Related
:lol: Always wanted Netscape/Mozilla/FireFox/MiniMO on your WinCEPocketPC! :lol:
Mozilla Org released minimo which will be the best browser ever
Tabbed Browsing
Works on Internet Banking site etc etc
Goodbye Opera and PIE
8)
Heres the Link: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/
Regards
Skillie
somebody found America?
It's still *very* early stages. OK, so it renders better than anything else, but the rest of the interface is nasty. It's also hideously slow to respond on both 400Mhz XDA2 and 600Mhz iPaq. And the keyboard doesn't work in landscape mode. TBH a custom soft keyboard would be better.
Wait til 0.7 before you expect any sort of useable version (Current version is 0.013!)
There is a little-known browser called Thunderhawk which renders brilliantly to a 320x240 screen in landscape by scaling everything down. But it's a bit sluggish, and they seem to pass *all* traffic through their own server to perform preprocessing (and thus you need to pay a subscription.) I think Minimo has the potential to blow all of them out of the water if it can be faster than Opera and as impressive in its output as Thunderhawk.
Wait, WM5 only?
*tries it on his 2003SE device anyway*
If you're looking for a tabbed browser try ftxPBrowser. Same engine as PIE, so compatible with most sites. Also it uses the same favorites, cookies & cache. History seems not to be working though. & it's only 75K:!:
Regards, M
Many people don't like the IE rendering engine, or the IE way of rendering (e.g. Opera) which is why they seek alternatives.
Further, the reason it's "only 75k" is because it's not a browser. Whoever wrote it - and PIE - didn't actually write a browser themselves, they just instructed IE to render the page into the area they specified. The tabs just switch between visible IE areas. In short, if you uninstall IE then it won't work. It's like taking a Fiat Cinqecento and putting a Peugeot 407 body on it, then saying it's a whole new car which is very light but looks just as good as something else. If you take the Fiat out, it doesn't go any more.
(Coders out there - I know this is technically very loose, but I'm trying to put this simply for someone who doesn't understand the relevance of MiniMo)
Excuse me for being so dumb... I know what Minimo is about, tried it & opera (mini too) & thunderhawk as well.
Problem is though that PIE is still the most compatible:!:
I use firefox on my PC & probably will be using minimo when it's working properly. But at the moment minimo is almost useless from the user point of view.
Yes you got me P on this.
Minimo is also currently around 10Mb.... bit large methinks. (and bloody slow)
My take on this
Minimo is slow
Opera is fiddly and the download thing is a HUGE prob plus takes up too much space
PIE seems to work fine.
What exactly is up with PIE ? I mean on a desktop Mozilla rules but on a handheld ???
Huge problem with PIE for many people is that it's a M$ product. Personal I don't mind.
Serious problem is that it doesn't render, one column does help a little & there's the lack of tabs. For this last I use ftxPBrowser. Problem with that one is the lack of history & most important downloads are very problematic if not impossible.
Which make me use ftxPBrowser & Opera mini (no https :-( ) for browsing & PIE for downloads.
Now it's waiting for a good rendering, downloading & secured browser.
Cheers, M
Strange thing I know about people disloking MS progs, I know people do not like them, the thing is why are they using devices with MS op system on them when they could be using a Symbian unit.
It's a real problem, huh?
Palm and symbian have some really nice software to run on their devices, I'm especially a fan of the UIQ stuff that SE slaps on top of Symbian. The don't, however, seem to have quite got the knack of cobbling together really good hardware to run it all on.
Of course, the kids who make the really cool hardware seem content to slap Windows Mobile on there and be done with it.
So, in conclusion: come on HTC, go source a proper OS for your handhelds. Maybe have a word with Apple?
Back on-topic: it seems to run on WM2003SE, but not very nicely. It's all juddery and incomplete and frankly kind of rubbish. More evidence, if it was ever needed, that Magician-type devices are not meant for web browsing.
i use one of the beta versions on 2003
it's ok but slow
and it DONT SUPPORT COPY PASTE!!!
which is a biatch
ATEOTD no Firefox/Mozilla is worth using at such early test versions. It's worth keeping an eye on if you're that geeky - but Firefox (back when it was Phoenix then Firebird) wasn't really useable until version 0.7. Consider that minimo is at 0.07 or something - it has a long way to go before it's competing with IE/Opera. I won't put PIE in that list, because it's just not a browser. And Thunderhawk is simply incomparible in its function. I would like to see a browser which renders as well as Thunderhawk but more quickly and without needing to interface with a central server, though.
Minimo's greatest feature so far is that it does actually support JavaScript and AJAX systems like Google Maps, which no other browser can do. But to get the speed out of Thunderhawk, you would probably need to render to a static image. And that negates animated GIFs and any JavaScript that manipulates on-screen elements.
After trying all sorts of pdf readers, I come close to the conclusion that reading pdf documents on a PDA is not practical at all and even irrealistic.
Due mainly to the fact that one cannot view an entire page with a readable font size without having to scroll sideways.
I end up converting pdf to lit.
Please, give opinion and eventually solutions.
Thanks all, and take care
Come on folks, just a few words about your experience with pdf...
donno i read a book as pdf once
on my pda
only had to scroll down not sideways
depend on the doc in question really i suppose
pref lit though because of bookmarks and cleartype
and not being as much a res hog as acrobat reader which i used at the time
VGA a requirement
I use an older version of Adobe reader on a VGA screen. My eyes are still good enough that I can zoom out, get a full page on the screen, and still read it. I have read an entire book this way. I am sure there are better ways to do it on a PDA. But my goal is to be able to grab a document off of the web and read it as I travel. If there is going to be conversion between formats, it would have to take place on the PDA.
That being said, it is still easier to read a word or text document than a PDF. But if you have the screen resolution and size to work with, PDF's are not impossible.
Thanks folks, that was my impression.
Answers
There are ways to improve PDF experiance. Using reflow when creating PDFs (available as an option when saving PDFs from OpenOffice, for example) greatly improves things.
Anothr good option is Repligo - you can print / convert PDFs to that format. It uses less space, documents open faster and look better (less jagged fonts).
Believe me, PDFs are annoying even in actual, desktop environments. >_>
That said, I'm using Foxit for the PPC. It loads 15MB++ files faster than Adobe, follows the original PDF format faithfully (doesn't try to rearrange like idiotic Clearvue), yet it is a standalone program that requires no installation.
That said, PDF reading is only for devices with a big screen. Definitely bigger than a Mini, let alone an Atom. Otherwise, at a big enough text to be legible, scrolling to the side is necessary - and that tends to lag a bit with bigger PDFs for devices with only 64MB of RAM or less.
I have train skeds and the Tokyo Metro Map plus a crap load more pdf files
that I use on my X01HT and yes you do have to scroll both ways but I mean
have you seen the detail of the Tokyo Metro Map?!?
It works for me. I actually like it.
Plus I get 'really cool' nods from Japanese when they see me looking
through the Tokyo Metro map on my X01HT because most of them
use the low tech pocket paper fold out.
Yes, I am a gaijin otaku and proud of it!!!
imexp then big pictures makes pdf useless on pda's as they can move the text to scale but in there is a picture in the middle they cant really handle scaling the picture down to match the width of the pda screen
I think converting to repligo is the most elegant solution since images are conserved...but it is not free
Otherwise, if pics are not important, converting to text then to lit and using microsoft reader is an acceptable free solution.
To "AquiEsta!": why don't you use the excellent "metro" freeware?
You can use the free xpdf (pocketpdf). It at least has better zoom functions then adobe and it has the option to read pdf as text files with associated functions. You lose pictures but pure textfiles are a breaze to read...
elio said:
I think converting to repligo is the most elegant solution since images are conserved...but it is not free
Otherwise, if pics are not important, converting to text then to lit and using microsoft reader is an acceptable free solution.
To "AquiEsta!": why don't you use the excellent "metro" freeware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't know such a thing existed. Where would I find that? In English
would be great too!
Thanks
AquiEsta! said:
I didn't know such a thing existed. Where would I find that? In English
would be great too!
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://nanika.net/Metro/
You will love it
elio said:
http://nanika.net/Metro/
You will love it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"more than 350 cities covered now"... I'm already in love with it because
I travel a lot and this hopefully will save me time and advils.
THANK YOU!!!
off I go to set it up...
Adobe Reader for PPC 2 works with my HTC Athena/Advantage VGA screen without legibility problems using its reflow function which wraps the text to your screen - no sideways scrolling needed.
Even if your documents were not prepared specifically for this Active Sync will do the necessary conversion when you transfer the docs from your PC (turn it on in file settings). If you bypass ActiveSync your reflow button gets greyed out.
For documents like maps you can switch to sideways scrolling whenever you want.
My only gripe is that the characters are a little fuzzy, so I'm looking for a fix for this.
UPDATE: fuzzy characters fixed:
Switch resolution to 95 dpi using RealVGA before opening Adobe Reader. Now works as it was meant to. Only downside is the the resolution switch involves a reset.
For reading articles and such offline I use ScrapBook (a Firefox extension) to capture the page/selection and delete ads/sidebars and then 'Save Page as...' and copy the html and corresponding images folder to my SD card. It's a pain but it's the best solution that I could find.
I use Mobipocket Reader to do the conversion and reading, it's free and works well for me www.mobipocket.com
For PDFs Picel Browser, and Foxit Reader for Windows Mobile are pretty good.
I second the picsel reader. http://www.picselpowered.com
Don't let the number of Cons over Pros put you off.
Even with these problems I still use it on a daily basis, and preferred to buy it over using free alternatives like Adobe.
Proof that mobile apps don't have to look like clunky old windows apps.
Pro
Excellent rendering of PDF files
Fine control over zoom, can use a gesture (tap & drag)
Cons
Out of memory errors with just a few other apps running
Remembers last document opened, but not page
No Search
No way of jumping to a page
pdemoore said:
I second the picsel reader. http://www.picselpowered.com
Don't let the number of Cons over Pros put you off.
Even with these problems I still use it on a daily basis, and preferred to buy it over using free alternatives like Adobe.
Proof that mobile apps don't have to look like clunky old windows apps.
Pro
Excellent rendering of PDF files
Fine control over zoom, can use a gesture (tap & drag)
Cons
Out of memory errors with just a few other apps running
Remembers last document opened, but not page
No Search
No way of jumping to a page
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I back this as well, it is bar far, THEE most impressive on a PDA.
It has no rendering lag, making it the fastest PDF reader on WM.
I would only recommend that VGA users view PDFs, QVGA isn't practical.
Hey guys some of you may remember way back earlier in the year a company called torch mobile launched a preview of their webkit browser called iris, it was a bit crap very buggy no real zoom etc etc most people wrote it off straight away.
Well now they have launched a proper beta and it has to be said its very impressive it has now got page overview zoom, mouse cursor, ability to import bookmarks and lots ofvother really quite kewl features.
It is a little slow to render pages, when compared to opera and is a memory hog but must say im quite liking it. not sure if flash works perhaps the experts in here may get it too work.
Anyhows just google torch mobile and you should be able to find the link to get it.
let me know what you guys think.
stevej26uk said:
let me know what you guys think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I spent the last couple of weeks comparing more or less all the available PPC browsers (IRIS, Opera 9.5 in different flavours, Opera mini, Opera mini with java addons, Netfront 3.5, Jataayu, Minimo, Skyfire and also IE addons such as PIE+, MultiIE, Webby etc.
I tested these on the road as well as at home, on WiFi as well as GPRS.
In the end I chucked them all except IRIS.
It basically has all I need (find in page, tabs, zoom, etc.) and runs very well on my Elf. It doesn't (yet) do inline videos like Skyfire does, but Skyfire is pretty useless otherwise.
Skyfire in many ways reminds me of a Java midlet like Opera Mini with pre-chewed pages. The advantage is that it doesn't cache pages on the PPC (just like Opera Mini). But it scores really low on usability and customisation
IRIS is similar in many ways to Netfront, but is open source and (so far) freeware. I also prefer the way IRIS zooms and has an option to present pages in one colums as defauls (rather than having to hit reflow in Netfront). NF visual bookmarks are pretty but rather useless. IRIS has a similar function for History, where it's much more useful. OTOH NF has loads of functions (including on-the-fly Japanese-to-English translation...) which may or may not be useful to you. And it's better at rendering non-Roman character content, such as Arabic or Hebrew pages than IRIS.
From PIE I only miss the possibility to search for bookmarks by typing the first letter of the bookmark title...
What I´d like to see in IRIS is more support for content, but the architecture with plugins will certainly take care of that. And extended copy and paste to page contents as well as in the address bar, as is currently the case.
Otherwise IRIS is my default browser and will stay that way.
Bernard
bfarkin said:
Well, I spent the last couple of weeks comparing more or less all the available PPC browsers (IRIS, Opera 9.5 in different flavours, Opera mini, Opera mini with java addons, Netfront 3.5, Jataayu, Minimo, Skyfire and also IE addons such as PIE+, MultiIE, Webby etc.
I tested these on the road as well as at home, on WiFi as well as GPRS.
In the end I chucked them all except IRIS.
It basically has all I need (find in page, tabs, zoom, etc.) and runs very well on my Elf. It doesn't (yet) do inline videos like Skyfire does, but Skyfire is pretty useless otherwise.
Skyfire in many ways reminds me of a Java midlet like Opera Mini with pre-chewed pages. The advantage is that it doesn't cache pages on the PPC (just like Opera Mini). But it scores really low on usability and customisation
IRIS is similar in many ways to Netfront, but is open source and (so far) freeware. I also prefer the way IRIS zooms and has an option to present pages in one colums as defauls (rather than having to hit reflow in Netfront). NF visual bookmarks are pretty but rather useless. IRIS has a similar function for History, where it's much more useful. OTOH NF has loads of functions (including on-the-fly Japanese-to-English translation...) which may or may not be useful to you. And it's better at rendering non-Roman character content, such as Arabic or Hebrew pages than IRIS.
From PIE I only miss the possibility to search for bookmarks by typing the first letter of the bookmark title...
What I´d like to see in IRIS is more support for content, but the architecture with plugins will certainly take care of that. And extended copy and paste to page contents as well as in the address bar, as is currently the case.
Otherwise IRIS is my default browser and will stay that way.
Bernard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the detailed comparison, I'll definitely link to it in my next story on Iris
I've had Iris installed since a very early public beta. I really wanted to like it. I love the browser on the iPhone. But Iris is still a memory hog, slow to render, and still crashes here and there.
Also, the overall design/layout if very amateurish. Some of the places they put options just don't make sense. Up until the latest beta, there wasn't even a way to go back to your home page.
Their favorite handling is just plan stupid. I want to scroll up and down to find the webpage I want to go to. What happens? I constantly ACCIDENTALLY move the favorite around instead of scrolling the list (which works sometimes but not consistently). Every version has gotten a little better, but it's nowhere close to a commercially viable product. PocketIE as old as it is renders most pages faster.
As a note, I view Mobile webpages when available and rarely go to desktop intended websites.
-Mc
Menneisyys said:
thanks for the detailed comparison, I'll definitely link to it in my next story on Iris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome, and I apologise for the typos - I did type in IRIS on my Elf virtual keyboard...
Bernard
McHale said:
I've had Iris installed since a very early public beta. I really wanted to like it. I love the browser on the iPhone. But Iris is still a memory hog, slow to render, and still crashes here and there.
Also, the overall design/layout if very amateurish. Some of the places they put options just don't make sense. Up until the latest beta, there wasn't even a way to go back to your home page.
Their favorite handling is just plan stupid. I want to scroll up and down to find the webpage I want to go to. What happens? I constantly ACCIDENTALLY move the favorite around instead of scrolling the list (which works sometimes but not consistently). Every version has gotten a little better, but it's nowhere close to a commercially viable product. PocketIE as old as it is renders most pages faster.
As a note, I view Mobile webpages when available and rarely go to desktop intended websites.
-Mc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting.... I'm very pleased with the performance on the Elf, but I did move the cache to my SD card. I do find that it has improved since I did that. But maybe I'm just imagining things.
I agree about the bookmsrks and the somewhat haphazard menu item placement...
In order to avoid moving bookmarks around I do use the d-pad, but that is not really satisfactory. I also tend to use the URL auto fill-in. I wish you could do the same on the bookmark page, like in PIE.
Bernard
And I just found out that Skyfire does indeed cache pages on the device as well....
B.
I wasn't really impressed with the original couple betas of skyfire and would usually uninstall shortly after install, but now I'm using it more than Opera Mini which I was a big fan of. This page helped me give skyfire another chance:
http://blog.laptopmag.com/mobile-browser-showdown-iphone-3g-vs-opera-mobile-and-skyfire
Check out the performance stats!
Just wish they would incorporate tabs...
Oh yah, my biggest gripe: LET ME IMPORT MY IE FAVORITES!!!
-Mc
p.s. I'm still hoping that Iris gets to be almost as good as Mobile Safari.
McHale said:
Check out the performance stats!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that *is* impressive!
And yes, I also feel handicapped without tabs....
Bernard
it is available to download the version 1.0 of sky fire
IMO is much much better than the previus ones... any way i'm still waiting for the opera 9.7
thins is the info taht the sf team said
What’s new in 1.0?
•Thumbnail interaction. Now you can click on links immediately after the page loads without having to zoom in. This enhancement is especially helpful for high resolution phones, and for familiar sites where you know right away where you want to click. It makes getting to the content you want on the page simpler, quicker and more efficient.
•Improved zoom. Double-tap or double-click to zoom over any element, including links, images or videos. The zoom interaction is smoother and more responsive as well. Best of all: when you zoom in you will get readable text instantly.
•Enhanced navigation. When you navigate back or forward, you return to the last viewport (e.g. zoom level and portion of the page). This eliminates the need to pan and zoom into the section you were viewing on the previous page. Skyfire remembers the viewport even when you select a page from your history. We have also added shortcut keys, (9) for forward and (7) for backward navigation.
•Improved page handling. Enhancements have been made especially for AJAX-intensive sites such as Facebook and Gmail. When larger parts of the page get updated, the client will more quickly and accurately reflect this. In addition, now, we support full-width iFrames in Skyfire.
•Fast start. We changed both the sequence and behavior of the Skyfire launch so you get started as quickly as possible. You can type a search or URL in the Superbar while Skyfire is connecting in the background. You can put Skyfire to work before the start page is even loaded. Plus, we’ve improved connection performance.
•Reconnect to last state. When you leave Skyfire in the background Skyfire disconnects to preserve battery life. When you come back to Skyfire (after minutes, hours, days), it will reload the same page to the same zoom level and focus. You can continue right where you left off. When you exit and start again, Skyfire you will always land on the start page.
•Connection helper. There is a new mechanism to detect when connections cannot be established to Skyfire servers. If this is due to a network configuration (common in GSM land), then we provide suggestions to help out. This is especially useful if you are with a carrier/data plan that places restrictions on certain APN configurations, which interferes with Skyfire.
•Enhanced search results. Google results now include video, news articles, local results all blended on a single results page and ordered by relevance. Vertical search categories are still available.
•Improved RSS feed search. Find your favorite custom RSS feeds through the improved Add-Feed feature, found under the Customize menu on the start page. Search by site domain, feed URL, or even topical keywords.
•Easier sharing of RSS items from start page. We’ve exposed a simple “Share this article” link below each RSS story displayed on your start page to make it easier to share interesting items to your Twitter and Facebook.
•Remember last connection (Symbian only). Skyfire can now remember the last connection for you, so you will not have to choose a connection every single time. In addition, if you want to change the connection type while you are in Skyfire you can do so.
)
Thanks for the tip!
Just downloaded to my Alltel Touch Pro, thanks for the update! I visited the official home page of Skyfire, and they aren't making any waves on their site or even making clear note of this huge release? Anyway, can't wait to see if it's better than previous beta versions! I am still waiting for Fennec!!!
It's really nice but only problem is it takes up more memory then the previous versions.
segadc said:
It's really nice but only problem is it takes up more memory then the previous versions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh boy... now my Skyfire wont play any videos on hulu or elsewhere, yet the browser works everywhere else. I have an HTC Touch Pro, I did a hard reset and still no luck... any ideas?
skyfire 1.0 same old same old
try mach 5 browser real vga resolution for people with touch pro
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=67780
that's how skyfire 1.0 should have been
ATT-Half said:
skyfire 1.0 same old same old
try mach 5 browser real vga resolution for people with touch pro
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=67780
that's how skyfire 1.0 should have been
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mach-5? Never heard of it, did it come out in a stable version before Skyfire? Does it support flash video? I wonder what the issue is with my HTC Touch Pro no longer being able to play flash video on Hulu through Skyfire anymore with version 1.0, even though the internet works fine???
Bizzump...
Excited about Opera Mobile coming out with Flash support...
Once Opera Mobile and Fennec are (both) released, won't they dominate everything else entirely? (As in, no need for Skyfire or anything else)
+ 1 for opera mobile even in actual version 9.5 with no flash!
And with the upcomming 9.7 will be the best browser!
orb3000 said:
+ 1 for opera mobile even in actual version 9.5 with no flash!
And with the upcomming 9.7 will be the best browser!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Makes me drool the prospect of this version coming out if even the out dated Opera that was baked into my HTC Touch Pro from the factory is LIGHT YEARS ahead of anything else is sheer usability!
Is there any loose time frame on this release of 9.7 with Flash, or is it all speculation at this point???
ATT-Half said:
skyfire 1.0 same old same old
try mach 5 browser real vga resolution for people with touch pro
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=67780
that's how skyfire 1.0 should have been
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhhh, drats!
I don't know if it was something I did, or maybe it was the wrong download link... but from the company home page that developed Mach5, I downloaded the appropriate VGA .cab to my Touch Pro, and although it seemed to work flawlessly, somehow what I had downloaded was a "trial" and worse of all, it was almost all in Japanese!?!?
I couldn't even access streaming video over at Hulu due to the "Hulu only streams content within the United States." HUH? Maybe I missed something...
Has anyone else had this problem?
1. Mach5 looked VERY GOOD (much better than Skyfire, which I ONLY USE exclusively for hulu) but... IS IT STILL FREE?
2. Is Mach5 available for download that will not trip up websites thinking it is an overseas phone or browser program?
Alreader 2 is a nice ebook, doc, txt, etc reader for WM.
It has nice features like font/line sizing/spacing, memorizing last page read for any document, tap up/down to change page, full screen, etc. There's probably more features but those are the ones I use most.
Is there anything like it for Android? (I'm using HTC HD2 and since Android also runs on it... )
edit: Please move if this should be in the App/Games forum. (I just noticed it.)
I think the best is iReader. http://ireader.over-blog.com/pages/About_iReader-1955734.html
I've tried fbreader, aldiko, wordplayer and a few others. With the exception of iSilo and iReader, all were slow when opening an ebook, especially when the ebook is a few MB large. And its worse when they dun support txt, conversion to epub etc with Calibre or the online sites takes decades and often hangs with big files.
But iReader reads txt, pdb, chm, html, etc, and has no problems displaying other languages if you save your txt file in unicode. And when installed on my Samsung Galaxy S, it opens even 10+ MB .txt files faster than Alreader 2 on my HTC Touch HD can open a 6+ MB doc file. Similarly as Alreader, iReader can jump several thousand pages without more than 1-2 sec lag. Changing font size is fast too, apparently no repagination time needed at all.
And best of all it follows the same file opening procedure as Alreader, no crap with updating libraries, bookshelves, book cover displays etc which frankly is much more trouble than is worth.
Conclusion, bookreaders coded by russians and chinese are much more practical for actual heavy duty use. I've used tequilacat on java phones, alreader on WM phones, and now I'm gonna stick to iReader for Android
crandf said:
Conclusion, bookreaders coded by russians and chinese are much more practical for actual heavy duty use. I've used tequilacat on java phones, alreader on WM phones, and now I'm gonna stick to iReader for Android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. I'm pretty sure that the readers I ended up using on both Palm and WM were Russian in origin. Although, I can't remember the name of either. Gonna go check-out this one. Been using FBReader. Pretty good. But, the slow library opening is a real pain.