WordPress Tinkering – Mobile Themes Part I – Plugins

Today it was time for a little Skillulmeans wordpress server maintenance.  You may be seeing some changes soon, and as usual your comments are always welcome.

One thing I was looking at today was some mobile themes for wordpress.  A mobile theme is one that will show only to those using a type of mobile phone. You can add a mobile theme or themes to your wordpress blog by adding a plugin which is very nice.  Today, I was specifically looking or just something to wet my appetite, this blog as “mobile” as I could, as quickly as possible; I would leave customizing or a later date.  I really wanted to see how far I could get.

Back when I started this blog I started to play with tools for creating a format to be viewed using mobile devices.  At the time I was in between owning different mobile devices and I tried a few pieces of emulation software suites that were not very up to par.  A little discouraged, I put the mobile idea on the back burner till I had a little more time on my hands for the task.  Now that I have an IPhone, I really wanted to look into just what type tools I could use to get SkillfulMeans on my mobile device.  It would be nice to read my blog  without squinting or needing to zoom in.  So a good natural start when working with wordpress is to go in the “plugin bin” and it appeared that my plan worked out.  I found a couple of very interesting prospects for making Skillulmeans mobile.

What I Found – Mobile Theme Plugins:

WPtouch iPhone Theme Plugin

The first plugin I tried was the WPtouch iPhone Theme Plugin, the first above photo (left) is what the home page of  this site looks like on my IPhone with no modifications to the default settings of the plugin.  The second photo is what you get when you drill down a layer. I have seen this format before when I have cruised the Internet using my IPhone.  Not too bad.   This plugin  even has an easy way for the user to switch back and forth from mobile settings in the footer of the page.  Not bad too shabby, I like it.

WordPress PDA & iPhone

Here are the photos from the second IPhone theme plugin I tried: WordPress PDA & IPhone.   Not as nifty as the first, but it kind of looks a little bit more readable to me, and it also shows the user a little bit more of the site including categories.  Not a bad plugin overall.  I noticed one or two minor bugs, and it doesn’t have a way or the mobile user to switch to the normal mode of browsing, but plugin is currently in beta.  Honestly not bad for a beta.

WordPress Mobile Edition

This third product I tried seemed to have “interesting” documentation.  When installed it and activated it, it really didn’t do much of anything. When I read closer it says “rich” interface for IPhone and Android, and that this creates a simpler interface for older non capable phones.  Well, that isn’t really what I was looking for.

Other Plugins…

I looked a couple more plugins that said they did something, but the FAQ went on to mention that there were conflicts with other plugins.  Not so good.  I quickly tried one of these and it appeared to do nothing. Honestly, I did not try any configuration settings.  My purpose in this experiment was more or discovery and to see what I could bring up in a minimal amount of time.

What I Would like to See More of – Screen Shots

I think it is a shame that these “mobile theme” makers actually make the would-be consumer install their plug-in in order to get an idea of what their product looks like. In some cases I needed to install just to get a better idea of what their product does.  Some plugins I really just glossed over because they were not written in English, or I couldn’t exactly tell what they were doing.  Very sad.

What Next? – Customization

What is next?

I’m going to tinker around a bit with these.  Once I get a chance I’m going to see what they look like under the covers and see if I can introduce a little bit of the SkillulMeans custom theme to the mobile side of the browser.  I would like to see how quickly I can get it looking more like, well… what I would like.  Also, I’m going to see if I can get some images of how these look on an Android.  I think that would be pretty helpful too.

If you See any mobile wordpress sites that you really like, please let me know!