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Schmap Offers iPhone-Friendly Travel Guides
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 6:45 AM on May 14, 2008
Free travel guide site Schmap has crafted a pretty nifty interface for iPhone and iPod touch users looking for spots to hit while travelling. Navigate to the city you're travelling through, pick a category like restaurants or banks, and scroll through the vertical list of results. Flip your iPhone/touch sideways, and points from the section of the list you were scrolling through are mapped out, and contact and directions info are provided when tapped. Pretty handy for finding notable spots nearby without having to cross over applications. Point your iPhone or iPod touch to the link below to access the web app (but regular browsers can head there as well).
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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natenovs
Posted 2:07 AM 14/5/08
i thought the iPhone was supposed to have "the whole internet." why is every site making a stripped down minimalist iPhone only version now?
it's kind of annoying.
natenovs
Deprong Mori
Posted 2:42 AM 14/5/08
It's not annoying.
The limited screen size of the iPhone/iPod touch poses certain UI issues, plus the fact that some technologies (FlashPlayer, maybe others?) aren't fully supported by Safari on these mobile devices.
Even if you're connected to the Internet via WiFi (versus 2.5G), there are benefits to removing cruft, but really, the UI/page layout/navigation issues seem to be the most critical things to consider when creating a site that expects to have a large number of iPhone/iPod touch/smartphone visitors.
Deprong Mori
natenovs
Posted 4:18 AM 14/5/08
but we already have pages for mobile phones. now a website has to have an IE, Webkit, FF, mobile phone, and mobile safari version.
also, from the apple page: "With its advanced Safari browser, iPhone lets you see web pages the way they were designed to be seen" -- apparently not, apprently we need to change the web again for another specific device...
natenovs
Deprong Mori
Posted 6:15 AM 14/5/08
Note that viewable and optimized are two totally different things.
In any case, I welcome any attempts to improve the user experience, especially in creating more useful pages for limited bandwidth, small-screen devices.
There are far more cellphones on this planet than personal computers and while not every cellphone has a useful web browser, more and more phones will get this type of functionality.
Oh, I don't see alternate pages for non-iPhone/iPod touch mobile phones at Schmap.com, so that's a straw man argument anyhow.
Deprong Mori