Database Info

Minimo (FireFox) Browser for WinCE released

:lol: Always wanted Netscape/Mozilla/FireFox/MiniMO on your WinCEPocketPC! :lol:
Mozilla Org released minimo which will be the best browser ever
Tabbed Browsing
Works on Internet Banking site etc etc
Goodbye Opera and PIE
8)
Heres the Link: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/
Regards
Skillie

somebody found America?

It's still *very* early stages. OK, so it renders better than anything else, but the rest of the interface is nasty. It's also hideously slow to respond on both 400Mhz XDA2 and 600Mhz iPaq. And the keyboard doesn't work in landscape mode. TBH a custom soft keyboard would be better.
Wait til 0.7 before you expect any sort of useable version (Current version is 0.013!)
There is a little-known browser called Thunderhawk which renders brilliantly to a 320x240 screen in landscape by scaling everything down. But it's a bit sluggish, and they seem to pass *all* traffic through their own server to perform preprocessing (and thus you need to pay a subscription.) I think Minimo has the potential to blow all of them out of the water if it can be faster than Opera and as impressive in its output as Thunderhawk.

Wait, WM5 only?
*tries it on his 2003SE device anyway*

If you're looking for a tabbed browser try ftxPBrowser. Same engine as PIE, so compatible with most sites. Also it uses the same favorites, cookies & cache. History seems not to be working though. & it's only 75K:!:
Regards, M

Many people don't like the IE rendering engine, or the IE way of rendering (e.g. Opera) which is why they seek alternatives.
Further, the reason it's "only 75k" is because it's not a browser. Whoever wrote it - and PIE - didn't actually write a browser themselves, they just instructed IE to render the page into the area they specified. The tabs just switch between visible IE areas. In short, if you uninstall IE then it won't work. It's like taking a Fiat Cinqecento and putting a Peugeot 407 body on it, then saying it's a whole new car which is very light but looks just as good as something else. If you take the Fiat out, it doesn't go any more.
(Coders out there - I know this is technically very loose, but I'm trying to put this simply for someone who doesn't understand the relevance of MiniMo)

Excuse me for being so dumb... I know what Minimo is about, tried it & opera (mini too) & thunderhawk as well.
Problem is though that PIE is still the most compatible:!:
I use firefox on my PC & probably will be using minimo when it's working properly. But at the moment minimo is almost useless from the user point of view.
Yes you got me P on this.

Minimo is also currently around 10Mb.... bit large methinks. (and bloody slow)

My take on this
Minimo is slow
Opera is fiddly and the download thing is a HUGE prob plus takes up too much space
PIE seems to work fine.
What exactly is up with PIE ? I mean on a desktop Mozilla rules but on a handheld ???

Huge problem with PIE for many people is that it's a M$ product. Personal I don't mind.
Serious problem is that it doesn't render, one column does help a little & there's the lack of tabs. For this last I use ftxPBrowser. Problem with that one is the lack of history & most important downloads are very problematic if not impossible.
Which make me use ftxPBrowser & Opera mini (no https :-( ) for browsing & PIE for downloads.
Now it's waiting for a good rendering, downloading & secured browser.
Cheers, M

Strange thing I know about people disloking MS progs, I know people do not like them, the thing is why are they using devices with MS op system on them when they could be using a Symbian unit.

It's a real problem, huh?
Palm and symbian have some really nice software to run on their devices, I'm especially a fan of the UIQ stuff that SE slaps on top of Symbian. The don't, however, seem to have quite got the knack of cobbling together really good hardware to run it all on.
Of course, the kids who make the really cool hardware seem content to slap Windows Mobile on there and be done with it.
So, in conclusion: come on HTC, go source a proper OS for your handhelds. Maybe have a word with Apple?
Back on-topic: it seems to run on WM2003SE, but not very nicely. It's all juddery and incomplete and frankly kind of rubbish. More evidence, if it was ever needed, that Magician-type devices are not meant for web browsing.

i use one of the beta versions on 2003
it's ok but slow
and it DONT SUPPORT COPY PASTE!!!
which is a biatch

ATEOTD no Firefox/Mozilla is worth using at such early test versions. It's worth keeping an eye on if you're that geeky - but Firefox (back when it was Phoenix then Firebird) wasn't really useable until version 0.7. Consider that minimo is at 0.07 or something - it has a long way to go before it's competing with IE/Opera. I won't put PIE in that list, because it's just not a browser. And Thunderhawk is simply incomparible in its function. I would like to see a browser which renders as well as Thunderhawk but more quickly and without needing to interface with a central server, though.
Minimo's greatest feature so far is that it does actually support JavaScript and AJAX systems like Google Maps, which no other browser can do. But to get the speed out of Thunderhawk, you would probably need to render to a static image. And that negates animated GIFs and any JavaScript that manipulates on-screen elements.

PPC Web Browser

Greetings All,
Since a week i am searching for a web browser which is the best, but cannot find one.
Opera 8.60- its has given me all good response, like having tab in full screen, fast downloading, good look, but it lacked in basic thing like saving page-image etc.
Multi IE 4.0- which also have many good feature but lacked in look, though given me page saving functionality. It doesn't show tab while on full screen for faster navigation.
Picsel browser- is a very good browser which also handles pdf, word, text and other format like that. But it lacked in tab functionality.
Share your views, if you know any good browser do let everybody know.
Thanks.

samy.3660 said:
Opera 8.60- its has given me all good response, like having tab in full screen, fast downloading, good look, but it lacked in basic thing like saving page-image etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please follow my articles & tutorials - I've published a tutorial on exactly this question. http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=879&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Also see http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1302&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 for a more broad explanation of page / image saving if interested.

samy.3660 said:
Greetings All,
Since a week i am searching for a web browser which is the best, but cannot find one.
Opera 8.60- its has given me all good response, like having tab in full screen, fast downloading, good look, but it lacked in basic thing like saving page-image etc.
Multi IE 4.0- which also have many good feature but lacked in look, though given me page saving functionality. It doesn't show tab while on full screen for faster navigation.
Picsel browser- is a very good browser which also handles pdf, word, text and other format like that. But it lacked in tab functionality.
Share your views, if you know any good browser do let everybody know.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's the thing... I don't think you can fine ONE do-it-all browser that you love and is easy on your resources.
If you go by functionality, I think NetFront is the undisputed leader. It's been vodet as the best several times I guess.
Personally, too resourse intensive for my Wizards liking.
I use a combination of Opera 8.60 and PIE coupled with the PIE Plus Enhancement. It (PIE Plus) gives you everything you need and comes with everything that IE lacks. It has a fantastic feature called PWO which if i'm not mistaken, is responsible for reorganising the content of webpages in a manner that makes it most pleasing to view the web from a measly 240x320 resolution device.
Opera is a lil heavy on resources and hence gets my attention ONLY when I need to do internet banking and use website like orkut which don't show me the login box in PIE.

leepriestenator said:
Well that's the thing... I don't think you can fine ONE do-it-all browser that you love and is easy on your resources.
If you go by functionality, I think NetFront is the undisputed leader. It's been vodet as the best several times I guess.
Personally, too resourse intensive for my Wizards liking.
I use a combination of Opera 8.60 and PIE coupled with the PIE Plus Enhancement. It (PIE Plus) gives you everything you need and comes with everything that IE lacks. It has a fantastic feature called PWO which if i'm not mistaken, is responsible for reorganising the content of webpages in a manner that makes it most pleasing to view the web from a measly 240x320 resolution device.
Opera is a lil heavy on resources and hence gets my attention ONLY when I need to do internet banking and use website like orkut which don't show me the login box in PIE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, PIEPlus is pretty cool (also see my reviews - I've posted quite a few reviews of it); however, you may want to switch off its PWO and use the built-in One Column mode of PIE instead to make browsing faster.
As far as NF is concerned, the new, 3.4 version is pretty promising (see my reviews - I've just posted the review of the latest TP of 3.4)

Yes
Greetings All,
Looks as netfront is good, ill check both of them.

WebKit Browser Release for Windows Mobile - Iris Browser

http://torchmobile.com/products/
Some core features include:WebKit Rendering Engine
Our developers have unparalleled expertise with WebKit, the rendering engine that is quickly becoming the de facto standard for cutting edge Web browsing. We built the Iris Browser to bring you everything that WebKit has to offer, including standards-compliance, efficiency, portability and stability.
Customizable Interface
The graphical user interface of the Iris Browser is highly customizable. This means that we can adapt it to your specific requirements.
Touch Screen Control
The Iris Browser is equipped with intuitive touch screen controls, giving you more control than ever over your Web browsing experience without making you navigate complicated menus.
Advanced HTML & CSS Support
We believe in being ahead of the curve. That's why the Iris Browser supports both HTML 4 and HTML 5 (canvass), as well as CSS 2.x and 3.x, allowing you to view cutting edge Web sites with exciting new features.
Languages
Devices are shipped all over the world. Your software shouldn't limit your market. The Iris Browser supports internationalization of the user interface and viewing Web sites with international encodings.
Zoom & Tap Function
The Iris Browser lets you focus on what you want to see. When you view a Web site, you're looking at the full page that is shrunk down to fit the size of your display. Nothing is missing. You can focus on what interests you by tapping on the screen and zooming into specific sections of the page.
Multiple Windows and Tabs
You want your Web browsing experience to be smooth and simple, so we designed the Iris Browser to support multiple windows as well as multiple tabs, allowing you to easily transition between Web pages.
Input Methods
The Iris Browser can handle any input method that's on your platform.
Handwriting recognition. On-screen keyboards. iTap. Auto-complete. No problem!
Software mouse cursor
Not all Web pages are created equal. In fact, some are impossible to navigate without a mouse cursor. The virtual mouse in the Iris Browser lets you chart your own Web experience through all sites, giving you the freedom to take a desktop browsing experience with you on the go.
Special Effects
You want your device to be unique. We do too. The Iris Browser provides a broad range of special effects, including animations and sound effects, letting you to tailor the application to your style. Some of the existing page transitions that you can choose from include slide-in/slide-out, tear away, shatter, swirl, and many more.
Rotating Devices
Now you can get the most out of your hardware. If you're using a device with a rotating screen, the Iris Browser automatically and seamlessly rotates the contents and reformats the page between landscape and portrait modes.
Advanced Security Features
We want your Web experience to be fun and safe. That's why the Iris Browser includes a number of advanced security features, including phishing and spoofing protection.
Pop-Up Blockers

Tested on my XDA Orbit WM6
it's pretty slow and compared to Opera mobile 8.5 the navigation is extremly annoying. (na good grab, where are the gestures?!)

I just tried this and it is 100% unusable on my PPC 6800. The memory usage and performance is horrible. I wish I had something better to say. I had high hopes for this browser. At least it seems to be open source.

I tried this on my PPC 6700 (apache) and it's way too slow for me, also none of the features they advertise works. (at least I can't figure out the zoom in thing they are talking about).

Same comments as the previous two when I tried it on my sprint 6800. Bummer. I don't think we have the program memory to handle this.

It's not that bad - definately a preview release and a promising project.
Zoom works fine, you can drag around the screen okay (a little slow), and the interface is okay,.
the only weird thing is fullscreen leaves the softkey menu bar there, just makes it blank. You have to hit a "ok" hard key to get it back.

They're on the right track, but still a long way to go before it will get any takers...

People ur wrong or u have a low connection, it works great, very fast, amazing, the best browser, opera, skyfire and others sucks, I have a PPC210, I love it.

I've grown to like this browser too, although there is still a feature they could relatively easily upgrade to be more comparable to Mobile Safari, which is to support 8 tabs or more. It currently supports 4, so...
Also, Iris appears to crash after a couple views of Show All tabs.

What was the latest version before they were bought out and stopped sharing the file?
Edit: Nevermind - it was probably 1.1.8

no! it' 1.19

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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

Torch Mobile Iris Browser Beta 1 looking good

Hey guys some of you may remember way back earlier in the year a company called torch mobile launched a preview of their webkit browser called iris, it was a bit crap very buggy no real zoom etc etc most people wrote it off straight away.
Well now they have launched a proper beta and it has to be said its very impressive it has now got page overview zoom, mouse cursor, ability to import bookmarks and lots ofvother really quite kewl features.
It is a little slow to render pages, when compared to opera and is a memory hog but must say im quite liking it. not sure if flash works perhaps the experts in here may get it too work.
Anyhows just google torch mobile and you should be able to find the link to get it.
let me know what you guys think.

stevej26uk said:
let me know what you guys think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I spent the last couple of weeks comparing more or less all the available PPC browsers (IRIS, Opera 9.5 in different flavours, Opera mini, Opera mini with java addons, Netfront 3.5, Jataayu, Minimo, Skyfire and also IE addons such as PIE+, MultiIE, Webby etc.
I tested these on the road as well as at home, on WiFi as well as GPRS.
In the end I chucked them all except IRIS.
It basically has all I need (find in page, tabs, zoom, etc.) and runs very well on my Elf. It doesn't (yet) do inline videos like Skyfire does, but Skyfire is pretty useless otherwise.
Skyfire in many ways reminds me of a Java midlet like Opera Mini with pre-chewed pages. The advantage is that it doesn't cache pages on the PPC (just like Opera Mini). But it scores really low on usability and customisation
IRIS is similar in many ways to Netfront, but is open source and (so far) freeware. I also prefer the way IRIS zooms and has an option to present pages in one colums as defauls (rather than having to hit reflow in Netfront). NF visual bookmarks are pretty but rather useless. IRIS has a similar function for History, where it's much more useful. OTOH NF has loads of functions (including on-the-fly Japanese-to-English translation...) which may or may not be useful to you. And it's better at rendering non-Roman character content, such as Arabic or Hebrew pages than IRIS.
From PIE I only miss the possibility to search for bookmarks by typing the first letter of the bookmark title...
What I´d like to see in IRIS is more support for content, but the architecture with plugins will certainly take care of that. And extended copy and paste to page contents as well as in the address bar, as is currently the case.
Otherwise IRIS is my default browser and will stay that way.
Bernard

bfarkin said:
Well, I spent the last couple of weeks comparing more or less all the available PPC browsers (IRIS, Opera 9.5 in different flavours, Opera mini, Opera mini with java addons, Netfront 3.5, Jataayu, Minimo, Skyfire and also IE addons such as PIE+, MultiIE, Webby etc.
I tested these on the road as well as at home, on WiFi as well as GPRS.
In the end I chucked them all except IRIS.
It basically has all I need (find in page, tabs, zoom, etc.) and runs very well on my Elf. It doesn't (yet) do inline videos like Skyfire does, but Skyfire is pretty useless otherwise.
Skyfire in many ways reminds me of a Java midlet like Opera Mini with pre-chewed pages. The advantage is that it doesn't cache pages on the PPC (just like Opera Mini). But it scores really low on usability and customisation
IRIS is similar in many ways to Netfront, but is open source and (so far) freeware. I also prefer the way IRIS zooms and has an option to present pages in one colums as defauls (rather than having to hit reflow in Netfront). NF visual bookmarks are pretty but rather useless. IRIS has a similar function for History, where it's much more useful. OTOH NF has loads of functions (including on-the-fly Japanese-to-English translation...) which may or may not be useful to you. And it's better at rendering non-Roman character content, such as Arabic or Hebrew pages than IRIS.
From PIE I only miss the possibility to search for bookmarks by typing the first letter of the bookmark title...
What I´d like to see in IRIS is more support for content, but the architecture with plugins will certainly take care of that. And extended copy and paste to page contents as well as in the address bar, as is currently the case.
Otherwise IRIS is my default browser and will stay that way.
Bernard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the detailed comparison, I'll definitely link to it in my next story on Iris

I've had Iris installed since a very early public beta. I really wanted to like it. I love the browser on the iPhone. But Iris is still a memory hog, slow to render, and still crashes here and there.
Also, the overall design/layout if very amateurish. Some of the places they put options just don't make sense. Up until the latest beta, there wasn't even a way to go back to your home page.
Their favorite handling is just plan stupid. I want to scroll up and down to find the webpage I want to go to. What happens? I constantly ACCIDENTALLY move the favorite around instead of scrolling the list (which works sometimes but not consistently). Every version has gotten a little better, but it's nowhere close to a commercially viable product. PocketIE as old as it is renders most pages faster.
As a note, I view Mobile webpages when available and rarely go to desktop intended websites.
-Mc

Menneisyys said:
thanks for the detailed comparison, I'll definitely link to it in my next story on Iris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome, and I apologise for the typos - I did type in IRIS on my Elf virtual keyboard...
Bernard

McHale said:
I've had Iris installed since a very early public beta. I really wanted to like it. I love the browser on the iPhone. But Iris is still a memory hog, slow to render, and still crashes here and there.
Also, the overall design/layout if very amateurish. Some of the places they put options just don't make sense. Up until the latest beta, there wasn't even a way to go back to your home page.
Their favorite handling is just plan stupid. I want to scroll up and down to find the webpage I want to go to. What happens? I constantly ACCIDENTALLY move the favorite around instead of scrolling the list (which works sometimes but not consistently). Every version has gotten a little better, but it's nowhere close to a commercially viable product. PocketIE as old as it is renders most pages faster.
As a note, I view Mobile webpages when available and rarely go to desktop intended websites.
-Mc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting.... I'm very pleased with the performance on the Elf, but I did move the cache to my SD card. I do find that it has improved since I did that. But maybe I'm just imagining things.
I agree about the bookmsrks and the somewhat haphazard menu item placement...
In order to avoid moving bookmarks around I do use the d-pad, but that is not really satisfactory. I also tend to use the URL auto fill-in. I wish you could do the same on the bookmark page, like in PIE.
Bernard

And I just found out that Skyfire does indeed cache pages on the device as well....
B.

I wasn't really impressed with the original couple betas of skyfire and would usually uninstall shortly after install, but now I'm using it more than Opera Mini which I was a big fan of. This page helped me give skyfire another chance:
http://blog.laptopmag.com/mobile-browser-showdown-iphone-3g-vs-opera-mobile-and-skyfire
Check out the performance stats!
Just wish they would incorporate tabs...
Oh yah, my biggest gripe: LET ME IMPORT MY IE FAVORITES!!!
-Mc
p.s. I'm still hoping that Iris gets to be almost as good as Mobile Safari.

McHale said:
Check out the performance stats!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that *is* impressive!
And yes, I also feel handicapped without tabs....
Bernard