Can we have a mobile App for the community?

i use the site on my mobile (HTC desire HD) & i find it no slower than when i'm logged on through the pc....

                                               paul & jo

I have an iphone, I can view the forum and read posts with ease, however, I cannot post a reply, or type anywhere.

I have an iPhone which I am using to type this. It is tricky but doable. I type in document writer app the paste into forum reply box. You can get the paste option to appear but I sometimes get it straight away and sometimes I'm tapping for a while

An app would be great

Sarah

just checked on mine, when it opens up on the mobile if i scroll to the bottom of the page it gives me 2 options on how to view the site...

1= mobile , which has limited functions

2=classic , which is exactly the same as how i view & use the site on my pc..........

simples...... ;-)

                                                paul & jo

If they go ahead with this, I would love to see a mobile identifier :) not just access to the web one, but one where you could record sound into and get closest matches too. Just like the kind of apps where you point it at the radio and it identifies the song, I'm sure there would be a market for an iphone/android/Blackberry app like that :)

Hi

I use a Blackberry and I can log into the sight at about the same speed as my PC, I can also answer directly through the mobile albeit not as fast as typing on a keyboard. I do like mpiekp's idea I for one would purchase that app, it would be great to guess at the identity of what singing and then varify it with the app.

Shane

hold on peoples... lets walk before we can run here

I'd much prefer them to concentrate on getting the format of the forum correct and then see what they can do about mobile devices... hopefully they'll use XML when they are developing so mobile content will be easier to facilitate. Simplicity is key. 

Ideally this would have been thought about in the planning stages, heres hoping. 

mpiekp said:

If they go ahead with this, I would love to see a mobile identifier :) not just access to the web one, but one where you could record sound into and get closest matches too. Just like the kind of apps where you point it at the radio and it identifies the song, I'm sure there would be a market for an iphone/android/Blackberry app like that :)

what a money spinner that could be for the rspb brill idea mpiekp, i get really annoyed when im hearing a song or churp and have no idea what type of bird it is ...10% cut to mpiekp    lol

Thanks for your suggestions.
 
The software that sits behind the community is an off-the-shelf product.  Unfortunately, we're not able to add functionality and features at will.  Following our hardware upgrade before Christmas we're working hard towards upgrading that software to the latest version in Spring/Summer 2011.  As well as some of the performance improvements we're all keen to see, we're assured that the latest version of the software will handle basic functionality (posting in forums and blogs, etc) more reliably from mobile browsers.
 
However, the company that provides this software to us (and a number of customers much larger than us), don't provide native apps for the various mobile platforms (iPhone, android, blackberry, windows mobile, etc).  I guess in theory it would be possible to, but I'm glad they'd rather focus on improving the core web-based product, and doing that in a way that works with all modern web browsers regardless of whether they are on a desktop pc or your mobile phone.  It would simply be too costly for the RSPB to develop, support and maintain bespoke mobile applications for the various platforms just to replicate functionality that should (and I appreciate it's not there currently) work as standard on the site, however you access it.
 
As far as performance of the community via a mobile is concerned, there's not much that can be done other than improving the overall performance of the site.  It should be possible to provide mobile-specific views of the community pages, with less graphics and a more appropriate/flexible layout for a smaller screen and we'll investigate this after the upgrade.  However, last year less than 2% of the number of visits to the whole of the RSPB's website were from a mobile device, and we have to prioritise our effort across all of the important conservation, campaigning, and communication tasks at hand.  
 
We're really mindful of increasing use of mobile devices and we're doing our best to make sure the RSPB's website works for as many people as possible.

Cheers,

RSPB Mods

Brilliant, thanks for the reply Tom