Author Topic: Mobile Forum Access: The saga continues (Read 22857 times)

Ed Wenn · « **on:** June 15, 2011, 12:46:03 PM »

Yesterday evening over a plate of delicious Kimchee and the most tasteless beer in the whole world (Hite from Korea), Ailsa drew my and Leon's attention to a very nifty 'forum-viewer' app called Tapatalk which she uses with great success on her iPhone. She demoed it and it looked nice and smooth and very easy to use.

Checking it out today I was excited to see that Tapatalk is simple to enable on this forum and also has apps for Android, WebOS, Windows Phone and Blackberry. Good news. I installed the server side plugin on our forum and Alisa's tested it and confirmed that it all looks good from her perspective. I'll be doing the same from an Android phone later this afternoon.

Too good to be true?

Well, of course there's a slight bump in this particular road in the form of needing to exchange money for the phone app (at least for Android & iPhone); they're cheap, but you do need to buy them. My understanding is that there's a free "read only" version called "Tapatalk RO" which you could install to see if you like the interface. If all you want to do is read the forum and not add comments then this should allow you to do that at no charge. Hurrah!

The Blackberry app is in Beta and appears to be free at the moment (yay for Thom!). I'm not sure yet whether the same is true for the Windows Phone app, but it just might be. There is/was a Nokia app, but it's been discontinued and didn't work on Symbian 3 anyway. Bah!

Still, it does look like a decent all round solution "for enabling a rich forum experience on mobile devices" (that's how we speak at work

) and if any of you are that way inclined I'd urge you to give it a go and report back. Here's the blurb from Tapatalk, plus links to the different apps and a ton of screenshots:

Tapatalk is a forum app on the iPhone, Android, webOS, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry. Tapatalk Forum App provides super fast on-the-go forum access to majority of the discussion forums that has activated the Tapatalk plugin.

Showing New and Unread Thread with Avatar and Number of reply:

Images are thread are converted to thumbnail and allow full-screen viewing

Ability to see Who's Online and what they are doing:

Ability to search by topics and posts:

Ability to upload images directly from Android and iPhone!:

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #1 on:** June 15, 2011, 03:07:39 PM »

Great news on the Android front too. It all seems to work really well. The app cost £1.79 by the way.

(Sent from Jacqui's HTC Desire using Tapatalk)

rkbry · « **Reply #2 on:** June 15, 2011, 03:13:22 PM »

I can tell you it works well on WebOS. Very nice! Thanks, Ed.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi using Forums

Phil Bebbington · « **Reply #3 on:** June 15, 2011, 04:15:31 PM »

Okay, accessing it on my iPhone. It works fine. Pretty slick!

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #4 on:** June 15, 2011, 04:17:05 PM »

rkbry: Good news :-) and thanks for reporting back. This is extra useful for me because I'll be getting a Palm Pre as my work phone in the next few months.

BTW, for anyone who's slightly confused by the naming in use here, "Forums" is the 'powered by Tapatalk' app available in the WebOS App Catalogue.

Phil: Glad it's working for you. Ta for the feedback.

Ailsa · « **Reply #5 on:** June 15, 2011, 09:55:03 PM »

Working for me again after an earlier blip.

This-is-damion · « **Reply #6 on:** June 15, 2011, 11:03:35 PM »

Works well!

calbisu · « **Reply #7 on:** June 16, 2011, 06:49:04 AM »

I think it works GREAT!! Tested and sent from iphone

Urban Hafner · « **Reply #8 on:** June 16, 2011, 09:00:20 AM »

It's good to know that it works. I'll have to get the iPhone app then.

Urban

Thom Stone · « **Reply #9 on:** June 16, 2011, 04:28:56 PM »

Hmm 'no response from tapatalk servers' on my crackberry... Strange, maybe I downloaded the wrong version for my OS

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #10 on:** June 16, 2011, 08:04:19 PM »

Stick with it, Thom and try again soon. Ailsa noticed that she lost service via her iPhone at one point, but it was back again within an hour or two.

Nigel · « **Reply #11 on:** June 16, 2011, 08:43:24 PM »

i've laid down the £1.79 and Tapatalk is installing on the iPhone. That'll be really handy to pass long train rides! (just btw could they have designed a crappier icon!)

Edit: Once I'd remembered my login

it works great!

Skorj · « **Reply #12 on:** June 17, 2011, 11:45:52 AM »

My three year old keitai can do that. Next thing you guys will have digital cameras and smart cards in your quaint, lumpy, battery eating phones as well... Is that funny? Skj.

rolo · « **Reply #13 on:** June 17, 2011, 10:28:50 PM »

Yay! Now working on my iPhone. How modern, hip, and up to date.

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #14 on:** June 18, 2011, 01:28:07 AM »

Skorj, it's not a question of being able to use a Web browser on a phone to view the site...that's a given for a lot of phones. This post is about using an app as a way of accessing the forum (specifically) via a 'mobile friendly' interface.

Rolo, "modern, hip, and up to date." ...much the same as all film camera users

Skorj · « **Reply #15 on:** June 18, 2011, 01:41:29 AM »

Quote from: ed.wenn on June 18, 2011, 01:28:07 AM

This post is about using an app as a way of accessing the forum (specifically) via a 'mobile friendly' interface.

Ah ha. Insert suitable comment about needing an app for every element of modern life then. Now, that's funny. Skj.

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #16 on:** June 18, 2011, 10:31:05 AM »

Nope, not at all. I agree with your sentiment for the most part, but surely, accessing the FW forum at all times, from all locations and in the most convenient way possible comes fourth only to breathing, eating & sleeping?

Urban Hafner · « **Reply #17 on:** June 24, 2011, 08:04:18 AM »

Does anybody else have problems loading external links in tapatalk? I always get a blank page. It seems like it isn't loading the actual page but some other page that's probably responsible for loading the actual page.

Urban

Thom Stone · « **Reply #18 on:** July 04, 2011, 11:19:49 AM »

Beta version for the blackberry has gone now so had to pay to download it, that wouldn't even start! Then an update came out and it loads the app, I can access a few different forums but I can't access filmwasters :-( it just says, 'no response from tapatalk servers' just keeps doing it, anyone else had this problem on blackberry?!

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #19 on:** July 08, 2011, 03:46:42 PM »

Quote from: urbanhafner on June 24, 2011, 08:04:18 AM

Does anybody else have problems loading external links in tapatalk? I always get a blank page. It seems like it isn't loading the actual page but some other page that's probably responsible for loading the actual page.

Urban

Urban: I'll try to remember to test this functionality on Jacqui's Android phone later this evening.

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #20 on:** July 08, 2011, 03:48:22 PM »

Quote from: thom_stone on July 04, 2011, 11:19:49 AM

Beta version for the blackberry has gone now so had to pay to download it, that wouldn't even start! Then an update came out and it loads the app, I can access a few different forums but I can't access filmwasters :-( it just says, 'no response from tapatalk servers' just keeps doing it, anyone else had this problem on blackberry?!

That's a shame. I got an email telling me that the full version of Tapatalk was now available. The email didn't say this meant the app no longer worked

Anyone else having problems with this version, Thom? Have you checked the forums and such like?

Thom Stone · « **Reply #21 on:** July 19, 2011, 12:29:26 AM »

Quote from: ed.wenn on July 08, 2011, 03:48:22 PM

Quote from: thom_stone on July 04, 2011, 11:19:49 AM
Beta version for the blackberry has gone now so had to pay to download it, that wouldn't even start! Then an update came out and it loads the app, I can access a few different forums but I can't access filmwasters :-( it just says, 'no response from tapatalk servers' just keeps doing it, anyone else had this problem on blackberry?!

That's a shame. I got an email telling me that the full version of Tapatalk was now available. The email didn't say this meant the app no longer worked Anyone else having problems with this version, Thom? Have you checked the forums and such like?

Woop on tapatalk now but can only access threads using 'participated threads' button. Other buttons like to the main forum just give me blank blue pages. Although I can see pictures now :-) suppose I can always contribute to new threads on the wap2 site in my native browser then come on here to view pictures and comment further.

Sent from my BlackBerry 8520 using Tapatalk

Francois · « **Reply #22 on:** May 18, 2012, 10:50:46 PM »

Resurrecting an old topic.
I just got a used (well... it still looks like new) Sony Mylo Com-2 Internet communicator.
Sadly, the darn thing isn't supported anymore by Sony... (grumble) so no updates are possible.

But when I try to access the forum with either nothing or the /?wap /?wap2 or /?imode switches, it gives me a very nice 403 error... nice.

Here's the tech support key it gave me: 6016-186e-1756-6707

Is there anything I can do to get it working here?
I know it's a bit finicky but at least I can use it for google, music and the weather

This-is-damion · « **Reply #23 on:** May 21, 2012, 09:10:03 PM »

Francois, you are usually the go to guy for tech issues and well.... almost any issues.

So if you don't know I'd safely assume its not possible.

Maybe check back with yourself in a months time when you will have no doubt figured it out.

Francois · « **Reply #24 on:** May 22, 2012, 02:03:25 PM »

Maybe by then, someone will have cracked it and managed to put Android on it

Ed Wenn · « **Reply #25 on:** June 13, 2012, 11:47:32 PM »

Hey Francois....looks like your WAP issues are fixed? Great news.

Francois · « **Reply #26 on:** June 20, 2012, 09:36:37 PM »

Yep!

And I'm really happy. Not that I'll use it a lot, but it's simply nice when things just work

Alan · « **Reply #27 on:** January 02, 2013, 05:53:16 PM »

Quote from: Francois on June 20, 2012, 09:36:37 PM

Yep! but it's simply nice when things just work

i am now on android! and going to give tapatalk a twist . . .

but i just couldnt resist posting this - especially for francois [ not android, apple of photography related ]

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/unbelievable/videos/527894/title/honda-isnt-nice-when-things-just-work

Francois · « **Reply #28 on:** January 02, 2013, 11:25:18 PM »

I saw this rube goldberg machine a few years ago.
For some reason, I just love those machines that mostly do nothing

Even Red Bull made one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0jmSsQ5ptw

Alan · « **Reply #29 on:** January 03, 2013, 10:07:38 PM »

ha - have not seen that before !

its good but a bit excessive just to get that snowboarder his tinnie before he heads off in the helli