What About a Special Smartphone Version of This Forum?

[Gene Steinberg]

We've been looking for ways to improve access for these forums on a smartphone, such as the iPhone. One method we tried looked perfectly awful, so we dumped it.

There's another, Tapatalk.

It looks really nice on the iPhone, and also works on phones using Google's Android OS and the RIM Blackberry. But the iPhone version will cost you $2.99 from the App Store, and there are no refunds.

The question is whether enough of you care to want to invest that small amount to try it. We'll do what we can to make it look good and work as efficiently as possible, but I don't like the idea of charging for the ability to view our regular forums.

Please cast your vote.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Update: In examining this situation further, there appears to be a free version of Tapatalk for the iPhone. But you are not able to post a regular message or a Private Message — it's read only. But for those of you who don't want to pay, at least you can keep abreast of messages and bookmark them for later responses.

I've modified the poll accordingly.

---------- Post added at 12:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:31 PM ----------

The following information comes from the publisher of this application:

Tapatalk is a mobile forum app for iPhone / Android and soon to be on Blackberry and Nokia. Tapatalk supports vBulletin (3.x and 4.x) and phpBB forums and forum owner can activate this service for free. Tapatalk supports all the usual forum functions plus full screen image viewing, image upload, caching (less reload), private messaging, all these features are accessible in just a few simple taps.

Tapatalk for iPhone:
Showing New and Unread Posts:

Full Thread Viewing and Pagination Support:

See Who's Online:

Reply to Post and Image Upload:

Some of the large forums activated Tapatalk support

Tapatalk for Android

Total Android Look and Feel

Same feature set as iPhone:

Quickly Reply to a conversation:

Latest and Unread Posts indicator and multi-tabs support:

Full screen image support - support landscape mode also

Check out Tapatalk - iPhone Android Nokia forum app for vBulletin and phpBB for more information!

---------- Post added at 01:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 PM ----------

Here's an update:

I set up the free version of Tapatalk on my iPhone. Our forum looks just great — really! So I'm inclined to recommend this approach, but I see there appears to be no way to flag a message for a later response, other than, perhaps, to Subscribe to a thread for later review on your regular computer, where you can post a response.

I'll leave it up to you to decide if it's worth the download and, perhaps, the additional $2.99 to be able to post responses.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

This is how the response looks.

I didn't think you'd see any difference.

 

[Hoffmeister]

I never see the needs for these sorts of things. I can access the site fine through Safari

 

[Gene Steinberg]

I never see the needs for these sorts of things. I can access the site fine through Safari

The capability is there. Use it or not. It's your choice. I'd at least suggest you try the free version before voting.

 

[ALPHA ROMEO UNIFORM]

Hi Gene,
Just learning to use a Ipod man

 

[duffmeister]

There's also some other great forums to read on there should you get bored of this one. I particularly like the Pro Power Wash Forum for its excellent information regarding breakthroughs in squirting water technology. I think I'll go and tell my wife all about what I learned there so that we can both sleep well tonight.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

I always wondered about water squirting.

 

[owlman]

Finally got Tapatalk today. It works great !

 

[methshin]

yeah, an iphone/ipod touch app would be handy.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

yeah, an iphone/ipod touch app would be handy.

Well, Tapatalk is here now, and it works decently. The downside is that, if you actually want to post rather than just lurk, you have to buy the $2.99 version for the iPhone (the "lurk" version is free). It also appears to be free for other platforms. On the other hand, that $2.99 is a one-time fee that includes ALL the forums supported by the app, and that number is in the thousands I understand.

 

[owlman]

Yeah, I think I'll lurk while on my phone, but then post when I come back home to my pc . Loved the recent show btw Gene. Chris was excellent.

 

[bbridges]

Water, water everywhere...

 

[Angel of Ioren]

Yeah, so this app is worth the $3. MUCH, MUCH easier than attempting to post to this forum than using Safari on the iPhone.