Database Info

Safari Browser for Windows Mobile: Iris Browser

Torch Mobile has released a new version of their Webkit based browser for Windows mobile.
The Iris browser:
http://msmobiles.com/news.php/7556.html
What are you thoughts of this so far? It's still beta I believe.

I like it. It has a added bonus, all sites made for Iphone now loads the iphone page instead of the normal mobile or standard site.
It's also faster then opera and pocket IE, and it supports keyboard shortcuts (more then you can say about Opera) if you have a keyboard that is.

Im a little confused, why would you want to load the ipony version? Surley they are scaled down to the much lower res of the ipony?
Does it support tap zoom-in/out and scrolling like Opera? What about flash where its on a normal website? And Java?

Monty Burns said:
Im a little confused, why would you want to load the ipony version? Surley they are scaled down to the much lower res of the ipony?
Does it support tap zoom-in/out and scrolling like Opera? What about flash where its on a normal website? And Java?
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you act like having more options is a bad thing.

crazy talk said:
you act like having more options is a bad thing.
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Click to collapse
its not bad, its just pointless if it renders lower res and doesn't support the normal finger gestures (of which I honestly don't know, does it?).

I like this browser. A lot. I wish they'd work out some of the bugs though. On SP, you can enable the virtual mouse cursor (which is great!) but the hotkeys you can assign, for instance to zoom in and out don't work which is a pain.

jeonatl3 said:
I like this browser. A lot. I wish they'd work out some of the bugs though. On SP, you can enable the virtual mouse cursor (which is great!) but the hotkeys you can assign, for instance to zoom in and out don't work which is a pain.
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Can you tell us if it supports finger browsing/swiping/gestures please?

I couldn't tell you as I only have a Smartphone! sorry.

It swipes and zooms like opera. It's a bit like the 6.5 version of PIE. It has a very nice graphical history. You can import PIE favorites, and it reads PIE cookies, which is very nice. It's on the slow side, though.

Thanks Ted, so Opera is still really the daddy then.

The iphone sites are often better then the "normal" mobile versions, for instance Iphone facebook is better then "mobile" facebook, also services like dropbox only has mobile pages for ihpone. Sure you can use the "desktop" version but that just make ajax/javascript heavy pages crash your browser.
Opera also dont work AT ALL on certain pages, all i get is a error, the same page with portable IE or IRIS works perfectly.
Also i dont like the proxy rendering browsers like opera mini or skyfire, I dont want to log on to passworded sites useing that - God knows who can snoop your personal info that way.
Sure, iris still need more work done in terms of usability (esp. on touchscreens) but still renders pages way faster then opera, webkit is realy a good renderer for portable units.

Internet Browser

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.
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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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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!

sky fire 1.0

it is available to download the version 1.0 of sky fire
IMO is much much better than the previus ones... any way i'm still waiting for the opera 9.7
thins is the info taht the sf team said
What’s new in 1.0?
•Thumbnail interaction. Now you can click on links immediately after the page loads without having to zoom in. This enhancement is especially helpful for high resolution phones, and for familiar sites where you know right away where you want to click. It makes getting to the content you want on the page simpler, quicker and more efficient.
•Improved zoom. Double-tap or double-click to zoom over any element, including links, images or videos. The zoom interaction is smoother and more responsive as well. Best of all: when you zoom in you will get readable text instantly.
•Enhanced navigation. When you navigate back or forward, you return to the last viewport (e.g. zoom level and portion of the page). This eliminates the need to pan and zoom into the section you were viewing on the previous page. Skyfire remembers the viewport even when you select a page from your history. We have also added shortcut keys, (9) for forward and (7) for backward navigation.
•Improved page handling. Enhancements have been made especially for AJAX-intensive sites such as Facebook and Gmail. When larger parts of the page get updated, the client will more quickly and accurately reflect this. In addition, now, we support full-width iFrames in Skyfire.
•Fast start. We changed both the sequence and behavior of the Skyfire launch so you get started as quickly as possible. You can type a search or URL in the Superbar while Skyfire is connecting in the background. You can put Skyfire to work before the start page is even loaded. Plus, we’ve improved connection performance.
•Reconnect to last state. When you leave Skyfire in the background Skyfire disconnects to preserve battery life. When you come back to Skyfire (after minutes, hours, days), it will reload the same page to the same zoom level and focus. You can continue right where you left off. When you exit and start again, Skyfire you will always land on the start page.
•Connection helper. There is a new mechanism to detect when connections cannot be established to Skyfire servers. If this is due to a network configuration (common in GSM land), then we provide suggestions to help out. This is especially useful if you are with a carrier/data plan that places restrictions on certain APN configurations, which interferes with Skyfire.
•Enhanced search results. Google results now include video, news articles, local results all blended on a single results page and ordered by relevance. Vertical search categories are still available.
•Improved RSS feed search. Find your favorite custom RSS feeds through the improved Add-Feed feature, found under the Customize menu on the start page. Search by site domain, feed URL, or even topical keywords.
•Easier sharing of RSS items from start page. We’ve exposed a simple “Share this article” link below each RSS story displayed on your start page to make it easier to share interesting items to your Twitter and Facebook.
•Remember last connection (Symbian only). Skyfire can now remember the last connection for you, so you will not have to choose a connection every single time. In addition, if you want to change the connection type while you are in Skyfire you can do so.
)

Thanks for the tip!

Just downloaded to my Alltel Touch Pro, thanks for the update! I visited the official home page of Skyfire, and they aren't making any waves on their site or even making clear note of this huge release? Anyway, can't wait to see if it's better than previous beta versions! I am still waiting for Fennec!!!

It's really nice but only problem is it takes up more memory then the previous versions.

segadc said:
It's really nice but only problem is it takes up more memory then the previous versions.
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Oh boy... now my Skyfire wont play any videos on hulu or elsewhere, yet the browser works everywhere else. I have an HTC Touch Pro, I did a hard reset and still no luck... any ideas?

skyfire 1.0 same old same old
try mach 5 browser real vga resolution for people with touch pro
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=67780
that's how skyfire 1.0 should have been

ATT-Half said:
skyfire 1.0 same old same old
try mach 5 browser real vga resolution for people with touch pro
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=67780
that's how skyfire 1.0 should have been
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Mach-5? Never heard of it, did it come out in a stable version before Skyfire? Does it support flash video? I wonder what the issue is with my HTC Touch Pro no longer being able to play flash video on Hulu through Skyfire anymore with version 1.0, even though the internet works fine???

Bizzump...
Excited about Opera Mobile coming out with Flash support...
Once Opera Mobile and Fennec are (both) released, won't they dominate everything else entirely? (As in, no need for Skyfire or anything else)

+ 1 for opera mobile even in actual version 9.5 with no flash!
And with the upcomming 9.7 will be the best browser!

orb3000 said:
+ 1 for opera mobile even in actual version 9.5 with no flash!
And with the upcomming 9.7 will be the best browser!
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Makes me drool the prospect of this version coming out if even the out dated Opera that was baked into my HTC Touch Pro from the factory is LIGHT YEARS ahead of anything else is sheer usability!
Is there any loose time frame on this release of 9.7 with Flash, or is it all speculation at this point???

ATT-Half said:
skyfire 1.0 same old same old
try mach 5 browser real vga resolution for people with touch pro
http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=67780
that's how skyfire 1.0 should have been
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Click to collapse
Ahhhh, drats!
I don't know if it was something I did, or maybe it was the wrong download link... but from the company home page that developed Mach5, I downloaded the appropriate VGA .cab to my Touch Pro, and although it seemed to work flawlessly, somehow what I had downloaded was a "trial" and worse of all, it was almost all in Japanese!?!?
I couldn't even access streaming video over at Hulu due to the "Hulu only streams content within the United States." HUH? Maybe I missed something...
Has anyone else had this problem?
1. Mach5 looked VERY GOOD (much better than Skyfire, which I ONLY USE exclusively for hulu) but... IS IT STILL FREE?
2. Is Mach5 available for download that will not trip up websites thinking it is an overseas phone or browser program?

Native Opera Mini version released and is just great!

While (as of today, a month after it being demoed at MWC for the press) there still isn’t any sign of the native iPhone version of one of the best Web browsers, Opera Mini, in the AppStore, the Opera folks don’t seem to have stopped with porting their browser into other platforms. In addition to the iPhone, there’s also a brand new Windows Mobile version released just two days after my publishing my previous news report on Windows Mobile browsers. (Please see the quick review of the Java version HERE)
Downloading, installing
Download it from HERE. The installer is WM5+ only and runs just fine on the iPAQ 210 (without the SMS / Phone DLL hacks.)
Pros / cons compared to the Java version
Pros:
- Visibly faster than the Java version
- Direct text copy to the system clipboard – no need to temporarily copy the selected and, then, copied text to any native text input area, as opposed to the Java version
- For a newbie, much easier to install than the Java version. (Although, with the latter, the custom third-party distributions with a pre-bundled Jbed JVM work just fine and are very beginner-friendly.)
Cons:
- The initial Opera Link synchronization throws an exception; however, it synchronized my mobile bookmarks just OK.
- There is no custom “smallest” character size – only three of them are available. They, however, are large enough on (W)VGA devices.
- While, as a native app, it could be invoked via an extension / type association (see my earlier articles / tutorials on this), by default, Opera Mini doesn’t allow the user to explicitly set up this, unlike, say, Opera Mobile. (I don’t know if the app indeed supports being invoked together with the link – haven’t had the time to test this in the Registry. Hopefully it is.)
Note that it, just like the Java version, doesn’t support italic characters either. It has, as with the Java version, has huge, easy-to-tap-with-finger drop-down lists – unlike, for example, NetFront 4.0. (Of course, they aren’t as nice as those on the iPhone, though.)
The native version uses the system-level keyboard, not the custom one of Opera Mini. This may be disadvantageous for people wanting to have a finger-only keyboard but refusing to install a third-party, large one. Nevertheless, I don’t list this as a disadvantage as, on Windows Mobile, it has always been preferable to have a system-level keyboard than a custom one - with all the niceties (seamless auto-completion, all keys etc.) By the way, with the address input field, the traditional keyboard shortcuts for quick text highlight (Ctl-A) / copy / paste don’t work. This could be fixed in a future version – as has also been done with Opera Mobile, back in 2006.
Memory usage
HERE (the official thread dedicated to the app) some people reported much better memory usage than with the Java version. I’ve pretty thoroughly tested this with my standard test pages (see THIS and THIS; more info on the test method in my past Web browser testing-related articles). Both versions were able to load several instances of these pages. (I’ve tested this to 19 with the native version and to some 6 with the Java one. The native version takes up about 520 kbytes of memory for each loaded test page, which is about one-tenth of the figure of other Web browsers.) Unlike on the BlackBerry, where 4.0 has a tendency to quickly run out of memory and, therefore, can’t really keep many pages in-memory at the same time – at least on the BB 8800 with the latest – official – firmware version.

Backspace Problem
when i hit the backspace key while entering text, it erases everything. I wrote a long email reply and when I hit backspace lost the whole thing. Seems like a pretty serious bug. Same thing apparently happened with an early blackberry version, but they fixed it. Any work-around?

I am extremely happy that Opera decided to make Mini native (I always thought Opera Mini was the best mobile browser available), but I will wait for Opera Mini 5 to leave beta before trying it.

I wonder why you guys like the new Opera mini? It's less usable than Opera mobile 10, because it's scrolling isn't much smooth (at least on my Touch HD). And Opera mobile 10 is less usable than Opera mobile 9.7, because of less settings, no option to change default page, ugly tabs, ugly animations wasting my time, no precise vertical scrolling (I mean when I scroll down, the page moves a bit to right/left) and no instant access to my taskbar (remember 9.7 where you tap the bottom-right icon to switch from fullscreen and you instantly see adress bar AND the taskbar? not anymore here). And I could continue, Opera mobile 10 and Opera mini 5 = useless crap. Opera mobile 9.7 = best mobile browser.
EDIT: Tell me, guys, what makes you use Opera mini 5/mobile 10? I just don't find anything positive on it and I'd like to know what makes it the best browser.

ZaxXx said:
I wonder why you guys like the new Opera mini? It's less usable than Opera mobile 10, because it's scrolling isn't much smooth (at least on my Touch HD). And Opera mobile 10 is less usable than Opera mobile 9.7, because of less settings, no option to change default page, ugly tabs, ugly animations wasting my time, no precise vertical scrolling (I mean when I scroll down, the page moves a bit to right/left) and no instant access to my taskbar (remember 9.7 where you tap the bottom-right icon to switch from fullscreen and you instantly see adress bar AND the taskbar? not anymore here). And I could continue, Opera mobile 10 and Opera mini 5 = useless crap. Opera mobile 9.7 = best mobile browser.
EDIT: Tell me, guys, what makes you use Opera mini 5/mobile 10? I just don't find anything positive on it and I'd like to know what makes it the best browser.
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I imagine many will have the same reason it's so much faster than Opera Mobile "any version"
For me even with the not so great scrolling it's so much faster to load the page i need... Has the fast dial so very page i need again very fast to choose..
Many of us also have limited data so that'll be another reason.

stylez said:
I imagine many will have the same reason it's so much faster than Opera Mobile "any version"
For me even with the not so great scrolling it's so much faster to load the page i need... Has the fast dial so very page i need again very fast to choose..
Many of us also have limited data so that'll be another reason.
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Would agree with Stylez on this....I use it for the speed

Using Opera Mini 5 Beta 2 on WM6 and loving it! Skyfire is now uninstalled
How do I make it my default browser? My RSS readers keep opening up IE.

What Browser Do You Use?

Severely spoiled by Chrome, my transition back to IE on my 900 has been has been a tad bit bumpy.
If I may, fellow members? What browser do you use?

I'd say the only decent alternative to IE is using UC Browser. It is a bit more functional than IE, but still using the same rendering engine. I actually like UC a touch more than IE.

UC browser would be the closest alternative. but it crashes when attempting to load large pages, and it doesn't flush out all the histories of pages stored. you can go on hitting back non stop just to end the application. Kind of annoying at times.

What's UC browser?
What is that UC browser? Do you mean that Chinese-user-interface-only app that is in the marketplace? I could not find anything else with that name for WP7.
On the UC Web site they explain their technology, and if I understand correctly the UC browser does not work with the IE engine, i.e. is much more than a simple shell around IE (of which are quite a few available, I think), namely a render engine running on servers and a displaying client on the smartphone, much in the style of Opera Mini.

Interesting. I'll give it a try.