One of the things I was really looking forward to with BlackBerry 10 was the browser that wiped the floor with the competition. BlackBerry really delivered and it allowed me to redo the BerryReview mobile site with a gorgeous HTML5 overhaul. The most common reaction I get when showing it to people is “I cannot believe that isn’t an app!” We have packed in quite a few features in this beta and I really hope you enjoy it. There is also some new sever side magic going on all the pages on BerryReview that much faster.
The new photo lightbox and sharing link on the top right
The new BerryReview mobile site is available now for BlackBerry 10 devices including the Dev Alpha so feel free to check it out and give us your feedback during the beta. The focus for the redesign was on speed and functionality while pushing the envelope with the groundwork laid by jansimecek. There are small touches all around including a sliding sidebar menu, ajax page loading, and a gorgeous mobile lightbox photo viewer. There is definitely more updates coming so stay tuned and please please send in your feedback!
The sliding sidebar menu
Current & Future plans: The new BerryReview Mobile site is enabled for BlackBerry 10 devices and based on beta user feedback we have also turned it on for iPhone and Android phones. (Android has some issues) I am still testing a tweaked mobile site for the larger PlayBook screen size but I am on the fence on if it should just get the desktop site. We are also testing the new redesign on some legacy BlackBerry devices to see if it makes sense and the performance is there but the older mobile site offers the same functionality at a speed that is hard to match. We also have to make it work for both touch and click events.
The drop down search box along with the ajax “Load More” option
The expanding related articles and similar comment system to the desktop site
It also works nicely in landscape mode
BooGz ( View Profile) - Posts: 50
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 6:32 AM EST from my BlackBerry Z10 | OS 10.0.9.2372
And it looks great…. keep up the good work
ofutur ( View Profile) - Posts: 1116
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 7:52 AM EST
Good job!
A few things I’ve noticed
I think the search bar should use a fixed position, just like the share bar.
There is a bug with share via mail. You have an extra “e ” before the title.
Would be much better if share could call the apps if they’re installed, but I’m not sure if you can invoke the other apps without packaging this as a real app.
and…
What’s the problem with Android? Jquery plugin?
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3282
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 8:17 AM EST
You read my mind ofutur. I am working on making the search bar fixed along with making the button targets a bit bigger. The email link is fixed thanks for spotting that. I do not think I can invoke the apps without it being packaged as an app but we have a separate app for that. The problem with the Android version is the ways that they kick off hardware acceleration for scrolling that is different from iOS and BlackBerry. Trying to figure it out.
ofutur ( View Profile) - Posts: 1116
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 5:39 PM EST
Oh yeah, HW acceleration is such a hassle, even on BB10. translate3d can introduce some artefacts :S
BBA Brian ( View Profile) - Posts: 1218
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 8:49 AM EST
awesome work
William Archer ( View Profile) - Posts: 120
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 9:55 AM EST
I was really pleased to see the new format when I browsed over using my Z10. Well done, Ronen.
The PlayBook version you’ve had going for some time now is also quite welcome – I don’t like turning “reader mode” on for my browsing if I don’t have to and you’ve made it quite pleasant.
Nice work.
ShvartzBerry ( View Profile) - Posts: 383
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 12:28 PM EST
Looks neat.
Any way fool around with the URL to force the new version for “legacy” BBs (man that sounds old) like the Torch? Maybe put a switch in there like ?BB10=1 or something.
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3282
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 12:51 PM EST
You would have to fool around with your useragent. Sadly I do not have the ability to change themes dynamically yet. Every way I tried causes too many problems
ShvartzBerry ( View Profile) - Posts: 383
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 1:16 PM EST
So I decided to try this out for fun. Don’t think I can do it on the BB itself. I used User-Agent Switcher for Chrome. I had to put in a custom entry for BB10 which you can do through the settings.
This is what I used for the user-agent:
Mozilla/5.0 (BB10; Z10) AppleWebKit/535.19 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/10.0.1 Mobile Safari/535.19
Got the new version to come but it doesn’t look so neat in a PC browser.
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3282
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 1:20 PM EST from my BlackBerry Z10 | OS 10.0.10.261
Yeah it’s the touch features that are really slick.
Corey Davis ( View Profile) - Posts: 1293
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 4:32 PM EST
Is there a way to avoid the mobilensite and get the desktop one?
ofutur ( View Profile) - Posts: 1116
Posted: February 15, 2013 at 5:38 PM EST
Turning on desktop mode on the Z10 doesn’t work?
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: 3282
Posted: February 17, 2013 at 9:53 AM EST
Yeah turning on desktop mode will do it. There are just too many players in the middle for me to properly test out changing the mobile site. It gets really tricky
I will work on it but I don’t want it to downgrade the whole experience.