I received an email from Redmond Magazine, the self-proclaimed independent voice of the Microsoft IT community. The magazine covers all things Microsoft.
The email invited me to participate in a survey. As an incentive to participate they state "all completed surveys will be entered into a drawing for one iPhone." Looks like they realize that no Microsoft products have that wow factor that many Apple products do.
Showing posts with label smartphone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smartphone. Show all posts
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, September 21, 2007
Thing 6 - library websites on a Treo
I would think that if someone was using a smartphone to go to a libary's website, their goal is to search the catalog. With that in mind I took a look at the 23Thing library examples on a Treo smartphone.
Charlotte & Mecklenberg County - A survey showed up on the Treo at the top of the homepage with a button to close it. That was annoying, it took up a lot of the screen, but I was able to scroll down to their page, it was VERY long (on a computer it has lots of navigation areas). The website is not very mobile friendly. After I closed the survey the screen appeared as a big box of gray, scrolling down two screen worths finally got me to the top of the heading. There is just too much going on in their main page for mobile use.
Ann Arbor - took a long time to load as it is very graphic intensive. It too has too much going on for mobile use. I clicked on the catalog link. It too took a long time to load. The search fields were three screen length scrolls down. It's very hard to scroll on a Treo. The book reviews on the bottom of the page are confusing since one can't take it all in easily on a tiny mobile screen. It also must have added to the time it took to load (a few minutes) If I were using a mobile device to search the catalog I'd be very annoyed with all the extra content mucking things up.
Denver Public Library podcasts - Simple clean page, mobile friendly. I was able to download a podcast and later listen to it on the Treo. DPL homepage was much more mobile friendly than the others. A catalog search box appears prominently near the top, on the first screen length. The page rendered a little funny but it was navigable. The rotating banner was annoying, it caused the page to reload repeatedly. If our plan had data charges based on usage I would not be happy.
Seattle Public Library - cleanest of the bunch, easy to find the quick catalog search box. The catalog results page itself took a long time to load and doesn't display well. I had to scroll to the right (most pages on the Treo resize so no right-left scrolling is needed).
Charlotte & Mecklenberg County - A survey showed up on the Treo at the top of the homepage with a button to close it. That was annoying, it took up a lot of the screen, but I was able to scroll down to their page, it was VERY long (on a computer it has lots of navigation areas). The website is not very mobile friendly. After I closed the survey the screen appeared as a big box of gray, scrolling down two screen worths finally got me to the top of the heading. There is just too much going on in their main page for mobile use.
Ann Arbor - took a long time to load as it is very graphic intensive. It too has too much going on for mobile use. I clicked on the catalog link. It too took a long time to load. The search fields were three screen length scrolls down. It's very hard to scroll on a Treo. The book reviews on the bottom of the page are confusing since one can't take it all in easily on a tiny mobile screen. It also must have added to the time it took to load (a few minutes) If I were using a mobile device to search the catalog I'd be very annoyed with all the extra content mucking things up.
Denver Public Library podcasts - Simple clean page, mobile friendly. I was able to download a podcast and later listen to it on the Treo. DPL homepage was much more mobile friendly than the others. A catalog search box appears prominently near the top, on the first screen length. The page rendered a little funny but it was navigable. The rotating banner was annoying, it caused the page to reload repeatedly. If our plan had data charges based on usage I would not be happy.
Seattle Public Library - cleanest of the bunch, easy to find the quick catalog search box. The catalog results page itself took a long time to load and doesn't display well. I had to scroll to the right (most pages on the Treo resize so no right-left scrolling is needed).
Thursday, September 6, 2007
More of the 23 Things on a Treo
I went to the 23 Things blog at http://our23things.infopeople.org/ on the Treo. I can see the postings and the blog roll, so it works very well. Nice and clean.
Thing 2 -Blogger on mobile - you have to "claim" your phone which I didn't want to do because it would incur a cost, but information about blogging through Blogger on a mobile phone can be found at: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42448
Thing 18, Google docs and spreadsheets, does not work on a Treo. A message appeared that the browser must support javascript and I also got an error that the page was too large to display.
Thing 20, Youtube. The first page is a warning "Information: YouTube Mobile is a data intensive application. We highly recommend that you upgrade to an unlimited data plan with your mobile service provider to avoid additional charges." Searched for Kirtas (the robotic book scanner) and got "No results for 'kirtas'. Only a portion of YouTube videos are available on mobile at this time. We are working hard to bring you more!"
Thing 2 -Blogger on mobile - you have to "claim" your phone which I didn't want to do because it would incur a cost, but information about blogging through Blogger on a mobile phone can be found at: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42448
Thing 18, Google docs and spreadsheets, does not work on a Treo. A message appeared that the browser must support javascript and I also got an error that the page was too large to display.
Thing 20, Youtube. The first page is a warning "Information: YouTube Mobile is a data intensive application. We highly recommend that you upgrade to an unlimited data plan with your mobile service provider to avoid additional charges." Searched for Kirtas (the robotic book scanner) and got "No results for 'kirtas'. Only a portion of YouTube videos are available on mobile at this time. We are working hard to bring you more!"
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
23 Things on a Treo or web enabled phone
If I have the time I hope to see which of the 23 Things can be done from a smartphone, such as a Treo.
Awhile ago while waiting for a program to start I did try out Things 4 (Flickr) and 9 (Twitter)
Flickr on a mobile phone allows you view recently uploaded photos. You can also search photos by tags or keywords. While on the road I tried to sign in to my account to see what I could do and couldn't because my username has an underscore and I couldn't find the character on the keyboard. Back at the office I pulled out the manual and got signed in. Once signed in one can add comments and view photos from contacts. You can not see groups, sets, or collections. Uploading is done through email.
Twitter has a nice mobile interface. Simple, clean. You see the tweets, can update, can get to your followed.
Awhile ago while waiting for a program to start I did try out Things 4 (Flickr) and 9 (Twitter)
Flickr on a mobile phone allows you view recently uploaded photos. You can also search photos by tags or keywords. While on the road I tried to sign in to my account to see what I could do and couldn't because my username has an underscore and I couldn't find the character on the keyboard. Back at the office I pulled out the manual and got signed in. Once signed in one can add comments and view photos from contacts. You can not see groups, sets, or collections. Uploading is done through email.
Twitter has a nice mobile interface. Simple, clean. You see the tweets, can update, can get to your followed.
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