Page based Navigation: Swipe to Change
A few hours ago Onswipe and WordPress.com announced that you can download a new theme which will improve the browsing experience on tablets. The idea was that it would give you an browsing experience similar to using an app on the iPad.
This new theme is based on the work that went into Padpressed, an iPad only WordPress theme, last year. In fact, Onswipe grew out of the company that developed Padpressed. Or, you could say that they took the idea of Padpressed and expanded it include all web publishing for tablets (not just a WordPress theme).
Anyway, the theme doesn’t work (at least, not for me). It’s also not stable enough to be worth using.
I updated this blog and tried to install the theme (twice). According to my WordPress install, the new theme is missing a stylesheet. Drat.
And in case it wasn’t clear, this theme only works on the iPad.
I don’t have an iPad (yet), so I ran out to Best Buy to try it out on one of the demo units. I visited the CBS New York website and it kept freezing on me. Even when it worked, I didn’t see much that was all that interesting. I think the non-iPad mobile theme on CBS New York was more useful than the iPad theme.
The following 3 photos should give you an idea on what this theme looks like.
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- The Cover: what you see when you first visit a site
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- Page based Navigation: Swipe to Change
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- An Article Page
I’m going to pass at the moment. It’s flashy, but it didn’t work very well. Also, it’s less useful than my current mobile setup. I’m using a theme that works just fine on all mobile devices and I don’t see a reason to change it.
Since I can’t show you the theme here, I’m going to have to direct you to one of the following sites:
CBS New York (representing NYC!)
CNN Fortune Tech
Matt Mullenweg
RSS
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Feedly
or one of the retailers on
Maybe given your disapproval of Apple, you shouldn’t cater to IPAD owners.
As for your mobile website, I don’t like the fact my Android 7″ tablet defaults to it because I can’t adjust the text size at that site. So I always switch to the full version.
Personally, I prefer the mobile theme on my 9″ tablet, which just goes to show that my setup can make everyone happy.
And my antipathy towards Apple has to to with their business model, not their products. I really do want this for all tablets, and I’m disappointed that I can’t use it.
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