Database Info

Opera 8.5 beta 2 is out!

Even the first beta version of Opera was a real relevation for the Pocket PC community. Much as it had several bugs (particularly on pre-Windows Mobile 5 devices), it has quickly become the browser of choice for many Pocket PC users (including me), at least on Windows Mobile 5.
The new version is, speed-wise, clearly the best browser I've ever seen for the Pocket PC. It's much-much faster than the alternatives. You'll certainly love it!
The good
* The WM2003(SE) version seems to be working great: I haven't encountered the infamous Opera-is-stalled bug under pre-WM5 operating system any more. I've tested the new version of Opera with all the test pages (the search facility at http://www.europe.com/en/ - screenshot here; RedHotPawn) that make the previous version stall at once. No problems encountered so far.
This may be related to the fact that now Opera senses some Web servers' not answering – see this and this message.
A iPAQ 2210 screenshot can be seen here and here (the latter taken at 25% zoom level so that the entire chessboard is visible) – as can be seen, as opposed to b1, I could log in and play on my iPAQ 2210 as well.
* It feels much faster than beta1, which is a feat in itself because beta 1 was already much faster than any alternative browser.
* There's tab support! (See the screenshots provided for examples.)
* The bug related to not being able to display loooooong pages is fixed. It worked great with all the pages I've thrown it at; an example screenshot of Tero Lehto's blog is here.
* Much as the new version is still using custom (non-native) GUI components, one of the biggest problems, that is, the text areas hiding the last characters in each row behind the scrollbar, is fixed as can be seen in here.
* The "You have XX days left of your trial period" dialog is no longer displayed at startup.
(There must be tons of other bugfixes, as far as previous beta1 bugs are concerned; these were the ones I've explicitly tested and compared to beta1.)
The bad
* After scrolling a page with any amount (or going to a new page), you will not be able to directly tap-and-hold a link to bring up the context menu (so that you can open the link in a new tab) without the need for at least partially highlight it (or the text that contains it). Fortunately, this is a minor annoyance and you'll quickly learn how to highlight (part) the link without clicking it.
* The new version is still using custom GUI components, which makes it impossible to use any kind of common Windows keyboard shortcuts. This is a mayor annoyance to anybody using an external keyboard to enter a lot of texts and wanting to use the traditional Windows shortcuts to quickly navigate through / highlight / copy/cut/paste text in the text input components.
* On some Pocket PC's (for example, the Pocket Loox 720) the new version still uses non-proportional Courier New fonts in the address bar / in the tab titles. This is a minor annoyance, though.
* Unfortunately, the settings dialogs (screenshot 1 and 2) are as simple as in beta1. The latter, however, now has a new checkbox, " Set Opera as default browser", which makes it unnecessary to manually import a registry file (please see the articles in the Recommended links section for the registry import file I've created for beta1 to revert the default browser assignments) in order to revert back to using Pocket Internet Explorer (if you make Opera the default Web browser on your Pocket PC).
Nevertheless, the lack of detailed settings dialogs are not a problem – with manually editing (or, downloading my sample configuration files) the main configuration files of Opera, you can fine-tune it (scrollbar visibility, proxy usage, scroll behaviour etc).
* Under WM2003, Menu/Display/Landscape still doesn't rotate the viewport. Again, this would be pretty easy to implement because Opera, unlike for example the Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) plug-ins or almost all ( uBook and Mobipocket Reader being the most important exceptions) e-book readers, doesn't need to rely on the Portrait-only, underlying PIE engine. This is a minor problem though and "only" affecting WM2003 users – screen rotation works great in post-WM2003 operating systems.
* Still no advanced context menus (copy link, save image), no in-page searching etc. These are, however, only minor annoyances, which don't have a negative effect on the browsing experience itself.
* Still no " One Column" view mode like that of PIE starting with WM2003SE or the PIE plug-in PIEPlus (see this review on the latest version of latter, including a detailed comparison of the "one column" modes offered by PIE and PIEPlus). This would be very useful to maximize the usage of the available screen estate on many pages; for example, the XDA-Dev forums (example screenshot of Opera 8.5b2 rendering the latter here – as can be seen, the useful contents of the page only occupies about 65-70% of the available horizontal screen estate. With a real "One Column" mode, it'd be close to 100%).
* Still no support for system-level favourites. This would also be really easy to implement as there's nothing particular about the .url files in \Windows\Favorites – they're really-really easy to process. (I'd say a hour's work for an average C++ programmer.)
Verdict
I can only use superlatives when speaking of this application. Despite its (still) missing functionalities, its speed and compatibility is just phenomenal.
Recommended links
The following articles/tips all discuss/are all related to the previous, beta 1 version. Note that some of their contents is now that they are fixed are outdated. They may still be worth checking out - particularly the ones on manually editing the Opera configuration files. You'll find a lot of information in these articles never published by anyone else.
ESSENTIAL (NEW, UNIQUE BUGFIXES!!!) to know about the great Web browser, Opera beta! - I haven't run into the same problem with the new Opera version – yet. This doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't exist any more – therefore, if the address bar auto-completion crashes your Pocket PC with beta2 too, make sure you read this article.
Modify the default scrolling behaviour of Pocket PC Web browsers. Note that even the beta 2 of Opera uses jump-by-link by default (on all operating systems, not just WM5), as far as its D-pad navigation is concerned; you will most probably want to override this and switch to the 'scroll a page at a time' behaviour. Note that the new scroll a page feature (invokable via the Space key) only works on devices with a built-in keyboard; for example, on the HTC Wizard (screenshot of Opera running on my HTC Wizard here).
Opera 8.5 beta on WM5 - it is certainly different from the WM2003(SE) version and is working GREAT!
WM5 compliance report: the bandwidth reduction service OnSpeed works pretty good; additional Toonel information – this article will be useful for everyone that wants to configure his or her Opera to access the Web sites through a HTTP proxy.
Pocket PC version of Famous Web Browser, Opera 8.5 beta Officially Released!

Jataayu - Mobile Web Browser for PPC & Smartphone

Jataayu's endeavour is to make the vision of ubiquitous mobile web access a reality - by enabling its Truly Mobile browser -jB5 with ART® technology - on the widest range of feature phones.
More about jB5
Rich Heritage
jB5 - the truly mobile web browser, has been evolving continuously over the last 6 years and more, right from the time the first WAP browser made its appearance in year 2000. jB5 is architected to extend the excellence of its earlier WAP1x and WAP2 browsers to the HTML world.
Award-Winning Technology
jB5 with its Adaptive Rendering - ART® has evoked tremendous interest in the mobile devices technology marketplace. Within 9 months of its launch, jB5 with ART® has won for Jataayu the ZDNet Asian Top Techno Visionary 2006 award.
Multi-mode adaptation
jB5 provides ART based, very usable, fit-to-display-width rendering which allows page viewing without horizontal scrolling at all. It also provides Natural mode rendering to see screens in a Virtual Desktop view. jB5 also has a Text Only mode which allows some very quick browsing without taking either the time or the bandwidth to download images, when they are not required by the user. ART provides full flexibility to add more rendering modes, as and when, device characteristics make them necessary
What’s special about ART®
ART –or Adaptive Rendering Technology, provides the most usable adaptation of web pages for mobile phones. ART provides the flexibility to select the rendering mechanism best suited for the variety of device capabilities in use today and provides for a continuous enhancement of adaptation algorithms. ART enables a new level of content presentation ultimately making it easier for users to access content and services than before.
Some Useful tools
Bookmark Imports
JB5 provides you the facility to import all your bookmarks/favorites from your Desktop PC using the Import Bookmark feature. This provides desktop users the power of getting all their favorites/bookmarks into their jB5 quickly.
Personalize Wizard
allows you to preserve values entered in form fields for future use. Thus pages containing form fields that need to be filled in frequently like login pages, query pages, etc, can be saved once and accessed without having to re-enter these fields again. Pages stored using Personalize Wizard will take you directly to the resulting page, thus bypassing the initial page where these fields would otherwise have to be entered.
Exclusive features of jB5 for Win Mobile 5.0
Home Screen Favorite
jB5 has a unique feature where you can move some of your really favorite links to the home screen. This creates a separate entry on the home screen with a specific icon if available. Clicking on this link will directly launch jB5 and fetch the page. A maximum of 3 links can be configured on the home screen.
WAP Push
jB5 supports WAP Push messages. Two types of push messages – SI (Service Indication) and SL (Service Loading) are currently supported. The push inbox is integrated with the messaging application as an independent account type. Thus on installation of jB5 you will see a new messaging component called WAP Push among other components such as SMS, Email and MMS in the application.
It is better than the previous version as there have been a few bug fixes and addition of a few good features.
Some of the features included on the Windows Mobile platform are SSL support, exit option, option to attach files, Selectable User Agent to represent jB5 as either a jB5 browser or a Mozilla browser, import bookmarks from Pocket IE, shortcut key to change the display mode and a text only mode.

Played with it a bit. The scrolling is not so hot.
When "pushing" the page around, you can either do horizontal or vertical - not both. That's somewhat annoying once you get used to Picsel (or Opera).
Also, the "Page down" feature of the scroll bar (tapping between the arrow to the thumb handle) does not work - it scrolls a single line only.
The only nice thing I have seen so far is that rendering is pretty darn fast when compared to my other 3 browsers..

It'll be updated to remove the bugs.

Hi mushipkw!
I like the browser - it has now moved to my second favourite browser. Opera mobile 8.65 is still my favourite because:
- tabbed view of open windows makes moving between windows really easy
- use of the "grab" to move the page around with the stylus is a very natural navigation tool. I might get used to the Auto-scroll function at some stage, but at the moment I like using my stylus.
- context sensitive menu. I like to be able to open a link in a new window by holding down the stylus on a link and then having appropriate options. Also, being able to get out of full screen mode via the context menus would also be good.
But I still prefer yours to Picsel, PIE, Minimo, ....
Mike

mushipkw said:
It'll be updated to remove the bugs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great to see it's, at last, updated further. The version I tested for my Smartphone Web Browing Bible ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=323651 ) was still pretty buggy and, back then, it seemed the project was put on a hold.

trying PPC version. Installation works but when I try to run it, I get:
The Device Locale you are using is not supported in this version. Please use English (United States) for running jB5

skrat64 said:
trying PPC version. Installation works but when I try to run it, I get:
The Device Locale you are using is not supported in this version. Please use English (United States) for running jB5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which language are you using now in ur PPC

I am using Czech localized WM6. But I have never seen message like this.. and every other english speaking application is running perfectly. So?

Pretty nice. Tried it for about 2 minutes and every page that has a login screen, after entering my user/pass it wont let me click the "Login" button. Tried it on 3 different web pages and the same result each time.

skrat64 said:
I am using Czech localized WM6. But I have never seen message like this.. and every other english speaking application is running perfectly. So?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe this app wil only work with English.

I made a greek translation of the program. The most have finnised, I will update the file when is ready.
Just unzip and put it in program's folder!

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

Torch Mobile Iris Browser v1.1.3 for Windows Mobile 5/6 (Updated 02/25/09)

There are many surprises waiting inside, including support for the Flash Lite ActiveX control, big performance gains, reduced memory usage, preliminary RSS and SVG support, the highest Acid3 score of any shipping mobile browser, and HTC accelerometer support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source: http://www.torchmobile.com/blog/?p=18
Download Link: http://www.torchmobile.com/download/ (You're only required to provide a name and email address for download)
If you've tried it before, give it another chance as they've been making improvements. I would best describe this browser as what Fennic beta/alpha should have been.
It's based on the WebKit rendering engine (same engine used by Safari and iPhone browsers). It's a later version of WebKit since it gets further in the ACID 3 test (100/100) than the release versions of those browsers, and much further than any other Windows Mobile browser. So it's a good choice for those heavy CSS/Javascript web pages.
For the full feature look here:
http://www.torchmobile.com/products/iris.html
Here's a video of Iris in action on Windows Mobile:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpX5JZWtu-g
Here are my observations:
Pros:
Free
Fairly fast
Very standards compliant (100/100) on Acid 3 tests
Native support for HTC Touch Pro/Diamond accelerometers
Direct, doesn't go through a proxy like Opera Mini or Skyfire (which is good if you're paranoid about security/proxy availability)
Tabs
Can simulate a mouse cursor in "Mouse Cursor" mode
Downloading support, though did silently crash once when trying to download Google Maps cab
Cons:
Can't figure out how to copy/paste text.
No text reflow/reformat on zoom-in like Opera Mini and certain versions of Opera Mobile 9.5
Extremely basic UI, every function has to be accesed through menus which gets kind of clunky
Zooming is clunky, zooming in more than one level/accessing the URL bar requires you to go through the menu system
Getting Flash Content to Display:
(From PPCGeek's member Torx)
Install Juggalo Flash CAB (attached) into main memory (if you don't already have Flash Lite 3.1 installed).
Unzip NPFL3ppc.zip (attached) and copy NPFL3ppcdll into the \Program files\Iris Broswer\plugins folder.
Restart Iris, and Flash content will be replaced with a black box and play button. Press the play button to play the Flash content!
Note: YouTube videos seem to display, but not play, other embedded Flash content works.
Additional Notes
Reports of some HTC Touch Pro (aka Fuze) and Diamond phones freezing. They believe this is due to a driver bug on the phone and they are working on a workaround. Please check their blog for updates.
http://www.torchmobile.com/blog/
Tip: Tap and hold link to go to visit links and give focus to certain form fields (checkboxes/textboxes).
Changelog
v1.1.3 (Updated 02/23/2009) - Touch Pro (Fuze), Diamond Users (maybe) Rejoice! It appears that while this fixes the problem for some users, it doesn’t fix it for all. We’re continuing to search for the problem and will post another update soon.
Other fixes/changes include:
Plugin (like FlashLite) interaction fixes
Animated GIF fixes
Re-activation of an optimization for some JavaScript intensive sites
Many editing bugs are fixed (yes, you can blog with it again!)
All known and reported crashes are fixed
Improved memory management for large images
Minor canvas improvements
Performance improvements, including 12% faster JavaScript
Source: http://www.torchmobile.com/blog/?p=20
v1.1.2 (Updated 02/20/2009) - Contains numerous fixes including one for low-resolution devices, several crashes, text shadow, some potential Touch Pro / Diamond freezes, and problems with some iPhone libraries.
Finally, we’ve done a lot of work to make sure we’re really one of the most compliant, precise, and high-quality rendering mobile browsers. We now score 100/100 on Acid3 with only a couple of minor rendering glitches. Those happen to be related to fonts, where we deliberately cut some corners for better performance. It’s not likely we will eliminate those glitches anytime soon. Iris Browser is also highly compatible with the popular iPhone websites, making it a great alternative for those who prefer other devices. We think the approach we’ve taken strikes a great balance between performance and functionality, and we’re just getting started!
Source: http://www.torchmobile.com/blog/?p=19
v1.1.1 (Updated 02/17/2009) - Fixes some reported problems with the Diamond/Touch Pro (check the comments section of the blog entry above for more information).
Source: http://www.torchmobile.com/blog/?p=18#comment-71

Thanks for the update
I've been using Iris for awhile and I'm very happy with it. I'm eager to see what improvements they've made.

wow, this is really a nice update.
I was using 1.0.6 and though it was nice (using iphone optimized versions ) it was a bit buggy. this new version is a lot better!

Bump for v1.1.2 update, and instructions on how to get flash to work.

Have a look at Zinio with Iris
If you don't know, Zinio.com is a site where you buy and view digital magazine subscriptions. Doesn't usually work with WM. Meh. But . . browse there with Iris, look under Zinio Labs, and tap IPhone. You now can read a bunch of FREE magazines on your phone, zooming and panning at will. I could not believe the selection. I could'nt look at these for free on the PC even, but if they think you have a JeebusPhone, they throw free stuff at you.
Anyway, Ithought it was cool, and hope you will too.
Webkit FTW!

TalynOne said:
Source: http://www.torchmobile.com/blog/?p=18
Install Juggalo Flash CAB (attached) into main memory (if you don't already have Flash Lite 3.1 installed).
Unzip NPFL3ppc.zip (attached) and copy NPFL3ppcdll into the \Program files\Iris Broswer\plugins folder.
Restart Iris, and Flash content will be replaced with a black box and play button. Press the play button to play the Flash content!
Note: YouTube videos seem to display, but not play, other embedded Flash content works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where are these attached flash cabs?

v1.1.3 released
v 1.1.3 is now released.
Source: http://www.torchmobile.com/blog/?p=20
Fixes include:
* Plugin (like FlashLite) interaction fixes
* Animated GIF fixes
* Re-activation of an optimization for some JavaScript intensive sites
* Many editing bugs are fixed (yes, you can blog with it again!)
* All known and reported crashes are fixed
* Improved memory management for large images
* Minor canvas improvements
* Performance improvements, including 12% faster JavaScript
And some fixes for Touch Pro/Diamond users.
Seems like there's still some bugs there, but it's improving with every release. At least it's quite usable these days.

Thanks willl, OP updated.

TalynOne said:
Thanks willl, OP updated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool! I've also linked to your thread from my latest Web browsing article (see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=485315 )

They've just posted a new "Under The Hood" post on their blog for anyone who's interested.
They posted some interesting benchmark results using SunSpider:
* Access NetFront 3.5 2388.7s
* Opera Mobile 9.5 (built-in) 219.0s
* Pocket IE (built-in) Unable to complete
* Iris Browser 1.1.2 115.0s
That said, benchmarks run by vendors sources should always be taken with a grain of salt!

Tried out iris and liked it overall. As mentioned above, the lack of text reflow is unfortunate. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is I found it difficult to click on links. Either I'm doing something wrong, or you have to press and hold for a second to click a link. If you just tap the screen quickly, as I normally do in all other browsers, it doesn't register with iris. This must have something to do with how the browser differentiates between scrolling and clicking?
In any case, I plan to keep it installed, as it's nice to be able to flawlessly access the iphone versions of sites like facebook and gmail. However, for most of my browsing, I'd rather use opera mobile, or even better, opera mini. I like speed!
-Ben

You are right. To activate a link you have to kind of press and hold for a moment. This does not bother me too much but the problem of no proper text reflow is what is preventing to make this my daily use browser. If this is sorted out I am sure this will be my primary browser.
Regards

Well, with a non-touch screen phone you have no such problems
Joking aside, they've released another new version (1.1.4).
Which includes the following changes/fixes:
* Fixes for zoom scale
* Performance improvements in various areas
* Fixes for some EUC-JP encoded sites, other encoding fixes
* JavaScript fixes for some sites
* Rendering artifacts fixed on some dynamic sites like Google Reader iPhone edition
* All reported crashes fixed (potentially also the HTC Touch Pro/Diamond freezes some users still see)
* Minor improvements to the key configuration for Smartphone Edition
* Some additional registry keys to disable or override behavior, including backlight keep-awake, animations
* Check box to disable automatic zoom to fit
* WebFonts, resulting in “pixel perfect” Acid3 rendering
Also, if you have bug reports, send them an email with reproducible steps - feedback-wm [at] torchmobile.com (replace [at] with @).

Thanks for the info
Just updated.
Initial impressions: Big improvement in page loading speed, and in response to screen taps.
Nice update

great application! thks for info, 4 updating...

v1.1.5 Update now available
Almost seems like, another day another update! At least you know they are actively developing the app. I think it's actually quite usable as is, but improvements of minor bugs/quirks is always nice.
This time it's another minor bug fixes/performance improvements.
From their blog:
Iris Browser 1.1.5 for Windows Mobile was released today. As with all 1.1.x releases, this release is focused on bug fixes and performance enhancement. Some highlights include:
* Noticeably faster scrolling
* Up to 25% improvement in page load time
* Improvements to text input
* Rendering and layout improvements
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To update your version of the browser select the Page menu > Options > Preferences
Then click on the last button that says "Check for update". It'll then check for the latest updates and if a new version is found will update you to the newest version.
The OP probably needs to be updated again

Wow, new updates are happening quite fast now.
It's up to v1.1.6 now.
# Performance improvements
* Some pages load up to 25% faster
* Scrolling performance improved
* Painting speed improved
# History fixes
# New registry flag to control the minimum and maximum zoom levels - use at your own risk!
# Zoom scheme changes based on user requests and bug reports
# Some site specific fixes
# EUC-KR support improvements
# Some hidden features
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To me, at this stage the browser is quite usable/stable for most of my needs. But unsure if it'll ever be my "default" browser. I still use PIE for a few things here and there, as well as Opera Mini.

The latest version of this software (as of apr 1st) is awesome!
-mark

They really have to work on at least two things: Text flowing and easier zooming.
The way Opera 9.5 does zooming makes sense to me.. Double-tap and it zooms a bit, if you double tap-hold it seems to zoom in farther. If you double-tap when zoomed in, it zooms out. Plus there is the zoom tool on the screen, and some versions you can use the volume wheel to adjust zoom.
Zooming on Iris is painful. For me it seems like the only zooms that are useful are 50% and 100%. 50% is easy to scroll around and find stuff, but not interact or read it, and 100% is too large. Hopefully they'll sort this sort of thing out soon.
Otherwise, it seems to scroll pretty well, haven't noticed it "bounce around" like Opera does (scrolling down a page, suddenly it ZOOMS off some random direction) but the font rendering at <100% is pretty poor. Seems I can read the unzoomed text in Opera and not have to zoom in quite as far.
Launching links works fine for me, although I think they need to document how to do it somewhere. IS there documentation anywhere? In Opera I all-too-often accidentally re-zoom rather than open a link, Iris it seems to be very consistent.
So there are rough edges, but generally it works pretty decent. I haven't used it extensively yet, just looked at the rendering of a few of my own websites and such. I'll give it a 'real world' test sometime on this forum and some other complex websites.
Oh, built-in updating is nice too. Skyfire is a pain to update, although honestly I like Skyfire less and less so it's not really a big deal. I'll still probably use PIE as my default as it launches instantly and it works as a general purpose browser. But I have a mortscript which opens the current PIE URL in Opera, I'll have to update it for Iris now.

with adobe lite 3.1, youtube works.
video a bit choppier than my E71 (symbian s60), but still works, and audio is smooooth... this is on my treo pro, wm 6.1
THANKS!!

Bolt web browser

Bitstream releases BOLT 1.5 - the most reliable, stable and fastest browser in market
We are proud to announce that we’re officially dropping the beta tag with today’s release of BOLT 1.5. New features include viewing videos of any length, a dedicated search bar, a download manager that downloads files directly from BOLT, improved navigation and text rendering, and caching support. Version 1.5 includes a host of new features designed to improve usability and stability, including:
Server upgrades (make v1.5 more than 15% faster than Beta3)
Cache support that enables directly browsing back to a previously visited page
Download manager that downloads files directly within BOLT on JSR 75 capable devices
Dedicated search bar, enabling search on popular search engines directly from BOLT
Enhanced column width control that auto-aligns the text to columns for ease of reading
Enhanced video support that includes inline media playing capability even on low-end devices
Enhanced copy-paste support for BlackBerry devices
Support for streaming videos of any length
Volume UP/DOWN controls in the inline media player
Ability to rearrange the subscribed feeds using the 'grab' feature
Access to History links from the URL window with inline editing OFF
One click access on Home Page that ensures the cursor jumps to the desired widget
Download:
Code:
http://boltbrowser.com/aindex

this appears to be a java browser? am i correct?
is there a windows mobile cab somewhere?

Bolt has always been a Java browser, that's why I don't use it. It feels too limited for me.

I have made a bundled for local install. However, the notify still connects, but it should minimize the download. Full Cert version (dual signed) attached. Unzip, run the jad using your Java (JBED/JBlend). It should use the local bolt.jar file.
Java or not Java, I've been enjoying Opera Mini a lot, and been beta testing BOLT (not so good that time). I'll test again now that they have much richer options (including disable picture/image, which is important to me)

Does anyone know how to get the youtube flash content working in bolt? When I click on the selected video it ask to "Open URL"? And when I click yes it says, "Opera Invoke error". Any Ideas? Do I possibly need another program or something to get this to work.

it suck
i can't play video every time i click on play it loading to 100%then again show me to click plsy button then again circle goes on....why?HTC P3400

Youtube does't play too.

where's the back button?

UPDATE!!!
Updated BOLT 1.7
Extract, run the bolts2local.jad file that will pickup the local jar instead of going to the net.
Enjoy ..

BOLT 2.0 Beta
BOLT 2.0 Beta features include: socket transport protocol, copy-paste operations, favorites/feeds organization, inline editing, find in page feature, download manager, password manager and up to 3XL magnification.
Really fast on my Artemis WM 6.5.5 using Cloudyfa Esmertec Jbed. Excellent for reading and replying to xda-forum.
Can anyone suggest a suitable MIDlet manager that works from SD card and handles passwords?
Cheers
Tom
P.S. See added attached thumbnail of post being written in BoltBrowser:

with no flash this is just another browser frankly .

Bolt 2.1
Bolt 2.1 now available
http://boltbrowser.com/
"BOLT is a full featured mobile Web browser that supports widgets, direct Twitter and Facebook integration, streaming videos, RSS feeds, social media sites, Google Maps".
Can someone write a widget for xda-developers please?
Cheers
Tom

help!
Anyone help me, connection problem it can't connect using WIFI. I have O2 XDA Zinc other browser was able to connect via WIFI only Bolt that can't connect..

has anyone tried bolt 2.3? http://boltbrowser.com/dnld.html

mr8820 said:
has anyone tried bolt 2.3? http://boltbrowser.com/dnld.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes - Boltbrowser automatically updates to 2.3 which introduced a dowload site to help them make some money. Now that Skyfire has abandoned WM I use Bolt more along with Opera mini.
Every browser has advantages and disadvantages. I like the RSS feeds and large fonts.
Cheers, Tom

bolt browser
'opera invoke error' keep getting this from all video link on bolt browser 2.3