Diesel eBooks adds mobile browser support

[Alexander Turcic]

Try visiting Diesel eBooks with a mobile browser and you will see that they now automatically sense your browser and redirect it to a mobile-friendly version of their site. Very nice addition!

If you visit them, don't forget our exclusive 20% discount on any e-book valid until 2/15/05.

[rlauzon]

They support DRM and their books exceed $1. Poor value.

[Brad]

I'm viewing this on a Mac, OS X with Firefox 1.0 and all I can get is the mobile edition. So either their detection is malfunctioning or they have permanently switched to mobile format. (Same thing on Safari.)

It might be a very good niche to specialize in mobile sales rather than go head to head with the other ebookstores.

Anyone else seeing only the mobile format in their desktop browser?

[Alexander Turcic]

I tried their official link, http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/, with Firefox 1.0 (Win) and it presents the deskton version.

[Brad]

Then the auto-detect is malfunctioning. They really need to have a link to let me manually override.

[Brad]

It works in Opera and Internet Explorer but not Safari or Firefox - very weird. They also have no contact info on the mobile version - i was going to warn them but I could not even find a way to contact them when stuck in the mobile version.

[Diesel eBooks]

Dang... the cat is somewhat out of the bag now.

The mobile version shouldn't be served to anybody presently, because we're still testing. Do me a favor. Those that are being served the mobile site from their desktop, you'll notice in the footer at the bottom of the page some light colored text that lists several different browsers. Can you please copy and paste that to an email and send to me at scott@diesel-ebooks.com

I do appreciate the heads-up on this. Thanks.
Scott
Diesel eBooks

[hacker]

Originally Posted by Diesel eBooks

Those that are being served the mobile site from their desktop, you'll notice in the footer at the bottom of the page some light colored text that lists several different browsers. Can you please copy and paste that to an email and send to me at scott@diesel-ebooks.com

If you're relying on UserAgent detection to render your pages or decide which content to display, you're doing something wrong.

The whole point of properly-designed web content, is that you do NOT have to rely on UserAgent values, separate CSS and HTML structures, and other backwards-moving technologies.

Use standards-compliant technologies, and you will remain forward-compatible, and you will also work on many more devices and platforms than you do now, at much lower cost (dollars and time), and you will use much less code to drive it.

I'm sure I can help, if you tell me what your goals are (public or private is fine).

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by Diesel eBooks

Dang... the cat is somewhat out of the bag now.

Sorry Scott, I wouldn't have posted about it if I had known the mobile page was not yet "official". Morpheus had told me about it before; then a few days later when I browsed your page using Pocket Internet Explorer and was automatically redirected to the PDA version, I thought it was ready for public.

Cheers!

[Diesel eBooks]

no big deal. We need the useability testing anyway. While we're still trialing you (and any of our other mobileread friends) can help us out, though. We've arranged to make available a "test" ebook that has DRM. Sorry, I know some of you don't like Adobe, but that's how it worked out. Anyway, if you get a moment, go to the site on your handheld, download the "test" ebook on the homepage and let me know what happens. If the PDA version doesn't come up, please also let us know. I’ll start another thread in this forum for any feedback. When you’re there, you’ll notice in the footer at the bottom of the page some light colored text that lists several different browsers. Can you please include that and your handheld type in the feedback.

We appreciate it.

Scott
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com

[jenesepas]

Originally Posted by hacker

If you're relying on UserAgent detection to render your pages or decide which content to display, you're doing something wrong.

The whole point of properly-designed web content, is that you do NOT have to rely on UserAgent values, separate CSS and HTML structures, and other backwards-moving technologies.

Use standards-compliant technologies, and you will remain forward-compatible, and you will also work on many more devices and platforms than you do now, at much lower cost (dollars and time), and you will use much less code to drive it.

I'm sure I can help, if you tell me what your goals are (public or private is fine).

I think i'm doing something similar. We have a site with 2 versions, 1 for normal PC and 1for PDA and we want to auto-detect which device they use to show the suitable version.

Hacker, can you suggest a way of doing this with standards-compliant technologies? Because I was thinking of using useragent as well.

thanks a bunch