Once upon a time, WAP was crap. At least, that’s how it was perceived – mainly because of misleading advertising showing silver surfers zipping through the mobile internetweb, when the reality was much slower and more clunky.
Nowadays, things have improved. Faster connections and graphical pages make browsing modern-day mobile internet sites a much more pleasurable experience. But which WAP sites will you actually use on a daily basis?
Here’s five that I find indispensable, with the URLs you’ll need to access them from your phone’s browser.
1. Gmail Mobile (m.gmail.com)
Although there’s also a nifty Java application, the Gmail mobile internet site is equally impressive. It’s quick to navigate around your inbox, and do near enough everything you’d do on a desktop PC.
2. Facebook (m.facebook.com)
By far the best mobile internet site based on a social networking service, by dint of the fact that you don’t have to pay for it, and it’s not restricted to users of one network. Check all your friends’ latest updates and post your own, within a clean, quick interface.
3. BBC News (www.bbc.co.uk/mobile)
The Beeb knows a thing or two about the mobile internet – chiefly making it super-quick to navigate around sections to find the story you’re interested in. The Sports section is particularly useful due to its contextual nature – when a big football match is taking place, for example, the link to the score is at the top of the homepage.
4. National Rail Enquiries (wap.nationalrail.co.uk)
Get train times on the move. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve used this site – usually when sitting in a pub figuring out how many extra pints I can squeeze in before a late train home. Once again, it’s quick and simple to use – can you spot a theme emerging here?
5. Yell (mobile.yell.com)
Directory service Yell, like Gmail, has launched a whizzy Java app, but its WAP site remains an efficient way to locate phone numbers and info on any business you like here in the UK.
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About Stuart Dredge
Excellent article, also don’t forget that if you are travelling in Europe by rail, you can get times for EVERY rail company in Europe from wap.bahn.de. The initial page is in German but there is an ‘english’ link right on the front page..
John
The NRE site is good – really quick and simple – but I prefer http://www.kizoom.mobi, which has exactly the same train info plus a few nice extra features. Of which most useful to me are remembering your recent stations and showing local taxi numbers near every station.