Time for a general Android section?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Sonist

With the slew of 4"+ Android phones coming to market, plus stuff like the Dell Streak, isn't it time to have a dedicated Android section here.

I am just replacing my iPhone 3Gs with a 4" Samsung Galaxy S and while I don't necessarily plan to use it as a dedicated reader, I was wondering about what ereader apps are available, which ones are the best, etc..

There is a place for the 3.5" iPhoners to go, shouldn't the Androids be granted equal rights?

I agree.

Also, I'm moving this to the feedback forum.

[Nate the great]

We're discussing this over amongst the staff, and I wanted to get some feedback on my idea.

What if we created a section called Android, and then gave it prefixes for Edge, Novel, Alex, apps, etc? These devices have a lot in common, and it might be a good idea to combine them.

What do you think?

[nikkie]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

We're discussing this over amongst the staff, and I wanted to get some feedback on my idea.

What if we created a section called Android, and then gave it prefixes for Edge, Novel, Alex, apps, etc? These devices have a lot in common, and it might be a good idea to combine them.

What do you think?

I'd vote for subforums of an Android forum for these items. I hang out in the iPhone forum with tags a lot, and I don't consider it a very good experience because typically my question is very specific to the software that ships on the device I have. The same will be true for the Edge, Novel, and Alex. Although they are running Android as their OS, the reading apps that ship with them are very different.

[netseeker]

Just two ideas:

1. Android devices
   |- Apps
   |- eDGe
   |- Novel
   |- Alex
   |- [We would add more devices with growing popularity]
   |- More devices
2. Android devices
   |- Apps
   |- eDGe
   |- Novel
   |- Alex
   |- [We would add more devices with growing popularity]
   (Posts about other android based devices than the few named could be posted directly in "Android devices" similiar to our "More E-Book Readers" section.)

What do you think?

[GeoffC]

Neat and tidy and simple ....

[nikkie]

Originally Posted by netseeker

Just two ideas:

1. Android devices
   |- Apps
   |- eDGe
   |- Novel
   |- Alex
   |- [We would add more devices with growing popularity]
   |- More devices
2. Android devices
   |- Apps
   |- eDGe
   |- Novel
   |- Alex
   |- [We would add more devices with growing popularity]
   (Posts about other android based devices than the few named could be posted directly in "Android devices" similiar to our "More E-Book Readers" section.)

What do you think?

#2 looks good. Out of curiosity, I see no one is putting the nook in this category. Doesn't it belong here? It's practically a cousin to the Alex.

[netseeker]

Originally Posted by nikkie

Out of curiosity, I see no one is putting the nook in this category. Doesn't it belong here? It's practically a cousin to the Alex.

Yes, we discussed about the nook too. It's a very popular device (that's why it has one of the top level slots in the forum) and most vanilla users don't even seem to know that the device is running Android. I guess it's common practice at MobileRead that the most popular* dedicated ebook reading devices/brands/manufacturers get a top level slot. At the moment we don't want to change that...

*most popular means "most popular at MobileRead"

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by netseeker

Yes, we discussed about the nook too. It's a very popular device (that's why it has one of the top level slots in the forum) and most vanilla users don't even seem to know that the device is running Android. I guess it's common practice at MobileRead that the most popular* dedicated ebook reading devices/brands/manufacturers get a top level slot. At the moment we don't want to change that...

*most popular means "most popular at MobileRead"

This is very true. I hope we can write it down on a Wiki page for those who are interested how we come up with our forum layout. It's not easy and we spend hours and sometimes even days contemplating about various aspects of it. Because it's a dynamic process, it'll never be finished, but heh, we are too young to retire, aren't we?

[=X=]

@Nate I do like your proposed lay out, the only problem I see is in the near future there will be an exponential growth of tags due to the growth of the android platform.

I'm wondering if maybe we can label tags by form factor like
Android
-Phones
-Tablets/Pads
-eReaders

And also have a dedicated development section.

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by =X=

@Nate I do like your proposed lay out, the only problem I see is in the near future there will be an exponential growth of tags due to the growth of the android platform.

I'm wondering if maybe we can label tags by form factor like
Android
-Phones
-Tablets/Pads
-eReaders

And also have a dedicated development section.

This looks to me like a more natural split, but I wouldn't rule out the Apps section proposed by netseeker.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by =X=

@Nate I do like your proposed lay out, the only problem I see is in the near future there will be an exponential growth of tags due to the growth of the android platform.

I'm wondering if maybe we can label tags by form factor like
Android
-Phones
-Tablets/Pads
-eReaders

And also have a dedicated development section.

I agree, there are a quite a few people who read almost exclusively on their phones, me included. And as the larger screen phones emerge there will be more. Then there is the plethora of Android powered tablets coming out of China. Just look at Alternate devices section.

I think that breaking it out in the beginning will save a lot of trouble later.