Just like last year (see my previous year's article HERE), I have REALLY a lot to report on Web browsing, the just-announced stuff and so on.
Opera
1. At MWC, the Opera folks announced their brand new service called Opera Turbo (official page HERE), allowing for massive data usage savings and speedup, particularly over a slow (for example, GPRS) connection.
This isn’t (still) available to end users as it’s mobile operators that need to install the server-side component on their servers to do the data compression. This is quite a bit different from Opera Mini’s solution, which goes through the servers deployed and maintained by the Opera folks themselves.
You may ask why the Opera staff doesn’t maintain the same serverpark to serve Opera Turbo clients. The question seems to be easy to answer: it’d cause in a lot of additional traffic for Opera. With Opera Mini, the majority of this can be directly saved as the Web pages returned to the Opera Mini client are preformatted and stripped of for example dynamic (scripting) and CSS (styling) components. The internal page layout language is also much simpler than the “real” HTML used in everyday Web pages, resulting in further data usage saving. With fully fledged (non-simplified) clients, all this would be gone, meaning two-three times more data usage between the client machine and the Opera servers. Now, a significant (if I remember correctly, about 60%) of Norway’s Web traffic is caused by the Opera Mini servers – you can have an idea what this would become when every, say, second mobile user switched to using Opera Turbo on his or her laptop. No wonder they don’t offer the service to everyone - unlike with their Opera Mini -, but ask the individual mobile operators to deploy them. That is, it’s pretty silly to accuse of Opera of not being very user-friendly by not offering the service without a third party (in this case, mobile operators).
BTW, on desktop Windows, the service will only be compatible with Opera’s own (desktop) browser, not Internet Explorer or Firefox. It’s high time you switched to Opera on your desktop, though – Opera Link, particularly if you also use Opera Mini on your handhelds / handsets, is very hard to beat. And, hopefully, the, in my opinion, biggest problem of the Opera browser, the lack of auto-completion will surely be fixed in the near future – I’ve asked the Opera folks to, finally, implement this (along with the italic support in Opera Mini) and they seem to listen to me.
2. Opera has just released a new version of their Opera Mobile 9.51b2 browser; now, together with Google Gears (see THIS for more info on what it’s about) support. It’s, as usual, available HERE (follow the “Windows Mobile 5/6 Pocket PC, version 9.51b2, Gears-enabled technical preview” link).
A quick note: if you don’t want to give up on the advantages of the current, latest version of Opera Mobile (that is, the Omnia build version) with all its goodies (text reflowing at every zoom level; easier zooming etc.), think twice before upgrading. Nevertheless, if you install it on the same Windows Mobile device, the two versions will happily co-exist and won’t interfere in each other’s operation. (They’re located in entirely different directories, have different icon links and temporary directories.)
Bolt
The famous developers (BitStream) of ThunderHawk, which used to be one of the most recommended browsers for Windows Mobile, particularly in the pre-WM2003SE days when it was pretty hard to switch the screen orientation to landscape (and no other browsers supporting rendering pages in this mode), now, at last, has a successor: BOLT.
While I did install it on my BlackBerry 8800 (my favourite Web browsing mobile device for quick lookups – for longer sessions, I prefer my iPhone 3G) when the first, closed beta arrived about a month ago, I found it best not to publish anything on it because, frankly, I found the scrolling speed plain slow compared to the pretty mature and very fast Opera Mini 4.2 on the same device and, now that I have a lot of work, I simply don’t want to publish reviews of half-baked products because these reviews get outdated very fast as, in general, software developers quickly fix the problems. (Note that it’s because of this that I haven’t really elaborated on the first, runnable Mozilla / Fennec build(s) for Windows Mobile either – I’ll wait until a version is released which is at least half as usable and stable as current Opera Mobile versions.)
I’ve thoroughly tested the new version announced and released at MWC and found it very good on all kinds of devices. I’ve tested it on the following ones:
QVGA – 320*240 – Landscape BlackBerry 8800,
VGA – 640 * 480 – HP iPAQ 210 with Jbed 3.1 (tested in both screen orientations) (Windows Mobile),
QVGA – 240*320 – Nokia N95 (Symbian S60).
Thanks for the excellent font set of BitStream, all the three
Some screenshots:
{
"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"
}
(Windows Mobile VGA with XXLarge characters – see Settings / Magnification)
(Nokia N95 with default settings)
Note that it has everything a decent browser should need: page scrolling by 2/4/6/8; on touchscreen-enabled devices without hardware (left / right) softkeys (the HP 210 is one of them), tapping the bottom-most area of the screen brings up the menu; find text in page.
It surely has some (not very annoying) problems; for example, rendering the PPCMag Experts in Portrait mode on a QVGA device – in this case, the N95 – sometimes lead to invisible end of rows. This needs to be continuously – after every single Page downs –corrected, which is definitely a more time-consuming process than under Opera Mini 4.2, which uses a better “fit to screen” algorithm.
Also note that, as the browser is strictly based on the (8-bit) ASCII font set, it cannot render any non-ASCII characters. That is, while it can display all the characters in all Western languages, it fails doing the same with non-Western ones – there will always be some characters missing. This can’t be fixed, unless, as is explained in my dedicated article on internationalization issues, the Web administrators explicitly look for the User-Agent of Bolt and convert all the pages returned to ASCII.
Speed-wise, the new browser excelled. It’s definitely worth giving a try.
Finally, it also supports videos and animation. It can even play back YouTube contents by invoking the system-level, native Web browser to download the (into a very low-quality .3gp file – unfortunately, you can’t make the transcoder produce a better-quality file, not even at the expense of higher data usage) transcoded YouTube content and, then, invoke the system-level multimedia player to play it back. On the BlackBerry 8800 (running OS 4.5), where I tested this, I needed to manually invoke the latter – doing the same from Browser didn’t work. That is, you’ll need to save the transcoded .3gp file into the file system, start Media manually and search for the just-saved clip.
Fennec
The long-awaited Mozilla/Firefox port, after having been only available for the Linux-based Nokia Internet Tablets, has arrived to Windows Mobile (dedicated blog post HERE).
No, it’s still not worth getting it if all you want is a decent, capable browser – it’s really slow and full of bugs. (Remember the first versions of Minimo? It’s THAT bad. Note that I’m not stating the private, unofficial Minimo has anything to do with the officially backed-up Fennec – except for the same initial codebase –, just the fact that Fennec, as of the current version, ins plain useless for real-world usage.) For the time being, go for Opera Mobile, Mini, Skyfire or Bolt, depending on your needs.
Iris
After my last review of Iris, several new versions have been released. They are stated to be much faster / more stable. However, the GUI inconsistencies I’ve pointed out in the above review are still here (also see the comments for example HERE); that is, currently, I still don’t recommend this version unlike you absolutely don’t want to use the alternative ones.
Also read THIS for more info.
Skyfire
A new version, 0.9, was released a week ago. Compared to the version reviewed in my last generic roundup, the list of improvements include (see THIS for more info) Facebook, Twitter, RSS support, improved text reflowing (not that I would have found the previous versions bad in this respect) and (at last) compatibility with WVGA (800*480) and WQVGA (400*240) screens.
Adobe news: Flash Lite 3.1 for developers; full Flash 10 promised
If you know my dedicated article ("TUTORIAL: everything you need to know about Flash Lite 3 and playing back Flash web videos"), you know that, so far, there haven’t been an official version of Flash Lite 3.1 available to download.
In the meantime, Adobe has made the developer version available (more info). No, do not rush to download it unless you’re a developer – it will NOT work in your flash (lite) plugin-capable browser like the latest Omnia build or Internet Explorer. Yes, I’ve tested this. Hope the end user plug-in version is soon released.
Adobe has also announced they will release full (!!) Flash support for Symbian S60, Windows Mobile and Android this year. This is certainly very good news for everyone but iPhone folks – after all, Symbian and Android have never had any “full” Flash support and the latest Windows Mobile one is a highly outdated and slow version 7.
Thanks a lot mate
You´re the man!
great reviews
UPDATE (22/02/2009 10:34AM CET): : let me also present you a shot of the Opera booth at ShowStoppers. I hope you recognize the webpage shown ;-)
What's your take on the security for Opera Mini and Bolt for BlackBerry? I know it's not a WM question, but I see you used Bolt on your 8800. Just wondering, I thought I saw somewhere that OM wasn't a secure browser, I like it but it's got me nervous to use it.
Something I noticed..
Why is Opera Mobile 9.5 jerky (non smooth scrolling, vsync problem on the top left of the screen in landscape) on the HTC HD/Diamond/Pro and smooth as slik on the Xpéria (wich is the same god damn hardware..) and the Omnia etc...?
Xperia : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW124IUAPIs
Hmm it's a bit late for a response I guess, but here goes.
I played with Opera Turbo for a bit at MWC and wasn't too impressed. Most of the sites didn't load correctly. Ofcourse, this was perhaps a beta version and things may need improving.
Also I'm not clear on exactly the compression method used, but if it is just standard HTTP compression (sadly enough still not used by most webservers on the block) it's nothing new, I know several carriers who already implement this service on their side and there are several services available that offer this in non-transparent proxy form (apposed to the carriers doing this in transparant form).
However there are many possible improvements to be made over 'normal' HTTP compression, and I assume Opera is at least using some of the things I can come up with straight from the top of my head. Still, I'd be nice to know in more detail how this works - is it revolutionary, or just something old in a new jacket?
Looking forward to actually using this on my device, see how it works (hopefully better than the on the demo devices at the Opera stand at MWC)
MAK11 said:
Something I noticed..
Why is Opera Mobile 9.5 jerky (non smooth scrolling, vsync problem on the top left of the screen in landscape) on the HTC HD/Diamond/Pro and smooth as slik on the Xpéria (wich is the same god damn hardware..) and the Omnia etc...?
Xperia : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW124IUAPIs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please DO NOT DOUBLE POST
Respect the rules
I’ve just published a much more detailed comparison of BOLT and Opera Mini; see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=3507951#post3507951
Related
I’ve long been wanting to review the brand new UCWEB browser which, while definitely not as good as Opera Mobile or IEM enhanced with either PIEPlus or MultiIE, can be a good, multi-tabbed, bandwidth-saving alternative to commercial browsers as soon as its bugs are ironed out and page loading speed increased.
{
"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"
}
(a QVGA Pocket PC screenshot; a WM6 VGA screenshot)
Availability, installing
You’ll need to use the generic WM CAB version. For Pocket PC’s, use the second link HERE (as of the time of writing, THIS is the direct CAB download link – it may change in the future!). This is all linked from HERE, should you want to know where it’s from.
Note that there’s also a first link in the page (Wince boot programs (Recommend)). I couldn’t find out why the UCWEB people recommend it – I’ve found it completely useless. That is, don’t bother downloading / installing it.
After installing, just click the brand new UCWEB icon in Start / Programs and you can start using it. To enter a IRL to go to, just go to Menu / Open / Enter Address.
Note that there is a MIDlet version of the browser too. Its Chinese download page is HERE. I haven’t tested this version as native Pocket PC browsers are inevitably better than their MIDlet counterparts. Not even Opera Mini 4, the best Java-based mini-browser out there (OM4 for short; see review HERE) comes close to the native Opera Mobile or IEM + PIEPlus / MultiIE combo, feature-wise. (The ease of Web browsing, standards compliance, price, bandwidth usage and speed are completely unrelated questions. In them, Opera Mini just rocks – no wonder the latest beta version of OM4 has quickly become my favourite and most commonly used Web browser.)
Also note that I could only find a Pocket PC-specific non-MIDlet, Windows Mobile-compatible version of the browser. There doesn’t seem to be a MS Smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard) version of it – the above CAB file is Pocket PC-only as can also be seen in HERE
Cons
Interestingly, it has problems sending comments to the PPCMag blog (some Chinese error message is displayed). Nevertheless, the comments arrive.
WM5+ softkeys are previous/next only; no real menu access via softkeys
Really-really unreliable traffic: sometimes it just doesn’t load anything (screenshot of the errror message HERE)
It’s still definitely slower than OM4
No visible tabs: to switch between pages, you need to use either the backward/forward buttons (WM5+ softkeys or the 7/9 phonepad / keyboard buttons) or go to Menu / Window / Windows list (three screen taps - quite a lot!)
It’s very unstable: it has crashed on me several times (particularly when tap-and-holding the screen)
It seems disabling Small Screen Rendering in Menu / Settings / System / Small Screen Render results in NOT being able to access the Web any more (it continuously keeps saying it’s in the “Initialize network connection” state and, after a timeout, it displays an error message) – not even if you toggle the checkbox back to enabled state. I’ve confirmed this on two of my Pocket PC’s. That is, NEVER uncheck this checkbox! This is certainly bad news, as the browser defaults to one column mode, which might not be the best solution for all users / pages, particularly not on with (W)VGA devices.
Couldn’t find a Smartphone version
Pros
Bandwidth saving
Unlimited number of windows open (as opposed to, say, NetFront, with its 5-tabs-at-most, really restrictive approach)
Configurable User-Agent
Configurable image quality (OM4 also supports this – with two quality / size settings)
Page transition effects, just like in Opera Mini (fortunately, it can be configured or even switched off entirely; screenshots: 1 2 3)
Widely (both size and style) configurable fonts
Support for true full screen
Hardware keypad support for page scrolling
Pretty good favorites support, including access to IEM favorites (unlike with OM4) and even sorting (the latter is painfully missing from even OM4). Screenshots: 1 2
Verdict
A day, this browser may become a serious alternative to current Windows Mobile browsers. Today, however, it is barely usable, even if you take its price into account. (The also free Opera Mini 4 delivers MUCH snappier web browsing and is a much more reliable browser.)
You may still want to give it a try but, again, don’t expect anything. Given that both the browser and the central server it uses is very unreliable and slow, however, you won’t want to rely on it as your only web browser.
Recommended articles
Windows Mobile / Pocket PC Web Browsing Bible
Windows Mobile / Smartphone Web Browsing Bible
Menneisyys said:
I’ve long been wanting to review the brand new UCWEB browser which, while definitely not as good as Opera Mobile or IEM enhanced with either PIEPlus or MultiIE, can be a good, multi-tabbed, bandwidth-saving alternative to commercial browsers as soon as its bugs are ironed out and page loading speed increased.
(a QVGA Pocket PC screenshot; a WM6 VGA screenshot)
Availability, installing
You’ll need to use the generic WM CAB version. For Pocket PC’s, use the second link HERE (as of the time of writing, THIS is the direct CAB download link – it may change in the future!). This is all linked from HERE, should you want to know where it’s from.
Note that there’s also a first link in the page (Wince boot programs (Recommend)). I couldn’t find out why the UCWEB people recommend it – I’ve found it completely useless. That is, don’t bother downloading / installing it.
After installing, just click the brand new UCWEB icon in Start / Programs and you can start using it. To enter a IRL to go to, just go to Menu / Open / Enter Address.
Note that there is a MIDlet version of the browser too. Its Chinese download page is HERE. I haven’t tested this version as native Pocket PC browsers are inevitably better than their MIDlet counterparts. Not even Opera Mini 4, the best Java-based mini-browser out there (OM4 for short; see review HERE) comes close to the native Opera Mobile or IEM + PIEPlus / MultiIE combo, feature-wise. (The ease of Web browsing, standards compliance, price, bandwidth usage and speed are completely unrelated questions. In them, Opera Mini just rocks – no wonder the latest beta version of OM4 has quickly become my favourite and most commonly used Web browser.)
Also note that I could only find a Pocket PC-specific non-MIDlet, Windows Mobile-compatible version of the browser. There doesn’t seem to be a MS Smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard) version of it – the above CAB file is Pocket PC-only as can also be seen in HERE
Cons
Interestingly, it has problems sending comments to the PPCMag blog (some Chinese error message is displayed). Nevertheless, the comments arrive.
WM5+ softkeys are previous/next only; no real menu access via softkeys
Really-really unreliable traffic: sometimes it just doesn’t load anything (screenshot of the errror message HERE)
It’s still definitely slower than OM4
No visible tabs: to switch between pages, you need to use either the backward/forward buttons (WM5+ softkeys or the 7/9 phonepad / keyboard buttons) or go to Menu / Window / Windows list (three screen taps - quite a lot!)
It’s very unstable: it has crashed on me several times (particularly when tap-and-holding the screen)
It seems disabling Small Screen Rendering in Menu / Settings / System / Small Screen Render results in NOT being able to access the Web any more (it continuously keeps saying it’s in the “Initialize network connection” state and, after a timeout, it displays an error message) – not even if you toggle the checkbox back to enabled state. I’ve confirmed this on two of my Pocket PC’s. That is, NEVER uncheck this checkbox! This is certainly bad news, as the browser defaults to one column mode, which might not be the best solution for all users / pages, particularly not on with (W)VGA devices.
Couldn’t find a Smartphone version
Pros
Bandwidth saving
Unlimited number of windows open (as opposed to, say, NetFront, with its 5-tabs-at-most, really restrictive approach)
Configurable User-Agent
Configurable image quality (OM4 also supports this – with two quality / size settings)
Page transition effects, just like in Opera Mini (fortunately, it can be configured or even switched off entirely; screenshots: 1 2 3)
Widely (both size and style) configurable fonts
Support for true full screen
Hardware keypad support for page scrolling
Pretty good favorites support, including access to IEM favorites (unlike with OM4) and even sorting (the latter is painfully missing from even OM4). Screenshots: 1 2
Verdict
A day, this browser may become a serious alternative to current Windows Mobile browsers. Today, however, it is barely usable, even if you take its price into account. (The also free Opera Mini 4 delivers MUCH snappier web browsing and is a much more reliable browser.)
You may still want to give it a try but, again, don’t expect anything. Given that both the browser and the central server it uses is very unreliable and slow, however, you won’t want to rely on it as your only web browser.
Recommended articles
Windows Mobile / Pocket PC Web Browsing Bible
Windows Mobile / Smartphone Web Browsing Bible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two years in the making but I believe the follow up review is due with this one. The new UCWEB is akin to mini but better in my opinion. Tabbed browsing, low system resources, fast page loads... its pretty sweet.
I would like to read another of your informative reviews to be more specific...
moSess said:
Two years in the making but I believe the follow up review is due with this one. The new UCWEB is akin to mini but better in my opinion. Tabbed browsing, low system resources, fast page loads... its pretty sweet.
I would like to read another of your informative reviews to be more specific...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll surely review it soon - now, I'm posting a follow-up on my BOLT review now that the new version is out.
Thank you for the reply. I will most definitely be looking forward to it. Your insight is always interesting.
moSess said:
Two years in the making but I believe the follow up review is due with this one. The new UCWEB is akin to mini but better in my opinion. Tabbed browsing, low system resources, fast page loads... its pretty sweet.
I would like to read another of your informative reviews to be more specific...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it out after reading this. Seems about as fast as opera mini and with a better interface but with bad page rendering. Especially with frames.
oic0 said:
Tried it out after reading this. Seems about as fast as opera mini and with a better interface but with bad page rendering. Especially with frames.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, in some respects (for example, tabbing, download managers, user-agent settings or copy capabilities), it's way ahead of Opera Mini. Too bad its rendering engine is way inferior.
I'll publish the review in an hour.
OK, review ready: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=3567996
Just get Opera, so that you wont have to worry about "Better" Web Browsers.
Well, I am going to read the review now. As far as rendering goes, the browser has the ability to use zoom as well, which gives full web pages and hence, no rendering. I am sure Menneisyys has picked up on that.
I feel like I tried UCWEB a month after I got my Tilt, which would be last April. Thanks for the review I'll look into it after I finish testing Bolt
edit: haha just realized how old the review was, durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
redbandana said:
I feel like I tried UCWEB a month after I got my Tilt, which would be last April. Thanks for the review I'll look into it after I finish testing Bolt
edit: haha just realized how old the review was, durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup,it is - but my new one is up-to-date - follow the link above
help
how to use download video clips did anybody tried
Use another browser like Opera
A lot has happened in the last month on the Web browser scene. Let’s go over the news!
1. Opera Mobile 8.65 Final released!
Since this March, there have been two beta versions of Opera Mobile, without doubt the BEST, fastest and most standards compliant Web browser for the Windows Mobile platform. Now, almost half a year after the release of the first Beta, the final version has, finally, been released, of which I was also a (closed) betatester, working closely together with the developers and decision makers of Opera.
Compared to the 8.65 betas, which I thoroughly elaborated on in the Web Browsing Bible (and, therefore, in here, I don’t elaborate on these new features – make sure you read my roundup above), there are only few changes. There, on the other hand, have been several bugfixes; for example, the really annoying DEFBROWSER bug I’ve, independent of some other people doing the same, discovered and reported HERE).
Design decisions
Single column layout removed. This is a design decision I don’t really agree with. Particularly if you have a VGA device, you MAY find the lack of the single column mode annoying, particularly with sites / pages that, otherwise, would work much better with a well-working One Column mode. An example: a Wikipedia article in PIE’s One Column mode on a VGA device in Landscape mode (Largest charsize, High Resolution enabled) (the same with Fit to screen – as can be seen, it’s pretty much useless) and the same in Opera Mobile (Minimum font size: 8; Zoom: 100%). As can clearly be seen, One Column modes will ALWAYS be able to present more information. You can, of course, use zoom facilities so that the horizontal screen estate is fully filled in but, then, the character size will also grow and, what is worse, the images will also become pixelizated. (Also see THIS thread for more info / discussion.)
Desktop view, which has been made the default (!) viewing mode, has been made much friendlier. Now, it’s using a bit smaller characters than before. Should you still find them too big, switch to the default (fit to screen) viewing mode because setting Menu / Tools / Settings / Minimum font size to even 8 doesn’t seem to do the trick. Thanks to the, most of the time, excellently working new wrapping functionality, makes it possible to live without having to scroll around. This is shown in the following (VGA Landscape) screenshot with the View menu shown:
{
"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"
}
Now, the cache is stored on the same drive as the executable program itself. While this is what many people have been asked for (particularly with devices only having 64 Mbytes of Flash ROM, meaning only 10-11 Mbytes of it available to the users – for example, the HTC Oxygen / s310 Smartphone is one of them –, you will definitely like this.
Note that, however, this approach might have negative consequences. As has been explained in my Web Browsing Bible, storing the browser cache on a slow-to-create-files-on storage card (most non-high-end cards are like this) may result in the slowdown of the page loading. If this is a concern to you (because you visit pages that contain a LOT of different images, which are all cached), make sure you manually (!) relocate the cache to somewhere else – or, for that matter, completely disable it in Menu / Tools / Settings / History / Cache Size as can be seen in HERE. To relocate it back to the main storage (or even a RAMdisk, if its being completely deleted each reset and the decrease of RAM memory isn’t a problem either because, for example, you use a 128M RAM model), just follow my previous Opera cache relocation tutorial.
Problems I’ve discovered and/or fixed in the meantime
On MS Smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard) phones, when you have really low RAM memory (you’re running out of it), problems may occur with keyboard shortcuts. Namely, no matter what hardware shortcut button you press, the same functionality (in general, Reload and / or Back) will be executed. This can lead to confusion – at first, it caused me a lot of headache too until I’ve understood how this all works.
All in all, if your hardware dialpad buttons don’t do what they’re supposed to do, you may want to shut down (some) other apps and / or Opera Mobile tabs. This will free up some RAM, which will result in the buttons working again.
There’s still no hardware application button support (you can only tie button shortcuts to dialpad / keyboard buttons), but now that I’ve published a FULL tutorial and explanation of all decent Windows Mobile button enhancers, including how you can configure your hardware buttons to simulate the pressing of numeric (dialpad) buttons, this isn’t that big an issue. Just make sure you read the Button Enhancer Bible and do what’s there.
There had been a problem with non-English operating systems because of the wired-in (English) directory names with the initial release. This, along with manually fixing it, has been fixed in the meantime; that is, current builds no longer have this problem.
Verdict
Opera Mobile is and, as it seems, definitely remaining the best browser for both Pocket PC’s and MS Smartphones. While there still are some glitches (the worst of them, the lack for hardware app buttons, having been fixed by me), these problems are nothing compared to the generic sluggishness and/or Web standards incompatibility with (most of) the other browsers. Make sure you get at least the trial version.
2. New (1.0.5) Picsel version released!
There is (see THIS) also a new version of the Picsel Web browser. To get it, download the CAB file here (mirror HERE). You only need to download the CAB file; you do NOT need to install the previous Picsel version first, no matter what is stated HERE
As opposed to some XDA-Dev folks, I haven’t found much improvement. For example, the CSS compliance is still very bad (the result of the Acid2 test is HERE; that of the CSS1 test is HERE). The Ajax compliance isn’t a tad better either (tested with THIS and THIS test suite).
All in all, there isn’t much improvement. You may still want to give it a try if you are a big fan of the GUI. I, myself, would still stick to either Opera Mini or Mobile. Don’t necessarily believe the hype
3. New Spb Pocket Plus
Spb Pocket Plus has always been one of the best Pocket PC (Windows Mobile Pro / Classic) system enhancers. The brand new, just released 4.0 version boasts, in addition to a lot of new functionalities, a, compared to the much less significant changes during the 2.x-3.x version jump, considerable
(screenshot showing the four tabs, all populated, and the drop-down list (now, only having one element) of the invisible tabs in the upper right corner. For comparison: a screenshot of the context menu of the old, 3.x-series version HERE, also showing there haven’t been any new buttons / any tabs in it.)
It has received the following niceties:
screen dragging mode; note that the autoscroll can be a bit of a pain in the back; it’s sometimes the best to disable it
tabs (with a pretty welcome context menu – very few other products have the same, as can also be seen in the “Tab context menu (if any)” row of the chart of the Web Browsing Bible)
adding the ability to switch off / on keyboard dragging in the context menu
a separate quick access button, next to the “Action” button of the address bar; note that “Search” here makes a quick Google search with the text you enter in the address field.
The settings screen has remained similarly simple – as you can see, there isn’t much to choose from. The same stands for Menu / Spb Pocket Plus, which didn’t change either as can be seen in HERE. As far as saving Web pages is concerned, you can still only save them as simple HTML files – no MHT or full HTML page saving is possible. Incidentally, as can also be seen in the last screenshot, the new SPP version has a system-level (not only available when saving pages, but from every app that would, otherwise, use the system-level, default, very dumb file dialog) file dialog box like that of Mad Programmer, whose FileDialogChanger I’ve often recommended. HERE’s a screenshot of the Setup program where you can en or disable it. (note that, as opposed to Mad Programmer’s FileDialogChanger, you can’t define exceptions – there’re no configuration capabilities of the new “File Open/Save Dialog”).
Compare this to the immense setting / menu options of PIEPlus or even MultiIE and you understand why I still recommend either of these for the serious Internet Explorer Mobile user, as opposed to Spb Pocket Plus. Not that SPP would be THAT bad any more.
It also has some bugs, but, knowing how great the Spb folks at bugfixing are, I’m pretty sure they’ll be fixed VERY soon:
clicking the cross in the upper right corner (to close the IE window) doesn’t work if there are more than one tabs open. You MUST manually bring up the Start menu and switch (in cases, re-run so that the execution is switched to it) to the program you want to. Of course, if you use a third-party task switcher (for example, the highly recommended Magic Button, PHM’s Alt-Tab or almost all the hardware app button enhancers reviewed HERE)
the smooth scrolling mode isn’t really doing what it’s supposed to: in Landscape mode, it’s, in general, scrolling more than it should or even scrolls multiple pages. Some people have also reported other problems with it; see for example THIS.
4. New version of jb5
In the MS Smartphone Web Browsing Bible, I’ve elaborated on the brand new web browser jb5, which, back then, only had a Smartphone version. Late August, a brand new, 5.0.79 version has been released for both the Smartphone and, now, the WM5+ Pocket PC’s. While it’s still having problems and I still consider it much inferior to Opera Mobile / Mini, if you need the special features (for example, in-page text search, which, on the Windows Mobile platform, is only supported by the currently unavailable NetFront and the memory hog & on several handheld models super-slow Minimo) jb5 offers, you might want to check it out. I’ll let you know as soon as it receives a really useful and recommended version.
5. Web Viewer for WM5
There is a brand new multitab IEM plug-in, “Web Viewer for WM5”, HERE.
Unfortunately, this title still has a lot of problems and, consequently, I don’t recommend it. As with jb5, I’ll announce when a useful, bug-free version is released. I also recommend the comments HERE.
6. Other stuff
In some of my earlier articles, I’ve already elaborated on two not really recommended newcomers: TeaShark and UCWEB. IMHO, it’s, currently, pretty useless to bother about these browsers. I’ll let you know when a considerably better version is released.
Menneisyys said:
All in all, there isn’t much improvement. You may still want to give it a try if you are a big fan of the GUI. I, myself, would still stick to either Opera Mini or Mobile. Don’t necessarily believe the hype
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it doesn't have any of the cool updated stuff found at the following link?
http://www.picsel.com/flash/uploads/index.html
May not be the best web browser ever, but the pdf and Office viewing is superb. I mean really, was adobe kidding with that awful LE edition?
NS
NotShorty said:
So it doesn't have any of the cool updated stuff found at the following link?
http://www.picsel.com/flash/uploads/index.html
May not be the best web browser ever, but the pdf and Office viewing is superb. I mean really, was adobe kidding with that awful LE edition?
NS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've only compared the Web browsing fcuntionality.
When using Picsel on my phone and the rotate option, it rotates the browser window 90 counter-clockwise. Does anyone know how to change this to 90 clockwise? I ask because I use a P4000/Titan and it rotates the image away from the keyboard.
I've tried some of the registry entries, such as rotatedirection, but they didn't do anything.... or I put the wrong values
Opera Mini, particularly when used under a decent MIDlet manager, has always been one of the best choices for the Web browsing on any current handset. The new beta version of the forthcoming, 4-series Opera Mini, exactly two months after the last beta (see THIS) has just been released, and boasts a lot of goodies.
Getting it is done the same as before: navigate to HERE with either a mobile browser (or a WAP-capable desktop one, if you're ready to transfer the JAR file to your handset in a way explained in the MIDlet Bible), click the link in the middle of the page and it'll be automatically downloaded and deployed. After that, you can start it in the same way as other MIDlets (or, with Symbian, other programs).
1. Most important bugfixes: cookies, fonts
First and foremost, the cookie problems have all been fixed. These, in the previous, version 2 beta, caused a lot of problems under the, otherwise, excellent and most recommended Windows Mobile Esmertec Jbed MIDlet manager, along with a lot of non-Windows Mobile platforms. These problems are all gone – I’ve never encountered any cookie problem with any sites I use under the most common Windows Mobile MIDlet managers (IBM J9, TAO, Esmertec Jbed). The same (no cookie problems at all) stands for the Symbian-based Nokia N95, Nokia’s current “consumer” flagship model.
Second, some of the font problems have also been fixed. For example, beta2 was unable to render bold typeface with “extra large” characters and, in general, there was abolutely no support for different character sizes in, for example, headers. These problems have all been fixed. For example, as far as the bold + largest font size combination is concerned, see THIS screenshot (showing bold works with the largest chars). When it comes to different font sizes (headers etc), with my standard charsize test page, the tests resulted in excellent results (the following three screenshots have all been taken on a QVGA WM2003 HP iPAQ h2210 running the current (6.1.1) version of IBM J9; as can be seen, there’s no font smoothing with the smallest fonts under J9, just like Jblend, and unlike all the other KVM’s): 1 2 3.
Unfortunately, there’s still no italic support. I don’t know why the Opera Mini folks don’t implement the support for these.
2. High-quality picture support added
So far, it wasn’t possible to see the images inside a Web page in their original glory (unless you downloaded them, that is). Now, with the introduction of the “High” quality image mode, images will be fetched and presented at their original size and quality. This is certainly very good news. Some real-world examples of this and its consequences:
QVGA screenshot (IBM J9 6.1.1 running under WM2003) of a 640*480 pic in non-one column mode (original HERE)
VGA screenshot of a graphics-based chart I’ve posted to HERE: HQ (High Quality) mode; MQ mode and LQ mode. Pretty much different, eh? You’ll want to stick to the HQ mode when you really want to read for example image-based charts in my articles.
3. Opera Link support added
This is one of the best and most innovative new features in OM4b3. So far, even the desktop Opera (let alone the mobile versions!) has been pretty much neglected in this regard; now, this has changed. Please read THIS article for a generic overview of all these questions, along with most of the favorite synchronizer solutions released so far.
I’ve found this pretty intuitive and easy-to-use. You only click the “Synchronize Opera…” link on the startpage, fill in your Opera username / password (or, alternatively, quickly sign up for the service – it can be done right from the Opera Mini GUI!) and click / press Login (left softkey). After this, OM4 announces it has successfully synchronized your bookmarks as can be seen in the following screenshot:
{
"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"
}
Also, there’s a decent tutorial HERE explaining all these steps on both the desktop and Opera Mini.
Note that, as opposed to the desktop Opera browsers, it’s only links created in any (!) Opera Mini clients (they’ll show up under the “Opera Mini” folder in desktop browsers) that are loaded / synchronized in a way so that they become available locally, without Opera Mini’s having to connect to the central link service and do. Favorites under “More bookmarks” (favorites added in the desktop Opera will be behind this) will always be accessed online. If you find this too slow (I do), make sure you re-create the given links in the main folder of your Opera Mini. One of the easiest way is mass drag-and-dropping (with keeping Ctrl down if you don’t want to move, just copy them) the favorites in the desktop Opera (Bookmarks / Manage Bookmarks…) into the Opera Mini folder there. After a (forced) synchronization (Manage / Synchronize) , the changes will be seen in Opera Mini too and they will be available locally, not on the Web (and not in the “More bookmarks” folder, which, in addition to the lengthy download, also means a screen tap or navigating there).
I had no problems with my synchronization tests between my two desktop Opera browsers (you’ll need the latest, just-released 9.5 version of Opera for this!) and several Opera Mini clients running under both Windows Mobile (tested under several different MIDlet managers: Esmertec, TAO, IBM) and Symbian.
I’m absolutely sure you’ll LOVE this feature. And, of course, consider switching to Opera on the desktop too, in order to make the synchronization flawless and the easiest. Of course, you can access the online favorite repository with a non-Opera desktop browser too, but only in HTML mode, which also means mass-operations like quickly migrating a lot of favorites into Opera Mini (by just moving / copying them between folders) will be impossible. You’ll need a native, local client (that is, the desktop Opera and its Manage Bookmarks… dialog) to do this.
4. RSS Feeds
Feeds, which have also been added in this version, are pretty easy to control / use, albeit are a bit simple; for example, there’re no auto-download or notification capabilities. Its being integrated to the browser has a VERY nice consequence: whenever you’re on a Web page with an RSS feed, you will promptly be notified of RSS feeds being available. In addition, the RSS feed of these pages is pretty easy – again, thanks to the RSS feed integration to Opera Mini.
Subscribing to feeds is pretty simple in the new Opera Mini 4. When a page contains compatible feed(s), on the page, the type of the feed will be displayed. This is a link, which you can follow. Then, you’re shown the contents of the feed. Here, if you click “Subscribe” (again, a link the top of the page), it will be added to the pool of subscribed feeds. This screen can be easily accessed via the “Feeds” link on the start page (or, by presing * and, then, 0 - a new shortcut). As feeds need to be manually refreshed, you will need to click Refresh to see the changes . After it has downloaded the results, their number will be displayed (in parentheses).
Note that with pages having more than one (compatible) feed (for example, XDA-Developers), after clicking the “Feeds” link at the top, you’re shown the list of the feeds as can be seen in HERE. You can, then, select the one you’d like to see and maybe subscribe to.
5. Additional tips - Tables with inner tables
With tables containing inner tables like the one HERE and HERE - as opposed to charts without inner tables like the one HERE), OM4b3 will, at first, provide a map view without any horizontal scrolling. An example screenshot is HERE, as opposed to the way it renders tables without inner ones (see THIS for an example of the latter). With the latter type of tables, it’s not possible to zoom out to minimap view.
6. Some problems you need to be aware of
6.1 No “Fullscreen mode” shown in Options on Windows Mobile
Under all the major (Esmertec’s products, IBM J9, TAO; note that I do NOT recommend Aplix’ Jblend for Web browsing because of the very strict security model continuously prompting the users for authorization) Windows Mobile MIDlet managers, the “Fullscreen mode” is completely missing in the Settings menu (IBM J9 screenshot). This is visible on the Nokia N95 (screenshot HERE) – even using exactly the same high-quality version of OM. The latter means it’s in runtime that OM decides whether to display this checkbox or not. It seems upon realizing it’s running under Windows Mobile (as opposed to the Symbian case), it just hides the checkbox.
Note that this isn’t that big an issue. If you don’t have hardware numeric keys, Ctl + * and Ctl + * works in all the three on the SIP. With hardware keys, it’s even easier: for example, with the built-in keyboard of the Universal, a simple Fn + 8 will make it work. Also see the MIDlet Bible for more info on these questions.
6.2 Gmail problems on Windows Mobile
As is also reported HERE, under Windows Mobile, if you add the main Gmail homepage (NOT Inbox – that is, after logging in!) as a favorite, upon subsequent browsing attempts, the page won’t be shown as can be seen in this TAO Intent .1036 and this Jbed 2.2 screenshot.
Strangely, it does work under Symbian (tested on Nokia N95).
A quick and always-working hack is NOT putting the Gmail homepage directly in Favorites, but your Inbox (after you've logged in). Then, if you need to switch to another account, you can just sign out (link in the top right corner); then, the log-in (main) page will be displayed OK.
6.3 Still no non-Western fonts in smallest charsize
In order to keep the size of the JAR file down, the developers of Opera Mini have chosen NOT to include any non-Western character in their custom, (in most MIDlet manager) edge-smoothed Small font set. Only a rectangle will be displayed upon encountering characters like this. This is pretty much similar to how Thunderhawk, the famous (IMHO, Opera Mini is far more recommended), albeit, for long not updated Windows Mobile Web browser did: it also uses a custom fontset and it also refuses to render anything non-Western.
This means you MUST use at least the Medium font size on your handset (because it uses the native charset of the device and not that of Opera Mini), should you want to read pages using the non-Western alphabet. This is a problem on Symbian devices (tested on the Nokia N95) because of the HUGE charsize of even the “Medium” fonts. Just compare THIS (small) and THIS (medium) screenshots. The latter indeed uses HUGE fonts, and the additional smoothing (not available under Windows Mobile) doesn’t really help this.
Windows Mobile devices fare far better in this respect (example screenshot HERE of a QVGA MS Smartphone running OM4b3 under Jbed. BTW, as can also be seen, no “Full screen” checkbox is visible here, either.)
6.4 Other user-reported problems (I haven’t encountered them)
Some people reported (see THIS) Mobile view (fit-to-screen; renamed from “Fit to width”) doesn’t work as good as under the OM 3.x series. In my practice, I prefer reading pages in non-Mobile view (because, as with Nokia’s browser on S60 3rd devices, Opera Mini does a GREAT job of showing the actual text without the need for horizontal scrolling); therefore, I can’t really comment on this bug.
Opera Mini 4 beta sometimes uses wrong form in webpage
7. Recommended links
The MIDlet Bible (Cross-posts: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, XDA-Developers - 3, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo, PocketGamer.org, PocketGaming.de)
Beta 2 review
MS Smartphone Web Browsing Bible
Pocket PC Web Browsing Bible
It's a "must" for a feature phone...it's a "meh" for a WM PDA phone.
Croak said:
It's a "must" for a feature phone...it's a "meh" for a WM PDA phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, let's agree to differ
Pretty good
I've never thought much of it before but this is actually okay. It's good to see the whole web page. I think it loads some pages faster than IE.
I can drag scroll (sort-of). Text entry a bit of a pain with the menus etc.
Thanks for letting us know.
Just installed it on my 8525 (it told me I had a HTC 8500 and that it had no java...LOL!) and it works fine. I need to learn some details, but pretty cool in my limited playing with it.
JETninja said:
Just installed it on my 8525 (it told me I had a HTC 8500 and that it had no java...LOL!) and it works fine. I need to learn some details, but pretty cool in my limited playing with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LMAO! Mine did the exact same thing. I just goot figure out some of the functions though, but so far so good.
clearly beats picsel browser and ie. actually, the automatic zoom and auto-align of the text make it much more comfortable to read long pages. and its about ten times faster than (at least my) ie and two than picsel.
also, i always hated the degenerated view of the content while scrolling in picsel. opera has managed that very well.
adjusting font boldness
I am using Opera Mini beta 3 with Esmertec on the Athena which has a large screen and the font is very thin and can be hard to read.
The settings allow font size but not thickness changes. Does anyone know if there is a way (via registry) to alter the font thickness? I know you can on Tao but have not figured out if you can for Esmertec.
Thanks,
apap said:
I am using Opera Mini beta 3 with Esmertec on the Athena which has a large screen and the font is very thin and can be hard to read.
The settings allow font size but not thickness changes. Does anyone know if there is a way (via registry) to alter the font thickness? I know you can on Tao but have not figured out if you can for Esmertec.
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To my knowledge, impossible, except for TAO.
However, as the largest fonts now also support Bold, you can safely use it without losing a lot of additional info (coming from the lack of Bold).
Opera Mini, particularly when used under a decent MIDlet manager, has always been one of the best choices for the Web browsing on any current handset. The new beta version of the forthcoming, 4-series Opera Mini, exactly two months after the last beta (see THIS) has just been released, and boasts a lot of goodies.
Getting it is done the same as before: navigate to HERE with either a mobile browser (or a WAP-capable desktop one, if you're ready to transfer the JAR file to your handset in a way explained in the MIDlet Bible), click the link in the middle of the page and it'll be automatically downloaded and deployed. After that, you can start it in the same way as other MIDlets (or, with Symbian, other programs).
1. Most important bugfixes: cookies, fonts
First and foremost, the cookie problems have all been fixed. These, in the previous, version 2 beta, caused a lot of problems under the, otherwise, excellent and most recommended Windows Mobile Esmertec Jbed MIDlet manager, along with a lot of non-Windows Mobile platforms. These problems are all gone – I’ve never encountered any cookie problem with any sites I use under the most common Windows Mobile MIDlet managers (IBM J9, TAO, Esmertec Jbed). The same (no cookie problems at all) stands for the Symbian-based Nokia N95, Nokia’s current “consumer” flagship model.
Second, some of the font problems have also been fixed. For example, beta2 was unable to render bold typeface with “extra large” characters and, in general, there was abolutely no support for different character sizes in, for example, headers. These problems have all been fixed. For example, as far as the bold + largest font size combination is concerned, see THIS screenshot (showing bold works with the largest chars). When it comes to different font sizes (headers etc), with my standard charsize test page, the tests resulted in excellent results (the following three screenshots have all been taken on a QVGA WM2003 HP iPAQ h2210 running the current (6.1.1) version of IBM J9; as can be seen, there’s no font smoothing with the smallest fonts under J9, just like Jblend, and unlike all the other KVM’s): 1 2 3.
Unfortunately, there’s still no italic support. I don’t know why the Opera Mini folks don’t implement the support for these.
2. High-quality picture support added
So far, it wasn’t possible to see the images inside a Web page in their original glory (unless you downloaded them, that is). Now, with the introduction of the “High” quality image mode, images will be fetched and presented at their original size and quality. This is certainly very good news. Some real-world examples of this and its consequences:
QVGA screenshot (IBM J9 6.1.1 running under WM2003) of a 640*480 pic in non-one column mode (original HERE)
VGA screenshot of a graphics-based chart I’ve posted to HERE: HQ (High Quality) mode; MQ mode and LQ mode. Pretty much different, eh? You’ll want to stick to the HQ mode when you really want to read for example image-based charts in my articles.
3. Opera Link support added
This is one of the best and most innovative new features in OM4b3. So far, even the desktop Opera (let alone the mobile versions!) has been pretty much neglected in this regard; now, this has changed. Please read THIS article for a generic overview of all these questions, along with most of the favorite synchronizer solutions released so far.
I’ve found this pretty intuitive and easy-to-use. You only click the “Synchronize Opera…” link on the startpage, fill in your Opera username / password (or, alternatively, quickly sign up for the service – it can be done right from the Opera Mini GUI!) and click / press Login (left softkey). After this, OM4 announces it has successfully synchronized your bookmarks as can be seen in the following screenshot:
{
"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"
}
Also, there’s a decent tutorial HERE explaining all these steps on both the desktop and Opera Mini.
Note that, as opposed to the desktop Opera browsers, it’s only links created in any (!) Opera Mini clients (they’ll show up under the “Opera Mini” folder in desktop browsers) that are loaded / synchronized in a way so that they become available locally, without Opera Mini’s having to connect to the central link service and do. Favorites under “More bookmarks” (favorites added in the desktop Opera will be behind this) will always be accessed online. If you find this too slow (I do), make sure you re-create the given links in the main folder of your Opera Mini. One of the easiest way is mass drag-and-dropping (with keeping Ctrl down if you don’t want to move, just copy them) the favorites in the desktop Opera (Bookmarks / Manage Bookmarks…) into the Opera Mini folder there. After a (forced) synchronization (Manage / Synchronize) , the changes will be seen in Opera Mini too and they will be available locally, not on the Web (and not in the “More bookmarks” folder, which, in addition to the lengthy download, also means a screen tap or navigating there).
I had no problems with my synchronization tests between my two desktop Opera browsers (you’ll need the latest, just-released 9.5 version of Opera for this!) and several Opera Mini clients running under both Windows Mobile (tested under several different MIDlet managers: Esmertec, TAO, IBM) and Symbian.
I’m absolutely sure you’ll LOVE this feature. And, of course, consider switching to Opera on the desktop too, in order to make the synchronization flawless and the easiest. Of course, you can access the online favorite repository with a non-Opera desktop browser too, but only in HTML mode, which also means mass-operations like quickly migrating a lot of favorites into Opera Mini (by just moving / copying them between folders) will be impossible. You’ll need a native, local client (that is, the desktop Opera and its Manage Bookmarks… dialog) to do this.
4. RSS Feeds
Feeds, which have also been added in this version, are pretty easy to control / use, albeit are a bit simple; for example, there’re no auto-download or notification capabilities. Its being integrated to the browser has a VERY nice consequence: whenever you’re on a Web page with an RSS feed, you will promptly be notified of RSS feeds being available. In addition, the RSS feed of these pages is pretty easy – again, thanks to the RSS feed integration to Opera Mini.
Subscribing to feeds is pretty simple in the new Opera Mini 4. When a page contains compatible feed(s), on the page, the type of the feed will be displayed. This is a link, which you can follow. Then, you’re shown the contents of the feed. Here, if you click “Subscribe” (again, a link the top of the page), it will be added to the pool of subscribed feeds. This screen can be easily accessed via the “Feeds” link on the start page (or, by presing * and, then, 0 - a new shortcut). As feeds need to be manually refreshed, you will need to click Refresh to see the changes . After it has downloaded the results, their number will be displayed (in parentheses).
Note that with pages having more than one (compatible) feed (for example, XDA-Developers), after clicking the “Feeds” link at the top, you’re shown the list of the feeds as can be seen in HERE. You can, then, select the one you’d like to see and maybe subscribe to.
5. Additional tips - Tables with inner tables
With tables containing inner tables like the one HERE and HERE - as opposed to charts without inner tables like the one HERE), OM4b3 will, at first, provide a map view without any horizontal scrolling. An example screenshot is HERE, as opposed to the way it renders tables without inner ones (see THIS for an example of the latter). With the latter type of tables, it’s not possible to zoom out to minimap view.
6. Some problems you need to be aware of
6.1 No “Fullscreen mode” shown in Options on Windows Mobile
Under all the major (Esmertec’s products, IBM J9, TAO; note that I do NOT recommend Aplix’ Jblend for Web browsing because of the very strict security model continuously prompting the users for authorization) Windows Mobile MIDlet managers, the “Fullscreen mode” is completely missing in the Settings menu (IBM J9 screenshot). This is visible on the Nokia N95 (screenshot HERE) – even using exactly the same high-quality version of OM. The latter means it’s in runtime that OM decides whether to display this checkbox or not. It seems upon realizing it’s running under Windows Mobile (as opposed to the Symbian case), it just hides the checkbox.
Note that this isn’t that big an issue. If you don’t have hardware numeric keys, Ctl + * and Ctl + * works in all the three on the SIP. With hardware keys, it’s even easier: for example, with the built-in keyboard of the Universal, a simple Fn + 8 will make it work. Also see the MIDlet Bible for more info on these questions.
6.2 Gmail problems on Windows Mobile
As is also reported HERE, under Windows Mobile, if you add the main Gmail homepage (NOT Inbox – that is, after logging in!) as a favorite, upon subsequent browsing attempts, the page won’t be shown as can be seen in this TAO Intent .1036 and this Jbed 2.2 screenshot.
Strangely, it does work under Symbian (tested on Nokia N95).
A quick and always-working hack is NOT putting the Gmail homepage directly in Favorites, but your Inbox (after you've logged in). Then, if you need to switch to another account, you can just sign out (link in the top right corner); then, the log-in (main) page will be displayed OK.
6.3 Still no non-Western fonts in smallest charsize
In order to keep the size of the JAR file down, the developers of Opera Mini have chosen NOT to include any non-Western character in their custom, (in most MIDlet manager) edge-smoothed Small font set. Only a rectangle will be displayed upon encountering characters like this. This is pretty much similar to how Thunderhawk, the famous (IMHO, Opera Mini is far more recommended), albeit, for long not updated Windows Mobile Web browser did: it also uses a custom fontset and it also refuses to render anything non-Western.
This means you MUST use at least the Medium font size on your handset (because it uses the native charset of the device and not that of Opera Mini), should you want to read pages using the non-Western alphabet. This is a problem on Symbian devices (tested on the Nokia N95) because of the HUGE charsize of even the “Medium” fonts. Just compare THIS (small) and THIS (medium) screenshots. The latter indeed uses HUGE fonts, and the additional smoothing (not available under Windows Mobile) doesn’t really help this.
Windows Mobile devices fare far better in this respect (example screenshot HERE of a QVGA MS Smartphone running OM4b3 under Jbed. BTW, as can also be seen, no “Full screen” checkbox is visible here, either.)
6.4 Other user-reported problems (I haven’t encountered them)
Some people reported (see THIS) Mobile view (fit-to-screen; renamed from “Fit to width”) doesn’t work as good as under the OM 3.x series. In my practice, I prefer reading pages in non-Mobile view (because, as with Nokia’s browser on S60 3rd devices, Opera Mini does a GREAT job of showing the actual text without the need for horizontal scrolling); therefore, I can’t really comment on this bug.
Opera Mini 4 beta sometimes uses wrong form in webpage
7. Recommended links
The MIDlet Bible (Cross-posts: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, XDA-Developers - 3, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo, PocketGamer.org, PocketGaming.de)
Beta 2 review
MS Smartphone Web Browsing Bible
Pocket PC Web Browsing Bible
Does it support connections via proxy server? (Earlier versions of Opera Mini did not.)
me said:
Does it support connections via proxy server? (Earlier versions of Opera Mini did not.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does with Jbed and IBM J9. Read the MIDlet Bible.
Menneisyys said:
Second, some of the font problems have also been fixed. For example, beta2 was unable to render bold typeface with “extra large” characters and, in general, there was abolutely no support for different character sizes in, for example, headers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One correction here. I think that the fonts problems were not related with the Opera client but with the Opera server.
I had no idea about that but I realized that this is probably the case because while I was still using the beta 2 it suddenly started rendering bold fonts on the web pages that didn't render before! The day that this happened, coincided with the beta3 release.
me said:
Does it support connections via proxy server? (Earlier versions of Opera Mini did not.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Menneisyys said:
It does with Jbed and IBM J9. Read the MIDlet Bible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now this is getting interesting in a frustrating kind of way.
Opera Mini v4 betas1,2,3 do support connections through a wap proxy server. The Opera final version does not!
I just installed Opera v4 final and I get a Java exception error that it cannot connect (in Jbed)! I re-installed additionally the Opera v3.1 and connects without a problem. Also the beta3 which fortunatelly I didn't unistall, connects without a problem (together with the rest of the Java midlets I have on my PPC, i.e., Gmail and Mobile GMaps).
Something very strange is going on here, I'll check it out and post to the Opera v4 Final thread.
Also check out my review of the final Opera Mini 4 at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=344095
As yet, I haven’t had the chance to give SkyFire, the latest Web browser a thorough try. Fortunately, I’ve recently got an account and could, at last, test it.
SkyFire is a client/server Web browser for both Windows Mobile platforms: touchscreen-enabled Pocket PC’s (in WM6+ parlance, Windows Mobile Classic and Pro devices) and touchscreen-less MS Smartphones (Windows Mobile Standard). It utilizes image-based transfer, just like the (cancelled) DeepFish and some non-Windows Mobile-based solutions like PocketSurfer 2.
Please note that this is NOT an in-depth review but a comparison to the other browsers out there. It’s immensely more useful for both end users (so that you can decide whether it’s at all worth getting an account or just wait for later versions) and the developers themselves. This also means you’ll want to read my past Web browsing-related articles to understand everything in this article as, at times, I’ll switch to „geek speech”. Start with my W3C presentation and follow the links back to, say, the Web Browsing Bibles. Also, search for „SkyFire” on my blog to find my earlier SkyFire-based posts – I’ve linked to several forum threads discussing the browser. In addition, In addition, I also recommend BrightHand's generic overview of the app - it offers a gentle introduction to SkyFire's capabilities, while, as has already been stated, my article is strictly a comparative, technical "geek speech" review targeted at more experienced Web users.
Note that the tests have been run on the latest 0.6.0.4503 version.
{
"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"
}
A screenshot of the main menu; the Settings menu (as you can see, there aren’t much to set) is shown HERE.
Pros
- It uses the Firefox 2.x engine, which is clearly better than Internet Explorer, even as of version 8. That is, it’s just much more standards-compliant than IE-based client/server mobile browsers like PocketSurfer 2
- It works flawlessly over any kind of Internet connection; not just U.S. mobile phone operators (unlike what the SkyFire folks state – and the popular belief). The latter is only needed for registering for the first time. Fortunately, after moving to another country and even swapping your SIM card / switching to another device (from a, say, CDMA(2000) to a GSM/WCDMA one) , you can go on using your account: for re-activation on another phone, you won’t need to have an active U.S. phone number any more.
- web standard compliance-wise, pretty good, including even Ajax
- high-quality and high-compliance Flash and Java support (strictly in client/server model; sound emulation may not work on some models)
- URL history (as with most other browsers, though)
- Acceptable forward caching of approximately the following page (better than DeepFish used to be or that of PocketSurfer 2)
- The SmartFit mode works pretty OK and intelligently; I haven’t ever run into a situation when it didn’t failed to eliminate the need for horizontal scrolling. In this regard, it should be compared to Opera Mini 4+’s equally advanced text reformatting / reflowing algorithm in non-mobile view, (on non-high-res devices) zoomed in mode.
- In zoomed in mode, the cursor keys can be used for touchscreen-less link selection (and for scrolling in the four directions); in zoomed out mode, you can use it for scrolling the zoom-in window. That is, you don’t necessarily need to use your Pocket PC in two-hand mode – as is, of course, the case with the MS Smartphone (Windows Mobile 6 Standard) client.
- Compared to DeepFish: immensely better and faster. The only advantage of DeepFish was the support for hi-res on hi-res devices.
Cons:
- huge CPU usage when maximized (58% on a 624 MHz Xscale PXA270) independent of page contents (that is, it'll happen even with no Flash / animation taking place). When minimized, no CPU usage.
- no support for multiple tabs (documents), unlike in most comparable browsers. This means you’ll need to always reload a page, should you want to return to it and can’t just switch quickly (back) to other/older pages.
- no hi-res (for example, VGA) support – not only as far as the low-res contents is concerned, but also when rendering input fields; then, its coordinates will be effectively halved on a high-resolution screen. Fortunately, this doesn’t cause much problems with most pages.
- zoomed-out state provides pretty bad resolution / intelligibility (example HERE; incidentally, it also shows a message window showing a „connection lost” dialog)
- if you switch to another program and, then, back (with, say, an overridden app button), there are chances only half the screen will be used. A HTC Universal screenshot is HERE
- much as there’re (non-standard) scrollbars on the right / bottom edge of the screen (example HERE), they can’t be used to quickly position in the docs (the same problem as with Touch Browser)
- no page / link / image saving - of, for that matter, any kind of link / image context menus
- not any kind of copy/paste (however, you can copy / paste from/to text input fields, including the address field)
- can only click / activate links in zoomed-in state – in page view mode, you can’t do this. In this respect, most other browsers with zoom are better; particularly because, here, you also need to wait for the zoomed-in state to be loaded
- while „scroll down”, „scroll up” etc. button events are processed (unlike in some other browsers like Touch Browser), they are strictly mapped to the same functionality as that of the D-pad. This means you can’t quickly scroll up/down a page – you can only use the touchscreen to do that (also see the lack of quick positioning a page)
- no direct access to IEM favorites (favorites are online only)
- no niceties like accelerated scrolling (unlike with NetFront 3.5 or Touch Browser)
- while it does support some shortcut buttons (for example, 6 for SmartFit, 5 for Refresh, 2 for Enter address etc.), these shortcuts are in no way as useful as those of Opera Mini. Again, there are no ways of page scrolling, which would be highly useful.
- No goodies like User-Agent overriding or disabling images / Flash animation / Java applets.
Conformance tests:
(Note that most of these tests – except the ones that need some interaction with the client: for example, file up/download – produce exactly the same results as with the desktop version of Firefox. I, to be on the safe side, re-tested them.)
File download: didn’t download the 7.5M test file in 15 minutes - download has just stalled.
File upload: doesn’t work (the control is shown but it doesn’t work)
Compliance tests:
The new W3C test: not very bad
As you’ll also see, based on this and the User-Agent header, the engine clearly uses Firefox 2.0.0.11. I’ve tested this with the desktop 2.0.0.13 version (3b5 delivers worse results as can be seen in HERE) and got exactly the same results
Incidentally, I’ve also tested the just-released 3.0rc1 of Firefox to see whether it has fixed the compliance issues of the betas. The result is HERE and shows it is definitely better than the 3.0 betas – but not better than the 2.0.0.11+ series.)
Macromedia / Adobe Flash: works; client-server connection, much-much faster than in DeepFish / Thunderhawk animation.
As can be seen, even YouTube works. Sound didn’t work on my HTC Universal; other people at XDA-Developers, on the other hand, reported it working.
Frame tests (see the chart of my Bible for more info):
Maximal number of sub-framesets?: 2.html was the first to work; 1.html still didn’t. Pretty good, though, compared to the other browsers.
Max. number of parallel frames: no restriction, it seems
Frame boundaries aren’t settable; a frame in a (separate) tab / window isn’t viewable either.
Iframe support: works
Dynamic HTML forms / explicit form field disabling: supported
WAP: not supported
Acid2 test: much better than that of IEM
Java Applets: supported. A demo screenshot of the Animator Applet is HERE. Another demo; now, with Live Feedback ImageMap is HERE.
Incidentally, it’s worth noting the JPEG compression effects (blocks), which also show SkyFire uses exactly the same client/server model as Thunderhawk.
Ajax:
The two pages linked from AJAX: Getting Started: works
Google Image Labeler: works
Haven’t tested: caching (it has no caching, as with all the other client/server browsers not using for example separate images like Opera Mini or Thunderhawk). I haven’t tested full page loading speed (with my standard PPCMag test) either as the browser only receives the first about two pages upon loading a page; therefore, it’s impossible to benchmark the loading of the full page.
HTTP Headers: (also see THIS for the why’s of including them in here)
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/2007112718 Firefox/2.0.0.11
Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 300
X-Skyfire-Version: THNWD_xxx.xxx.fixme
X-Skyfire-Screen: 240,320,240,296
X-Skyfire-Phone: Phone with crappy default browser # touchscreen
Via: 1.1 skyadmin.sjc1.skyfire.com:3128 (squid/2.6.STABLE6)
X-Forwarded-For: 10.100.120.119
Cache-Control: max-age=259200
Connection: keep-alive
Verdict
Client/server-based and, as opposed to the text-based Opera Mini and Thunderhawk, image transfer-based clients will always have the same advantages over purely client-based ones; most importantly, having access to a desktop Web browser on the server, with even Java applet support. The same stands for the disadvantages: they will always exhibit the same problems, pretty much independent of the time and effort spent on making them as sophisticated as possible.
Fortunately, SkyFire behaves pretty well in this respect. While it, in my opinion, hardly can be called a decent alternative to Opera Mini or Mobile (it still has a LOT of problems – for example, the unacceptably high idle (!) CPU usage – to fix and, again, the client/server image transfer-based networking model is pretty much restricted), it’s already much better than DeepFish has ever been and it even beats the native Pocket PC version of Thunderhawk in many respects (when it comes to, for example, Flash support). It is also much better than (some of – I can only speak about the ones that I’ve thoroughly tested at, say, MWC) the non-Windows Mobile-based mobile Web browser solutions like PocketSurfer 2.
While, I’m afraid, because of the networking model’s huge restrictions, it will never match „lightweight” browsers like Opera Mini or even Opera Mobile, it’s still nice to see there is some serious development producing even newer Web browsers.
Doesn't support high-res devices? I'm sure the developers said it would :/
I don't rate opera browser. It seems to crash and not render things well at all. Despises flash too. I hope they work out Skyfire for VGA devices.
I'm not sure of what you mean when you say that youtube works without sound, I;ve been using skyfire for quite a while now and youtube and all other flash based video sites work with sound. Other than that, great review!
Sound works for me, too. Video isn't so hot over 3G, and I haven't tried it on wifi yet, but should be really nice when AT&T bumps up the speed of 3G in June (or so the guy on the phone claims).
Does it support the CMWAP way？
thanks 4 the info mate , u r a legend !!!
nphil said:
I'm not sure of what you mean when you say that youtube works without sound, I;ve been using skyfire for quite a while now and youtube and all other flash based video sites work with sound. Other than that, great review!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info; strange it doesn't work on my Universal... will try on my other devices.
mike freegan said:
Doesn't support high-res devices? I'm sure the developers said it would :/
I don't rate opera browser. It seems to crash and not render things well at all. Despises flash too. I hope they work out Skyfire for VGA devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No hi-res on my Universal, just pixel-doubled cr*p. (Using the latest PPC version.)
skyfire issue
I received my invitation to download the software last thursday installed it playe with it for a while the next day tryed opening the program again it wouldnt let me every time I log in it gives me a message saying it lost network conection try again later havent been able tu use it since I wonder what the problem is I have an 8525 WM6 schaps rom I tryed skyfire support but they didnt respond to my message did I get banned? sorry if this is not the best place for this post
edwincito0_1 said:
I received my invitation to download the software last thursday installed it playe with it for a while the next day tryed opening the program again it wouldnt let me every time I log in it gives me a message saying it lost network conection try again later havent been able tu use it since I wonder what the problem is I have an 8525 WM6 schaps rom I tryed skyfire support but they didnt respond to my message did I get banned? sorry if this is not the best place for this post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
disable the at&t proxy (if ur on at&t)
back on topic:
youtube works with sound on my phone....8525
good review tho...
Updated review posted.
edwincito0_1 said:
I received my invitation to download the software last thursday installed it playe with it for a while the next day tryed opening the program again it wouldnt let me every time I log in it gives me a message saying it lost network conection try again later havent been able tu use it since I wonder what the problem is I have an 8525 WM6 schaps rom I tryed skyfire support but they didnt respond to my message did I get banned? sorry if this is not the best place for this post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had this problem also intermittently. I just close it all the way, disconnect, and try again. I have had this happen probably 2-3 times. When it happens I usually have to relaunch the browser a few times and disconnect a few times also.
does anyone else have the issue of not being able to connect to internet with skyfire via wifi?
!Kernel Panic! said:
does anyone else have the issue of not being able to connect to internet with skyfire via wifi?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works fine for me on my wizard. I just switched phones today (HTC TyTn/AT&T 8525) so getting it setup and all still.
The fact that it plays and renders video from any sites automatically make it better than Opera mini or JB5, Monk.
me too
youtube without sound
on any other vdeo webs also
is it bcoz of my phne is not compatible?
im using o2 atom pure running on stock wm5 624mhz overclocked processor.