We need some programmer on this board to make a DU iPhone app.

[Cant trust em]

How awesome would that be?

[geckosfeet]

1. I browse and post on DU on my Android web browser. Pretty good speeds

at 3G, 4G and over wifi.

The web apps that I have seen are usually watered down meeker versions of the full site. They usually do this because the site does not scale well and is resource intensive on a mobile phone.

DU is one site that runs and scales well on the native Android web browser. Not sure about iPhone.

[MineralMan]

3. But....the iPhone is from Apple, right? It's bound to be

better. Right? :rofl:

[geckosfeet]

4. Except for the total lack of flash support - the native iPhone web browser is probably comparable.

I can't understand why Apple refuses to include flash support. Stubborn morans.

I show Apple phans a flash video running perfectly on my EVO and two weeks later I see them with an Android device.

[Ichingcarpenter]

11. The only video DU supports is You Tube

I suggested a video forum years ago and they finally came around to that.

Meanwhile, I watch a hell of a lot more on line than You tube
to see video but at the same time ..... 'ONLY YOU TUBE"

The apple crap attack is disingenuous.

Apps can be transferred if you use apple or not.

I think the idea is a good idea.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Just save it to your home screen

That's all I do. Works well.

I don't want an app because those are almost always diluted forms of the actual website.

[newtothegame]

5. I posted the same multiple times and PM'd admins. Can't ever get a mod or admin to respond.

Even simply putting in the code so that the DU logo will translate over to the homepage icon would be nice.

That requires what, like 1 line of text?

Unfortunately I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Recursion]

6. Not to speak for the admins, but as a recovering web programmer ...

... there's a lot of backend work that would need to be done first to make it a good app. The site would need to be converted to a syndication-based model rather than a page-based model (trying to do a phone app on a page-based model always results in intolerable glorified screen-scrapers). A good first step might be RSS feeds for boards and individual threads; ultimately you would want a single xml file that is transformed based on the agent requesting it into a full page, an app page, an RSS feed, an SMS response, etc.

[newtothegame]

7. Any idea why we've never been able to subscribe to threads on DU?

Everything from the biggest news sites (who get 100's to 1000's of replies on any given thread) to my local newspaper has allowed "subscribing" to threads for years, so that comments can come to your email.

DU has been around coming up on 10 years, but this functionality has never beeen available. Even an email that you HAVE a comment on your post, without the actual content of the comment, would be a step in the right direction. Maybe some resources can be dedicated to a few of these items after the next fundraising drive? :shrug:

[Recursion]

8. Well, 2001 was right when the whole "web 2.0" thing was taking off

Bleeding-edge sites were just beginning to do delivery-agnostic stuff like that when the board started.

It's kind of the constant story in software development: decisions you make early on irrevocably lock you in later, and it's actually harder to change a site than to just make a new one. Also, bulk mail servers take a lot of time to administer and cost a lot of money on the hosting side: you basically have to get a separate kind of hosting contract because the company giving you the bandwidth has to essentially post a bond to guarantee you aren't spamming. And even then, it only takes one jackass forgetting he subscribed to a thread and sending a spam complaint to get you shut down.

[frylock]

9. du looks great on my evo

[PBS Poll-435]

10. I do DU from mine, but it would be cool to have

Rec!

[Xithras]

12. DU currently has no API's or syndication sources.

I've never liked the way DU works on my mobile (constantly have to zoom in and out) and looked into hacking something together for my own use last year. The only way I could do it was to parse the content out of each HTML page and rebuild everything from scratch. It worked (sorta), but it was incredibly slow (but that might have also had something to do with the fact that it was written in Python).

Techologically, DU is very "1999", and still based on the Web 1.0 model. Skinner posted something a couple years ago about a full DU rewrite being underway, which is going to fix this. Universal syndication will allow us to hack together new UI's for the iPhone, and nearly every other platform out there. Still waiting though...

I'll be glad whenever they get it done. Even Free Rethuglick has syndication and an iPhone app nowadays.