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AgFax Mobile Frequently Asked Questions What’s the difference between AgFax Mobile and the regular AgFax.Com web site? Is it hard to access your site over my cell phone? What fees do you charge to use the AgFax Mobile web site? Are commodity quotes “real time”? Do I need a password or user ID? Does AgFax Mobile include cotton and rice coverage? How do I report a problem or ask a question? Can I bookmark pages on the mobile site?
What’s the difference between AgFax Mobile and the regular AgFax.Com web site? AgFax Mobile is designed specifically to be viewed on cell phones and other mobile devices. Most mobile web browsers line up all the content on the page in a single column. That makes for a lot of tedious scrolling. Plus, the browsers still list files that either can’t be displayed by most mobile devices or that can’t be easily read. PDF (portable document files) is an example of a format that doesn’t work well in a mobile viewer. AgFax Mobile displays content in screen sizes suited to cell phones and mobile devices, leaving off unusable content. The mobile site also concentrates on quick, timely content – like commodity quotes, analysis and weather. (Back to top) What kind of phone do I need to access the AgFax Mobile site? Ideally, the phone should be web enabled, meaning it can display a page on the internet. This can include high-end “smart” phones, like Palm Treo or Blackberry models. But it also can include less sophisticated phones. Essentially, a web-enabled phone has some type of web browser that usually is built into its system at the factory (or, in some cases, can be added later). Phones preset for browsing at the factory typically have a screen icon indicating the browser. A globe often is used as the linking key to the browers. Check your manual for more details. If you've lost the manual, check your carrier's web site. Even if a phone isn’t classified as web enabled, you still may be able to load a simple browser on it that allows you to access mobile-friendly sites like ours. (See next item for more details on adding browsers.) (Back to top) Is it hard to access your site over my cell phone? With some phones, it’s almost effortless. Just open your phone’s browser and enter our URL, agfax.com/m. Ease of use also depends on the carrier providing your service. Some have quirky web browsers built into their systems that are best suited for accessing the phone company’s in-house content, like news and weather screens. You might find it easier to download a third-party web browser and install it on your phone. We’ve had good results with Opera Mini, which does an excellent job of handling web sites that are designed for mobile access. It's free. In some cases, it allows you to access mobile web sites on phones that did not come with browsers. Click here to go to the Opera Mini page for more info. Opera also offers a Mobile version for higher-end “smart” phones that take advantage of their increased computing power. It does a better job of rendering regular web sites. It costs $24. Opera Mobile and Opera Mini were developed by Opera Software ASA, the Norwegian company that markets the Opera browser for desktop computers. The Opera browser was designed to be a fast, stable platform for browsing the web. A version of Opera Mini now comes installed on newer Motorola phones, although you won't find the "Opera" name on the screen. (Back to top) What fees do you charge to use the AgFax Mobile web site? None. But your cell phone carrier may charge nominal fees to log on through your cell phone. On the other hand, you might have a service plan with unlimited access to web content. It varies widely by the cell phone carrier and the individual plan. Your carrier can give you specifics. Some offer unlimited web access plans for as little as $5 a month. Others charge by the kilobyte for bandwidth you use during web sessions. High-speed data plans are available, as well, and these crank up the speed to something that approximates broadband. But, high-speed plans are pricier, and whether they pay off depends on how much you’re within range of the service. While high-speed mobile data coverage continues to expand, it’s still found mostly in and near cities. Our mobile site is designed with relatively small file sizes that don’t take long to access on regular cell connections, so don’t buy a high-speed package just to visit our mobile site. (Back to top) What commodities are covered on your quote screen, and can I customize a list of commodity contracts or stocks? We provide 5 contract quotes for the following: corn, cotton, rough rice, soybeans and CBOT wheat. Our livestock quotes cover lean hogs, pork bellies, live cattle and feeder cattle. If you don't see contracts you want, you can customize a list, create a screen with those contracts, and then bookmark that listing to return to it later. You also can include stocks in the listing. You will need to know your desired contract or stock symbols. Here are the basic steps:
Are commodity quotes “real time”? They’re on a slightly delayed basis just like those on most ag web sites, 5 to 15 minutes, as best we can tell. (Back to top) Do I need a password or user ID? No. We’ve tried to make this system as open as possible. Some phones, we’ve found, do a better job than others when it comes to storing user information. Rather than force people to constantly reenter their ID and passwords, we stripped that layer out of our system. (Back to top) Yes, we have a basic weather section. It includes a wide-area radar (either the whole state or a portion of it, depending on the state), plus current conditions and a basic forecast. The system automatically defaults to our company’s location, Brandon, Mississippi. To personalize the screen to your location, scroll down to the ZIP code entry screen, enter your ZIP code, then click on Submit to bring up your local radar view (or conditions or forecast). For more weather info, you might also check out AccuWether's mobile site (both free and premium plans are available) or My-Cast.Com, which has a paid plan that a couple of our readers have recommended. (Back to top) Does AgFax Mobile include cotton and rice coverage? Absolutely. Along with commodity quotes for both crops, we provide closing cotton commentary from Doane Agricultural Service and closing rice commentary from the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation’s daily commodity report. Soybean, corn and wheat commentaries – along with livestock commentaries – are updated on 3 times a day – pre-open, mid-day and closing. (Back to top) When I log onto your mobile home page (agfax.com/m) and then go to other mobile pages, the menu list contains numbers ("1. News"). Can I simply enter those numbers and automatically go to the linked screen? It depends on your browser. Some will automatically go to the new screen when you press the corresponding number key. Others require than you scroll to the link and press your Enter key, which is usually the button in the middle of your navigation arrow keys. (Back to top) Once I get into the site, the URL changes from AgFax to something that starts "mobile.inetsgi.com". Am I still on your site? Yes and no. It's still our content, but that portion of AgFax Mobile is hosted on a special server set up for mobile delivery. When the "mobile.inetsgi.com" is the first part of the URL, that means you have moved from our regular site to the mobile site. (Back to top) How do I report a problem or ask a question? Send it directly to Owen Taylor, the site's editor. Give us some details about the phone and carrier you use. There will be questions that we may not be able to answer because they are too specific to either your equipment or the cell company. But we'll take a shot at it and hopefully suggest some additional resources. (Back to top) Can I bookmark pages on the mobile site? Probably. Most cell phones and mobile devices allow some form of bookmarking, although the method for doing it varies from one phone or mobile browser to the next. Check your manual or contact your cell phone carrier for exact instructions. Bookmarking can be a very handy way to quickly access pages (or screens, to put it another way) that you might check several times a day. The commodity quote screen, for example. (Back to top) |
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