a nice little video demo for you to check out:



(YouTube application demo here)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc4GmkYxyxw



For those that are wondering, this is a web app for your iPhone that let's you easily read the threads, and even a summary of the posts, of various forum websites, starting with AppleInsider.



Feedback welcome on this research project. Commercial/ full server hosting viability is being considered at the moment but I may have other stuff to work on as well. Thanks.

probably

Quote:

Originally Posted by nvidia2008






(Open this link in your iPhone / iPod Touch)

http://flame-research.110mb.com



Hi all, the app in *alpha* testing stage has been updated, and I've got a nice little video demo for you to check out:



(YouTube application demo here)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc4GmkYxyxw



For those that are wondering, this is a web app for your iPhone that let's you easily read the threads, and even a summary of the posts, of various forum websites, starting with AppleInsider.



Feedback welcome on this research project. Commercial/ full server hosting viability is being considered at the moment but I may have other stuff to work on as well. Thanks.

Okay, well:





This is not easier than the actual site (yet).

• I don't understand how to read the OP in a longer thread:


• Can I even look at anything but the last page of a thread?


• Usernames are close to unreadable in their digg-counter style right now


• Procedural summary of the posts, especially the current implementation of cutting off the beginning to show the last n-words that fit, is pretty bad. It essentially provides NO information when you don't know how the post started.


• Even though the one caveat of a MobileSafari app is that you must have the bottom toolbar; your loading bar breaks the Back button.

That's enough for now.

nvidia2008

Okay I appreciate the feedback. At the individual thread level I think I ran into some issues with how much I can parse the quotes, originally posted by etc. etc.



For me personally because I understand the style and have a lot of AppleInsider posts I like to just skim through what people are saying. But for a general user it may be too trimmed down.



It is an interesting question, since there is so much text in a thread, how would it be slimmed down for mobile device reading?



Could there be a new platform, a new style of forums, in between full-web forums and twitter?



The back button may not be broken as much if I did not need to put in an "interstitial" page. Also an interesting point.



I think this is a learning experience for me here. If this web app were to proceed further, it needs very tight integration with the actual forum database, or very, very agressive parsing of pages.



I'll take your points into consideration on what the next step might be.

nvidia2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by probably


Okay, well:

...

1. I don't understand how to read the OP in a longer thread:

2. Can I even look at anything but the last page of a thread?

3. Usernames are close to unreadable in their digg-counter style right now

4.Procedural summary of the posts, especially the current implementation of cutting off the beginning to show the last n-words that fit, is pretty bad. It essentially provides NO information when you don't know how the post started.

...

Okay:

1. Fixed (kinda... see number 2)

2. I am thinking about how to do it

3. Improved

4. Fixed (kinda... see number 2)



Please check it out again if you can, it is updated now.