View any site on a cell phone

Robert, this isn’t half as good as this site from google. The key reason is it strips out all the graphics on demand.

Robert, the Google site Steve linked to is much better for espn.com. You guys have got to get that one right if you want to hang w/Google.

Error page displayed when using a
Treo 650 blazer browser.
I agree with Steve Rubel’s post, Google’s site
is currently a better solution.

Scoble, try this: http://www.skweezer.com

Edit: Use that site to access TechCrunch and notice the difference.

Robert, thank you for the link! If there is any way to avoid, in the future, having the word “techcrunch” next to the words “really sucks”, I’ll be your best friend forever.

Commenting on the flaws of transcoding services will have me typing all night…

TechCrunch has chosen to take control over it’s mobile environment, branding, and in the meantime actually reaching it’s audience on most any web-enabled phone on the planet.

TechCrunch Mobile Address:
http://winksite.com/techcrunch/mobile

Web 2.0 Workgroup Mobile Address (mobilized via OPML):
http://winksite.com/web20/workgroup

This is the beginning, took about 5 minutes. More features to be launching soon. Feedback welcome.

The addresses above are intended for web-enabled devices. Use these links from the desktop (if this blog excepts javascript to launch an emulator):

TechCrunch Mobile

Web 2.0 Workgroup Mobile Address (mobilized via OPML

..and it didn’t.

How many freaking times people gotta tell you before it actually sinks into your skull? The internet on phones looks HORRIBLE in Pocket Internet Explorer, get Opera Mobile for goodnesss sake, and then you won’t have to worry about such hoop-jumping tricks or special pages (well not as much, nothings perfect).

to David Harper (and others),
maybe I’m being a bit dense and so forth, but can’t you link to a stylesheet with media=”handheld” and use that to format techcrunch.com nicely on a phone or other mobile device ?

oops forgot the link – http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=HandheldStylesheets

Is there some sort of emulator or something that developers can use to see what their website looks like on a mobile device?

I don’t have a mobile device (and can’t afford one right now). But I would like to make sure my sites work well for the mobile audience…

Robert,

Here is a site with a couple of “hacks” for the 2125 SmartPhone.

To Martin (and others)

Linking to a stylesheet with media=”handheld” would be ideal in a perfect world, and in no way am I suggesting that sites should not do that as part of their mobile solution.

Unfortunately, not all 2 billion plus mobile phones in the world support XHTML MP / CSS, and the ones that do so offer varying support for those standards. There are also issues of a specific phones media support, screen size and network speed. Throw into that mix the notion that 1.) Perhaps browsing is not necessarily the best use case for mobile users and 2. ) Perhaps you wish to have your mobile site take advantage of the fact it is being viewed from a phone by interacting with phones’ inherent features.

If anyone wants to explore this topic more, Cameron Moll has done a great job offering insight and options in this series he wrote on mobile web design:

Mobile Web Design: Methods to the Madness (which contains a great chart comparing various methods)
http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000428.html

Mobile Web Design: Tips & Techniques
http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000577.html

From my perspective it is more than just publishing content to a mobile environment or automagically squeezing a Web site onto a small screen. It is about the individuals it engages, the people it connects, the dialogue that develops, the community that forms and the collective action that can result. Providing mobile solutions with this in mind requires more then stylesheets and transcoding services to get the job done.

I’m simply glad to see the “Mobile 2.0″ conversation beginning. It’s long overdue.

thanks David – I’ll look into that

Hey Robert,

You can also check out http://skweezer.net

MSNTV2 and WebTV users have found this site to a boon for accessing all sorts of pages that those boxes have problems with. I’m using it on my new PPC-6700 from Sprint and love the site.

Howdy everyone, I’m Bonita, really nice blog, lots of great info, Thanks a lot!

Also check out webxcope.com (similar to demo.mobileleap.net)

I just learned of both of these and am amazed…

i was wondering if there were any other sites that were avaliable to be reached from your molible phone. I have tried http://www.google.com/gwt/n and put in the url but sometimes that does not work…so if anyone has anyother suggestions please let me know of them.
thank you.

The secret code of your cell phone