               Tennant: Digital Libraries
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Small Screen DevicesJuly 9, 2007 All the iPhone hype can be a bit overwhelming, but any time a brand new consumer device sells half a million units in the first weekend it's worth sitting up and taking notice. Sure, I lust after it like any good techie, but my wife is the voice of reason that keeps me waiting until the next rev and until my current cell contract runs out (February here I come!).But meanwhile, thinking about all the existing web-enabled cell phones out there as well as those who are newly enabled to surf the web via their shiny new iPhones, it made me wonder what my web sites look like on a tiny screen. So I dropped by an Apple store over the weekend, and was pleased to actually get my hands on one of the coveted devices. I was doubly pleased when my web sites actually looked good on it. A subsequent and timely Web4Lib discussion on how to preview your web site on a cellphone when you don't have one capable of it pointed out a couple handy tools you can use from the relative safety of your home to do the same thing -- both for an iPhone as well as other cellphones. To see what your web site may look like on an iPhone, you can download iPhoney (I'm telling you I can't make this stuff up). To see how it looks on other mobile phones, use the web site ready.mobi. After having looked at a few of my sites on both of these, I have to tell you that the iPhone is worlds away from your garden variety cellphone. I mean, it isn't even close to the same league. From the iPhone my web site looks and functions like...well, a web site. You can even zoom in, move around the page with your finger, and navigate with a tap. From your standard cellphone it looks like a mess and your options for interaction are severely limited. Your mileage may vary, but I doubt your sites will look any better than mine and, unless you adhere to markup standards like I do, probably worse. But you know, I suddenly no longer care. That's because the iPhone has suddenly and irretrievably raised the bar. Now it won't be sufficient to display web sites in a funky, truncated, and messed-up way. You can bet your bottom dollar that there are a lot of companies scrambling to get devices to market that mimic iPhone functionality and come in at a much lower price point. Will they be as good as the iPhone? Not likely. But can we forget about trying to redesign our web sites specifically for small screen devices? I sure am. Posted by Roy Tennant on July 9, 2007 | Comments (2)
July 10, 2007
In response to: Small Screen Devices Thomas Dowling commented: I've used a Sony PDA for several years with a well thought-out little browser in it. You hit the nail on the head here: the handheld clients are now smart enough to be actual clients, so the servers can just go about their business. Honest markup will always help (along with minimal assumptions about the client's display), but basically, just write your web pages.
July 10, 2007
In response to: Small Screen Devices Mark Matienzo commented: As far as cellphone browsers go, the new beta of Opera Mini seems to be a bit more promising - it allows you to see the whole layout of the page and zoom in. The interface takes a bit of time to get used to, but I like it already.
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