Mobile WebApp Profile: PopSci

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Dennis Bournique

The latest revision of Popular Science magazine’s mobile site at m.popsci.com sports a searchable blog style timeline of recent articles and photo features from the publication’s desktop site. The site is attractive and the content is great, but usability is hurt by a couple of non-functional page elements that invite the user to tap them but end up doing nothing. For example, there’s a “Browse” dropdown at the top of every page and a similar “Comments” dropdown at the end of … Continue reading →

Gmail for Java and Blackberry No Longer Available From Google – Get It Here

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Dennis Bournique

On November 22, 2011, Google discontinued support for mobile Java and BlackBerry versions of its Gmail app and removed the download links for these apps from their sites. The Gmail apps still work and are the best way I’ve found to access Gmail on non-touchscreen feature phones. I haven’t used a BlackBerry in years but when I did I used the Google app because it worked better with Gmail than BlackBerry Mail did. As these apps still work I’m posting … Continue reading →

Bolt Browser Discontinued! Servers Shut Down

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Dennis Bournique

"Discontinued" message overlay in Bolt Browser

The popular Android and Mobile Java proxy browser Bolt, is being discontinued. The cloud service that it runs on will be shut down on Dec 14th, 2011. The news came in the form of a cryptic message overlay that started appearing today in the browser. It reads Dear Bolt User, the free BOLT mobile browsing service will be discontinued starting Dec-14, 2011. Unfortunately, the economic circumstances prevent us from running a free service going forward. We apologize for any inconvenience … Continue reading →

The New Twitter Mobile WebApp – Nice Looking But Less functional?

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Dennis Bournique

Yesterday Twitter announced that it was in the process of rolling out a new design that would unify Twitter’s look and feel across all platforms. The new full Web version will be rolled out slowly but according the Twitter the new look is available now in the Android and iOS apps and at mobile.twitter.com. At least that’s what they say. I headed over to mobile.twitter.com to look at the new design. And to my surprise I saw the “old” Twitter … Continue reading →

Mobile Site Quick Take: Mobile Europe

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Dennis Bournique

New to me, but Mobile Europe has apparently been around for 14 years as a controlled circulation (meaning it’s distributed for free to industry professionals) print magazine covering the mobile telecoms industry with a euro-centric focus. It also has a website and this mobile website. I don’t normally give much shrift to these sorts of indusry rags, which tend to be mostly cut and pasted press releases. But two things caught my eye about Mobile Europe. For one, the content is actually … Continue reading →

New Touch-Friendly UC Browser 8.0 Beta for Java ME

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Dennis Bournique

UC Mobile released a new version of the UC Browser for Java ME last week. It’s 8.0 Beta and is notable for its brand new, much more touch friendly user interface. This is Beta release, a number of features that were in previous UC Browser versions are not implemented. Here are the ones I noticed No save page or open saved pages options. No share to Twitter or Facebook option. No way to view the copy/paste clipboard. No option to remember the last page on … Continue reading →

Qt’s Mobile Resurgence, RIM, Android, iOS and the “Next Billion” at QT Developer Days 2011

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Dennis Bournique

I attended Qt Developer Days in San Francisco this week. It’s the premiere event for developers working with Qt, a free and open source PC, embedded and mobile development platform that’s also available under a commercial license. Originally Qt was a C and C++ only framework, but since late last year it also includes Qt Quick, which lets developers build touch UIs using a Javascript based scripting language called QML. Qt has been developed and maintained by Nokia since the company’s acquisition of Trolltech in 2008. It’s been a year … Continue reading →

Found On The Mobile Web #249

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Dennis Bournique

Found on the Mobile Web is a regular WAP Review feature listing newly added and updated sites on the YesWAP.com mobile portal and WapReview mobile site directory. With these latest additions the directory and portal now list 2367 mobile sites. Tech LiveSide.net liveside.net A news and information site focusing on Windows Live. Features interviews with Microsoft product team members and news on Windows Live and the Windows Live Platform, Bing, Silverlight, Azure and Windows Phone. Content: Usability: Search/Local/City and Campus Guides Dublin … Continue reading →

Covering the Mobile Web From 2004 to 2014

Author Archives: Dennis Bournique