As iPhones and iPod Touches continue to fly off the shelves, it’s becoming more apparent that spending the time to make your website or blog iPhone-friendly is worth the effort.
Even with (arguably) the best mobile browser in the world, the iPhone’s small screen can make it difficult to read information on some websites. Its zooming and panning abilities make it easier, but it still limits your peripheral browsing vision. Many mainstream sites like Google, Twitter, and Facebook have mobile versions of their content that allow easier browsing, but what are us little guys supposed to do?
While Astro-Geek:3000 displays fairly well on my iPhone – well enough to read, anyway – there are some elements that are a little off. So, I looked around a little bit to see what kind of options were available to me for making an iPhone-friendly version of the blog.
InterSquash is a web-based service that creates an iPhonization using your RSS feed. It’s a good idea, but it didn’t work for AG:3k; I keep getting String could not be parsed as XML errors. Maybe you might have better luck.
The only other real option I found is a Wordpress plugin called WPTouch. It allows different customization features including colors and icons; there are some icons included in the plugin, but it also explains how you can include your own custom icons. Another nice little touch is the section at the bottom that shows you any incompatibilities between plugins.
The plugin creates a nice iPhone theme that’s easy to read and navigate, but doesn’t stifle your blog. For instance, because InterSquash uses your RSS feed, visitors would still have to visit the main site to leave comments. With WPTouch, visitors have full commenting abilities right at their fingertips. WPTouch also supports pages by displaying their links under the Menu dropdown.
WPTouch is a solid plugin that does its job well.
I love tech, but don’t have as much time or money to spend on it as I’d like. I get what I need to sustain my Geek vicariously through other sources and pass it along to you.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Just thought I would thank you for spending your time writing these articles. Nice work!
Thank you; I’m glad you’re enjoying them!
Thanks for the review! We’re hoping to put out a new version of WPtouch in a few days.
Thank you for making the plugin!
I was searching for an article regarding iPhone friendly site. Well written article.
Thanks much. I’m glad you were able to get some information from it.
Hey Christopher, great looking site you have going here with some well written content. I just happened to stumble across this page while looking through Herzing students on Facebook. I’ve been slowly working on a blog to post some tech articles on as well as keeping family updated on my son’s developments – I’ll be checking into these options for use on my own WP blog as well. Keep up the great work!
@Mike – Thanks, welcome, and good luck with your own blog. I don’t know how much experience you have with Wordpress, but if I can be of any help, feel free to ask.
Thanks for the information, bookmarked your page for updates :)
Thanks for the info… RSS feed added