Bah to El Fan Boyz
Where is the Android update??
Promo ended angry phone user
There is a mobile version link on the home page subnav bar - called "mobile". Admittedly, this is not prominent.
To date, we have chosen not to automatically redirect to the mobile version, but we may change. Currently, more than 15 per cent of our traffic is via mobiles, tablets - and this is growing quickly all the time. We have had few (none?) complaints about showing the full-fat version as default.
"Fingers crossed, the rating for our app should improve from a frankly pathetic two stars."
I'm amazed it got such a high score! It was pretty appalling to begin with ;-) May well take a look, if only for the offline reading - as noted I'd be inclined to just use the browser app built into most smartphones otherwise
Indeed, looking at the picture on the ad it looks just like m.theregister.com. Surely it would make more sense to add an offline mode to the mobile site (using localStorage, supported by iPhones, iPads, Androids and even Blackberries and coming to more devices all the time) rather than build a locked down iOS only version. Or is the fact it looks like the mobile site because it is the mobile site wrapped up by phoneGap (or whatever it is they're called now)? If so releasing an Android version would be a piece of piss...
What is it with phone owners wanting "apps" that do exactly what websites do?
I use Taptu (bound to be an iOS equivalent) instead... I tried using the appalling first attempt of an el reg app on Android and quickly switched to a news aggregator (pulse, then eventually taptu) because it was impossible to use the el reg app.
The only time I go to the website is when I want to view comments... which apparently the new iOS app doesn't support anyway, so I'm guessing the upcoming android update won't do either... the only way you'll get me using the new app is introducing comments, or closing down the RSS (I assume) feed that taptu sips your news from.
"apparently" was because somebody further up had suggested it didn't - I don't have an iOS device anymore so couldn't check it out myself. You and a few others have since corrected them, but the up/down vote thing being missing should be added in to a future update, it is half the fun of comments after all no?
and I know - I know.... I was being a total negative nancy, but at the time it looked like it'd taken a year to fix a broken news reader app, and the only additional feature was ads. Now I know different, I might give the android version a whirl when it's out. :p
Can your app manage to keep people logged in for more than a few hours at a time? Something that seems beyond the capabilities of whoever built the website.
General whinge: I can see why I might want an app for interacting with something with eBay, where the added functionality makes the whole experience better. But what [apart from vanity] is the point of creating apps for yer average run-of-the-mill website like El Reg? I'm getting bored of almost every website I visit inviting me to try their shiny new app.
Here's a radical suggestion. How's about sites just concentrate on refining their mobile versions? That way I can use just one app [a web browser!] to visit them all, instead of keeping a ton of pointless one-trick ponies on my phone or tablet.