Mobile Chi

[mymermaid]

Hi Alan and everyone,

Its been a long time since I was last here - but I have already bought your book and I am looking to see if you eventually made your mobile chi-game.
This is what you wrote a while back....

I'm working on a mobile phone version, which I might offer for sale. And I have an idea for a stand-alone Chihuahua program, that people would install on their computer, which I would offer as a paid download. So, I do have a vague kind of pecuniary interest in the growth of the Chi/Lexigame community, in that its members might one day be potential customers for some products, if I ever get around to creating them. But in the main, what motivates me is probably the ego-gratification that anyone gets from doing work that other people appreciate.

Look forward to hearing from you.
Mandy

Hav

[Alan W]

Hi MM!

It's great to hear from you again. It's been such a long time, I feared you must have sailed somewhere over the horizon, never to return. You surely must have some interesting tales to tell, or photos to show us? Are you still sailing?

As for the mobile version, I did quite a bit of work on it, but it's not completed, and I haven't done any work on it for quite some time.

It's interesting to read my comments of about three years ago, that you quoted from. A lot of things haven't turned out as I envisaged. The things that I was most keen on doing haven't been done. I did implement the chat box beside the puzzle, that I said then I probably wouldn't bother with. And I've done a number of things, such as the Chihuahua book, that I hadn't even thought of at that time. (And of course, the frenetic activity on the forum, that sparked off that thread in 2007, is a thing of the past. In fact that month - July 2007 - was the all-time peak of forum activity, with 4101 posts. Last month, by contrast, there were 149 posts.)

One of the things that discouraged me from perservering with the mobile version was the difficulty of getting things to run properly given the limited capacities (memory, processing speed, etc) of most mobiles at that time. This probably wouldn't be much of an issue now, since the capabilities of handsets have forged ahead. So maybe your question will spur me on to have another look at it. Though you must admit that the book is a supremely reliable wireless version.

[mymermaid]

Hi Alan,
It has been a very long time and we have had a wonderful 8 years of sailing. This doesn't mean to say that we have given up the sailing but now we look at the beautiful sunsets and incredible scenery and they just can't compare to our 2 grand-daughters and this definitely changes our perspective on what and where we should be. Now we return to land for the winter and even try to return for a short time in the middle of the summer.

This is a story of a voyage we did - a Peace Sail - it was in 2005 but I think it gives an idea of the excitement and happiness that we all felt as we sailed from Tel Aviv, Israel thru the Suez Canal, Egypt to Eilat, Israel.
http://www.med-red-rally.com/pageArticles.asp  (go to: Voyage summary, written by Mandy and Gingy - 2005 Personal articles)

I would like to say that I have tried to get on-line with my mobile phone and look at the daily letters for each puzzle - but for some reason it just doesn't come up correctly - they only way I can get the letters is if I look at the day before's solution and then I get the letters from the 9-letter word. Maybe I am doing something wrong  

[Tania]

Hi,  I would also be really keen on a mobile version - I find it harder & harder to get online through the day but am often waiting (while picking up or dropping off a child etc..) with a few minutes free, a mobile application that I can just use through the day would be perfect.  I have also tried using my browser (iphone) and while I can get the letters, actually playing any is very slow & I usually give up.

Tania

[Alan W]

I'm not surprised you had problems trying to look at the Chihuahua page with your mobile phone, Mandy. Chihuahua makes heavy use of a Web technology called JavaScript, which most mobile phone browsers do not attempt to support. An exception to this is the Safari browser on the iPhone and iPod Touch, which has fairly good support for JavaScript. But as Tania found, the standard Chihuahua page is not well designed for the small display, or for touch screen interaction. Here is what today's puzzle looks like on an iPod Touch (with cat for scale):



Some versions of the Opera Mini browser also support JavaScript, but they run the JavaScript on a server, so every time you play a letter, the page reloads, which is very cumbersome (and potentially expensive). Here is what Chi can look like on a Nokia phone running Opera Mini 5, after using the zoom function.



So, it's not really possible at present.

I probably need to redesign the site to adjust itself to varying screen sizes, for the great variety of portable devices people are using, but also for those with wide-screen monitors, to use the whole screen and display more words with less scrolling. And I could also have a version of the page that doesn't use JavaScript - which would also satisfy the need for a printer-friendly page.

But what I had in mind for a mobile version was a bit more ambitious: a downloadable application that would allow you to play offline as well as online. So you would be able to play your own puzzles on a stand-alone basis, but you would also be able to connect to the Internet briefly and download the latest puzzles and results, and then play offline. When you were next connected, the words you had played in daily puzzles would be uploaded to the website and appear on everybody's scoreboard.

However, I came up with this design a few years ago, when mobile phone Internet use was unreliable and expensive. Maybe there would be less need for offline playing these days, since many people are able and willing to keep their Internet connections open indefinitely...

When I did a search on the forum to see what discussions we'd previously had about a mobile Chi version, I noticed that back in 2007 it was mymermaid and Tania who were interested, so maybe I have a market of two for this innovation!

[Alan W]

Read your sailing article, Mandy - that sounds dangerous!

[technomc]

Hello Mymer,
How fab to hear from you..after absolutely ages....i had feared you had been pirated...it's great to know you are safe and well.
It's a huge worry when a forumate drops off the scene, with no warning...

Keep in touch..

I will be checking out your link in a bit...
Take care.
T X

[rogue_mother]

When I did a search on the forum to see what discussions we'd previously had about a mobile Chi version, I noticed that back in 2007 it was mymermaid and Tania who were interested, so maybe I have a market of two for this innovation!

I do not currently have a smart phone or iPod. This would be the killer app for me!

[mymermaid]

I only bought a smart phone because of the Chi .... I hated being so far away from my daily fix .... and you can imagine the disappointment I felt when I found that it doesn't work - ugggghhhhh.

[Alan W]

When I previously made a couple of mobile phone games, about six years ago, the phones were distinctly less smart than today! And even then, I wasn't targeting the top of the range handsets. Since I haven't upgraded my skills since then, and my own mobile is of the not-so-smart variety, it's likely that anything I do will not require a smart phone or iPhone.

[mymermaid]

thanks Technomc for your good thoughts and I hope that you didn't have too many sleepless nights worrying about us sailing.
Although it wasn't that long ago that a british couple were pirated near Somalia and have been held for over 100 days now, but we did not sail to those waters and have no intention of going that way...
We have been sailing the Turkish and Greek waters where there is definitely plenty to see and enjoy.

[technomc]

Hi Mymer...

I am very glad to hear that...what a fab life it sounds -it makes me want to burst into song - 'a life on the ocean waves'...but i won't!!

Keep in touch when you can..photos would be nice too..
XX

[Alan W]

While you're waiting for me to come up with a mobile-friendly version of Chi, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you could check out an app called Worder.

It's based on the same concept, of making words using nine letters. It lacks the competitive edge of Chihuahua, since it is a stand-alone puzzle - you're not playing against anyone else. However it does have a few options not available here, such as having a minimum word size of 3, 4 or 5, and the ability to play with or without a mandatory letter.

(The app's creator is from Melbourne, like me, though I'd never heard of him before discovering Worder. Is Melbourne becoming an international centre of excellence in nine-letter word puzzles? Should I apply to the City Council for a grant of some kind?)

My favourite word game in the App Store is Moxie. I'm totally hooked on it at the moment. If you have the right kind of device, it's well worth looking at.

[rhino]

Hi Alan,

I am also hooked on Moxie on my iPhone, and will check on Worder a little later.  I would love it if you could set up even a downloadable Chi application that can be played offline.  This gives you at least 3 people as a target audience, should make it worth about xx billion hours of creative talent!

Cheers,

Rhino

[mymermaid]

Yes Rhino - I agree with you ... I'd love a downloadable chi. We don't always have internet.

We are now sailing around some of the Greek Islands - enjoying the Moussaka and Souvlaki, the Ouzo and Mythos beer, the greek music and the beautiful scenery. (Notice I put the food first ).

Enjoy