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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.
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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: Free tabbed Internet Explorer plug-in Maximus 1.0

The built-in Internet Explorer in the Windows Mobile operating system has always lacked multi-tabbed operation. There have been several third-party solutions to the problem, the latest being the free Maximus. Read on to find out how it fares against other Internet Explorer add-ons!
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Availability, compatibility
Unfortunately, the developer’s homepage doesn’t have a dedicated page on the application – only the statement “Open multiple tabbed pages inn a single browser! A fully functional web browser similar to Internet Explorer which allows you to open an unlimited amount of web pages at one time.”.
The direct download link is this HERE. Unzip the file and either transfer Maximus.ARM.CAB to your Pocket PC and click it there or start Maximus.exe on your desktop.
Installation
Upon install, if you, instead of directly transferring Maximus.ARM.CAB to your Pocket PC and clicking it there (the recommended way of installing the application), start Maximus.exe to install, make sure you untick “UnityRuntime” in the installer (as can be seen in here) because:
it would install the original version of CF2, which is NOT recommended any more. Make sure you get CF2 SP1 instead. It’s the latest version of CF2 and is much better than the one shipped with Maximus. See this article for more info on downloading.
what’s more, the package contains the WM5-only CF2 CAB file and, therefore, can’t be installed on WM2003(SE) devices.
After installation, the app must be started by just tapping the new Maximus icon (the app is, technically, not a simple PIE plug-in but an add-on which must be separately started, just like ftxPBrowser or Webby).
Pros
Using it doesn’t result in a considerable speed hit when loading new pages, as opposed to some other Compact Framework-based products like Webby. I’ve done some benchmarks with my traditional Web transfer benchmark page. While it took Maximus 30 seconds to fully load the page, the "barebone" PIE spent 24...27s in default (and 17..22 s in One Column) mode on my A12 AKU2.3 Dell Axim x51v. (Note that AKU 2 introduced a big loading speed increase; this is why the plain PIE loading speed is much better than in this pre-AKU2 A06 test). That is, the speed difference is about 15%, which is negligible
It’s free and if you really don’t have anything else but must have tabbed browsing support, you may want to use it. (But, then, the free version of Webby, Opera Mini, Minimo or, if you have a Pocket PC with an operating system prior to WM5, ftxPBrowser may prove much more useful.)
Cons
It really doesn’t add anything to the underlying PIE, except for new tabs, and even hides the original menus (more on this later)
It doesn’t support WM5 softkeys
it doesn’t add any new page / link / image context menu options. For example, the lack of link context menu options means, as it’ll open a link in the current frame, you can’t easily open a new frame for a new link
It hides the original IE menus. This means you won’t be able to access even basic functionality from inside Maximus. It’s impossible to change view mode (it defaults to the “Default” view mode, which isn’t very useful with many pages where the “One column” mode would be preferable); you can’t turn off/on loading pictures, you can’t hide the address bar, the text size (zoom percentage) etc.
It doesn’t have access to the persistent URL history, unlike ALL other alternates – it only lists URL’s entered in the last session
While the context menus have the Full Screen option, it doesn’t work
No access to favorites (a BIG problem!)
To get a picture of how simple its menus are, here are some screenshots: 1 2 3.
Error dialogs / messages don’t contain any text; an example can be seen here
Verdict
Definitely not recommended. Even the free version of Webby is far better if you really want to stick with Compact FW 2-based solutions (I wouldn’t). Currently, I don’t think you should even think about installing it. Hopefully a subsequent version will offer far more functionality.
Recommended links
Do check out my other Web browser reviews in the Web Browsers category in the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Expert Blog.

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.
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(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!

Multiplatform Web browser W3C compliance report

Now that I’m working on my 45-minute speech & demo for my (international) W3C speech next week, I’ve re-tested the latest version of all browsers with the just-published, new W3C test suite specifically targeted at mobile devices. The greener, the better; red denotes a failed test.
Let’s start with Windows Mobile.
Windows Mobile
As you can rightfully guess, the built-in Internet Explorer Mobile (even as of WM6.1) is pretty bad:
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… which is the same as on WM6 Standard 6.0 (MS Smartphone):
…and is only a bit better as in the 5-year-old WM2003:
Finally, here’s the Pocket PC 2002 screenshot so that you can see the difference between it and WM2003:

Opera Mobile:
Version 9.33 beta (the one presented at WMC this February):
… and the good old 8.65 available for download/purchase:
As can clearly be seen, the 9.33, which renders the suite almost (but not entirely) flawlessly is indeed based on the new, 9.x-series kernel – a very good news indeed! (We’ll later see that it’s also Opera’s browser that delivers the best compatibility on the desktop too)
Let’s take a look at the current (R006; dating back to February) 3.5 Technical Preview of NetFront:
The new and, now, pretty much usable 1.0.8 WebKit-based Iris browser follows:
Note that, being non-public, I couldn’t test Wake3’s WebKit port.

Minimo:
I didn’t bother with other, even less compatible or officially outdated browsers.
As can be seen, Opera 9.xx is the best of the bunch. Hope it’ll be released soon!
BlackBerry
On BB, if anyone would, for some strange reason, use the native browser in it, he or she can except the following:
That is, not really good – stick with Opera Mini 4.1 instead, which, as opposed to Opera Mini 4.0, no longer crashes the BB.
Symbian S60v3 FP1
Symbian S60v3 FP1’s Nokia Web, also based on WebKit, isn’t flawless either:
As can be seen, despite what some people state about WebKit-based browsers, it’s not 100% compatible either.
Opera Mini 4.1
Finally, Opera Mini 4.1 beta, which runs equally good on all the above mobile platforms:
Desktop Windows browsers
As far as the desktop Windows is concerned, let’s take a look at my test results:

Firefox 3 beta5 (the latest):
The Internet Explorer 8 beta (also the latest) results are pretty bad – actually, it’s the same as with IE7:
(IE8)
(IE7)
Interestingly, Acid2 is far better rendered by IE8 than IE7 (screenshots HERE and HERE, respectively) – while it still fails the Acid3 test (which also makes the browser crash), albeit it still fares a bit better than IE7. That is, based on the Acid results, I expected far more – not even the forthcoming IE8 is as standard-compliant as Firefox, let alone Opera.
Finally, as you may have already guessed, Opera renders the test suite without any problems:
More information on all these (for example, my old Acid2 test results): my Web browsing-related articles, Web browser Bibles etc.

UPDATE (some two hours later):
A screenshot of WM5 AKU3 MS Smartphone Internet Explorer Mobile browser:
As can be seen, it's exactly the same as on the (later) WM6(.1).
Surur has published an iPod Safari (same as with iPhone) screenshot. As with all the other WebKit-based browsers, it isn’t the best:

UPDATE (04/23/2008): I’ve upgraded my BlackBerry 8800 to OS version 4.5.0.9. The upgrade is REALLY worth doing, even at the current beta stage. See THIS for more info. Should you miss his post, you’ll need to send a mail, with any body / message, to [email protected] get the download links for all current BB models. Note that the upgrade takes a LOT of time – don’t be afraid of it being so slow, it won’t brick your phone. Also, you'll need to re-register / configure (but not set up) everything again. The new OS, even in its currently beta stage, is WAY better than 4.2 or even 4.3 coming on some new Pearls. For example (just to name a few),
it supports A2DP / AVRCP flawlessly (working just great with the Plantronics Pulsar 590A, Voyager 855 and Gear4-BluPhones; including even automatic reconnection)
it no longer has the ugly condensed characters – the default new ones (BBAlpha Sans; as can be seen in HERE, there’re a lot of different character types, unlike under 4.2.1) are FAR easier on the eyes and can be made smaller than in OS version 4.2. A series of example Opera Mini 4.1 screenshots showing this.
This is how the medium-sized characters under 4.2.1 look like:
and the same under 4.5.0.9:
(Both with the minimal system character size set – 4.2.1 screenshot of this HERE.)
Note that, as OM uses its own small character set, there’s no difference between their rendering under the two different operating systems – they’re equally the same:
Returning to the question of Web standards compliance, while it has an otherwise better browser, has almost exactly the same support for Web techniques. This is why its results are just (see the uppermost square on the left) a tad better than with the 4.2.1.109 screenshot above:

REVIEW & COMPARISON: Another Web browser, UCWEB: is it any good?

It was over one and a half year ago that I reviewed the Windows Mobile version of UCWEB, the (then) new, Chinese, multiplatform Web browser.
In the meantime, it has received a lot of additions and enhancements; therefore (and also as an answer to one of my readers at XDA-Developers), I’ve spent some time on evaluating the current version and directly comparing to the other two Java-based browsers, BOLT and Opera Mini.
Note that UCWEB isn’t only Java-based, unlike the other two browsers mentioned. There are native versions for both Symbian and Windows Mobile. These are a bit different from the Java version; for example, they both support bold and italic characters and viewing pages using their original layout (not that it would work in most cases…) As I, in general, prefer writing multiplatform stuff, I decided to thoroughly test all the three (Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile) versions of the browser to see whether it’s worth switching to them from other, competing browsers.
So, you want to know whether it’s worth moving to this browser from your Nokia Web / SkyFire (Symbian S60), Opera Mobile / Iris / Netfront / SkyFire (Windows Mobile), Opera Mini / BOLT (a Java-only feature phone)? The answer is no. In most cases (assuming you very rarely need the unique features of the app: the download manager, the copy features etc.), I’ve found the alternative browsers much better, quicker and cleaner.
Why? You might ask. Let me show you some screenshots. Let’s start with the (dumbest) Java version, which I’ll directly compare to Opera Mini and BOLT, the two main alternatives. (Note that, while this version is indeed the least capable of the three UCWEB versions, it still has some [small] advantages over the Windows Mobile version. For example, it can search for the first occurrence of a string or can close all the tabs except the current one in one step or you can very thoroughly configure its button / key shortcuts.) Let’s see what character styles / sizes it can render:
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Wow! Nothing at all! Now, let’s take a look at Opera Mini’s doing the same:
…and, finally, BOLT:
While BOLT has certain drawbacks compared to Opera Mini (e.g., no bold support), it’s still way better than the way UCWEB renders different styles / character sizes.
The W3C compliance results aren’t very nice either. (Here, I show you a screenshot of the native Windows Mobile and Symbian clients as the Java client isn’t capable of rendering pages using their original layout; this would have made its compliance results even worse.):
(Windows Mobile + UCWEB)
(Symbian + UCWEB)
Now, take a look at how Opera Mini renders the page:
BOLT is much nicer too:
Pay attention to not only how the actual square is rendered (how many cells are green, showing compliance with the related test case), but also the other texts on the page. They’re pretty much messed up in UCWEB’s rendering, while perfect when rendered by the other two browsers.
Again, note that the Java version of UCWEB doesn’t support any kind of styling / character formatting (in this case, italic), unlike the native WinMo / Symbian clients, which do.
Native (Symbian / Windows Mobile) versions
The non-Java (that is, native) versions of UCWEB are a bit better (except for some missing functionality, particularly in the Windows Mobile version, like setting the User-Agent or searching for occurrences of a string) than the Java version but can’t really match the best, established browsers on the platform. It’s probably the Symbian version of UCWEB that you might want to consider using but if and only if you’re absolutely sure you’d never use the full page overview, in which the built-in Nokia Web browser is much-much better. On Windows Mobile, almost all other browsers are better, particularly if you hate the one column mode.
Strengths of UCWEB
I’ve already mentioned UCWEB has some unmatched strengths. For example,
- It allows for fine-tuning the hotkeys on Java and Symbian (but, unfortunately, not under Windows Mobile). Very few alternative browsers do the same (and definitely not Java ones); for example, Opera Mobile.
- It has a built-in download manager. If you download a lot of stuff off the Web and would prefer doing this in the background, UCWEB is the way to go. Unless, of course, you are on a platform where there already are browsers with download managers or downloader add-ons for existing Web browsers (see my dedicated reviews). For example, on Windows Mobile, there are several of them.
- It natively supports multitabs – a huge omission in, for example, the built-in Internet Explorer Mobile in Windows Mobile. (Nevertheless, I still think – unless you REALLY need some of the other functionalities of UCWEB like the download manager – it’s better to purchase a decent plug-in – MultiIE, PIEPlus or Spb Pocket Plus – for the built-in Internet Explorer Mobile, let alone switching to Opera Mobile 9.5+ completely.)
Comparison chart
It’s HERE and, as usual, is full of screenshots. Note that it also has extensive information on both Opera Mini and BOLT (the latest version of both); in this regard, it’s way better and more informative than the chart in my previous Opera Mini vs. BOLT comparison http://www.smartphonemag.com/cms/blog/9/battle-two-web-minibrowsers-opera-mini-vs-bolt .
Please do consult my other, earlier Web browsing articles, speeches etc. for the meaning of each individual row. I simply don’t have the time to explain things I’ve already shed light on in my earlier articles.
Verdict
While, in some respects (for example, tabbing, download managers, user-agent settings or copy capabilities), it's way ahead of Opera Mini or BOLT (and even some native, non-Java browsers on Symbian / Windows Mobile), it still has major problems.
As a rule of thumb, if you use your Opera Mini almost exclusively in the full layout mode (as opposed to the one column mode) and wouldn’t want to switch back to one column, you’ll hate UCWEB. If you are on a platform with a native UCWEB client (WM or Symbian but not Java-only feature phones), you can use the full layout mode of the browser but I’m absolutely sure sooner or later you’ll disable it, it’s so bad. Even the lowest-quality Web browsers on Windows Mobile (for example, the built-in Internet Explorer Mobile) are far better at rendering ordinary Web pages and reflowing text so that they are readable without any horizontal scrolling. On Symbian S60, Nokia’s Web is way-way better, particularly now that all new(er) models and/or firmware upgrades have Flash Lite 3.1.
It’s only on Java-only phones that you might want consider switching to it. I, however, only recommend this if and only if you absolutely need its unique features the better alternatives (Opera Mini or BOLT) aren’t capable of: copying from pages; quick tab switching on touchscreen-only devices; multipage support (where BOLT – but not Opera Mini! – seriously lacks), support for non-Western languages (which BOLT isn’t capable of) etc. Otherwise, I simply don’t see any point in using it as your main browser, particularly not if you don’t want to stick to the confined one column view mode: both Opera Mini and BOLT have way better rendering engines.
Currently, I only recommend UCWEB to the developers of Opera Mini (and BOLT). After adding the, in my opinion, most important features (first of all, italic support and copy support the way UCWEB does – both are, programmatically, pretty easy), the other niceties (for example, the tabbing system, which is a god-send for touchscreen-only people) could be added to Opera Mini.

Perspective
Well, being the tester he is Menneisyys raised interesting points about the browser. Points that I did not think of. Interesting review.

I downloaded the CAB and it's in Chinese language, does anyone know how to switch the language?