iPhone Support

Spark said:
After investigating, I'm probably going to install a mobile-skin for the forums instead of any plugins that cause the members to have to purchase an additional application to use the forums. I'm investigating skins now.
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+1. A decent mobile skin will do everything an app can do with other work.
 
Another vote for Tapatalk. I don't think they insert ads. It works for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Nokia. The plug-in for forum owners is free. They also will "rebrand" a custom version just for you, if that is important.

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vBulletin is preparing to release its own iPhone app as well. Here is a youtube teaser. (I haven't heard it because of soundcard issues on this computer!) I never embed these things right so here is the link.
 
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I'm looking at Tapatalk for Android right now. The Pro version is $2.96, which I'm probably going to buy even if BF doesn't support it. There are other forums that I frequent which do support Tapatalk which is why I started looking at it in the first place.

Spark, is there some reason why you can't turn on Tapatalk support AND do a mobile skin? CalGuns does that and it seems to work pretty well for them.
 
Tapatalk apparently had a bunch of forums hacked or somesuch, which killed my interest in it. Haven't done more digging, but it did present a security risk
 
Still looking for BerryBlab for Blackberry to be set up for BFC.
 
Spark said:
Tapatalk apparently had a bunch of forums hacked or somesuch, which killed my interest in it. Haven't done more digging, but it did present a security risk
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I saw someone in another BF thread mention that, so I tried to google the problem. I have yet to see anything critical talked about out there, but I've only put about 5 minutes into looking around.
 
Vbulletin came out iwth a dedicated app that supposedly will able to be branded to this site in the future. Not sure about the timeframe for that.
 
Spark said:
Vbulletin came out iwth a dedicated app that supposedly will able to be branded to this site in the future. Not sure about the timeframe for that.
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One app for every community board we want to visit? Hmmm....

Looking further into the tapatalk security issue, so far it looks like last summer there was a security problem with tapatalk on Android. However, the tapatalk guys plugged the hole inside of 24 hours. I have yet to find a server-side security breech because of tapatalk being enabled, but I'm still looking.

Anyway, given that tapatalk has somehow gotten a poor security reputation, I'd be happy with just a BF skin for smartphone based browsers. As things stand now, BF on a smart phone screen is pretty much a non-starter.
 
On my Touch it's not half bad, still a bit wonky when replying to large posts because I don't have cursor movement, but not bad. A mobile skin should be very easy to setup and help a lot with that. :thumbup:
 
I think, Spark, that AT&T would pay you to do something like this just because it would dramatically reduce bandwidth usage in Sherwood, Oregon.... probably save them putting in a whole new tower.







BTW, the way these apps work is simple: all of the "usual" graphics are stored on your cellphone, the stuff that doesn't change from visit-to-visit. The app then accesses the forum site via a special portal through which it can get only the "dynamic" stuff which is mostly text. This can easily reduce the bandwidth required to read a page of a thread by 10-fold, 20-fold, maybe more. And this speeds things up for phone-based readers.
 
Josh K said:
On my Touch it's not half bad, still a bit wonky when replying to large posts because I don't have cursor movement, but not bad. A mobile skin should be very easy to setup and help a lot with that. :thumbup:
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I recently went on a trip and so was away from my computer for nearly a week. I discovered that using the Android browser to look at Blade Forums content was painful to say the least. As for actually replying to posts, fergetaboutit. All of which explains why I started looking for a graceful way to access BF using my cellphone.

I know, I should just kick the habit instead. :D
 
^^^ all this is why I went with an iPad. I absolutely hate my smartphone for forum web browsing.

I'd like to be proven wrong.

Coop
 
Just voicing my support for better smart phone based access. Being away from BFs just won't do! I've tried on many occasions using the iphone browser as is but it's quite cumbersome!
 
SharpByCoop said:
^^^ all this is why I went with an iPad. I absolutely hate my smartphone for forum web browsing.

I'd like to be proven wrong.

Coop
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If I'm up for carrying an iPad around, then I'm up for carrying a laptop around, which is something that I certainly tend to travel with. Still, my Moto Droid is always in my pocket while my laptop frequently gets left behind. Hence, the desire for better smartphone based access to BF and other online forums.
 
Come on Spark. Look alive. Get some kind of Iphone support for this forum. The security issue has been (long, long ago) taken care of. Quit dragging your feet, get with the times, etc. Welcome to coffee shop America. Everything (including checking BF.com) is done on the fly. Soon we'll have a fast food chain that offers grilled steak and baked taters. Trust me, someone is going to figure out how to "wrap" a Caesar salad. Mobility. Go with it dude. :D

Cheers.
 
I would like to put in my Vote for Tapatalk as well, this app is pretty sweet on my Droid X. I tested it on EDCForums and it works fine.
 
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