The MobileESP Project: Easily detect mobile web site visitors

Hi, folks –

Thanks to some questions from Dave M., we realized that MobileESP had inconsistent support for detecting the Amazon Kindle e-Ink devices as mobile devices, plus, they were also reporting “true” as Rich CSS Tier devices (which they are not). In addition, MobileESP had no support for detecting the Amazon Kindle Fire devices in Silk browser acceleration mode, which uses a different useragent string.

We updated the MobileESP code bases twice today. The first was to standardize support for detection of the Kindle e-Ink device. Then we remembered that we had wanted to also add support for detecting the Silk browser acceleration, so we updated all of the libraries a second time to add the Silk browser support.

Here is the specific list of updates which affects the following libraries: PHP, JavaScript, Java, ASP.NET (both variants), and Python.

• Updated DetectRichCSS(): Excluded e-Ink Kindle devices, which all run black and white displays.
• Created DetectAmazonSilk(): Created to detect Kindle Fire devices in Silk mode.
• Updated DetectMobileQuick(): Updated to include e-Ink Kindle devices and the Kindle Fire in Silk mode.

Open Issue: Currently, the Android-based Kindle Fire browser is detected as a Rich CSS Tier device when in Silk mode. When Silk mode is off (i.e., normal Android browsing mode), then the device is currently reporting itself as an Android phone. (This is common behavior for 7″ Android tablets.) We’re not sure that this is the best strategy for Silk mode — should Silk mode be in the Rich CSS or basic mobile device category alongside feature phones? Please let us know your feedback.

As always, if you’d like updates on MobileESP, subscribe to the changes log on Google Code.

- Anthony

Hi, folks –

A quick update to the code libraries today.

ALL LIBRARIES: PHP, JavaScript, Java, ASP.NET (both), Python

Added support for the BlackBerry Curve Touch 9380. It’s a new monoblock all-touchscreen device from BlackBerry and is a little smaller than a Storm. Because the screen is (reasonably) large and it lacks a keyboard, we decided to add support to it to the DetectBlackBerryTouch() method. (Special thanks to Robert P. for bringing the recent launch of this device to our attention.)

PHP Bug Fix

Fixed a bug in the DetectKindle() method. The call to DetectAndroid() needed the class identifier (“this”). (Special thanks to the several people who wrote in about this one.)

Python Bug Fix

In adding support for the Curve Touch to the DetectBlackBerryTouch() method, we noticed a copy & paste error in the code. All of the existing lines of code were looking for the Storm device only. Oops! So we added in support for all necessary devices: Storm, Torch, Bold Touch and Curve Touch.

All libraries have been updated in the Google Code project and are available for download now.

- Anthony