Space phone

September 25, 2009 7:42 AM

I, for one, would welcome a Metafilter reader widget for the Android phone.

I know there's RSS reader apps out there, but I can't read the comments, and reading threads in my mobile browser is a pain. Unless there is something out there that works? Reddit seems to have a client, but no Metafilter one. I use the Guardian and NYT apps and both are wonderful; something for MeFi would be ace.

posted by mippy to MetaFilter-Related at 7:42 AM (18 comments total)

If you're just reading, is mobile.metafilter.com somehow insufficient?
posted by Plutor at 7:48 AM on September 25, 2009

Android-related aside: If T-Mobile doesn't release the UMTS-enabled Samsung Galaxy before the end of the year, I might actually physically explode.
posted by Plutor at 7:51 AM on September 25, 2009

I don't think it's recognising my phone browser automatically - it makes the page go all squiffy. Let me try.

offline reading would be ace, though.
posted by mippy at 7:54 AM on September 25, 2009

There's no plans to enhance the mobile version of the site because apparently "The regular site works fine", (which I absolutely 100% complete disagree with, but... meh). So I doubt an android app will ever show up.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:59 AM on September 25, 2009

Has anyone had trouble with longish threads in WebKit, specifically the Palm Pre version? I've noticed a few times that the page just stops randomly mid-comment on pages that are more than a few screens long.
posted by odinsdream at 8:34 AM on September 25, 2009

We're working on and testing a new stylesheet specifically for the iPhone, and hopefully other mobile browsers if that works out. We'd like the current site to work in mobile browsers. It's currently not ideal—we're hearing the problems with that and working on them—but we're going to keep following that road for now.

So I don't think a specific app for the Android is in the cards right now.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:33 AM on September 25, 2009 [2 favorites]

Yeahhh, I got my eye on the Galaxy too. I still love my G-1, but oh you kid.
posted by boo_radley at 9:35 AM on September 25, 2009

mobile.metafilter.com shows the first ten posts, with no way to retrieve more.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 9:54 AM on September 25, 2009

Once the iPhone stylesheet is released, you could just view the site in Steel instead of the default Browser, as you can spoof the user-agent to make sites think you have an iPhone.

Steel is just barely better than the default Browser, IMHO.

And I'm going to hold off on making an FPP about it, because it's a little too inside baseball, but WHAT THE FUCK GOOGLE SENDING A C+D TO CYANOGEN GRAR GRAR GRAR!
posted by SpiffyRob at 10:35 AM on September 25, 2009

I think you mean an App. A widget is something that sits on your desktop like the clock or the weather channel widget.

I think it would be great if Metafilter would release an API, although actually, it comes pretty close. Every page has it's own RSS feed. For example, this MeTa post has a feed at:

http://metatalk.metafilter.com/18259/Space-phone/rss

It would be pretty easy to make an RSS based mefi browser. Hmm.
posted by delmoi at 1:09 PM on September 25, 2009

And I'm going to hold off on making an FPP about it, because it's a little too inside baseball, but WHAT THE FUCK GOOGLE SENDING A C+D TO CYANOGEN GRAR GRAR GRAR!

!!!!!! This is no good very bad news. Wow. Shit.
posted by inigo2 at 9:44 AM on September 26, 2009

*coughcoughapicough*
posted by middleclasstool at 11:18 AM on September 26, 2009

I think you mean an App. A widget is something that sits on your desktop like the clock or the weather channel widget.

Widget is Economics for [product]. App is short for Application, which is Apple for Program, which all of your examples are.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:09 PM on September 26, 2009

SpiffyRob: "And I'm going to hold off on making an FPP about it, because it's a little too inside baseball, but WHAT THE FUCK GOOGLE SENDING A C+D TO CYANOGEN GRAR GRAR GRAR!"

I don't think it's too inside-baseball, and it's an important complex copyright issue. I think it'd be a good post, as long as you include Google's rationale. (Short version: it's not a C&D-distributing-modified-Android. It's C&D-distributing-modified-closed-source-apps)

Post it, or maybe I will on Monday when I have the time to make it a good post.
posted by Plutor at 8:49 AM on September 27, 2009

I've been reading mefi on my g1 since I got it. I use an app called Greed which integrates with Google Reader and from that I can open any thread I want to read in Browser. I find if you use light mode, it's pretty much fine, although I don't do a lot of commenting or favoriting.
posted by feloniousmonk at 3:57 PM on September 27, 2009

(Short version: it's not a C&D-distributing-modified-Android. It's C&D-distributing-modified-closed-source-apps)

And cyanogen has already posted his response.
posted by inigo2 at 4:00 PM on September 27, 2009

Well, now with that response it's back to being kind of a boring non-story (for anyone on the outside). Oh well.
posted by Plutor at 4:23 AM on September 28, 2009

Well at least it resolved that way before either of us made the post!

It's certainly disappointing, because as someone who did, in fact, purchase a right to use those apps by purchasing a G1 through T-Mobile, it's unfortunate that, no matter who in the right they are, Google is getting in the way of the device I purchased being the best it can be. In a couple of months, Cyan/the community will have this whole thing figured out (including letting legal owners of the apps copy them over to his new rom) and we'll all look back and laaaaugh! (Not to mention in two years when AOSP surpasses any commercial framework.)

Okay, probably not so much the latter, but a boy can dream!
posted by SpiffyRob at 4:41 AM on September 28, 2009