Database Info

New, 2.6 version of Pocket Internet Explorer plug-in Webby Released!

It was some months ago that the previous, 2.5 version of the Pocket Internet Explorer plug-in (enhancer) Webby was released. Now, the new, 2.6 version has just been released.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I really recommend the above-linked article to see what the advantages and the disadvantages of the previous version were. Here, I “only” elaborate on the new features and whether the problems or, at least, missing functionality I’ve emphasized in the previous version(s) have been fixed / implemented.
Webby is available here. It requires CF2 to run (make sure you download and install SP1, NOT the old, original version), which also means it’s “only” compatible with WM2003+ devices (bad news for pre-WM2003 (PPC2k, PPC2k2) users).
It has two versions: a free, severely “dumbed-down” (two tabs at most, two buttons definable – hardly any good, particularly when compared to the generous 2-4-week fully functioning trials of all comparable products, except for the slightly less dumbed-down NetFront) and a full (Pro) version. The latter costs $20, which is, in my opinion, quite much compared to the price (and capabilities / speed / compatibility) of Opera Mobile, NetFront or PIEPlus, the best, highly recommended alternatives (not to mention the free Mozilla / Firefox port Minimo, which gets better and better all the time and, now, is a pretty decent alternative at least on WM5 devices), particularly taking into account that the new add-on extension mechanism (still) doesn’t work in Webby.
Pros; new functionality
Add-in modules
Probably they are the most important features of the new version. These (are supposed to) implement additional functionalities like the URL builder known from MultiIE / PIEPlus.
Their list can be found here. Note that you should only visit this page from either Opera or Mozilla / Firefox on your desktop computer; for IE, it only returns the first part of the page.
Installing them is (that is, is supposed to be) pretty easy: just go to the above-linked plug-in homepage from inside Webby (you can use the “Get More Extensions” link in the Extensions tab in Options) and click the extension you’d like to download and install. It’ll ask you whether it’s allowed to install it; after the install, you’ll need to restart the browser.
The problem with these extensions is that they (still?) don’t exist on the homepage of the developer. Webby states them to have been installed but, in reality, nothing is downloaded (you can also check this in the \Program Files\Webby\extensions\ directory in the file system of your Pocket PC if interested). To make sure I'm not missing something, here’s a HTTP-level communication trace (two pairs of requests from Webby / PIE and two 404 Not found answers (that is, there indeed isn't anything in there; not even the linked extensions remote folder!) from the server): 1 2 3 4.
That is, you will want to wait until this problem is fixed, which I’ll surely report of. In the meantime, don’t even try to download extensions - it's just a waste of time because nothing will be downloaded.
Button support
The second most important new feature (which I probably missed the most from earlier versions) is the hardware button support.
As can be seen in this and this screenshots, the most important functionality (Back/ Forward; Previous/Next tab, Close everything but the current one / the current only; Full Screen toggle) is accessible.
It only allows for configuring six buttons on all PPC models (with wildly varying number of buttons). It seems all Pocket PC developers should read all my articles as I’ve elaborated on how all the available hardware buttons can be (very easily!) read out of the Registry more than one year ago ( Where does the PPC Registry store button mapping info - a tutorial (alternatives: PPC Magazine, BrightHand; make sure you also follow the link to More Programmers'/Hackers' Stuff, along with some cool Pocket Loox 7xx Hold Button Tips: More on Pocket PC Hardware Buttons for more info.)
Unfortunately, there is no way of for example using the tap-and-hold buttons of the WM5-upgraded hx4700 or the Pocket Loox 720. It’s not possible to define additional functionality for WM5 softkeys, unlike in PIEPlus 2.0+ and MultiIE 4.0+ either. However, it’s possible to enable WM5 softkeys for menus as can be seen in here: 1 2. This is certainly good news.
Also, it should be noted that the free version only supports two button redefinitions.
Cons
View: One Column mode still not supported
One of my biggest grieves with the past versions was the native support for the One Column mode of the underlying PIE. Unfortunately, this hasn’t changed.
This means if you must work on the full (unstripped) version of a page and, therefore, can’t use any Web compression / content stripper / online cruncher service like Skweezer, MobileLeap, Google Mobile or WebWarper (the four services Webby 2.6 supports out of box), you may end up having to switch to the normal view mode, which will result in a need for horizontal scrolling on a LOT of pages. This is a VERY bad bug in Webby!
Lack of context menus
Unfortunately, there are still no image / link / page context menus as can be seen for example here (which shows clicking an image link will bring up the traditional PIE context menu and nothing else).
This means you need to access all advanced functionalities like link target saving from the main menus. It’s only saving images (in WM5 IEM’s; it’s not available in pre-WM5 PIE’s) that is accessible via the context menu – as with IEM. Please also consult the Download Bible for more info on all these questions.
Verdict
The plug-in architecture is indeed promising. Too bad it doesn’t work yet. Hope it’s only a temporary problem, which will be fixed really soon. When it’s fixed, I’ll return to testing and let you know about how these plug-ins fare agains the competition (for example, the Address Bar plug-in against PIEPlus / MultiIE's comparable capabilities).
Plug-in problem aside, I still don’t really recommend this title over the latest version of stand-alone browsers like Minimo, Opera Mobile or, to a lesser extent, NetFront or Thunderhawk.
The same stands for PIEPlus, which I consider currently by far the best PIE plug-in. The latter is just far more capable (just compare their capabilities one by one!) and faster (don’t be mislead by the seemingly small download times: Webby uses the compression / content stripping service Skweezer by default; this is why it seems to be faster than any else PIE plug-in by default) than Webby.
Recommended links
The Web Browsers category in the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Expert Blog

REVIEW: Resco releases brand new, 6.0 version of best PPC imager Resco Photo Viewer!

After I’ve published the Roundup of All Pocket PC Image Viewers and Editors, Resco has been silent for over 1.5 years and haven’t come up with a new version of their excellent image viewer (and a bit barebone editor), Resco Photo Viewer. Up until now, that is – they have just released the latest version of their flagship image viewer.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Availability, compatibility
The viewer is available here. It’s compatible with all Pocket PC’s starting with PPC 2002. (Note that the homepage only promises WM2003+ compatibility. This is not the case – it’s also compatible with earlier Pocket PC 2002 devices and runs just great on my 5-year-old Compaq iPAQ 3660).
It also has MS Smartphone / Symbian S60, UIQ and Palm OS versions. I’ve also checked out the latter on my Palm Tungsten T3. It also ran flawlessly and was able to zoom into 10 Mpixel images without getting pixelizated. Excellent results!
The price of the title is $24.95; you get the new version for free if you purchased the title in the last 12 months and with a 50% rebate if you’ve a customer of a previous version but purchased it before the last year. Also, if you purchase the title, you get a $5 rebate for Resco Explorer 2005, Resco Radio and Resco Audio Recorder – all top-level, highly recommended applications (see for example the Audio Recorder Bible on why I consider Resco Audio Recorder the best Pocket PC sound recorder application).
What’s new?
Regarding the Roundup (please see this article for Resco 5.31-specific info), they have fixed almost all the problems / shortcomings I’ve listed in there:
It has no longer problems in fully zooming into high-resolution photos. This means it can effectively make use of the RAM memory of devices that have plenty of them. For example, I had no problems with fully zooming into 10 Mpixel images (for example this one; this screenshot also shows this) on my 128M RAM-equipped WM2003SE VGA Pocket Loox 720. While zooming into this image, the RAM usage was around 40 Mbytes, which does also show it did zoom into the image. Also note the new zoom icons – now, it’s far easier to change the zoom percentage.
It supports the video output capabilities (see this article for more info) 2700G MPU in the Dell Axim x50v / x51v. This is also a very welcome addition and great news for all x50v / x51v users.
It supports both manual (hardware button-based) zoom in/out and scrolling around in an image. This has been missing from all the other image viewers.
It has wallpaper setting capabilities – with transparency setting. The latter is painfully missing from most (simple) Today wallpaper setter applications.
It allows for directly exporting a given image to the system-level Contacts database.
It supports WM5 softkeys.
The program has undergone a generic facelift; all icons have been changed and made much prettier.
Also see THIS for more info on the changes.
What hasn’t changed (much)?
The screen capture module (please see this full roundup of all Pocket PC-based solutions to see how Resco’s solution compares to the alternatives) hasn’t changed much as can be seen in here – there is a new Settings button, which makes it easier to set the image target and type paramers. (For comparison, the main dialog of version 5.32 can be seen in here). This means, unfortunately, there’re no radically new additions to this module.
The editing functionality of the application isn’t at all extended; the same stands for the (still) non-existing batch editing / conversions. This is not a big problem though.
Verdict
The best Pocket PC-based image viewer just got better. While it’s still lacking some (advanced, “geeky”) functionality, you won’t find better / faster generic-use photo / image viewers for the Pocket PC. Don’t forget to check it out, particularly if you’re already an owner of a previous version and are, therefore, eligible for free / rebated upgrade.

On my universal, I m having problems playing mpg files. It makes the whole unit hangs.
Somebody else having problem with Resco photo viewer on universal??

Workin great on my wizard! Love the speed, great app, definitly buying it...

I had problems viewing mpegs in Photo Viewer on my XDA Exec until I installed it to the main memory and also turned off image caching. Now works perfectly.

RealDice game news – new titles (incl. brand new Dominoes), fixed CPU usage bug!

RealDice has specialized in producing Pocket PC and MS Smartphone multiplayer table / card games. In addition to PDAMill and some other developers (like pocketadventures.com), they should be the first game developer to check out when looking for multiplayer-enabled Backgammon, Chess, Domino, Mahjong, Texas Hold’em Poker and Sudoku games.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I’ve long been planning a generic update of my last RealDice review published last May. Now that the developer has (for the most part) fixed the CPU usage bug I’ve discovered in the early versions and has also come out with some brand new titles (for example, the last one, Dominoes has just been released; it’s so new it doesn’t even have an official section on RealDice’s homepage as yet and is only accessible on third-party distributors like ClickGamer), I knew I can no longer wait.
Availability
Currently, five of the six RealDice titles are available on the official homepage of RealDice. Note that there aren’t direct links to (three-day) trial downloads in there; you must select the download type (there are, for Pocket PC’s, only two types of files to download: a QVGA and a VGA version; this also means you can safely use, for example, the Acer N30 (QVGA) version for all QVGA and the Acer N311 (VGA) version for all VGA devices, even for non-listed ones. For MS Smartphones, you’ll need to look up the closest relative of your model if you can’t find it in the list) by using the drop-down lists on the left.
Their latest title, Dominoes, still doesn’t have a page on its own and, therefore, must be downloaded from ClickGamer.
What's new?
First of all, the major problems have been fixed and, now, unlike with the earlier versions, I can already recommend these games particularly for VGA users and / or multiplayer fans.
As of the current versions (Backgammon: 1.39; Chess: 1.43; Dominoes: 1.12; Mahjong: 1.30; Texas Hold’em Poker: 4.24; Sudoku II: 1.13),
The good
The CPU usage of all the six titles was between 40 and 80% on all my test devices (in no case lower than 40%; ~70% when waiting for SIP input from the user (for example, entering a name)). This also means ALL the games are perfectly playable on all current Pocket PC’s, as opposed to earlier versions.
I haven’t had compatibility or, as far as the CPU usage is concerned, major playability problems on any of my WM2003+ devices (I’ve tested them all: iPAAQ 2210, WM5-upgraded hx4700 (2.01), Pocket Loox 720, HTC Universal, Wizard (AKU3), x51v (A12)) with any of the current versions.
The bad
While the CPU usage (of ALL current versions!) is definitely better than that of the initial versions, it’s still a bit high, particularly when you take into account the much lower CPU usage of some other games (and the lack of music). The RealDice folks may really want to look into further reducing the CPU usage of the title (by, for example, relying on operating system-level touchscreen / keyboard event listeners)
The game still uses its own on-screen keyboard for input. This solution is not only sub-par because of the high CPU usage and the lack of visible keypress feedback, but also because you can’t quick-edit the contents of the text input fields (for example, quickly position the cursor). Fortunately, you can enter information using a remote controller application (see the roundup here) if you are completely fed up with the shortcomings of the keyboard.
All these titles consist of one big executable file (and a small DLL file). This, unfortunately, also means a slightly longer loading time, particularly when installed onto a storage card / flash ROM (including the built-in storage on WM5 devices).
On VGA devices, the landscape mode (only right-hand landscape mode is possible, which is bad news for slide-out keyboard users) is buggy: the screen events are registered at wrong coordinates.
There is still no in-game music in any of the titles.
Both good and bad
The games are all central server-based. This has, as has also been explained in the Multiplayer Bible both advantages and disadvantages. Now that RealDice has also set up a (as with many similar services – for example, EverQuest on the desktop PC or Sphere on the 2700G-enabled Pocket PC, non-free; it costs $8 a month) online gaming community, you gain access to a lot of additional goodies such a community / central server offers; for example, advanced chat and messaging features, buddy lists and global rankings / ladder. See THIS for more info. (Note that you don’t need to subscribe to RealDice world to play standard multiplayer games! You'll only need it for advanced functionality.) Unfortunately, the lack of direct, internet / server-less multiplayer connection models is still a nuisance. Nevertheless, some games offer hotseat multiplayer capabilities (which is still much inferior to real local inter-PDA multiplayer gaming).
Verdict
I didn’t recommend the earlier versions of RealDice’s games. Now that the CPU usage has been fixed, this is no longer the case: make sure you check them out if you’re into the genre (table / poker games).
Other reviews to check out
The review of Texas Hold'em by great German language Pocket PC side PocketGaming.

Interested in using National Weather Service Enhanced Radar Loop on your WM device?

You may have heard of (and even seen!) the National Weather Service Enhanced Radar Loop on your Windows Mobile device, particularly if you’ve visited Beverly Howard’s related link collection. This Radar loop gives a nation-wise (U.S. only) radar image of notable weather conditions and is highly useful and popular.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(WM6 Internet Explorer Mobile screenshots on VGA devices using the CrEme Java plug-in with Use High Resolution enabled.)
In this article, unlike with Beverly Howard’s links (see the “Recommended links” section), I elaborate on making the enhanced (dynamic) version work on Windows Mobile devices. While requiring substantially more resources, it offers a lot of goodies not available in the standard (basic) version, which is a plain animated GIF without any configuration / zoom-in capabilities. For example, with the enhanced version, you can freely en/disable counties / rivers / highways; you can freely zoom in/out etc. I really recommend giving both the standard and the enhanced version a try on your desktop browser to see the differences – you’ll love the enhanced capabilities of the latter. (Let it download and install the Java plug-in if it isn’t already installed.)
I’ve already elaborated on the Windows Mobile (WM for short) compliance of the enhanced Radar applet almost two years ago in my previous, pretty thorough article "Making the National Weather Service Enhanced Radar Loop Java applet work on your Pocket PC" (also cross-posted to MobilitySite, AximSite, BrightHand). In the meantime, however, the applet has been substantially updated (the previous version, for example, didn’t allow for dis/enabling terrain, rivers etc) and its resource needs increased, which, unfortunately, also means it has become incompatible with the majority of the Java-capable Web browsers on WM.
Two years ago, all major Java-capable browsers (Thunderhawk, Access NetFront 3.2 (the, then, current version of the browser)) and the two available WM Pocket Internet Explorer Java plug-ins, Jeode (then, tested with 1.7.1) and CrEme (then 4.0) ran the applet pretty well.
Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. I’ve given the applet a very thorough try in the following configurations:
WM2003 / WM5 / WM6 + NetFront 3.3 (the last NetFront version commercially available; that is, having a Java plug-in)
WM2003 + NetFront 3.2 (version 3.2 is not compatible with newer WM versions)
WM2003 / WM5 / WM6 + Jeode 1.7.1
WM2003 iPAQ 2210 + Jeode 1.9.1 (couldn’t test it on other, newer devices because it’s locked to the iPAQ brand)
WM5 / WM6 Internet Explorer Mobile + CrEme 4.10 plug-in
The latest Thunderhawk
Of these, it’s only the latter two that still supports the Radar applet; the former three not any more. This is particularly sad with the two NetFront versions, which no longer are able to run the applet.
All in all, if you are a Thunderhawk subscriber or happen to have the CrEme JVM on your WM device, you can still enjoy the vastly enhanced capabilities of the Radar applet.
An important Thunderhawk tip
Thunderhawk, by default, uses a 640*480 zoom, converted to 320*240 on the client (even on VGA devices, unfortunately). This means fine text on images become totally unreadable as can be seen in here and here. Fortunately, with explicitly switching to low-resolution mode inside Thunderhawk, the results become pretty usable, as can be seen in the following screenshot:
Additional remarks & screenshots for geeks & WM gurus
NetFront 3.3: stops at 30-33% on all supported OS’es (WM2003, WM5, WM6) (device.exe and cvm.exe crashes when the dynamic memory is either fully filled in – with devices having less than 31-32M of RAM before starting to load the page or after allocating some 35Mbyte of RAM on devices with more memory). Under the old 3.2 with a WM2003 device having initially less free memory than 35 Mbytes, at least it stated it’s because of the shortage of RAM that it can’t go further. Of course, decreasing the initially 1 Mbyte warning threshold to 0 Mbytes (as is recommended by NetFront) doesn’t help – it just further results in the entire device’s locking up (particularly under WM5, where the free RAM threshold of the system becoming unstable and messed-up is around 1.5 Mbytes).
On the two tested Jeode versions (used with PIE / IEM), it won’t ever stop loading. On a freshly hard reset and, therefore, absolutely clean iPAQ 2210: after allocating some 35M of memory, it didn’t go on; the same stands for NF 3.2 and 3.3 running on WM2003.
Recommended links
Beverly Howard’s link collection, linking to GIF animations.
Windows Mobile Web Browsing Bible - the source of ALL Web Browsing-related information. A MUST read!

Games & emulator news (07/25/2007)

This is the latest part of my Games News series; you can find the previous part HERE. The news in this part applies to both the Pocket PC (Windows Mobile 6 Pro / Classic) and MS Smartphone (Windows Mobile 6 Standard) devices - that is, no matter what Windows Mobile device you have, you WILL want to read on.
Arcade Park 1.3 out – now, with redefinable fire button!
Arcade Park is, in my opinion, a really good collection of reimplementation of old arcade games reviewed HERE (you may also want to check out the two other reviews linked at the end) containing several old subgames. It’s available for example HERE for all mobile platforms, including both the MS Smartphone (both 176*220 and QVGA) and Pocket PC (it’s even compatible with 240*240 square-screen devices; unfortunately, it doesn’t make use of high resolution on VGA ones).
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(main menu on a 176*220 Smartphone; the same on a QVGA/VGA PPC / QVGA Smartphone)
In-game screenshot on a 176*220 Smartphone; the same on a QVGA/VGA PPC / QVGA Smartphone)
The biggest problem with the game, so far, have been the inability to redefine keys; most importantly, the Action button. Now, oin the new version, you can do it in the new Controls menu. Example 176*220 SP screenshots: 1 2 (on a QVGA PPC / SP)
(Incidentally, as can also be seen in the in-game screenshots, you no longer need to defend the Soviet flag, which may be good news for several players, particularly in post-Soviet countries. Another plus for the developers.)
(Guys, I’m really sorry you’ve just missed the deadline date for the Awards 2007 with this upgraded version. Should you have published the new version some days earlier, I would definitely have nominated it for this year’s awards. No problem – I’ll do it next year.)
Verdict
Now that the button redefinition problem is fixed, highly recommended, particularly if you have a Smartphone (given the lack of good MS Smartphone games).
SmartGear 0.28 out!
SmartGear is one of the best gaming console emulatrors I’ve featured in my past emulator news / roundups.
So far, one of the biggest problems with the emulator was the sound problems (in addition to its incompatibility with some games – for example, enhanced NES titles; the PC Engine version of Turrican – unfortunately, this hasn’t been enhanced. The only change is that for example Turrican no longer starts (with all 0.2x versions, as opposed to 0.12)). Now, according to the developer, this is supposed to be fixed.
Note that there are still some problems with the sound: for example, the PC Engine (TG-16) version of Bonk's Adventure still plays the same FM-like sounds during the game as earier versions. Also, very few Genesis (Mega Drive) games have music (for example, Xenon 2 (Xenon 2 Megablast (E) [c][!]) and Risky Woods (Risky Woods (UE) [!]) don’t have, the former not even sounds; one of the very few games that do have music is Alien 3 (JUE) [!]. Also, the FitWin* mode still crashes on my VGA devices and FitWin is unberabaly slow – you will still need to use either the 100% or the 150% mode, which means stamp-sized screens on VGA devices. On the other hand, on 176*220 Smartphones (for example, on my HTC Oxygen / s310), where it’s REALLY needed with most desktop games (otherwise, they’d be too big even in 75% mode) FitWin works just great and doesn’t result in any really bad speed decrease (tested this with the GG version of Sonic and the PC Engine version of Bonk's Adventure; they both worked just great with the default sound / frame skipping / throttling settings on my Oxygen).
The desktop Windows version of the emulator, after closing it once (because I couldn’t continue a paused game), kept crashing after restarts.
All in all, while this title is REALLY good (particularly on slower devices – for example, non-overclocked TI OMAP ones, including, screen size-wise, both types of Smartphones), the FitWin performance may need to be addressed on VGA Pocket PC’s as soon as possible, along with the Genesis (Mega Drive) music issues.