Database Users

Emulation of iPhone Browser? Why not?

This question always crossed my mind, how come nobody has emulated the iPhone web browser? I've tried IE, Opera, and the mobile Firefox but they're all junk compared to the mobile Safari - mainly because of the finger movements that make it super easy to navigate. This is really the only advantage other than GUI "swiftness" the iPhone has.
Please discuss, and if your response is "why dunt u buy an itele lolz", you totally missed the point.

you have to try picsel browser, some ppl say its better than safari,
and about opera, if you tried opera mobile you have the wrong version because opera mini is the one you want to have. It is not very finger friendly but it is very fast and also very good to use with d-pad
cheers

well i only use opera mobile mini is not really my cop of tea

Look at skyfire.com. It's not out yet, but seems promising!
jv

Anyone know if skyfire is a proxy? or is it just a different engine? WebDAV?

johnnyv5 said:
Look at skyfire.com. It's not out yet, but seems promising!
jv
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does, nice demo.

Thanks, SkyFire looks very nice! I'm using Opera atm because it's the only half-decent browser I've found - however the zoom features suck because it can't render text correctly and you can't browse as swiftly compared to Safari. However SkyFire is very interesting, I'll be looking into this further.
Cheers

Saw in the Hermes thread that the WM6.1 PIE has an option that allows you to view the entire webpage then tap to zoom in on a certain portion of it. Sound familiar?

Wonder whatever happened to M$ deepfish browser? I wasn't one of the lucky ones who got on the beta test list. And I don't see anything new posted on the project website.

Is there any way to fool PIE into telling a site that it is an iPhone??
I know it's possible to get PIE to broadcast that it is a desktop, so why not an iPhone??

gregoryx said:
Anyone know if skyfire is a proxy? or is it just a different engine? WebDAV?
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Click to collapse
Yes, it is proxy-based . However, it is the best browser Ive seen for a mobile device to-date. They have a video on YouTube & it looks very promising. Definitely better than Safari because it not only supports AJAX, but full FLASH 8 & 9 as well. If you access ESPN.com, you can actually see the video's of the highlights to the right of the page just like you would on a regular desktop.

gregoryx said:
Anyone know if skyfire is a proxy? or is it just a different engine? WebDAV?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it is proxy-based . However, it is the best browser Ive seen for a mobile device to-date. They have a video on YouTube & it looks very promising. Definitely better than Safari because it not only supports AJAX, but full FLASH 8 & 9 as well. If you access ESPN.com, you can actually see the video's of the highlights to the right of the page just like you would on a regular desktop. Full sound & everything! Ive just been waiting for them to send my invitation since I signed up 2wks ago.

Well... Opera Mobile 9.5 will be released in a week or so. It's much better than Safari

Pisel would be just as good as safari - correction, better - if it supported flash. My only two gripes with picsel is the inability to view flash, and not being able to set it as my default browser. Its fast, the nearly-limitless zooming beats the pants off of anything available now or in near future. If I'm not planning to edit them, i open my text files with it too. :thumbsup:

Before we get Opera 9.5, the top two browsers in terms of speed are Netfront 3.5 followed by Opera Mini 4.
Netfront is way better than Picsel browser. Picsel is slooooww. It also have memory full problem, on top of other bugs.
I hve done some bencemark between all these browser in the Athena forum, if you're interested.

i been playing around with netfront... and im very impressed... its prob the fastest browser per load time... and its browsing is very nice allowing finger movements... also double tap on screen to zoom out of the page
which in turn opens up a window and allows u to use a nav box to scroll along the bigger portions of the page... i highly recommend for people to try it out ....
Edit: Netfront also has full ajax2.0 support

Best Browser?

Hi,
what you guys this is the best web browser for HTC Touch?
I think the Picsel Browser is very good.
Pls. tell us your best browser.
Thanks!

I've been using Opera.

I think opera mini right now but I think skynet or opera mobile 9 soon will be in the coming months. Both promising full browsing and skynet will be free

I think you mean skyfire browser.

Can some one tell me the difference between:
Picsel and Opera?

alpha_omega said:
I think opera mini right now but I think skynet or opera mobile 9 soon will be in the coming months. Both promising full browsing and skynet will be free
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, no Skynet browser please. We turn over control of our web browsing to them and before you know it they'll be self aware and launching our nukes against us. Judgment day. Then they'll activate Arnold to come back in time and kill you, because you are the future leader of mankind.

Ahhh, which browser
I actually like all of them IE, Opera, NetFront...
I have found that depending on the particular website, one will work better than the other. IE works just fine for a lot of websites and has the best compatibility. Opera is great for certain websites that IE just can't display properly. NetFront works best on (poorly written) websites that have too many damn frames and cutsie html features that only impress the person who made the website. The beauty is you can install and use more than one browser to make sure you get into the websites you need. (iPhone can't do that...) I, btw, need to link into my work with Citrix and the Touch is the only phone I know that can do it. I am the envy of my colleagues at work!
I will look for this Skyfire...?
DJ

Skyfire looks amazing if it ever gets released.
You can also check out the video here

deegimus said:
I actually like all of them IE, Opera, NetFront...
I have found that depending on the particular website, one will work better than the other. IE works just fine for a lot of websites and has the best compatibility. Opera is great for certain websites that IE just can't display properly. NetFront works best on (poorly written) websites that have too many damn frames and cutsie html features that only impress the person who made the website. The beauty is you can install and use more than one browser to make sure you get into the websites you need. (iPhone can't do that...) I, btw, need to link into my work with Citrix and the Touch is the only phone I know that can do it. I am the envy of my colleagues at work!
I will look for this Skyfire...?
DJ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can you place opera in your cube since its launched through java?

josuech said:
How can you place opera in your cube since its launched through java?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Creating shortcuts to Java apps

How do I get Opera to view full pages on my HTC Touch? I want to see pages like I see them on my computer.

ozab said:
How do I get Opera to view full pages on my HTC Touch? I want to see pages like I see them on my computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't understand exactly what you mean. Opera Mini shows pages in standard view by default.

I dont see the FULL page when I type any URL. Pls. help.

josuech said:
How can you place opera in your cube since its launched through java?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't say I launched it through the Cube, but as you see, there is a way to do it. Does anyone have a copy of the Skyfire Beta?
DJ

deegimus said:
I didn't say I launched it through the Cube, but as you see, there is a way to do it. Does anyone have a copy of the Skyfire Beta?
DJ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I signed up for the beta but nothing yet.
Have you checked out the video preview of Opera Mobile 9.5. It looks great and the notes says it supports flash, unfortunately they didn't demo that in the video.

EliteXen said:
I signed up for the beta but nothing yet.
Have you checked out the video preview of Opera Mobile 9.5. It looks great and the notes says it supports flash, unfortunately they didn't demo that in the video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes! Awesome! It's a great new world we live in! Every week something pops up that raises the bar. The hard part is waiting! HA!
Incidentally, I just loaded No2Chem's WM6.1clean ROM and IE seems to do everything better and faster.
DJ

iris web browser must try!

its easily faster than opera... runs pretty smooth and i actually enjoy the small scrolling screen they got from the netfront browser as well.
http://torchmobile.com/

boinger66 said:
its easily faster than opera... runs pretty smooth and i actually enjoy the small scrolling screen they got from the netfront browser as well.
http://torchmobile.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its faster over wifi but I don't think it's as quick over gprs.
Its definitely getting better each release though.
I still use netfronts' simple browsing for things like forums, nothing is a quick as that one..

fards said:
its faster over wifi but I don't think it's as quick over gprs.
Its definitely getting better each release though.
I still use netfronts' simple browsing for things like forums, nothing is a quick as that one..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
UCWEB6 flies! It's basic html only though. I use it for very basic functions like really quick google searches, spelling corrections, eBay etc.

Tried it a long time ago and didn't like it...

Its page displaying seems to be slower than opera

spr33 said:
UCWEB6 flies! It's basic html only though. I use it for very basic functions like really quick google searches, spelling corrections, eBay etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its a java proxybrowser though isn't it? I'm not very keen on those..

orelsi said:
Tried it a long time ago and didn't like it...
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Click to collapse
Try again, they update quite often. I use it sometimes since it can display anything. It has perfect javascript functionality.
I use Opera Mini for common browsing, but when I find a page it has troubles with, Opera Mobile usually has problems too.
Still Opera Mobile is best adapted to screen size and touch controls. Give me Opera Mobile with compatibility of Iris and I will be happy.

Dr.Sid said:
Try again, they update quite often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just did. I still don't like it . It feels uncomfortable to work with, and has much less options than the Opera. I keep it installed though, along with other browsers, in case my Opera brakes down hehe.

right now, Iris is only great for Iphone optimized sites... for everything else, Opera is the way to go.

fards said:
its a java proxybrowser though isn't it? I'm not very keen on those..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think you should give ucweb a try. its tiny and it does not require JAVA and its much more funtional than opera mini
its a really good secondary (when on EDGE or 3G) efficient browser.
good 4-min video review http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=7232

It is a very good browser, and a fast one. It definitely renders HTML better than Opera Mobile 9.5. It works very good with X1.
My only concern is that when I double tap a page, the zoom is not to 100%, but less. I mean the image I see after a double tap is smaller than if I choose zoom to 100%. Anyone having the same issue?

I use Iris for few months and must say - it's getting better and better. Still it's not a perfect browser - but show me one that is. I'm waiting for update which can allow to watch youtube movies directly from pages like www.pocketnow.com etc. Now for those pages I use Skyfire.

Does it have embedded Flash support, like on desktop browser? Any news on such upcoming feature?

http://www.torchmobile.com/products/faq/
How do I make YouTube work?
YouTube's standard desktop version requires Flash 9 or above. This is not available for Windows Mobile. If you leave the browser in Mobile Mode (Page->View->Mobile Mode in the menu), you can visit YouTube and will be redirected to the mobile edition. If you happen to have the FlashLite 3 ActiveX control installed, Iris Browser will automatically use it and videos should work.

For youtube.com I use Zenyee application. More usefull would be possibility of playing implanted movies on sites. This is possible for now with Skyfire and Mach5 I suppose.

Latest SkyFire any good ???

Anybody have any experience with latest ver of Skyfire browser in HD2 yet?
How does it compare to Opera?

1.5? used it for a bit.
its generally good.
lags a bit when trying to navigate though.

I use it for Flash only, like for watching Freeview on TVCatchup or, everynow and then, YouTube.
I think the quality of the webpages produced is poor, it's like they are hazey, not clear and crisp like Opera is, however I like the main page which has a Skyfire home page and a bookmark and history page.
I have 4 browers installed on my HD2, two versions of Opera, 9.7 and the new Opera 10 beta, Skyfire and Internet Explorer, and I use them in that order. 99% of my web browsing is done on Opera 9.7, you can't beat it.

SAman1 said:
Anybody have any experience with latest ver of Skyfire browser in HD2 yet?
How does it compare to Opera?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For general browsing it's rather sluggish. In particular, every time to cklick a checkbox or radio-button it has to do a round-trip to the server, so filling in a survey is a nightmare. But it scores highly for compatibility - just about any page is rendered correctly, much more often than is the case for Opera. It also handles Flash and Silverlight very nicely.

Kalavere said:
I use it for Flash only, like for watching Freeview on TVCatchup or, everynow and then, YouTube.
I think the quality of the webpages produced is poor, it's like they are hazey, not clear and crisp like Opera is, however I like the main page which has a Skyfire home page and a bookmark and history page.
I have 4 browers installed on my HD2, two versions of Opera, 9.7 and the new Opera 10 beta, Skyfire and Internet Explorer, and I use them in that order. 99% of my web browsing is done on Opera 9.7, you can't beat it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can you watch Freeview on the HD2?

steveianson said:
How can you watch Freeview on the HD2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
www.tvcatchup.com
pretty good quality too!

Thanks for your responses guys. I read about it on another site where people were raving about how much faster the latest version made their internet experience and how the user interface had been improved, so i figured maybe it's a good alternative to Opera, but judging from the general consensus here I think I'll just give it pass. Especially since I don't really have a problem with the pre-installed ver of Opera.

you could always try it out yourself...

would be good to get a HD2 specific version, i think the bad text/page rendering has something to do with the massive resolution of the HD2. Some pages I have problems getting the keyboard out, any tips?
Sucks that Adobe said they were going to support flash for 6.5x then changed their mind for WM7

lepszy said:
you could always try it out yourself...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I took your advice and did just that. It sucks! Poor resolution and very slow, no match for Opera.
BTW How do I check what version of Opera I have?

paulking said:
www.tvcatchup.com
pretty good quality too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that's the one.

SAman1 said:
I took your advice and did just that. It sucks! Poor resolution and very slow, no match for Opera.
BTW How do I check what version of Opera I have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
open opera >menu>help>about>version on the top

SkyFire is no doubt a good browser. It has full flash support, and is meant to be the fastest web browser for WinMo! However, it is laggy when it comes to navigation ie scrolling up and down the website, and once certain Opera tweaks are applied (and Wifi N enabled) NOTHING beats it! Especially Opera 9.7. The downside of Opera is that it has lack of Flash support
But it's 100% smooth, and in my opinion a much more User-friendly and a lot more suitable for casual, usual day-to-day web browsing

skyfire is my default browser on my HD2, thoroughly recommend it.
it doesn't have and pinch to zoom function but the double tap works perfectly also it is the only browser with FULL flash 10 desktop support, pages look amazing.
only other nag is that there is no multiply tab support.

azahoth said:
open opera >menu>help>about>version on the top
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already tried that, but help brings up a page with 2 icons to choose from either desktop or mobile. Selecting mobile takes me to a page to select my phone and language, but HTC is not even listed ???
I'm using OS ver 5.2.21869, Official Rom 1.66.707.1 (76641) WWE 01/12/2010.
Thanks,

YauMannn said:
skyfire is my default browser on my HD2, thoroughly recommend it.
it doesn't have and pinch to zoom function but the double tap works perfectly also it is the only browser with FULL flash 10 desktop support, pages look amazing.
only other nag is that there is no multiply tab support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Si it lacks gestures & no multiple tabs. ....but, how do you get the pages to look good? I Agree Opera beats it in every respect including the failings already mentioned.

Kalavere said:
Yep, that's the one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't sign up to it because it seems to be for the UK only, does anyone know such a site for the rest of the world (or the Netherlands)?

opera mobile 10 - final and FREE :)

www.opera.com
why it is so quiet in here about it?? this browser simply rox, even flash works. (tried youtube and few others)
after some trial I gave it, stock opera went to mobile heaven (deleted opera9 folder in windows, rest of the files seem to be in rom) and this is my main browser now. works great on hd2 - who needs skyfire anymore??
joy.

bronx said:
www.opera.com
why it is so quiet in here about it?? this browser simply rox, even flash works. (tried youtube and few others)
after some trial I gave it, stock opera went to mobile heaven (deleted opera9 folder in windows, rest of the files seem to be in rom) and this is my main browser now. works great on hd2 - who needs skyfire anymore??
joy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many thanks for the heads up mate, will download now
Will also link this thread over in the Themes and Apps section

yeah its cool....but theres still no pinch to zoom built in as there was in 9.7.

Thank you!
I will download it as soon as I get home. It is indeed the final version, they have a press release about it.
Anybody here that could already tell me if it supports:
landscape
multi-touch
flash (what version, I amuse it is not 10.1, and does it finally work well?)

landscape - yes
multitouch - no (I am not sure if it's needed anymore, touch recognition seems to be working MUCH better, hence two levels of zoom should be enough)
flash - YES, dunno what version though... youtube works w/o any probs, so do flash ads, so I guess it's ok for a mobile device )

PaulyDuk said:
Many thanks for the heads up mate, will download now
Will also link this thread over in the Themes and Apps section
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no worries mate. I just though it's a big news, so that's why I posted in here. other thing is, that this app is not hd2 specific, so...

put it on, don't know if I prefer it to Opera Mini I was using before...
EDIT: Rubbish compared to Opera Mini - taken off

bronx said:
landscape - yes
multitouch - no (I am not sure if it's needed anymore, touch recognition seems to be working MUCH better, hence two levels of zoom should be enough)
flash - YES, dunno what version though... youtube works w/o any probs, so do flash ads, so I guess it's ok for a mobile device )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, sounds good. Might be the first time I replace my default browser

I really like it having used the betas but really missing multi-touch tbh. I've gone back to 9.7 for the moment.

So you can try this new opera next to the stock opera without problems?

I adopted Opera 10 beta after I "got used to it". I loved pinch-to-zoom in 9.7 and was convinced that I'd never get into 10 because of that, but I love the zoom-in and zoom-out that Opera 10 does. I do, however, HATE the way that they've solved the text reflow issue by having a setting for the zoom ratio, and just flowing blocks of text to that size. It's a pretty lame way to get round a genuine issue. Anyway, I'm still gonna big-up Opera 10 because it's just fast and smooth, especially when you change the user agent so that you stop getting annoying mobile sites.
Opera 10 FTW

What I don't like about it, though, is the display of pictures. Opera Mini shows things as they should be - doesn't zoom in as much. Now it could just be the settings it's used as default but Opera Mini seems to run quicker IMO

johncmolyneux said:
I adopted Opera 10 beta after I "got used to it". I loved pinch-to-zoom in 9.7 and was convinced that I'd never get into 10 because of that, but I love the zoom-in and zoom-out that Opera 10 does. I do, however, HATE the way that they've solved the text reflow issue by having a setting for the zoom ratio, and just flowing blocks of text to that size. It's a pretty lame way to get round a genuine issue. Anyway, I'm still gonna big-up Opera 10 because it's just fast and smooth, especially when you change the user agent so that you stop getting annoying mobile sites.
Opera 10 FTW
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what do you mean by that mate..?

donwhann said:
what do you mean by that mate..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go into Opera and set the address to opera:config to open the preferences editor. Scroll down to "User Agent", open it up and change the value to 2. Then click save and restart Opera.
I'm not gonna guarantee that 100% of sites will now be desktop versions, but all the ones I've seen so far have been, that were previously dummed-down mobile versions. (iGoogle in particular!)
Lol - sod's law! I just found one that still renders as a mobile site. Grrrrr!

prefer mobile sites personally - screen is too small to show sites in normal mode (this site in particular)

EddyOS said:
prefer mobile sites personally - screen is too small to show sites in normal mode (this site in particular)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With other browsers I'd tend to agree, but with this version of Opera I have to disagree. I know I *****ed about the text reflow, but it does make pages a lot more readable, and works very well with a text-heavy site like this.

are You serious??? I always browse this forum and all the other sites in normal mode. in landscape I usualy zoom only to click a proper link, other then that I have no problems.

johncmolyneux said:
Go into Opera and set the address to opera:config to open the preferences editor. Scroll down to "User Agent", open it up and change the value to 2. Then click save and restart Opera.
I'm not gonna guarantee that 100% of sites will now be desktop versions, but all the ones I've seen so far have been, that were previously dummed-down mobile versions. (iGoogle in particular!)
Lol - sod's law! I just found one that still renders as a mobile site. Grrrrr!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol,typical.....ill try your settings though,cheers.

It's very nice IMHO but the "visual bookmarks" in Sense (orig. 1.66GER Stock ROM) dont's work anymore. The image stays blank. Anybody knows a workaround?

Cendaryn said:
It's very nice IMHO but the "visual bookmarks" in Sense (orig. 1.66GER Stock ROM) dont's work anymore. The image stays blank. Anybody knows a workaround?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This prompted me to get rid of the internet tab and put Opera on my home tab as a quicklink. Not a solution, of course, but an alternative. With the start page in Opera 10, you don't need the bookmarks on the internet tab.