At 01 Mar 2008 17:38:16 -0800 4phun wrote:
> Britannica offers online encyclopedia for iPhone

Yet another "optimised" site for the phone with the "real internet" on it?

> Britannica Mobile iPhone Edition can be accessed by visiting
> i.eb.com from an iPhone or iPod touch.
>
> That is HTTP://I.EB.COM/ for your live iPhone Encyclopedia
>
> I wonder how this page would react to someone accessing that url with
> an older technology cell phone? Anyone want to try and see if it would
> work as nice as the iPhone does?


Ok, I tried it from my WinMo phone and got a page telling me I needed an
iPhone or iPod Touch.

Of course you don't REALLY need one, you just need a browser that TELLS the
website you have an iPhone, so I just changed the User Agent of my WinMo
phone to match the iPhone's UA and tried it.

I accessed the site without a problem- it looked like most iPhone optimized
pages I've ever looked- giant text so you don't mush the wrong link with
your fingers, which kind of defeats the purpose of the iPhone's beautiful
high-res display. Weird quirk- although IE Mobile supports a limited
amount of Java script, searches didn't parse properly. The search URL just
displayed in the browsr window and I had to copy and paste it (#7 of the
100 t ings... oh, never mind!) into the address bar to actually navigate to
the page.

I tried the i.eb.com URL in Netfront (an alternative WinMo browser) after
changing it's UA and the site mobile EB worked flawlessly, if unexcitingly.