How can I avoid constantly logging in to the new PF Mobile version?

[Molydood]

I absolutely HATE it!

 

[NeoDevin]

Well explained and precise. Excellent feedback!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

haha yeah me too. curious what device you are using?

 

[Dembadon]

I absolutely HATE it!

Posts like this are extremely frustrating. Do you have anything constructive to add, or are you just venting?

Edit:
Please forgive my sharp response. We've had an unusual abundance of condescending emails and phone calls today from clients with the typical "It doesn't work" feedback.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Posts like this are extremely frustrating. Do you have anything constructive to add, or are you just venting?

thanks Dembadon, but it's ok I'm just playing with things at the moment

 

[Moonbear]

thanks Dembadon, but it's ok I'm just playing with things at the moment

I guess at least now you know at least one person besides yourself uses it.

 

[mcknia07]

I was not aware that we have a new moblie version... What is it through? Are you making an App for like the iPhone/iPod?

 

[Molydood]

haha yeah me too. curious what device you are using?

iPhone
it's all back to normal now... Phew!

 

[Molydood]

Just to respond to some of the comments: believe me if you had seen PF last night you wouldn't need any exlanation! I guess it was broken whereas I thought it was just some new terrible version :-)
relief...

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

what do you think of the new version?

 

[Molydood]

Prefered the old one by far but it's probably bearable now. It was perfect before though...
:-(

 

[Molydood]

What device are you on?
I think for a lot of mobile users it will be a good thing but for me I feel a massive step back.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

What device are you on?
I think for a lot of mobile users it will be a good thing but for me I feel a massive step back.

Iphone. Using the normal skin it was impossible to see anything. It loaded slowly and you had to zoom in and scroll everywhere.

 

[Moonbear]

Do those gizmos have a way to do a screen capture so the rest of us can see what this mobile version looks like? I'm just nosey.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

https://www.physicsforums.com/misc/www.gif

https://www.physicsforums.com/misc/eee.gif

https://www.physicsforums.com/misc/qqq.gif

 

[Moonbear]

Cool! I'm going to have to ask my students how good the service is around here for iPhones. A bunch of them have them and now that I publish all my lectures as podcasts for them, they actually use them to review the lectures. I was impressed with the quality of the images on them, and they look really easy to use. I just don't know how good AT&T's service is around here. But, if I can get my PF fix from an iPhone, it's yet another check in the column in favor of getting one.

 

[mcknia07]

I liked the old version, but the new is way easier to read and see. Well done Greg!

 

[Dmitry67]

Hi.

I noticed it today.
Looks like now my device is automatically detected as 'mobile' and I am transferred to the mobile version.

Is it possible to use the non-mobile version on my phone?
I am asking because I have XPERIA X1 with 480x800 screen, so I didnt have any problems before with a regular version

Regards

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Is it possible to use the non-mobile version on my phone?
I am asking because I have XPERIA X1 with 480x800 screen, so I didnt have any problems before with a regular version

yes, there is a link at the bottom that says "use normal view"

 

[Dale]

I use PF on a blackberry a lot. I like the readability of the new version, easy to see and scroll around. Also, the pages load pretty fast. However, the navigation is problematic. For example, from the "Forum Feedback & Announcements" page I cannot tell if there is another post after mine in this thread. To check that I actually have to load the thread. Then it drops me onto the first page so I have to load each successive page until the last. Only then can I tell if there was another post after mine or if all of the clicks were in vain. I would make the following recommendations:

1) keep the layout
2) at the forum level identify the last poster
3) have, at a minimum, a link to the first and last page

This could be done e.g. by
"Name of Thread" "Last post by Someone"
Where "Name of Thread" links to the first page and "Last post by Someone" links to the last page.

 

[Molydood]

I agree with pretty much all of dalespams post hence why I prefer the old version by far. I already tried clicking on the button at the bottom to switch it To normal but it does nothing.

 

[Dale]

One other thing. As I mentioned before, I do PF on blackberry a lot and sometimes I am in places with unreliable signal. Therefore I always view with my browser set to not download images by default. So getting rid of icons and images as much as possible and replacing them with text would be beneficial. For example, there is an image of an oval with the text "Post Reply" inside of it. This could be replaced simply with the text "Post Reply".

Basically, the standard version has good content and good linking/navigation. For the mobile version the clean formatting is very readable and it would be nice to even further minimize the number of icons or other images for faster loading in potentially low bandwidth locations.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll see what I can do!

 

[Molydood]

Greg, thanks for all the effort with developing this, I know it's hard when you get very few positives and lots and lots of negatives. I hope you understand that my original venting was 100% a misunderstanding as a result of some transition occurring on the site just before you went live with the new mobile version (and in that state it was completely unusable!)
I agree that there are some gains with high load speed and ease of readability on the small screen, however, I feel a loss of *functionality*, I can't seem to edit my profile, as an example. Also, the big one for me is the loss of information eg. #posts for thread, who made last post, even silly things like how many lifetime posts a member has made is now missing. I know it's a mobile version and hence it's going to have less, but it's very frustrating for me because I can't switch back to the normal version and I am not comfortable with the new interface at all.

is there any chance you could prioritise the bug with the button for switching to the normal version? That at least gives people the *option*. Purely selfish reasons of course :-)

I think what you are doing is heading in the right direction for a lot of moble users.
For me, as you know, it's not working out, but I do appreciate it may be a solution for other people and hence I can accept the need for change.

 

[Dmitry67]

I will be happy to use the mobile version, thank you for your efforts.
But the VERY REASON why I connect somethimes from my mobile is to check if someone had replied to the thread(s) I watch. So that functionality is a must.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Could just be me and it isn't a big deal, but it is hard to know how many pfians claim Argentine origins or their view of whether Leonardo or Newton was the better thinker as the polls don't seem to show up. And I also don't seem to be able to look back to check this post made sense so will submit anyway. (iPhone)

 

[Molydood]

Could just be me and it isn't a big deal, but it is hard to know how many pfians claim Argentine origins or their view of whether Leonardo or Newton was the better thinker as the polls don't seem to show up. And I also don't seem to be able to look back to check this post made sense so will submit anyway. (iPhone)

oh yeah, that is another thing I just noticed too; once you start typing into the quick quote box, you can't actually scroll back up to re-read what you have written, whereas you could before (iphone)

 

[Saladsamurai]

oh yeah, that is another thing I just noticed too; once you start typing into the quick quote box, you can't actually scroll back up to re-read what you have written, whereas you could before (iphone)

Yes. Ditto that. (iPhone). Else it looks pretty good Greg! I didn't even know you were working on a mobile app. You should sticky that little tid-bit somewhere! (or everywhere, like the PF proliferation thread.)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

ok the "normal" button at the bottom should now work. I also added the last post on the homepage and last poster/time/date for forum display view.

 

[Evo]

Evo Child just got a Palm Pre, I should check it out from her phone.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Evo Child just got a Palm Pre, I should check it out from her phone.

you know what, I can't get it to work on the Pre. having trouble detecting it

 

[fuzzyfelt]

The last poster is now displayed-good work- but a normal view still isn't showing for me.

 

[Molydood]

Echo fuzzyfelt comments exactly.

 

[Molydood]

Is it safe to assume that no further development will take place on the mobile version now?

 

[gel]

Well, I've just been bought an iPhone by the wife. Been using it browse this site for the last week. Seems pretty good to me. Clear and easy to use. Dunno what the old mobile version was like though.

 

[gel]

Hmm, just noticed the lack of scrolling typing that post.

 

[Pythagorean]

complaints:

1) I get a security error when I try to make a chess move on my iphone
2) I can't exit the iphone version to go to normal browser view (i.e. "Normal Version" button doesn't seem to work)

 

[Saladsamurai]

Yeah. I'll be honest, I am kind of surprised that the "My PF" screen is not an option. The only reason i log in from a mobile is to check up on my 'subscribed threads.'

that's why I wish 'Normal View' worked.

 

[Redbelly98]

Yeah. I'll be honest, I am kind of surprised that the "My PF" screen is not an option. The only reason i log in from a mobile is to check up on my 'subscribed threads.'

that's why I wish 'Normal View' worked.

A workaround would be to bookmark the My PF link. Or remember that typing "/usercp.php" after www.physicsforums.com will get you there.

 

[Saladsamurai]

A workaround would be to bookmark the My PF link. Or remember that typing "/usercp.php" after www.physicsforums.com will get you there.

I bookmarked "www.physicsforums.com/usercp.php" and it worked great! Thanks RB!

 

[ranger]

I wanted to edit a post I made from my computer using my iphone. I found that for long posts, I am unable to scroll through the entire post, which makes editing text towards the bottom impossible. There is no scroll bar to navigate the length of the post.

 

[cristo]

A couple of suggestions: could you add a report button, and also the date of each post as well as the time?

 

[dE_logics]

Why not just use Opera and open the original PF page?

 

[Jack21222]

I'm just here to complain that the "normal version" button at the bottom is a cruel joke. It simply refreshed the page and keeps the mobile version.

I'm using an iPhone for what it's worth.

I really hate that we can't select a page to jump to on multi-page threads. I have to click through one by one to get to the most recent post.

 

[MATLABdude]

I wanted to edit a post I made from my computer using my iphone. I found that for long posts, I am unable to scroll through the entire post, which makes editing text towards the bottom impossible. There is no scroll bar to navigate the length of the post.

If you tap inside the text box to get the blinking cursor and then press and hold (like when you select text, copy / paste etc.) and then drag and hold to the bottom / top of the screen, you can scroll inside the text entry form. If you want to get at the very bottom of the text box, you sometimes need to type a character to get the browser to scroll there.

I love my iPhone and have gotten used to the virtual keyboard, but it can be a PITA every once in a while (like on this forum).

And my pet peeve about PFmobile: I can only see the time when a post was posted. But there's no date!

 

[Felipe61]

how far is the mobile version of PF currently?

 

[WiFO215]

I still cannot view the normal version of PF off of the iPhone. When I click the link, the page just reloads as is.

 

[rhody]

Just a note to Greg Bernhardt, when I entered this thread from a normal PC I got an ID and password prompt, and with cancel it still let me in. I assumed it should since I see many folks here who are general members and not Mentor's or Test people.

Just thought I would mention it.

Rhody...

 

[Kerrie]

Love the mobile version on my iPod touch!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Just thought I would mention it.
Rhody...

Thanks, got it fixed