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Why the iPad’s user agent string presents a problem
Apple marketed the iPad at launch as an internet device designed for the full web. So why then are they explicitly classifying it as a mobile device?Read the story »
The web on tablets: How the iPad has immediately changed web development
Whether you are for or against it, the iPad has hit, and within days it has changed perspectives on how the web will be developed now and in the near future. Major outlets like The New York Times have modified their development strategies to fit this new user case. Will this be a continuing trend? Will 'iPad friendly' development become a new standard? Or will it all subside and iPad users will still be left with broken pages across the web on their devices? In my opinion, it'll wind up somewhere in the middle.
Why the iPad’s user agent string presents a problem
Note: This post has been getting a fair amount of traffic. I originally posted this directly after launch, and subsequently it contained outdated information from what is now known from the final release of OS 3.2. I originally had left the original post info for the sake of blogging/ journalistic integrity, however after three revisions because of newer info, I decided to strip the clutter of invalid content. Having said my disclaimer, below is the revised new post, and here is the release version of the iPad UA string as of 4/6/10, pulled directly from my 32GB wifi model:
Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B367 Safari/531.21.10
more after the break.
Website management the mobile way
Over the past two years, mobile apps have redefined the way we are productive on mobile devices. And as more and more apps flood the market, more niche needs are being filled by developers desperately seeking to find that killer app that hasn't been developed yet. The net result is a real win for the end user - more apps designed to provide mobile methods or streamline existing methods of interaction with various services. In this post, I'll be detailing how nine applications on my iPhone have changed the way in which i manage my web presence, all for under $20 cost in app purchases.
Google real-time search accelerating crawls?
Google's recently launched real-time search functionality, which pulls data from a number of real time data sources, including the now publicly accessible Twitter firehose, is enhancing search functionality across the board. It seems that hyperlinks contained inside the microblog posts are being immediately indexed, and in turn is speeding up the time it takes for new content to appear not just in the live feed, but in the actual crawled index as well. Try doing some searches on Google for the title of any new blog posting from a major source, and note that the crawled index lists the post within minutes at most.
The real time feed could cause far reaching benefits for all of Google's services over the next few months as the big G continues their roll out. It's a safe bet that as this technology matures in the coming months we'll see further improvements that are thanks to the accessibility of real time data.
Google real-time search is live
Google real-time search results
Announced on Monday (see Mashable's post on the topic), Google's real-time search functionality appears to now be fully live. Try some timely topical searches (Tiger is a safe bet these days) and you should see comments, posts, and articles streaming in as they are created. As this technology matures this has the potential to blur or completely erase the line that exists between live feed based informational searches and traditional crawl based searches, and the reach of microblogs suddenly becomes that much more vast as well. Google's video demo after the break.
Jeff dePascale is a web and mobile applications professional based in Fairfield County, CT.
