VT of Smithsonian's National Postal Museum

Hello,

I just finished work on a smaller tour of the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. It is a very cool place. Here are the links:

http://npm.si.edu/fireandice/virtualtour.html

http://npm.si.edu/systemsatwork/virtualtour.html

http://npm.si.edu/mobile

The first two are different entry points into the same tour, but originate in seperate exhibits. The third is the mobile version of the tour (i.e., use a smartphone or tablet to view it).

P.S. Thank you Klaus for making this possible. Krpano is a brilliant piece of work and well worth the modest cost! (BTW - It's important to me that I have followed licensing correctly, so let me know if I am good.)

P.S.#2 Thanks to Andrey as well for the excellent mobile interface template!

R,

Loren

What iPhone are you using? (3G, 4 or 4s)

I have a 3G iPod touch and it will run, though barely. At some point, you have to build for the trend line. In the US and Canada, mobile devices account for 20% of all internet traffic. A quarter of that is by much more capable tablets like the iPad. I don't know what portion of that remaining 15% is older iPhones, but it won't be increasing. iPhone 4s is now the top seller for Apple. Basically, if I designed a version of a virtual tour like this for such a small and eventually replaced niche, I'd go broke. It's too much effort for a small and decreasing audience.

I've recommended that the Smithsonian employ browser detection to serve incapable devices individual panoramas instead of the VT, but they got excited and posted it as is. I'll talk to them again on Tuesday about a redirect or at least a caveat.

If you get a chance, try it on a nice phone or tablet. It's pretty cool.

I did forget to mention that I am working on building a native app to support Android and iOS devices. In the process, I will play with trying to optimize the tour even further to better support older phones. My clients have a strong passion for outreach and I suspect it won't take many responses like yours before they ask me to check into addressing it. Unfortunately, that small percentage of users not satisfied will be the most vocal.

I think you are accessing one of the first two links, which are built for a desktop. The third link is to the mobile version. Can you please double check to make sure it is the mobile version that you are having issues with on the iPhone. There shouldn't be any shadowbox to open or hotspot arrows on the floor for the mobile tour.