Related
I just signed up for the unlimited WNW from t mobile. MSN and emails are great, but I find browsing a bit of a pain, I just can't find a view mode in internet explorer that is comfortable to use. For instance, the Desktop view looks the best, but it means constant scrolling for every sentence. What settings / apps etc do you recommend for the best browsing experience on the pocket pc?
pIE is a very poor browser in general
there are many other alternativs
like opera or minimo(firefox)
and tons of others
if you do a search in the forum for browsers
you can prob find a list of all of them
i made this thread to:
1)Discuss Mobile Browsers ONLY
2)Review These Browsers
3)Give Download Links To Them
4)Because We Needed It Lol
SO lets try to keep it organized on KEEP IT ON TOPIC. Dont spam my thread lol. Keep these rules in mind. Also, if a browser has been reviewed already, you CAN give it another review JUST MAKE SURE that you DONT have the same service as the reviewer did AND/OR you used a DIFFERENT data type.
Follow my simple rules and it should be all cool
Organization:
1)Browser Name
2)Phone Model and Service
3)Type of Data (EDGE, Wifi, 3G, etc)
4)Browser Review (and web pages tested)
5)Rating (1-5 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest)
6)Download Link
And well......Why make the thread if i dont intend on posting something. So here we go:
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Opera Mobile 9.5 (Buile 1004)
T-Mobile Wing (HTC Atlas) with...of course...T-Mobile
Using WiFi (high speed lol)
Well lets see, Ive used Opera Mini for a long time and i decided i needed an upgrade. Then i remember hearing that Opera Mobile 9.5 was leaked. So i visited my favorite torrent site, gave it a quick search, downloaded it (its only like 4-5mb so it took like 2 minutes for bittorent to finish it) and installed it on my phone. Opera Mobile 9.5 has an extremely nice UI and its easy to use. I like the fact that the page goes to full screen when i tap on the background and i can bring up th menu to change the settings, bookmark the page, etc all easily.I visited this site (30 seconds to fully load), Myspace.com (took 50 seconds to fully load), and Google.com (took 7 seconds to fully load). Also, at first (for myspace) it loaded a form of portal. It gave me the option to load the full page of myspace, or the mobile version. The portal took 9 seconds to fully load and the mobile version only took an extremely short 4 seconds to load.
Opera Mobile 9.5 gets a definate 5/5 from me. It was fast, easy to use, and its Opera lol you cant go wrong with this browser.
Unfortunately, i cant provide a download link. Its leaked, google it lol. Dont want to get in any kind of trouble
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Picsel Browser
T-Mobile Wing.....using T-Mobile
Using WiFi (of course)
Well welll well.......Its labled as "iPhone style web browser" in the herald forum. So i thought i would give it a try. It was actually a pretty decent browser. Easy to use, simple UI, and its speed was decent. Unfortunately it handles memory like a ***** and it got annoying after 20-30 minutes of browsing. But i still liked it. I tested this site (loaded in 39 seconds), myspace (loaded in 1 minute 33 seconds) and google (loaded in 15 seconds) But unfortunately, some of the pages were odd looking (myspace and this sites)
So enough said. Its a pretty nice browser but the memory control needs to be improved and loading big sites like this, myspace.....well basically any site with alot of links and/or images causes the page to come out weird. This browser gets a 4/5
Download Link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=329787 (SEE POST 1)
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Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile A.K.A Pocket Internet Explorer A.K.A PIE
T-Mobile Wing.....do i need to even say the service again?
Wifi.....duh lol
Well here is the default browser your Windows Mobile device will come with. Not much to say. If you have ever used Internet Explorer, this one is no different. If your still using Internet Explorer.....something is definately wrong with you lol. Still testing the same 3 web sites. This sites (1 minute 4 seconds) myspace (1 minute 27 seconds AND IT DIDNT EVEN LOAD THE FULL PAGE.....WELL IT DID BUT YOU CANT SEE ANYTHING!!!!!!) and google (7 seconds)
And again, it loaded the myspace portal (taking 12 seconds to load that) the mobile page (in an amazing 5 seconds)
Well enough of that, lets give this browser a score......this browser gets a 2/5 (go figure )
Download Link:...............I wont even include it. Internet Explorer is that horrible of a browser. I have yet to try a worse browser (saving it for the 1/5 mark) but if i dont find one, this will get a 1/5
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well thats all the browser im doing for now
I find PIEplus vastly improves the default version. even makes it almost usable, apart from that ive tried all the mobile browsers and until firefox devs pull theyre finger out opera mobile beats the rest hands down and if it wasnt for a few limitations imposed by the fact that its java then operamini would be just about perfect.
I remember a hacked version of OM 3.1 which had ponyential back a year or 2 ago but 4.1 lacks some basic functions.
just my 2 cents
download links to any opera browsers?
im on a wing and all I currently have is pIE ;/
^^^^^
Here is the link to the Opera Mobile Browsers
http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/
The latest build is 8.65
Oh yeah P.S:
Just got Opera Mobile 9.5 Build 1184
And TomTom Navigator 7.459.9028 repack 2
And EVERY Spb Product
Free of course lol. Think of it as borowing their products. Why pay? They will make the money from some other sucker who doesnt know how to get them for free
Midian said:
^^^^^
Free of course lol. Think of it as borowing their products. Why pay? They will make the money from some other sucker who doesnt know how to get them for free
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because some people who work to provide you with these fabulous softs need to eat, too... Would you work for free..?
Demokiroxx said:
Because some people who work to provide you with these fabulous softs need to eat, too... Would you work for free..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very true!
Demokiroxx said:
Because some people who work to provide you with these fabulous softs need to eat, too... Would you work for free..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i already do. lol. i volunteer to work in anything in my church. Ive subbed for choire members, for band members, janitors, etc
And i have a new summer job that pretty much rapes me of my money with all these stupid charges. Even though the minimum wage increase happened, im still walking about with practically nothing.
and food is soooo over rated. Get some kiva juice. Its made to "fill you up" even though its just juice/shake/whatever you got and its only like $5. You can easily live off of $5 a day........... ive done that for a solid month.
but still, none the less they will make it up.
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
Hi,
i just would like to know, what are the big differences between the web browsers (Opera, Opera Mini, Skyfire) ?
I am trying to find the browser that is most suited for my needs. I bet there's a lot of people who are wondering the same. So please, come someone enlighten us (me).
just a general note. you should try all browsers and then see as browser comfort is usually individual.
as of today i'd choose either the latest edition of Opera 9.5 or Skyfire... but for the sake of comparison.
Opera Mini is very fast and stable and is java based.. but doesn't have all the features the new browsers such as Opera 9.5 and Skyfire have.
Opera 9.5 is greatlooking and supports direct flash and has a fine comfortable interface.
Skyfire has a few options for browsing.. such as using a Mouse pointer to move across the page or sweep your finger to move the page. also it has a very comfortable home page which i use constantly with weather reports and google search. it also has a very fast loading time.
one major difference between opera and skyfire is the fact that skyfire supports most languages without having to use special language packs.
Internet Explorer sucks ass.
Netfront is great.. not as fast as the others but is very multilingual and has some new options.. you should look it up in google to see what it offers.
nir36 said:
just a general note. you should try all browsers and then see as browser comfort is usually individual.
as of today i'd choose either the latest edition of Opera 9.5 or Skyfire... but for the sake of comparison.
Opera Mini is very fast and stable and is java based.. but doesn't have all the features the new browsers such as Opera 9.5 and Skyfire have.
Opera 9.5 is greatlooking and supports direct flash and has a fine comfortable interface.
Skyfire has a few options for browsing.. such as using a Mouse pointer to move across the page or sweep your finger to move the page. also it has a very comfortable home page which i use constantly with weather reports and google search. it also has a very fast loading time.
one major difference between opera and skyfire is the fact that skyfire supports most languages without having to use special language packs.
Internet Explorer sucks ass.
Netfront is great.. not as fast as the others but is very multilingual and has some new options.. you should look it up in google to see what it offers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow, great..thnx for the info
but i got difficulty to download skyfire. it doesnt support for my country phone number
I knew i wasnt the only one that would be helped ! =)
Thanks a lot!
I will try Skyfire, and if i'm not satisfied, i will go for Opera (but i wonder if Opera Mini could be fine).
You also forgot about one VERY important thing - both Opera Mini and Skyfire use server-side processing: the phone sends all information to opera's or skyfire's server, the server downloads the page as a normal browser would, then strips it of unnecessary data, resizes pictures, compresses the page and then sends it to your device.
So everything you browse, and all the data you send, including passwords is not exchanged directly with the target website, but instead goes trough a third party server. Of course all server-device communications are encrypted, but still i don't encourage using these browsers for sensitive data like banking or shopping using your credit card information. This might be a bit paranoid, but considering how internet looks like today, paranoia is a rather healthy thing
Besides, there were already cases where browser used incorrectly made all the encryption useless: when opera (and probably skyfire too) is started for the first time, it generates a random key to encrypt data and identify your device. But when opera is cooked into ROM or made into CAB installer after this key has been generated, the server recognizes every device using this version as the same one. So if person A logs into a email account and then person B (using the same broken opera install with the same key) goes to this email website - he'll see he's already logged in as person A and can see all of his/her e-mails.
Of course this doesn't happen often (actually i know of only one such accident and the faulty opera was quickly removed from ROM) but still - better safe than sorry.
However, the advantage of these browsers is that they're really fast - all the hard work is done on the server so our devices don't need to do any html/css/javascript/etc interpreting and only have to draw the simplified version of website (opera mini) or something like a screenshot of the website (skyfire) sent by the server. And since the data sent to the device is compressed, they both use much less bandwidth than conventional browsers which is important on cellular connections where you usually pay for transmitted data quantity.
On the other hand, Opera Mobile (all versions), NetFront, Pocket Internet Explorer (which really sucks) are _real_ browsers, like the one on your PC - they communicate with websites directly. But they also have to do all the processing and interpreting, not only drawing so they're noticeably slower than Opera Mini and Skyfire. Also, they usually download all website content and transferred data is uncompressed so they use up much more bandwidth.
Generally, i prefer to use Opera Mini for general web browsing, forums, etc. But for sensitive data (shopping, banking, e-mail), or when bandwidth is not a concern (on a wifi connection) i tend to stick with Opera Mobile or NetFront.
Of these two browsers, Opera 9.5 gives a bit nicer and more finger-friendly user interface. But this requires quite a lot of memory and processing power to work smoothly, so it's almost unusable on low memory devices like Wizard.
NetFront has much simpler UI, closer to one seen in pocketIE and while it doesn't look as impressive an Opera's, it works much better on slower and low memory phones. Since they're both in open beta testing stage, it's best to download and try both to see which one you like more.
mr_deimos said:
You also forgot about one VERY important thing - both Opera Mini and Skyfire use server-side processing: the phone sends all information to opera's or skyfire's server, the server downloads the page as a normal browser would, then strips it of unnecessary data, resizes pictures, compresses the page and then sends it to your device.
So everything you browse, and all the data you send, including passwords is not exchanged directly with the target website, but instead goes trough a third party server. Of course all server-device communications are encrypted, but still i don't encourage using these browsers for sensitive data like banking or shopping using your credit card information. This might be a bit paranoid, but considering how internet looks like today, paranoia is a rather healthy thing
Besides, there were already cases where browser used incorrectly made all the encryption useless: when opera (and probably skyfire too) is started for the first time, it generates a random key to encrypt data and identify your device. But when opera is cooked into ROM or made into CAB installer after this key has been generated, the server recognizes every device using this version as the same one. So if person A logs into a email account and then person B (using the same broken opera install with the same key) goes to this email website - he'll see he's already logged in as person A and can see all of his/her e-mails.
Of course this doesn't happen often (actually i know of only one such accident and the faulty opera was quickly removed from ROM) but still - better safe than sorry.
However, the advantage of these browsers is that they're really fast - all the hard work is done on the server so our devices don't need to do any html/css/javascript/etc interpreting and only have to draw the simplified version of website (opera mini) or something like a screenshot of the website (skyfire) sent by the server. And since the data sent to the device is compressed, they both use much less bandwidth than conventional browsers which is important on cellular connections where you usually pay for transmitted data quantity.
On the other hand, Opera Mobile (all versions), NetFront, Pocket Internet Explorer (which really sucks) are _real_ browsers, like the one on your PC - they communicate with websites directly. But they also have to do all the processing and interpreting, not only drawing so they're noticeably slower than Opera Mini and Skyfire. Also, they usually download all website content and transferred data is uncompressed so they use up much more bandwidth.
Generally, i prefer to use Opera Mini for general web browsing, forums, etc. But for sensitive data (shopping, banking, e-mail), or when bandwidth is not a concern (on a wifi connection) i tend to stick with Opera Mobile or NetFront.
Of these two browsers, Opera 9.5 gives a bit nicer and more finger-friendly user interface. But this requires quite a lot of memory and processing power to work smoothly, so it's almost unusable on low memory devices like Wizard.
NetFront has much simpler UI, closer to one seen in pocketIE and while it doesn't look as impressive an Opera's, it works much better on slower and low memory phones. Since they're both in open beta testing stage, it's best to download and try both to see which one you like more.
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Click to collapse
you're right. my bad.
Incredible. Thanks for the update.
You guys @ XDA need a real THUMBS UP. Thanks for the fast answers, i hope that this will help a couple of users who we're wondering the same thing as I.
=)
That settles it. I'll try Skyfire & Opera Mini and find out wich one i like the most (since i don't use my cell phone for private use (banking & shopping) but more for browsing (forums & other).
YOU GUYS ROCKS!
If you would recommended three, or even more, pieces of software for my Windows Mobile device, what would those be?
Bing -- powerful, versatile, and easy to use. Tons of info at your fingertips. Come in VERY handy for me more times than I can count.
Evernote -- taking notes isn't very useful if you can't find them later or forget to look at them. Using Evernote on my PPC and desktop means my info is always available in a quick, searchable way. Also very handy for taking photos of things I want to remember (like a magazine article) and making sure it's accessible on my desktop. OneNote is decent as well, but I prefer the way Evernote works on PPC (and being 100% free is a bonus too).
Skyfire -- there's no shortage of decent web browsers on WM, but Skyfire's ability to handle pretty much any site you throw at it makes it really useful.
Also, it's not really a program per se, but an Exchange-synced calendar and contacts list is, I think, a HUGE must-have. I use Google Sync, and having my calendar pushed both ways makes it 10x more useful than any USB-sync system ever was for me.
Opera Mobile
Advance config
Live messenger
for mention just some of them
It will depend on wich ROM are you running: wm 5, 6, 6.1 or 6.5
My faves...
Google Maps, like it love it. Complete app and comes in handy everday.
Opera- Used to use skyfire, till i got a wvga phone. Skyfire is terrible on wvga phone.
Vito Communications suite- This will cost you about $25 but I honestly couldn't function with out this setup. Winterface, funcontacts, SMS-chat are all amazing beautiful programs, ridiculously fluid and add a new higher level of clean fluidity to windows mobile. depending on the phone, I'd upgrade to an extremely light ROM and put this bad boy on right away and call it a day.
ThumbCal- if you've ever used winmo calendar you know. This is extremely finger friendly...amazing app.
s2p- windows media player is old and outdated...s2p is funtimes, finger friendly although very iphoney...if you're looking for the complete package
Kinoma play- total package app. nuff said
s2v or image viewer 0.9- s2v is iphoney but an awesome picture viewer. Image viewer is a lesser known picture viewer but doesn't skimp on the quality. Has an smooth feel an i think uses opengl..not sure though.
Quickmenu- not too sure if this fits your liking especially with what htc has done in making changes to the start button, but I have havent uses my phone in years with out quick menu. its a do all app that can be a launcher and task manager...my personal must have
WKtask, e-natives, taskfacade- no personal preference here since what I really want would be something similar to the PRE, but wktask is non obtrusive, e-natives is more HTC menu like, taskfacade is more graphical. whatever you like.
I could go on for a while here...but there are some of my faves with alternatives...its what i love most about winmo, the only reason I wont leave, so much customization
typo said:
Bing -- powerful, versatile, and easy to use. Tons of info at your fingertips. Come in VERY handy for me more times than I can count.
Evernote -- taking notes isn't very useful if you can't find them later or forget to look at them. Using Evernote on my PPC and desktop means my info is always available in a quick, searchable way. Also very handy for taking photos of things I want to remember (like a magazine article) and making sure it's accessible on my desktop. OneNote is decent as well, but I prefer the way Evernote works on PPC (and being 100% free is a bonus too).
Skyfire -- there's no shortage of decent web browsers on WM, but Skyfire's ability to handle pretty much any site you throw at it makes it really useful.
Also, it's not really a program per se, but an Exchange-synced calendar and contacts list is, I think, a HUGE must-have. I use Google Sync, and having my calendar pushed both ways makes it 10x more useful than any USB-sync system ever was for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im with you on Skyfire but the must have is Total Commander
SK Tools. Best 16 bucks you can spend.