The mobile is becoming the new web!! And most of us travellers are smartphone users. So why am I missing on catching the ‘mobile’ bus was the question that was plaguing my mind for a long while. Both my travel blog and photography portfolio could be seen on the mobile, but it was the web version that was rendering on the mobile. This web version on the mobile brought with it a unique set of problems. My travel blog used to take a lot of time to load on the mobile and the widgets on the site would add to the misery. And my photography portfolio, where the slideshow runs on Flash failed to render properly on the mobile and again was very slow.
To overcome these problems, I put my limited technical knowledge and ‘Googling’ to full use and tried various 3rd party tools, mobile templates and native mobile apps. But, none of them solved my purpose as they were either too slow or directed my online properties through their site or ended up showing unwanted Ads.
After a lot of online research and permutations and combinations, I finally ended up using the default mobile template provided by blogger for my travel blog and built a custom template for my photography portfolio. The mobile template for the travel blog is lean and hence loads quickly. It works on all mobile platforms as certified by Google. And it provides a simple user interface for the user to see my photographs, read my content and comment through the commenting system. The navigation is also pretty simple, though doesn’t have the flexibility of the web, but what the hell, how much can I browse on the mobile.
The mobile app for the photography portfolio offers a whole lot more functionality. My slideshows are there are so are my picture thumbnails. My site navigation has been retained and offers great flexibility in navigation. And all these have been perfectly morphed for the mobile. But, it does have its limitations. This mobile view is currently limited to the iPhone and the Android devices. And the videos do not play exactly the way I want it to. Right now, I have to click the back button to get the video to load. Still some more work is needed here, but I am very happy with the progress so far.
Would love to hear your thoughts on what you think of the new mobile views!! Here is the URL again for your reference.
Travel Blog: http://www.beontheroad.com (All mobile platforms)
Photography Portfolio: http://photos.beontheroad.com (iPhone and Android)
Do remember to enter this in your mobile browser!!
Travel blog of an Indian traveler living his dream of experiencing the world and inspiring others to live their travel dream. Focus areas are travel and visa tips, destination guides, experiential travel stories and traveling as a vegetarian.
Nice Blog.... I Like It
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Rameshwaram Temple
Great that you've got it together for mobile format, Sankara. I'd forgotten about this lately, but you've reminded me to enable it for my Blogger powered blog, too, so thanks! The default setting is nice and clear. In my cse, though, I've enabled the custom setting from the list, and it shows my blog in the colour scheme that I have it set to.
ReplyDeleteI've tried out your blog on my Android 2.2 phone, and just as with mine, it loads quickly, and all the commenting options work. I've been to your gallery site on my Android phone, too, and the photos show without any problem. I cannot get the videos to play, though, but the problem here seems to be my phone, which is not a very sophisticated model. Android 2.2 and should play videos. Despite this, I cannot get my smartphone to play any videos, except with the Youtube app.
awesome photography
ReplyDeleteasaassas
ReplyDeleteThank you for the feedback Andrew. The videos play on Android phones though the usability is weak. It starts playing when we cancel the video play button.
ReplyDeleteYour mobile blog also looks great. The blogger templates allow our blogs to load so much faster on the phone.