PocketPC site

okay, the rss feeds are great and all, but what about us folks who like to browse using our pocketpc's? The site is just about useless on one and I think it would be nice if you lads put on up!

rmessier wrote:

okay, the rss feeds are great and all, but what about us folks who like to browse using our pocketpc's? The site is just about useless on one and I think it would be nice if you lads put on up!

I don't see the point
designing it to work
on a pocket PC. The
Pocket PC is too small
 to use to browse the
internet, it might have
 the capabilities but
that doesn't make it
a good idea. Spending
time re-building the
site for them is a
waste, regardless of
 how many people use
 pocket PC's to read
 the content. That 
time could be used 
making the wiki rich-
text. 

[This post has been
formatted to make it
 easy for the pocket
 PC people! ]
 

I think that is rather shortsighted. I am already getting alot of work creating sites that are PocketPC compatible -- and let me tell you, it is a royal pain in the arse to get them to work right. The support for styles and generally all around Pocket browsers just plain suck. But, everyone is getting these little devices and expecting their web experience to mirror their desktop, so we HAVE to keep pace as professional developers.

Not short sighted at all. Pocket PC's are on the way out.. to be replaced by cheap laptops and tablet PCs and to an extent mobiles (Which can't view HTML anyway).


[A 'mobile' is a cell phone to the yanks]

Well, either way, providing rich content (not multi-media, just database and biz apps) in a smallish environment is becomming more commonplace. We must strive to support it to stay ahead of the curve. I need to write ubiquitous apps that run in any browser and are useable on any device wheter it be PocketPC a Tablet PC or the latest cell phone from NokieSprint or whatever. Java is not the way to go, sorry, but Java apps just don't stand up to heavy, data intensive apps the way they should (steps back from the flames). I am writing an application for a client right now that usurps a handheld app. The previous application is a java based application that runs on a Symbol PDA (running PocketPC 2002). This app scans barcodes in a warehouse. The current app falls far short because they download the entire product database onto the pda to give it the ability to scan offline. My application on the other hand is currently running as a browser based application using 802.11 to communicate with the webserver. This gives them the ability to scan the product catalog with a razor thin client. The 1% of the time that the wireless network is down is more than made up for in the raw speed at which my app can run in comparison. But, the 1% when it is offline -- that is the rub, they want me to provide the ability to perform scans even under those conditions; so I am considering offline caching in .net to achieve this. Anyone have any thoughts? I am trying to steer clear of writing a thicker client (using .net compact framework). But, I have already hit some walls with the pocket browsers not rendering all the fantastic.   

Yes, we think that there is a need for a mobile version of the Channel 9 site and it is on the list for the future. Right now we have a stack of bugs and new features that the community has told us matters more right now such as search that we are working on this week. We certainly understand your frustration as most of us are Pocket PC/Smartphone users ourselves and want to be able to comment when on a mobile device as well. Stay tuned.