I actually prefer the mobile versions that let you set font size on mobile. For example, when zoomed out in HN comments to a level where I don't need to scroll horizontally, the text is impossible to read on low DPI devices like my 3GS. HN would benefit from this. But I hate not being able to zoom. Perfect example, wikipedia. If sites offered a version like the iOS Safari reader gives you, they would be a plus. Unfortunately, most get it wrong.

Speaking of wikipedia, another annoying bug is that when I go to a non-mobile URL with an anchor tag, it gets stripped out when it redirects to the mobile version of that page, so you end up at the top of the article and not the section you wanted.

Good mobile browsers make sure every column of text gets reflowed to the width of your screen. Isn't this possible on iOS?

You have HN's use of tables to thank for this one.

No. Mobile Safari is not a very good mobile browser.

If Mobile Safari is a bad mobile browser, what qualifies as a good one?

I've been using Firefox Mobile on Android with great success.

I'm using Opera Mobile on Android 2.3 and it reflows text nicely. It has some other problems, but it's far better than the stock browser!

The non-WebKit version of Opera Mobile and the Android version of Chrome are both significantly better IMO.

Mobile Safari only reflows the text in Reader mode. But reader only works on a few select websites. Sites like slashdot and HN aren't supported and force you to horizontally scroll when the text is zoomed to a comfortable level.

I'm not sure what I hate more, horizontal scrolling or not being able to zoom.

You can try this mobile HN app. You can set font size and change it to night mode (Dark theme) if you like.

http://hn.premii.com/

By the way, I could never figure out how some sites disable zoom on the iphone? Anyone know?

(I'd love to write a bookmarklet to re-enable zoom)

<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no" /> or <meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0 />

Thanks! I found this bookmarlet someone already made [1] and I found a page to test it out on [2].

But it doesn't seem to do anything. Any ideas why it wouldn't be working?

[1] https://gist.github.com/beastaugh/725354 [2] http://davidwalsh.name/demo/mobile-viewport.php

Alas, a bookmarklet to re-enable zooming on the iphone is born: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17087750/how-to-re-enable...

Modern smartphone browsers (at least on Android 4+ including the default browser), allow you to override the website's request to control zoom.

As it should be.

Denying users zoom on a web page with the viewport trick is stupid. Sorry, but it is.

Websites shouldn't "pretend" to be native apps. GOOD native apps that don't respond to pinch and zoom will allow font size change anyway - such as the excellent Falcon Pro Twitter client. Lack of zoom doesn't matter because I can punch in the font size and all is well.

I'd have a look at the <meta viewport=""> tag.