Since I went back from vacation (Easter with family back home in Romania) I got quite interested in the mobile internet. This was the first time I wasn’t going to internet cafes or asking buddies to let me use their internet (and their PCs).
I have a beaten Nokia 3100 that works both in RO and here in Toronto. I was playing with it in my first vacation days back home, exploring the features of my romanian mobile carrier (I love the *…# service commands, they remind me of dumb terminals) and I noticed that they had a new offering, mobile internet. Configuration was a breeze and I found myself browsing the internet a few minutes later. Email, news, even checking if my websites are still up and running; they were all there where I left them.
Needless to say that from that day I didn’t step into an internet cafe anymore to get my fix.
I also got a lovely gift from Corina around the same time, an iPod Touch. Since I’m a fan of Apple’s products I couldn’t be happier and since I started using it I realized that I use my regular laptop less and less. I’m using the iPod Touch more to check Email, news, weather, live TV (gotta love France24) and play the occasional game, than to listen to music. The experience is more condensed and focused and so I spend less time to find what I’m looking for. Mobile internet experience achieved the goal that it’s parent couldn’t: ease of use.
Funny that I had to go back home to find it out.
I decided to enable my web properties for the mobile internet. Firstly I made this blog mobile-friendly. I installed Wptouch for WordPress. It’s an excellent plugin that just works on iPod Touch and iPhone. I also installed WordPress Mobile Edition that should do the trick for the rest of the mobile devices so go ahead and give the Newsplore Blog a spin on a mobile browser. Actually WordPress should render for mobile browsers natively, it will only accelerate the shift.
Next I’m going to make spincloud.com mobile; not that there aren’t any mobile weather websites but it won’t be long until mobile browsers will generate more traffic than their desktop counterparts. I’m merely getting ready for the inevitable. Eventually there will be websites made only for mobile consumption (if there aren’t already) just like these days newspapers are becoming -ironically- paperless.
Interestingly many high traffic websites and and blogs (techcrunch, gigaom) don’t work yet on mobile phones (the iPhone situation is better but still not there yet). On the other hand Google is awesome on small browsers. Mail (attachments included, I could read PDFs too!), Reader, search, News, everything just worked. It even translated the search result links for the mobile experience. Kudos Google!
This is not the beginning of the mobile internet (WML anyone?) but with the advance on the devices front, the critical mass has been reached. And for those of you reading this on a cell phone, Q.E.D.