Mobile site on non-mobile items

February 23, 2011 1:50 PM

Is there a way to access the mobile site on a non-mobile device?

When I access metafilter on my android phone, I get the very nice and cool mobile site. When I access it on my nook color, I get the actual website when it would be easier for me to see the mobile site (even though I send the same address, "www.metafilter.com" for both).

"mobile.metafilter.com" takes me to what I think is the old mobile site.

Sorry if this was asked before, I couldn't find it.

posted by Lucinda to MetaFilter-Related at 1:50 PM (39 comments total)

We can add the Nook to our list of mobile devices. If you visit this page and send me the line that starts with "Browser:", I can set the site to serve the mobile version when it sees a Nook.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:57 PM on February 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

We don't have a Nook-specific stylesheet so things might be off here and there. But it'll probably be better than loading the full site.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:58 PM on February 23, 2011

So I clicked "switch to standard site" on my iphone to see what would happen and if I could switch back, and now I don't know how to switch back!
posted by yeti at 1:59 PM on February 23, 2011

thank you so much, pb! the line says

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_7; en-us) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/530.17

just let me know if you need anything else!
posted by Lucinda at 2:04 PM on February 23, 2011

Lucinda, did you visit that page on your Nook? I forgot to mention that key instruction. I need the browser info from your Nook. Sorry about that.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:06 PM on February 23, 2011

yeti, scroll to the bottom of the page. Click the last link in the second column with the header "Links".
posted by pb (staff) at 2:07 PM on February 23, 2011

Calm down, yeti. Check the tiny link called "mobile" at the bottom of the homepage. It'll revert it to the iphone version and not mobile.metafilter.com.
posted by yeti at 2:08 PM on February 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks.
posted by yeti at 2:09 PM on February 23, 2011

pb, I did visit it on the nook. (I have it next to me and am typing what I see on the screen onto my computer, since it's easier to type on a regular keyboard.)
posted by Lucinda at 2:11 PM on February 23, 2011

That's odd. There's nothing in that user-agent that uniquely identifies the Nook. It looks exactly like Safari on an Intel Mac.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:19 PM on February 23, 2011

This thread is weirding me out.
posted by item at 2:21 PM on February 23, 2011 [6 favorites]

actually, I did some research on my own and found a setting on the nook that allows me to toggle how the nook presents itself to a website (as a mobile device or as an actual computer), and with that changed, I get the mobile site.

so, problem solved!
posted by Lucinda at 2:22 PM on February 23, 2011

hooray! good to know about that setting.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:23 PM on February 23, 2011

I wish the Gawker sites offered something like this.

The mobile versions of their sites are literally the only ones I can still read.
posted by Joe Beese at 3:00 PM on February 23, 2011

Calm down, yeti. Check the tiny link called "mobile" at the bottom of the homepage. It'll revert it to the iphone version and not mobile.metafilter.com.
posted by yeti at 4:08 PM on February 23 [+] [!]

??
posted by kmz at 3:08 PM on February 23, 2011

yeti is my hero.
posted by ooga_booga at 3:13 PM on February 23, 2011

Joe Beese > you can use "m.gawker (or lifehacker, or gizmodo, or whatever).com" and get the mobile sites. That's what I do.
posted by Lucinda at 3:25 PM on February 23, 2011

We have officially retired mobile.metafilter.com. If you go there now the site will identify your browser as a mobile device and redirect you to the main site. Once there you'll get the mobile view of the sites.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:02 PM on February 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Don't feel bad, yeti, the same thing happened to me last week.
posted by jtron at 4:09 PM on February 23, 2011

Huh, that's interesting, pb. I think I'll try reading it in the mobile view for a while. It's very serene.
posted by Kattullus at 4:26 PM on February 23, 2011

How can I get to the version of the site that's dedicated to the works of Alexander Calder?
posted by box at 4:32 PM on February 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

box: the mobile or the stabile version?
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:32 PM on February 23, 2011

I'm browsing the mobile site in a regular web browser right now, and I really think I might just switch to doing this all the time.
posted by yeoz at 5:45 PM on February 23, 2011

I switched out of mobile view to make a post and now I can't get back.
posted by Kattullus at 5:53 PM on February 23, 2011

I put on my The Who LP and now I'm Going Mobile.
posted by GuyZero at 6:02 PM on February 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

Is there a version of the site optimized for residents of the third largest city in Alabama?
posted by Rock Steady at 6:23 PM on February 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

Whoa. Going to the mobile version on my PC gave me vertigo. I recognized it as the phone sized view and my brain tried to scale the rest of the world to match.
posted by Babblesort at 6:49 PM on February 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

Yup. Still weirding me out.
posted by item at 7:30 PM on February 23, 2011

Wait, I'm confused. Is there a way to view the mobile site from a laptop?
posted by serazin at 7:36 PM on February 23, 2011

Kattullus, look for the 'Mobile' link in the footer. It's the last link in the 2nd column.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:37 PM on February 23, 2011

Is there a way to view the mobile site from a laptop?

Yes! Go to mobile.metafilter.com. And then click "switch to standard site" at the bottom of any page to go back to normal.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:38 PM on February 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

I put on my The Who LP and now I'm Going Mobile.

I went out on a date with a girl one time, and when we went back to her place, she played that album, then wanted to hear me shout "WHEE - HOO! Beep! Beep!" and wouldn't take no for an answer. Goddam, the 80's were strange.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:41 PM on February 23, 2011

Thanks, pb!
posted by Kattullus at 2:59 AM on February 24, 2011

I don't actually see a "switch to standard site" at the bottom of any of these mobile pages in IE...
posted by yeoz at 3:16 AM on February 24, 2011

It should be way at the bottom, below the "Sign Out" button.
posted by Kattullus at 3:57 AM on February 24, 2011

Oh, there it is. Thanks.
posted by yeoz at 4:08 AM on February 24, 2011

Oh, hey, nifty. The mobile version also has the plain color theme available, too! (Not sure I prefer it, but I like having the option.)
posted by Karmakaze at 5:46 AM on February 24, 2011

yeti: "Calm down, yeti."

If I had a dime for every time my girlfriend said that...

"Yeti' is what she calls me

Sometimes.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 7:15 AM on February 24, 2011

I clicked mobile on my desktop and it turned into a doll-house-scale machine. I'm typing this with a needle and a magnifying glass.

No, don't fix it, I just thought you guys would want to know. Eat it, Moore!
posted by Plutor at 12:05 PM on February 24, 2011