Mobile Browsing Just Overtook the Desktop For the First Time (alphr.com) 80
More users around the world are accessing the internet from mobile devices than from desktop computers for the first time, according to internet monitoring firm StatCounter. The combined traffic from mobile and tablets devices amounted to 51.3 percent, compared to desktop computers that contributed to 48.7 percent of the traffic. From a report on Alphr: StatCounter's CEO, Aodhan Cullen, believes this should be a wake-up call to professionals who still view mobile optimisation as an afterthought. "Mobile compatibility is increasingly important not just because of growing traffic but because Google favors mobile friendly websites for its mobile search results," he said. While the trend is pretty obvious worldwide, interestingly the graph is skewed by mobile adoption outside of the west. While the UK and USA still have the desktop on top (55.6% to 44.4% and 58% to 42% respectively), 78% of India's internet access is via mobile. Cullen believes that post-Brexit with a need to trade beyond the EU, these kind of concerns should be on every site owner's mind.
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"Desktop" is no longer on the "desktop", and hasn't been for a while. And by desktop, you also mean "Laptop". But our "desktop" isn't on our desk, It is in the palm of our hand. It is running Android or iOS, and it isn't running Windows.
Just wait till ChromeOS and Android are merged, and all your android apps run natively on your ChromeOS "desktop" (or laptop).
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You've moved the goalpost so far you're in a different game.
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And it's not like those mobile games are all that much fun.
I'd like to see him write a twenty page report on his phone, though. Poor thumbs.
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Pair a Bluetooth keyboard, pair a Bluetooth mouse, and connect an HDTV through HDMI, Miracast, or Chromecast. At that point, the most apparent problem is the inability of Android prior to 7.0 "Nougat" to display two windows side by side, so you can't see both the document you're reading and the notes you're taking.
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I write extensively on my Android Smartphone. I can type as fast (or faster) using SWYPE keyboard as on a regular keyboard. I don't need a mouse. And I am not tethered to a desk, power, network cable. Writing 20 pages takes discipline, but that is the same regardless of the method of writing.
As a plus, I often use my voice to dictate large chunks of what I am writing, when I have a lot to say. It was very awkward at first, but it just flows now. And I can do that while driving, something I cannot do while t
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I haven't moved the goalpost. I'm suggesting that the goal posts aren't where you thought they were. There is a difference.
Screw that. (Score:2, Informative)
I'm not going to waste my time "optimizing" a goddamn web page intended for a real computer just because some crappy little spyware device has a crappy, underpowered browser with a vastly inferior input method. If you can't properly navigate my site on your little pile of crap device, maybe you should grow up and use a real computer rather than your little government-tracks-you toy.
The world is going to see its error in going with these little botnet, spying, tracking devices soon enough, anyway when the w
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Teenage Me made a few bucks off these people. They always called sooner or later - later being when their browser won't even launch. Next Gen Me will do what he can, but it's not as easy to get under the hood when your OS is a decorative garden. I'll probably suggest he learn to replace dropped screens.
"It mus
UI variation madness [Re:Screw that.] (Score:1)
I feel your pain. UI development is growing ever more complex and messy.
In the pre-web days you had pretty much one target UI platform and it all worked the same on all desktops. Life was smooth*.
Then the web came along with different browser brands and versions. You had to test the UI on multiple browser brands and combo's. One org I worked for had a testing room with about 10 variations of browsers and OS's. When the testers were not available, I had to visit all 10 for every release. I considered gluing
Re:Screw that. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not going to waste my time "optimizing" a goddamn web page intended for a real computer just because some crappy little spyware device has a crappy, underpowered browser with a vastly inferior input method.
As a user of a "real computer", I have no problems with this. However, stop using my "real computer" as an excuse to require my browser run your needless javascript.
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stop using my "real computer" as an excuse to require my browser run your needless javascript.
Please clarify your comment. In your opinion, is there necessary JavaScript, or is all JavaScript "needless" to you?
There are plenty of web applications that could not be created without script, and plenty more that would be horribly inefficient (full page reload per click and/or hundreds of iframes on one screen) without script. Good luck making a web-based paint program or spreadsheet without script. And if you say those apps should be native instead of using the web platform, good luck running a Mac-only
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There are plenty of web applications that could not be created without script
Absolutely, those are applications. I'm talking about web pages, the things that display information and you can navigate around.
And if you say those apps should be native instead of using the web platform, good luck running a Mac-only app on your Windows PC or a Windows-only app on your Mac.
Javascript programs are implicitly open source, so just use open source programs that use a multiplatform framework like Qt. Problem solved.
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Absolutely, those are applications. I'm talking about web pages, the things that display information and you can navigate around.
The line between the two is by no means bright. For example, is a discussion forum such as Slashdot a "page" or an "application"?
Javascript programs are implicitly open source
A minified program in JavaScript is not "the preferred form of a work for making modifications to it".
so just use open source programs that use a multiplatform framework like Qt. Problem solved.
If you make a web application, you have to test it on each major browser engine. In practice, this means Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and initially using Chrome as a proxy for Safari. But if you change from offering one web application to offering five native applications, you end up ha
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The line between the two is by no means bright. For example, is a discussion forum such as Slashdot a "page" or an "application"?
I disagree, it's quite clear. Slashdot's forums are clearly a page. That said, there should be tag that is a placeholder for content to retrieve until it's exposed. expand/collapse stuff can already be done using CSS.
if you change from offering one web application to offering five native applications, you end up having to compile, test, and deploy on all five platforms' stores
You don't need to use "stores" and with Qt you don't have to do anything but recompile. You don't even have to test for compatibility bullshit like webdev, so it's even easier. See, problem solved.
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You don't need to use "stores"
The only ways to go around the store are even more expensive: A. buy a Mac for each of your iOS users so that they can install the application from source code using Xcode, or B. the iOS Developer Enterprise Program, which requires employing all your users.
and with Qt you don't have to do anything but recompile.
Is there a guide to using a Linux PC to cross-compile a Qt application for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS? And how can one be sure that it will work across all platforms without testing, as opposed to inadvertently relying on implementation-defined, uns
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The only ways to go around the store are even more expensive: A. buy a Mac for each of your iOS users so that they can install the application from source code using Xcode, or B. the iOS Developer Enterprise Program, which requires employing all your users.
LOL! oh man, you're helpless.
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Are you recommending that a business distribute an application that relies on jailbreaking, which in turn relies on a security defect that Apple can close at any time?
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so which is it, free application that brings in no money or business a application that somehow can't afford testing on multiple platforms?
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It's both, or more precisely the transition from one to the other: someone developing a free application to see whether he can use it as the minimum viable product for a new company.
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The market is saturated. Do or do not, there is no try.
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Good luck making a web-based paint program or spreadsheet without script.
You are assuming that a web-based spreadsheet is a sane idea.
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You are assuming that a web-based spreadsheet is a sane idea.
It's a less insane idea than a Mac-based spreadsheet that you can't run because your computer happens not to be a Mac, or a Windows-based spreadsheet that you can't run because your computer happens not to have a Windows license or to even have an x86-64 CPU in the first place, such as "mobile" (here meaning an ARM-powered device running a smartphone-derived operating system).
SInce iphone/android phones (Score:3)
came out I rarely visit a lot of sites I use to as they all changed their lay out to some POS where the hell is the navigation even for desktop users. Add in the bizare layout for news sites where you have no idea what is what and mobile has ruined the internet desktop experience.
I blame it on web designers crying the sky is falling if you don't use responsive design and you'll loose all your customers just so they can scare their customers to have their sites redesigned once more.
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I'm not going to waste my time "optimizing" a goddamn web page intended for a real computer just because.
If it's like most web pages I've seen, you don't "optimize" nothin', for anything.
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As if a desktop or laptop is any less trackable/spyable.
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a desktop/laptop doesn't ping a nearby celltowers several times a second
But they still have a WiFi card that's blasting it's MAC address to a pretty large radius
they also generally don't have a gps chip allowing exact location to be determined remotely
No, but they require fixed internet connection that puts you in pretty much the same visible radius
If you're then going to go off on TOR, VPNs, MAC spoofing and other paranoid measures to hide.... well you can do all that on a phone too. Disable the cell radio, and use the same TOR and VPN tricks to hide. Of course, then they'll track you by browser fingerprinting and other super cookie methods, so good luck. Short of
Browsing or accessing (Score:2)
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I browse all the time on my phone and tablet. It is simple and fast and I am seldom typing so they work great. In the morning when I need a quick catch up I load something like 30 tabs at once on my laptop, but during the day a touch screen covers most of my needs
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I'm to the point now with my Nexus 6 that I prefer my phone to the desktop. That mouse is slower than my touch screen, and I can't easily zoom.
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ctrl+scroll wheel is too challenging?
Re: Browsing or accessing (Score:2)
Obviously the moron is strong with this one, just nod and move along as this twit is probably the it manager at your company
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Again... the mouse is slower. So saying use the mouse doesn't really invalidate my point. Not to mention that while the browser may "zoom", its still very clunky and many pages change up their rendering because the window stays the same size and everything is just enlarged. It's not a REAL zoom if the page changes now is it?
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Sigh, yeh, I have got to the point of trying to pinch zoom pictures in real books occasionally damnit.
Going too far (Score:2)
A trend I've spotted: The desktop version of some websites are now also optimized for mobile.
There's a little three-stripe menu in the corner, a bunch of icons with no hint about what they might represent, and a list of about 30 words in a huge font. The rest of my 24-inch monitor is filled with white space.
To get any further information, I need to click icons to dig down and get fed little batches of a few more words or pictures.
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Don't forget the "top 10 list", each item being on a separate page, and being about a postage stamp in size, surrounded by ads. Thankfully said sites now give a middle finger to people using ad-blockers, so one knows the site is a waste of time and can move onto other things.
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so one knows the site is a waste of time/quote? This exactly. And maybe because I'm older and know more things now, but there seems to be a declining amount of content on the web.
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So, did they count laptops as desktops or as mobile devices?
For the purposes of TFA, laptops are desktops. "Mobile" only includes smartphones and tablets.
How much is real? (Score:3)
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Brexit is about fear. The Anti Brexit people fear that everything will go on the same, or better. The ProBrexit people were fearing whatever it was they fear.
The reality is, neither side is going to be fully happy, as the doomsday won't occur and but neither will the benefits. It is just a different set of cronies will get rich.
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It depends how you measure it. The US is the biggest export destination of UK goods, but by far more stuff gets imported from Germany than the US:
The UK exports $51 billion to, and imports $44.4 billion from, the US.
The UK exports $46.5 billion to, and imports $100 billion from, Germany.
http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/... [mit.edu]
And if you combine the rest of the EU, it is far bigger than the US, in terms of trade with the UK.
But anyway, that's missing the point. His point of his comment was that the UK should expand
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They could, but they'd have the French & Germans landing on them like a ton of bricks. They don't want to lose jobs in engineering & cheese-making.
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It might be. I predict the future will be something like Google Glass that projects a bigger screen (or equiv), and we'll use hand gestures to manipulate them. The objects may even be (virtual) 3D. To bystanders, people will look like they are conducting an invisible orchestra.
Or it may be an implant that stimulates the optical nerves, and similar for input instead of fingers. There's promising research that reduces or eliminates surgery of brain "connectors".
Or maybe fold-out phones, sort o
Gorilla arm (Score:2)
To bystanders, people will look like they are conducting an invisible orchestra.
And ending up with sore arms. Certain input methods depicted in the film Minority Report are a recipe for gorilla arm.
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Current mouses and keyboards are subject to RSI (inflamed joints), so it's hard to do worse. Maybe air-mousing has enough variety of movements to reduce RSI.
The year of Linux on mobile is at hand! (Score:2)
Next year, the desktop!
What are people thinking? (Score:3)
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There is a case to be made that mobile users are a different segment of the market to desktop users. It is no longer true that the mobile users are all teenagers with low IQ and no money, but it may still be the case that the desktop users are more likely to have money.
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I'd rather surf the 'net with my desktop than my little phone display no matter how crispy it is. What are people thinking?
Can you bring your desktop into the bathroom with you at work? That appears to be where half my coworkers spend 90% of their time.
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Maybe they spend that long in the bathroom BECAUSE they bring their phone or tablet, instead of having Facebook calling them back to the office and the computer?
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I've used a laptop on the loo plenty often. Laptops appear to count as desktops for purposes of this survey.
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They may be thinking that an always-on device they have in their pocket that uses 1/100th as much power as running their desktop computer, is much more convenient for quickly looking-up information.
HTML is a markup language. It can be wrapped to any size viewport you wish, or at least it could if web "designers" didn't abuse it quite so badly. So a phone isn't necessarily inferior. In
First time? You'd never know it. (Score:3)
Now that tablet sales are stagnant, I can't wait for them to find some new destructive trend to chase.
Like, someone invents an ass-browser, so all those websites will be redone again, with a brown palette, and turd-shaped buttons to make them "ass-friendly".
Sorry about that (Score:2)
The power went out so I had to use my phone until I could get the generator connected, which took all morning as I've been putting off adding the inlet and junction box. The UPS kept my internet connection up for some hours, though. Sadly, I loaded G+ and that accounts for the traffic difference
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If you're trying to keep both the head and legs in frame, and you're already zoomed out as far as your device's lens goes, what is the alternative to vertical video?
Frequency != Time Spent (Score:2)
I check sites several times a day with my phone, but when I want to read, I use my computer.
Depends on the site (Score:2)
Though, given the comments, I wonder if anyone here even builds a site of their own, outside of a personal project.