Flyertalk iphone app?
 

How about a Flyertalk iphone app that would streamline viewing and posting from mobile device like the Facebook iphone app? Can anyone put it together?

Thanks

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I (and many others) would prefer a mobile Flyertalk app that supports multiple mobile platforms, instead of one that only supports Cupertino's platform...

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What's wrong with the current WAP site?

I could do it. For iPhone, BB and WinMo, if there is any interest, and permission granted from the site owners.

+1

I currently have FT as a webapp (or shortcut or whatever it's called that starts up safari). If it could be made into a mobile site so everyone can use, that would be great. An even more optimized iPhone version would just be icing on the cake for all the Cupertino users.

I'm sure many of us would appreciate if you did :)

Multumesc!

it doesn't even need an app, just a good website, vB can make a very nice iphone/webkit app for mobiles, unlike this junk called a mobile site now.

if the admins read this and want an example of a near perfect mobile site PM me and I will reply, it is vB powered as well.

It works... but it could be improved...

A greater WAP FT site would be nice ^^ (don't need an app)

I am planning to develop an application which is aimed at people traveling a lot.
So, anything that is needed by them, is something I am willing to investigate.

Let me share some thoughts from both a developer and traveler point of view.

One of the more important aspects is the amount of data used.
I am often using my mobile data connection while roaming, and it does make a difference if I have to load 1Mb or 10Kb to view the same amount of information. Speed is also a factor here.

Usability is another factor.
It's one thing when I use a piece of software at the office or home.
In a crowded airport, having luggage and all kinds of things with me, I need a design that is easy and fast to navigate.

Internet access not being permanent, or easy to access while traveling, it makes sense for me to download/cache whatever interests me, and be able to read it later on, even if I no longer have internet access.

Also, I am not reading all the sections on the FT forums. I would like to simply see and load those that interest me.

----------------
Ok, so now we have interest on this one.

If anyone could point me in the direction of contacting a forum admin, that would be great. I could do something in a way that doesn't involve any effort or changes from their side. Just an agreement would be enough.

I have 10 years experience in the software industry, and 7 years since I run my own software and game development studio.

My current development devices include:
BlackBerry, iPod/iPhone, Windows Mobile.
I can make it happen on these ones.

Let's further debate this subject if there is interest.
Also, I would HIGHLY appreciate if you could tell me what mobile device are you using, to be able to get started on the most popular one.

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Reporting in on BB Bold :cool:

One vote for for Android (G1)

If you'll all hold on a little while longer, you'll hear news of a specific iPhone app for FlyerTalk within the next few weeks. It is at Apple for app approval and I have it working on my 3GS. It will be co-branded to begin with but is fairly interesting and i think you'll all enjoy it. As well, not to slight anyone, the app will be available in BB form.

:cool:

Thanks Randy ;)

Thank you!
 

this is such a great news!!!
looking forward to it and let me know if you need some beta testing :-)

cheers maclover

Yay! can't wait. This will feed my addiction so I can browse and reply when traveling. It's hard to reply on the iPhone so I usually just limit myself to reading until my thumbs get tired.

Yay! Thanks Randy!

Cool. Look forward to exploring this.

sounds like a great idea!

I'm subscribing to this thread with email notification (which I NEVER do)...so as soon as it's released, someone announce it here, please! :)

Hopefully soon too :p (especially with the rumor it could be released during the *A do :cool:)

...Not that you need another app ;)

Actually, FT wouldn't have any control over when the app is released. The final step in an iPhone app's development is submitting it for approval and posting to the App Store.

From what my iPhone app developer friend has told me and from what I've gathered reading Gizmodo, Engadget, and other tech news sites, the first step is a cursory once-over by an overseas team (i.e. India). They look to make sure the basic requirements of the developer terms and conditions are met (i.e. isn't completely tasteless, is properly labeled and has a description and icon, doesn't crash immediately upon running, etc.) and the application is properly rated (i.e. it has to have a 17+ rating if it allows unrestricted web browsing from within the app). Once that step is passed, a team of testers gives the app a thorough work-over and bug-testing, and if any bugs are found, the app is referred back to the developer (my friend has had them find some very obscure bugs he otherwise would never have found). Once that's done, it goes into a queue and eventually gets posted on the App Store for public purchase and download.

That whole process can take an indeterminate amount of time, though it seems to average about two weeks (at least for updates; initial releases may actually take longer, and occasionally, the App Store team gets overwhelmed with a high volume of submissions--one of the reasons they began the offshore pre-screening, I think). The developer has no control over when it gets released, so all the FT team can do is cross their fingers and hope it gets released as soon as they want it to.

As for me: I recently went through and got rid of about 20 apps that I decided I absolutely never use. Now I have room to install some more. (Apple's limit on 11 screens--up from 9 in OS 2.x--seems frustratingly arbitrary to me.) :P

All that said, I just searched the App Store for "FlyerTalk," and what do I see but a "Lufthansa Miles & More MemberScout featuring FlyerTalk" app released on November 4th! Hmm--but what does it have to do with FlyerTalk? Nothing in the description, but the screenshot at the bottom has a big FlyerTalk logo and says, "Featuring FlyerTalk Star MegaDo 2009"!

Perhaps this is the co-branded app that Randy was mentioning. I've only just launched the app (as I'm typing this!), and it's asking me to register with MemberScout. I tried doing so, but it keeps hanging up on a field called "Access code"--nothing I enter there is valid. Perhaps this is something that was issued to people participating in the *A MegaDo?

Anyway, so I can't take a look at it yet, but it doesn't quite appear to be something that allows you to efficiently browse FT on an iPhone but rather a social networking app that allows you to find other members around you (it's location aware) and recommend things to do. See the full app description in the iTunes Store for more information.

Perhaps Randy has a different app up his sleeve and this is unrelated, but given the release date and FlyerTalk branding, perhaps this is indeed it.

Here is the link:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...336170776&mt=8

Works fine. I just have problems to put in my M&M Status:mad:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...2-img-0170.jpg

After you're logged in, the app is asking if it is allowed to use the gps. I clicked yes and the app is showing me the flyer talk members around me.

On the very right you can see colored bars.

Grey stands for Hon Circle
Gold --> Senator
Silver --> Traveller
Blue --> basic member

Is works only with M&M Status

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...0-img-0165.jpg

This is a member profile. You can see basic information, the groups he joined and his interests.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...3-img-0168.jpg

Of course I joined the right group :D


http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...5-img-0167.jpg

You can receive messages from others

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...4-img-0169.jpg

Here you can enable the taxi sharing function. The app us looking for user user who want's to share a ride.



http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...1-img-0166.jpg

In this section you can enter informations about your flight. Right now you can enter destination, flight number, seat number. As you can see, they have some language problems some stuff is in German some in English

But wait, there's more!
 

you've got that now to experiment with, and you now have an all new interface for mobile access to FlyerTalk:

m.flyertalk.com

perfect for the iphone (still in beta so let us know what you think) and right now works best on Opera for Blackberry.

We think you'll love the new interface for mobile access.

Thanks, Randy!

The new interface is sleek--very usable.

I've got a few suggestions after playing around with it for a few minutes:

-No UserCP/MyFlyerTalk that I could see to access. This is crucial! (Edit: I was able to get to a mobile-formatted version of MyFlyerTalk by manually inputting the URL after being in the mobile view, but I still didn't see a link to it)
-Still no "jump to first unread post" button like on the regular interface
-No way to edit posts
-Tried to navigate to subforums (like Alaska Airlines) by clicking on Miles & Points and instead got an error that there have been no new posts in the last -1 days. :confused:

All in all, it's gorgeous and a vast visual improvement over the basic WAP mobile site. With the above fixes, I could actually surf FT from my phone on a regular basis!

The biggest issue with FT on a phone is the lack of proper tabbed browsing. If ever a dedicated FT app comes out, the ability to queue up threads (and forums) for viewing (to mimic opening threads behind your MyFlyerTalk screen or forum screens) is an essential part of making the experience as fluid as possible. A cue on this could be taken from the iPhone app Wikipanion, a Wikipedia browser which allows you to queue up articles (in Wikipanion, when you tap an in-text link to an article, it adds it to the queue so you can finish reading the current article and then move to the next one).

As for the LH M&M app, is that what you were referring to a few weeks ago above as the new FT app? If so, must one be a M&M member to use it? As I mentioned above, I could not figure out what to put in the Access Code field to get it to work...

I agree. This new interface looks very nice.

I'm unable to get to the Airlines forums though. Under Miles and Points, I get up to SPAM before the next heading shows Travel and Dining. All the Airline, Hotel, Credit Card forums can't be found on the main page. I can however get to it by using the same URL that I use on a standard web browser.

I also cannot find any way to get to the specific airline and hotel forums from the interface.

In addition, when I click on Miles & Points, I get the following message "There have been no posts in the last 365 days in this forum."

No iphone, no blackberry, just a lowly WinMo Xperia and still learning to use it. The m.flyertalk.com site was okay but a little awkward to use.

The mobile interface from a format perspective is beautiful on the iPhone, but because it only downloads a very few messages, it requires constant page aheads. I'd love to see it download longer pages.

That's great news. Can't wait to check out the new iPhone app!

This would be so cool. An app that cached a lot of data would be very nice.

I use my iPod Touch a lot for this but it gets frustrating: e.g., it can be difficult to edit quotes when replying, and the lack of caching means it only works with good 802.11 availability.

This sounds very interesting. Can you say anything about the goals of this app and how they compare with those of mrobert's app?

Any word on the iPhone App? I've been a part of iPhone App submissions and, baring any problems, they've not taken more than a few weeks to get through. It's been a few months so it should be through by now. Anything from the powers that be? :)

I can't seem to select the airline forum on my iPhone. Anyone know how?

I can't either. I used to be able to, I think.

I can't either. I just browse the main FlyerTalk site and zoom in (while in landscape mode). It's not the easiest, but the most complete so far for me.

If you're viewing in the mobile skin but put the direct URL to the forum you want (or the MyFlyerTalk screen, for that matter), even if you cannot navigate to it using the mobile skin, the page you want will load in the mobile skin.

Here's what I'd do:

1. Exit the mobile skin using the applicable link when viewing a page in the mobile skin
2. Navigate to the forum you want using the regular interface
3. Bookmark it (for future reference)
4. Repeat steps 2-3 for all forums you regularly visit (and the MyFlyerTalk page, if you use that)
5. Go to http://m.flyertalk.com (to re-enter the mobile interface)
6. Access your bookmarks and tap the forum
7. You should enter that forum in the mobile interface.

Alternatively, you can make sure you're subscribed to the forums you want to visit (with or without email notification; doesn't matter) and then simply bookmark the MyFlyerTalk page (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/usercp.php--a good one to memorize, anyway). Your subscribed forums will all be visible there.

When I tried yesterday, m.flyertalk.com kept redirecting to the main site (www.flyertalk.com). Only mobile.flyertalk.com gave me a mobile interface.

mobile.flyertalk.com would take you to the WiForums interface, which seems to be intended more for non-smartphones with a very basic WAP or basic HTML browser.

m.flyertalk.com runs directly on FT's vBulletin servers but applies an iPhone-friendly skin. They're two different products.

Wonder if they've taken the mobile skin offline to fix some of its major issues...

Same problem - can't see Airline or hotel forums.

Also: the search function doesn't seem to work when using m.flyertalk.com from my iPhone

same problem here, can't access Airline or hotel forums. Very frustrating. hoping for a fix. thanks :(