comic showing up upside down

[joshz]

On my iPhone (but not my normal computer), http://xkcd.com/104/ show up upside down. I'll post an image when I get to my computer later, but essentialy, the page looks normal except for the image, which is flipped 180°.
Any ideas?

[TheGrammarBolshevik]

I can confirm the same issue on my iPod touch, but I suspect that this is a client-side issue.

[davean]

Does that happen with the version at http://m.xkcd.com/104/ ?

[lanicita]

Yes.

[Hawknc]

Holy shit, we have a m.xkcd.com?

Uh, this also happens for me on iPhone OS 3.0 on both versions of the site.

[operator[]]

The EXIF data says the image is rotated, which I assume is not supported on the iPhone.

Code: Select all

$ jhead find_you.jpg
File name    : find_you.jpg
File size    : 79768 bytes
File date    : 2010:03:20 11:29:45
Camera make  : Canon
Camera model : CanoScan 9950F
Date/Time    : 2006:04:06:19:49:32
Resolution   : 600 x 716
Orientation  : rotate 180


The problem should be easily fixed by opening the file in GIMP and rotating it correctly.

[phlip]

Hmm... if that is the problem, then all of these should be rotated wrong on the phone:

Code: Select all

$ for i in *.jpg; do A=$(jhead "$i"|grep Orientation) && echo "$i: $A"; done
familiar.jpg: Orientation  : rotate 90
find_you.jpg: Orientation  : rotate 180
karnaugh.jpg: Orientation  : rotate 270
other_car.jpg: Orientation  : rotate 90
pillow_talk.jpg: Orientation  : rotate 270
valentine.jpg: Orientation  : rotate 270

Try them out, people with iPhones: 62 63 69 76 80 104.

[Hawknc]

All rotated wrong on my iPhone.

[davean]

Ok, thanks. Those work fine on Android, the only place we test.
Apple hasn't exactly sent us free iPhones for testing purposes.

As for not knowing about it, yes, we need to start making it well known. Currently that probably means detecting mobile browsers and letting them know they could use something else, say with a link at the very top of xkcd.com. Sadly, this runs into some issues currently which I want to fix soon. (Not "issues" so much as "not so good solutions" and non-optimality leads to problems when you've got as diverse a set of clients systems as we see)

[Hawknc]

A number of sites automatically detect mobile browsers and switch domains appropriately, I don't know if that's something we can do though. Also there's currently no way to read the title text, which would be handy.

[chridd]

Apple's Preview and Finder also display them incorrectly.

[davean]

A number of sites automatically detect mobile browsers and switch domains appropriately, I don't know if that's something we can do though.

Read up.

Also there's currently no way to read the title text, which would be handy.

Yes, there is.

[joshz]

Also there's currently no way to read the title text, which would be handy.

Yes, there is.

...how? (I mean, there's an iPhone app, but how can you view it in-browser?)

[davean]

Also there's currently no way to read the title text, which would be handy.

Yes, there is.

...how? (I mean, there's an iPhone app, but how can you view it in-browser?)

Hover over the title, currently.

[joshz]

...on an iPhone?

[davean]

...on an iPhone?

Well, it works on Android; as I said, we don't have iPhones.

[Josephine]

Could you get it to show up in regular text below the comic for us iphone users?

[Hawknc]

...on an iPhone?

Well, it works on Android; as I said, we don't have iPhones.

You do, however, have a forum full of people with iPhones (and Android phones, and Symbian phones, and possibly even Windows phones) who would be happy to test stuff like this out. It's a big market to be just assuming that the site works properly without testing it. As this thread demonstrates, we kind of love finding the root cause of problems so they can be fixed, especially when it helps us see new and interesting webcomics on new and interesting gadgets.

[davean]

...on an iPhone?

Well, it works on Android; as I said, we don't have iPhones.

You do, however, have a forum full of people with iPhones (and Android phones, and Symbian phones, and possibly even Windows phones) who would be happy to test stuff like this out. It's a big market to be just assuming that the site works properly without testing it. As this thread demonstrates, we kind of love finding the root cause of problems so they can be fixed, especially when it helps us see new and interesting webcomics on new and interesting gadgets.

Except it is currently changing every time I experiment with a new whatever. Which is why it isn't announced anywhere yet, even as a beta.

Happy to have issues reported, but it is unlikely the site will be anything like it currently is after I next turn my attention to it. Once we have a better sense of sort of design we'll go with, we'll be in a better position to fix problems on other types of mobile devices.

[Technical Ben]

I have no idea why I google foo the requests and problems in this forum but it passes the time.
So, the Safari SDK site has some info on setting up Safari to emulate the Iphone/Ipad. Might take some time to setup (I have no experience at this), but once it's going, it will be as easy as loading Mozilla/Fire fox/IE to test the compatibility.
Their are lots of third party apps to emulate that as well, but that's not got the guarantee that using Apple resources does.
[The great cheesegrater in the sky has removed the fruit bearing links of mine. Remove the Apple, and replace it with Microsoft. :/ ]


[second edit]
It's even easier than that. There is an Iphone SDK and Simulator link on the right of the Safari page.

[davean]

I have no idea why I google foo the requests and problems in this forum but it passes the time.
So, the Safari SDK site has some info on setting up Safari to emulate the Iphone/Ipad. Might take some time to setup (I have no experience at this), but once it's going, it Whill Wheaton be as easy as loading Mozilla/Fire fox/IE to test the compatibility.
Their are lots of third party apps to emulate that as well, but that's not got the guarantee that using Microsoft resources does.
[The great cheesegrater in the sky has removed the fruit bearing links of mine. Remove the Microsoft, and replace it with Apple. :/ ]


[second edit]
It's even easier than that. There is an Iphone SDK and Simulator link on the right of the Safari page.

Yes, but the issue is not it's capabilities, it is a matter of interaction. People have managed to activate alt-text on an iPhone, how easy is it though? This is a matter of communicating with a real device. We don't need to know software capabilities but rather how the hardware interacts with fingers.

[waiwai933]

At least one of the comics, #69 is rotated on certain devices, probably due to an indication of rotation in the meta data. I've seen some other guys have this bug, so I'll link you here: Click me! .

It can be reproduced on the iPad, and probably the iPhone as well, since both devices support the exif meta data. It can probably be corrected by simply removing the meta data.