Nervosa Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 This might be out there as far as suggestions go. A lot of people have phones and are on the go so why not make an phone app so users can send, receive PMs and post things in their blog, kinda like FB and Twitter. I think some aspects of products would need to be change in order to be more community network friendly In the end its all about how your users use and visit your site. With the success of Twitter and Facebook I could really see something like this taking off for some sites.
bfarber Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 We'd love to do that, but you have to understand that we're in a different model than Facebook or Twitter. Facebook/Twitter are individual sites. They can create applications that directly interface with their site and distribute those applications through appropriate channels. What you would want is for us to make an application that we can distribute that your members can use with YOUR site. It's a lot more difficult to do that. It's something we're investigating, and would like to address, but there are challenges. For instance, if we made an iphone application, it's not like we can give that application to you so you can distribute for your members. It would need to be distributed through the Apple App store. Either we'd need to give to you with instructions how to tailor to your site (e.g. how to customize a configuration file so that the application points to your specific forums, etc.) and you would need to distribute it through the app store yourself, or we would need to distribute some kind of generic "IPB application" through the app store that users could download and configure to point to their favorite forums. It's a bit difficult coming up with a proper distribution model to handle this, basically. I assume most other cell phones are similar.
jagowar Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 I second this idea but would add palm pre support for our site would be important.... we have alot of palm pre users (including me ;))
bfarber Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 I assume there is a similar (though slightly more open) distribution model for palm pre, and we'd have the same issues, no?
jagowar Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 I would assume but it is an open system.... there is a very large homebrew community for the pre which does not require their app store at all (infact you cant even submit apps for the pre yet). but I would assume you would want to have it in the app store eventually for simplicity sake. you would still have the same issue choosing to have each site customize the app or create a ipb wide version. I would personally suggest you let each site run their own (if they choose). that way we can put our logo for the icon and tailor it to our color schemes.http://forums.precen.../homebrew-apps/ (for more information)
Nervosa Posted July 29, 2009 Author Posted July 29, 2009 I think having it open so the forum admin has to configure it would be better in the end (probably a lot easier and less headache). You could even simplify it even more by having the software compile its self to all supported phone OSs and then submit them to their respective app store. This part could be a plug in type feature so if something inst currently supported it could be added at a later date. I was mainly thinking of a way to receive PMs via SMS or even posting to a blog. The more I think what this could do, it just amazes me. With the other approach of a generic IPB app it may be possible to network the entire IPB community together. (every site that uses IP.Board) The end user would download this from their respective app store and enter the url for the forum they wish to use it on for PMs, Blogs, etc. With having them use an Open ID, they could browse away from one site and visit another IPS powered site with ease and interact with them. You could even call it IP.Connect or something corny like that.Either we'd need to give to you with instructions how to tailor to your site (e.g. how to customize a configuration file so that the application points to your specific forums, etc.) and you would need to distribute it through the app store yourself, or we would need to distribute some kind of generic "IPB application" through the app store that users could download and configure to point to their favorite forums.
Fast Lane! Posted July 29, 2009 Posted July 29, 2009 Simply make sure that IPB can be accessed via a BlackBerry (not very well right now). Sorry.
jagowar Posted July 29, 2009 Posted July 29, 2009 [quote name='Nervosa' date='28 July 2009 - 11:31 PM' timestamp='1248841891' post='1834913'] With the other approach of a generic IPB app it may be possible to network the entire IPB community together. (every site that uses IP.Board) The end user would download this from their respective app store and enter the url for the forum they wish to use it on for PMs, Blogs, etc. With having them use an Open ID, they could browse away from one site and visit another IPS powered site with ease and interact with them. You could even call it IP.Connect or something corny like that. Actually that might be the best way to do it.... release a generic app for each store and the user would key in their forum url and it would pull all the "customizations" for each phone (color, graphics, icon, etc). That way it could be a simple app process for ipb and end users could get the customizations we want/need.
bfarber Posted July 29, 2009 Posted July 29, 2009 See, it's difficult to figure out the best way to handle something like this. ;) If we made YOU submit the app yourself, I'd imagine that would be a headache for most admins. I believe Apple, for example, has some sort of fee to be able to submit apps, some sort of application process, etc. Then if there was a bug, we'd have to distribute the updated app to all our customers who would then in turn have to submit their app to the app store. Could get to be a good wait to get updates out there. On the other hand, it's not quite as "clear" to a user the purpose of downloading a generic "IPB Interface Tool" from the app store, and then manually put in the url to your board. Most general users don't know you run IPB, etc. etc. so it wouldn't make as much sense as downloading a "MyCoolWebsite app" specific to your site.
austinreefclub Posted July 29, 2009 Posted July 29, 2009 How about creating a multiple mobile skins and tailoring them specifically to each of the popular mobile phones out there? I would pay for an iphone skin ATM.
bfarber Posted July 29, 2009 Posted July 29, 2009 That's something that can be done (would be nice, though I'm not sure how well we'd be able to handle that ourselves, as we're not going to go out and buy multiple mobile phones and contracts just to create the skins ;) ) however it's different from actual phone-based applications.
jagowar Posted July 29, 2009 Posted July 29, 2009 That would work as well but part of the reason people are interested in phone apps is Ive never seen a mobile website even come close to being as smooth and useful as a real application. Of course part of the problem is the mobile site here is not very good for those of us on more advanced phones (and it also has the problem of not being custom tailored to each phones look and feel.... for instance the pre and iphone have similar but different ways to navigate applications and their look and feel parts are different as well)
PrepaidAndroids.net Posted February 25, 2010 Posted February 25, 2010 Got me an awesome IPB3 iPhone skin. Check it out on your iDevice. http://theoscentral.net [img]http://localhostr.com/files/043ba8/IMG_0024.PNG[/img]
miikerocks Posted February 25, 2010 Posted February 25, 2010 [quote name='theoscentral.net' date='25 February 2010 - 07:23 PM' timestamp='1267125805' post='1917941'] Got me an awesome IPB3 iPhone skin. Check it out on your iDevice. http://theoscentral.net [img]http://localhostr.com/files/043ba8/IMG_0024.PNG[/img] [/quote] That is cool!
PrepaidAndroids.net Posted February 25, 2010 Posted February 25, 2010 [quote name='miikerocks' date='25 February 2010 - 08:46 PM' timestamp='1267130783' post='1917971'] That is cool! [/quote] Thanks!
Swiftie Posted February 26, 2010 Posted February 26, 2010 [quote name='miikerocks' date='25 February 2010 - 08:46 PM' timestamp='1267130783' post='1917971'] That is cool! [/quote] Coded by Tinman. I would like to see what happened to the mobile skin that's coming in 3.1.
Josh Posted February 26, 2010 Posted February 26, 2010 [quote name='Swiftie' date='26 February 2010 - 05:30 AM' timestamp='1267180203' post='1918176'] I would like to see what happened to the mobile skin that's coming in 3.1. [/quote] It's still coming, hopefully we'll have more screenshots in the near future
Robulosity2 Posted February 26, 2010 Posted February 26, 2010 I actually got fed up with some of my users in area's that only have dial up complaining about getting PM's but never reading them.. I cheated, made a skin that uses CSS from Lo-Fi but Templating from The IPS Default skin.. not perfect in the sense of rendering (I'll eventually clean it up so it moves stuff around In the message view I'm trying to get it to "wrap" so it looks more like the standard messenger.. but I'm tired
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.