Hey guys, I stumbled on a pretty cool app that works for most smartphones. It lets you run most forums from your phone as a smartphone app. I would LOVE to use that with this forum, and really think it could help increase our interactions on this site. Better interactions = better forum.

The only catch is that you have to install an add-on into the forum in order for it to work. I don't know much about how it works, or what it takes to get it to work, but I think it's definitely worth a closer look.

The add-on can be installed at http://tapatalk.com/plugin.php

So if I understand correctly, the purpose is to reformat the forum, so as to be more friendly on mobile devices?

I don't have a smart phone but don't most of them have a mini-browser of some type that allows access. One of this problems I see with a forum like this is that it's rich in graphics (some very large), which could choke a smart phone. Tossing them out would take away from the experience. I guess with a mobile plugin, images could be heavily compressed for delivery to the smart phone. I'll bet that takes up some server resources though, depending on how the forum plug-in is implemented.

Times are a changin' though and I expect to see future releases of phpBB include some kind of support for mobile devices with a touch pad interface.

Most smart phones will run the forum fine without it.

Also, tapatalk is a paid tool. You have to buy the app from the market to use it. This is the user end, not the forum end.

This is the website for it if you are interested in it.

http://www.tapatalk.com/

I personally won't use it as I see no reason to pay for something that I can do for free.

The times are a changin' indeed. The fact that I would be notified when there is a new post within the app makes it worth a purchase on my end. Anyway, I literally know nothing about this stuff whatsoever, I just wanted to find a way to easier use gimpchat from my phone.

I guess if you call "just fine" running a program that is made for a 12" or better screen on a screen that is 1/16'th that size, then sure. I just figured that a bit of a better interface that works with a smaller screen would be useful to some users (myself included.)

My phone zooms in and reformats the text to fit fine, but I admit my phone is a top end phone too.

You can get twitter alerts to new Gimp Chat threads on your mobile device. I haven't considered individual posts but I could make available an RSS feed with individual posts.

I already do this via Google Reader (RSS) via my Droid. Every new post (not reply posts, though) alerts me.

Any new reply I would want to be based on my own subscription to the thread, though.

As do I, although I still think mobile use would be more intuitive with an application dedicated to it.

Most forums allow these/skins. A quick search shows that phpbb does as well, including some optimized for mobile phones.

On other forums I manager (vBulletin based) there are add ons that can check the user agent string and serve up the mobile version for mobile devices, or have a redirected url like m.gimpchat.com get served up the mobile template.

No "app" required (we don't need no stinkin' apps!).

[rant]My biggest criticism on Apple is the "appification" of the internet. Everyone thinks they need an app to do anything, when in reality if people would get behind a decent html5 compliant browser, 99% of those apps wouldn't be necessary... but I guess there is no money in it and apple can';t control content deliver with an iron fist like they can the app store....[/rant]

-Rob A>

I can't argue that rob. Maybe that would be the better route to go. I don't care how we do it, I just think doing SOMETHING to make working with gimpchat on a mobile could have a very positive effect on the community, as well as the amount of interaction between users.

(on the apple note) I think when the iPhone first came out it was the primary way to use the phone (kind of like how installing software was the only option when the PC started getting big) now that the web is getting so smart, both PCs and smartphones are finally moving to the web-based system.

I'm with Rob on this one. I'm using Dolphin Browser on my HTC Evo 4G to type this. Just like being on my computer. No problems at all!

I think of apps more like shortcut icons on a desktop. They can be useful, especially for sites that are used often, but are also easily accessible via the browser icons/bookmarks way. I find them convenient but not necessary...that being said, I do have 5 pages of apps on my phone, lol. All free, I never pay for apps. My main complaint is that so many apps don't give you full service to a site the way going through the browser does.

I can't help but feel like you're missing my point. I don't have any problems viewing the site on my phone either. None at all. My point is that a mobile layout would be a wonderful addon to GC.