Mobile Sites
Jesus' work on the Cross is finished but getting the word out continues!
Why Mobile Devices?
Mobile devices, especially cell phones, are used by a greater percentage of the world than are PCs due to cost and portability. In addition, these are the primary communication medium of mobile business people and young people. JesusIsLord.org is being streamlined to support mobile device navigation. The goal is that anyone anywhere at anytime can present the Gospel in any language to any person one meets. Praise God for His new tool! Selah!
Mobile devices, especially cell phones, are currently serviced by phone networks. These networks tend to be more widely dispersed geographically than Internet networks which are hard-wired, wireless near the point of the paid Internet connection or wireless but also dependent on hot spot locations. Thus, the same voice device brings up the mobile Internet content in more locations, more reliably in changing locations (such as on a train), and remote locations.
Mobile devices, especially cell phones, are smaller and cheaper and require less user knowledge to use. One just signs up for and pays for data service and the software choices have already been made by the network provider. While those of us who are older may have a hard time initially with text messaging and typing in web addresses or setting preferences, once learned, you are set free to communicate easily almost anywhere without a PC and without much expense.
Cell phone web help
Young people naturally used texting as it became available just when they were apt to use it. Those of us who are older thought we were using new technology when we hopefully started using email. The PC keyboard has one key per character so we just type away. The only difficult part is using the caps key or using the number keys for special characters. The phone and thus the cell phone were originally only meant for phone numbers. My phone number at one time was WI 7 1919 and the WI stood for Wilson. We knew the how to locate the W on "9" and the I on "4" on the dial. We would rotate the dial successively and let it reverse back each time to call 947 1919. Later we removed the alphabetic characters from phone numbers and added area codes. Today my number would be ### 947 1919. But we always pressed each number key just one time.
To use a cell phone for other than voice you must learn to tap a key the number of times needed to exhibit the character you want to type. The 2 key has ABC on it. If you tap it once, you type an A, tap it twice you type B, tap it three times you type C. For each letter, you must wait a moment so the device knows you are done tapping. If you want B, you tap the 2 key twice and wait until the display advances to the next space. If you wanted C but tapped twice and failed to tap the third time quickly enough, you must locate the place on your unique device to delete the last character. You will have to play around with your phone to find how to create a space between words, how to capitalize a letter then not capitalize the next letter. You will need to find the "@" symbol which may be accessible on your 1 key. You will also need to find the "." key which is on my 1 key. you@service.com will require it as will www.domainname.com.
You can probably use your cell phone to search the web even if you don't have a paid data package. But you will probably be paying for each site you access so try it but then check your bill to see if you want to add the data package (or the texting package). You can either find the location where your cell phone has "www." You just tap in the web site name. You can also create a short cut in your personal preferences menu of your cell phone. Remember to save your work! I have a preference set for jnt.net which when clicked goes to JesusNeverForgets.net. From there I can click on any of my other sites. The "www." will lose the web site name if you turn your cell phone off. You may wish to turn your cell phone to vibrate in a public setting. What I have done is to keep a list of my mobile web sites on each mobile web site, then I program into my preferences one of those web sites. I can get where I want to be with fewer clicks and I am free to use longer but much more descriptive mobile web site names. While I try and make it as easy as possible to access the sites, I also made the choice that jnf.mobi is not as distinctive or descriptive as jesusneverforgets.mobi. Plus, jnf.mobi probably is taken! I may find a very simple mobile name just for personal use and link to all my sites in case I find myself explaining to someone else, probably a stranger, how to access the sites. Thus, for them, the entry point (www.simple.mobi) would be much easier.
Find your "back" button as soon as possible. For a while on my own mobile web sites after I had read a page, I clicked on the HOME key and then had to scroll to get down to the page choices again. One day I found the "back" key and I never had to do that again!
I provide these tips because I had to figure this out step by step. Hopefully, if you don't already know these things, it will go much more quickly for you.
If you are going to purchase a domain name and create your own mobile web site, unless you are a developer or create software for a living, I recommend that you purchase your domain name from NetworkSolutions.com and the build your site via buildmymobi.com. I normally do not advertise any commercial venture, but it is fairly simple and there is tech support 7x24 at a toll free number. I usually wait for the East Coast of the U.S. to go to bed and then I call and have almost no wait time. The most important feature of BuildMyMobi.com is that it tests your creation to see if cell phones can view it easily. If you get a 5 out of 5, you are fine. If you get 4 out of 5, it will let you continue. If you get a 3 or lower, it will let you discard or cancel only. You can use low data images sparingly! Viewing a simple html code web site such as JesusIsLord.org on a cell phone automatically lowers the resolution of the photos so they too can be viewed! However, the images which reside on your mobile site must be low data in data size.
Why remove the convenient navigation bars?
Mobile devices have presentation limitations. While a full-size computer monitor can display a web page which can be easily and quickly scanned, a mobile device shows only a small portion of the information at one time on the device screen. One doesn't know at what point of the full-size screen is being accessed and navigating to other areas can be cumbersome. Praise God that clicking in to JesusIsLord.org from a mobile device such as a cell phone one can read the entire site! But if the navigation bars are not brief, they can make surfing frustrating. So the page Home: Right navigation bars offers just one time JesusIsLord.org navigation bars.
Why distinguish between PC-friendly and Mobile-friendly links?
A July issue of Business Week Magazine states that we have only scratched the surface for broadband mobile. At this time there is coding in many web pages that will prevent loading the page onto a cell phone. Some ministries know this and offer both PC-friendly and mobile-friendly pages with almost the same content. Where there is a difference, I point out the difference and offer both. In the future two things will happen. More ministries will rework their web sites in order to download on to the current cell phones. Also, cell phones will morph into portable desktop PCs which can easily download PC-friendly content. There will always be a lag in developing countries. I will pick the best solution I can with what is available on the web so as not to frustrate cell phone users wherever they are. You may be pleased to know I have a low cost cell phone so my testing is real. The following link helps to bring many more tracts in languages to cell phones from a site that currently does not download to cell phones. World Missionary Press Navigation Page
How do I view .mobi sites?
.mobi sites are cost-effective and can be created without knowledge of html code. All the .mobi domain names are not taken! It's like starting the domain name rush all over again. It is a second chance for those of us who missed it the first time. People can view your mobile site almost anywhere with privacy. You could be checking email, playing a game, adding a contact, looking for a phone number, surfing the net or texting. I suppose a record somewhere is kept of all you look at but those nearby you won't have access to that. You don't have to carry paper tracts in each language around, just the domain name in your phone. Just as you don't need a list of phone numbers anymore, you just type or say "Mom." I have so many .mobi sites because I want to address issues people have and circumstances that cause them to see the world differently than others do. If one site doesn't make sense, maybe another will. Also, I can link to my main site, JesusIsLord.org, from many points of entry. The driving force behind my actions is that everyone gets a sensitive introduction to Jesus Christ at least once in their lifetime so they can make an informed decision. I'm only part of the Great Commission puzzle but just as the butcher can weigh his thumb along with the meat being weighed for sale, Jesus can add his presence, influence and angels to my attempts at obeying him!
Last updated: 05/10/2012
You are my cup and my portion
Forever, oh Lord
Forever, oh Lord!
You are my joy, my delight
My exceeding reward
My exceeding reward!
And I rest in Your shadow
In green pastures my soul lies down
And I drink from still waters
Crystal clear living water!
And my heart is overflowing
with a theme of pure delight
And my lips shall speak of wonder and of grace
For what else could I desire
When my King is here with me?
What a joy it is to be in Your embrace,
In Your embrace!