DU Mobile View - Something Interesting...

[MineralMan]

My wife, bless her heart, gave me one of those inexpensive Android tablets for Christmas this year, to go along with the Kindle Fire she gave me the year before. I've been using the Kindle Fire to browse DU in the evening. Its high-resolution screen lets me use the normal view of DU, albeit with some difficulty in tapping some links without zooming in on the screen.

The new iRola (never heard of it) tablet, however, has a lower resolution screen, making the normal view unreadable, so I switched to DU's mobile view and have been using that now for a couple of evenings of browsing. It's fine, and I like the new tablet's larger touch-screen keyboard, which makes it a lot easier to post my pithy and witty replies in threads.

One of the features of the mobile view, though, is not being able to see DUers' screen names while browsing in a forum all the time. That's been very interesting. Previously, I could always see who wrote a post in a thread before clicking on a post to read it. Sometimes, I skipped posts based on the poster's name. With my new tablet, I can't do that, which often leads me to read posts I might have skipped over in the normal view.

Also, you can't click on a link to see which post a reply is responding to. That's also interesting, as you read through a thread after clicking View all. It is a new way of looking at threads for me, since I use that feature sometimes to backtrack from a reply to the post being replied to.

None of this is bad or worrisome. It's just interesting, and alters the DU experience. I'm seeing some posts I might not have read, and finding new ways to view threads. No complaints. Just a comment on the different ways different DUers may be seeing threads. I'm still thinking about what difference it makes in the DU experience. It's different.

[libodem]

1. I post from a phone

Using one finger all the time, now. I've gotten used to it now. It seems almost odd when I am able to use my laptop and see all the avatars, sig lines, and user names.

My view is bare bones.

[MineralMan]

2. Most of my DU time is on my desktop, so

I'm very used to the normal display mode. It's a little odd looking at it in the mobile view, but it still works OK. I do prefer the full-screen normal view, though.

This new tablet is pretty much a disposable item. I think my wife paid about $60 for it on nomorerack.com. Its 800x480 resolution isn't up to the Kindle Fire's higher resolution, but the thing's very lightweight and handy for recliner browsing. I don't know how much I'll use it, but I'm trying it out to demonstrate my gratitude for her gift. If it doesn't work out, I'll put it aside and return to the Kindle Fire.

[PasadenaTrudy]

3. Same here

I usually see it on my iPhone.