Regular site preferred to iPad app for site. With poll.

[gypsyman]

I have had my iPad 3 for 1 month. I find that a lot of sites offer an iPad app for viewing their site or I can "continue" to their normal site. On almost all sites I have visited, I prefer the normal site to the iPad app. The pinch,tap and squeeze seem to work very well. Since I am new to the iPad, is it just me or do others prefer the regular site to the iPad app?

 

[mmntech]

I hate having tons of iPad apps for everything. Just easier to go to the normal site unless the app offers a significantly better experience, such as Facebook and Twitter.

 

[Eug]

I hate having tons of iPad apps for everything.

Same here. Surfing the internet shouldn't require running proprietary software for every single website on earth.

Yahoo! Mail, like others, has a reasonable compromise though. They redirect to their iPad-specific page automatically. It has some of the benefits of a dedicated app, without requiring a dedicated app. And of course you always have the option of using their regular page.

This is better than places like AnandTech which either throw up a popup or else redirect to specific page telling you to install their unwanted app.

P.S. In 2012, the whole concept of dedicated magazine apps just sucks.

 

[mmntech]

What irks me is there are still plenty of major corporate websites that don't play nice with the iPad. My bank is one of them. Some are not touch screen friendly, others are still addicted to Flash. I hate trying to check something on my iPad, only to find out it doesn't work, then having to fire up the desktop. It's fine with 99% of websites out there. What idiots are designing the remaining 1%?!

 

[gevorg]

Most of these site-specific apps just increase the clutter on your iPad/iPhone. Unless its some specific site like photography where you upload pictures and use some special functionality of your phone, I don't bother with site-specific apps. For forums and news sites, they do it mostly to "improve" on how they serve ads to you, and also how they track you (apps have much more control and tracking functionality than a website on Safari). There are exceptions of course, but in my experience, 80%+ of them are junk.

 

[bearxor]

For the most part, the normal web site is just fine. Don't want a bunch of icons floating around for different sites.

I usually won't even try a site-specific app.

 

[Atty]

I use Tapatalk for my iPhone to read forums, I've had success using normal websites with iPads, when I get my new (3rd gen) I might try out Tapatalk HD if I get truly frustrated with a websites forum. Some less polished forums are obnoxious on mobile devices.

 

[ControlD]

Same here. Surfing the internet shouldn't require running proprietary software for every single website on earth.

Yahoo! Mail, like others, has a reasonable compromise though. They redirect to their iPad-specific page automatically. It has some of the benefits of a dedicated app, without requiring a dedicated app. And of course you always have the option of using their regular page.

This is better than places like AnandTech which either throw up a popup or else redirect to specific page telling you to install their unwanted app.

P.S. In 2012, the whole concept of dedicated magazine apps just sucks.

The easy way around those annoying popups (or worse, being directed to a phone version when using a tablet) is to install a third-party browser like Atomic. You can set what browser version is sent to the websites you are visiting. If you set the browser to report OS X for example you will always get the full websites and not have to deal with the mobile crap. I am still on the original iPad and old firmware so perhaps Apple has added this same functionality to Safari. You might want to check before going with a different browser.

 

[GT1999]

Always native. And I use Ad-Block to remove most of the ads.

What's really annoying is the FaceBook for iPad app sucks, not that I use it all that often, but when I do I like to be notified I get a message. It also does not support Timeline.

But yes almost all the apps out there suck and are usually ad driven anyway so they're complete garbage. There are exceptions however, like Flipboard.

 

[Kadarin]

What sucks is when some moronic site checks your user-agent header and forces you to the mobile site even when you want the regular site.