I was wondering if the Home Barista website forum software automatically detects that it is being displayed on a handheld device, such as the iPhone ...

Evidently HB is nicely viewable on the iPhone, according to Kaelin (buzzmccowan) in HB Formatted for a small screen device? below. There are a few modifications to phpBB floating around to make it more friendly to the tiny screens, but they're in beta.

buzzmccowan wrote:Hey there,
90% of the browsing I've been doing on HB in the last 5 months has been on my iPhone. I subscribed to the RSS feed through google reader on my iPhone (which just opens in the browser, not a special app just for iPhone). It doesn't show the body of the message, just the topic heading which is repeated anytime there is a reply. The nice thing is if you choose to "open original" (that is, view the post), it gives you a compressed version, still with images but compressed down, which means fast loading. Not sure if that helps you much.
Cheers,
Kaelin

I can confirm that H-B does indeed look good on an iPhone and it loads great on my 3GS. Even on the 2G network (I'm in the country with no 3g) Using it now!

FYI, the latest versions of the newsgator RSS readers (NetNewsWire for MacOS and iPhone, FeedDemon for Windows) sync with Google Reader. There are free versions (with ads) and pay-for versions (no ads) available. There is a sale ending soon for the premium version of NetNewsWire for iPod that brings the purchase price down ove 50%.

I've been using the computer versions for a while and like them. I've just downloaded the iPhone version to my iPod touch and will be testing it out.

I'm still looking for a decent method for viewing on my Nokia E71. Using the browser directly on HB is painful. I haven't sought out an RSS reader for Symbian OS yet but will post if I find a good one.