Database Users

Netfront 3.5 tech preview out

http://www.access-company.com/products/netfrontmobile/browser/35_wm_tp.html
been trying it out for a few minutes on x51v -- it's pretty darn fast! It loads up Engadget in its entirety in around 10 seconds and is fully surfable after that.

I've goten it too and set it to my default browser. I defineatly like it but it is a memory hog. The only problem about this is if I leave it open in the background it errors saying not enough free memory.
Other than that it loads up in about 3 seconds on my titan andloads most big sites in about 10-15 seconds.
One issue is that sometimes while scrolling it seems the page has to refresh and keep up.

i am really liking this tech preview. i installed it last night and it's really zippy, although one time i got an error saying that it did not support javascript (even though it does elsewhere).
other than that one instance, everything works perfectly, and it renders web pages really quickly with the "Full Browsing" mode. (don't bother with Rapid-Render, it's actually slower than "Full Browsing"). also, for anyone that's used 3.4 tech preview, this 3.5 beta has working visual bookmarks, meaning it makes the thumbnail based on the part of the page you're viewing. it's great
My "Browser View" settings are (in order):
Full Browsing
Normal
75%
640x640
Medium
and with those settings, it is just flying.
A couple questions:
1) Does anyone know how to get the "External Tools" to work? I added .flv to work with TCPMP, and i went to YtPocket.com to test it out, but nothing happen. ytpocket sends flv format to TCPMP, so I don't know what happened. any ideas?
2) What is the difference between "Full Browsing" mode and "Simple Browsing" mode? they both render the pages as we would see on the desktop, and i can't see much speed difference.

this blows skyfire out of the water. i keep getting the memory error.

I tested netfront 3.5 for a few hours. It seems to me that it is faster than opera mini. However, I am waiting for opera mobile 9.5. I heard it will a lot better than skyfire and netfront 3.5

They finally come up with an update after all these years! (alright, well months...) and obviously, it still doesn't do it.
sounds like a lot of WM browsers around here. PIEPlus has been stuck at 2.2 for as long as I've been using WM, but I'm waiting to see what Opera's next attempt will be like.

rzanology said:
this blows skyfire out of the water. i keep getting the memory error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You keep getting the memory error with which program? And could you give us more of an in-depth comparison since you've tried both?

For me it seem to take forever to download a website.
Like cnn.com take a good 3-6 minutes to download when using IE take less a minute.
But once downloaded it scroll the page very fast but I do notice if I use my finger to scroll the page around it keep opening up my battery status setting apps.
I was no where near the battery icon which does that when you touch it.
Bill

its decent, it doesnt support youtube or any other video site... in addition to that, there isnt a dedicated back button lol, which is crucial. ill wait for opera... itll own all the other web browsers, bar none.

Hehe
i wil keep ma fingers crossed and jus wait for the new Opera 9

well...skyfire feel too unpolished. even though its fast...its just not ready yet. there is no mobile few. im a fan of mobile few...meaning...i like the browerser to org everything in on coloumn so there is no need for scrolling to the right or left. how ever.....netfront does a good job of the zooming out and zooming in. so i can live with that. its also faster than skyfire. but i still find myself needed to launch up opera mini....for my myspace and facebook needs...as well as general browsing like gizmodo.com and engadget....opermini offers the best experence. but netfront really isn't bad. im looking foward to trying the new opera...as i didnt really care for 8.5 or 8.6 what ever it is.

Guys, Some questions.
I have never had the need to install 3rd party web browser.. due to the fact that I think the more apps you install, the slower your device will be... so, I always keep my apps to minimum...
Now, is skyfire/opera much faster than PIE? (how much faster?)
What makes you guys think that it is necessary to install 3rd party apps?
What makes you guys "hate" the default PIE?

joseph.sapri said:
Guys, Some questions.
I have never had the need to install 3rd party web browser.. due to the fact that I think the more apps you install, the slower your device will be... so, I always keep my apps to minimum...
Now, is skyfire/opera much faster than PIE? (how much faster?)
What makes you guys think that it is necessary to install 3rd party apps?
What makes you guys "hate" the default PIE?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even though pocket ie has gotton better...it just isnt up to snuff. you should really try opera mini...you're in for a treat.
um...the more you install on your phone doesnt really make it slower. but it is good practice to keep your 3rd party app to a minimum....to the device atlease. i install everything to the storage card.

TechBill said:
For me it seem to take forever to download a website.
Like cnn.com take a good 3-6 minutes to download when using IE take less a minute.
But once downloaded it scroll the page very fast but I do notice if I use my finger to scroll the page around it keep opening up my battery status setting apps.
I was no where near the battery icon which does that when you touch it.
Bill
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It takes me a good 3-6 minutes to load up CNN as well, in fact most sites PIE opens up faster. :/

I just timed cnn.com opening and it only took 44 secs on AT&T 3G connection. In fact, Im replying while on Net Front right now. So far Im really liking this browser, besides the fact that it burns through my battery with incredible speed.

I've been playing with this browser a lot over the weekend, and so I'm here to post sort of an explanation of it.
1) MEMORY HOG, wow that is my biggest issue. In Task Managers, it's only using up about 1.4 mb of RAM, but seriously, if i just open the browser (not even opening a webpage), then go to PointUI, every single animation is slowed down. That's just an example, but everywhere else, the device is slowed. Well, except for the browser itself.
2)I figured out the little differences between the Browser View Settings.
Browsing Mode
Full Browsing: Desktop Mode. As you see the site on your Desktop. My favorite by far.
Text Browsing: All Text. Pretty Straightforward.
Simple Browsing: Basically all text, except for some small images. For example, loading up the "Development and Hacking" here on Xda loads as all text, no formatting, but shows the little thread ratings stars, the little paperclip, the little thumbtack, etc.
Rapid-Render: Pretty annoying, from my tests anyway. Loads up the page as all text, then goes back and loads all the formatting so it ends up as a Desktop View. Seems good in theory (get the speed benefit of "Text Browsing", and you still have the option to wait for the full formatting of "Full Browsing"). HOWEVER, your reading is always interrupted because the screen refreshes itself and goes blank when it goes from Text to Full. I tested, and it takes the same amount of time to get to full formatting of a webpage whether you use Rapid-Render or Full Browsing, so I prefer to avoid that screen refresh.
Display Mode
Normal: Normal. Duh.
Just-Fit: Shoves everything into one screen, messing up all formatting.
Smart-Fit: Resizes web page tables and stuff to fit on the screen. Better than Just-Fit.
Zoom - It's obvious. Kinda annoying how NetFront reloads the page when you change zoom levels, though. I leave mine at 75%.
Virtual Canvas - Changes the screen size. Think of it like the size of your desktop monitor. Best setting for me is 640x640, because anything bigger shows tons of blank spaces on web pages (since NetFront auto resizes text to fit in one screen), and the "Disable" option doesn't allow you to double-tap the screen (or double click the Action Button) for the zoomed out screen.
Text Size - Obvious. I leave mine on Medium. Along with the 75% zoom, I am able to read text comfortably, as well as maximizing the screen area.
Whew.

Azimuth21 said:
I've been playing with this browser a lot over the weekend, and so I'm here to post sort of an explanation of it.
1) MEMORY HOG, wow that is my biggest issue. In Task Managers, it's only using up about 1.4 mb of RAM, but seriously, if i just open the browser (not even opening a webpage), then go to PointUI, every single animation is slowed down. That's just an example, but everywhere else, the device is slowed. Well, except for the browser itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is because it is a CPU hog. This is the best browser on memory I have used so far, especially on Simple Browsing mode. I have to close the browser when I am finished using it because it uses about 80% cpu when minimized. But it is so fast I don't mind.
I think everything else you have said is spot on.

Netfront 3.4 didn't use up any noticable CPU when in the background, 3.5 uses up a huge amount, since it's obviously something they changed/added, hopefully they fix it before release

i already posted this in another thread about netfront, but this thread seems to actually have people viewing it
after putting this browser through multiple speed tests, it continuously produced slow results...especially in comparison with IE
when connected to wifi, i tested multiple times, and heres about the averages i would get with the browsers
IE-1.7 mbps
Opera-800 kbps
Picsel-1.0 mbps
NetFront- 300 kbps
the only reason i wanted to speed test was because netfront felt slow, and according to those tests, it was alot slower than my other browsers...
i LOVE the browser, the wordwrapping to fit on screen works great, i like the scrolling, tabbed browsing, and everything.....featurewise, its better than opera, speedwise its terrible...
EDIT** i have been speed testing at www.mobilespeedtest.com

lupes5 said:
i already posted this in another thread about netfront, but this thread seems to actually have people viewing it
after putting this browser through multiple speed tests, it continuously produced slow results...especially in comparison with IE
when connected to wifi, i tested multiple times, and heres about the averages i would get with the browsers
IE-1.7 mbps
Opera-800 kbps
Picsel-1.0 mbps
NetFront- 300 kbps
the only reason i wanted to speed test was because netfront felt slow, and according to those tests, it was alot slower than my other browsers...
i LOVE the browser, the wordwrapping to fit on screen works great, i like the scrolling, tabbed browsing, and everything.....featurewise, its better than opera, speedwise its terrible...
EDIT** i have been speed testing at www.mobilespeedtest.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this... so basically, PIE is still the best in performance?

Skyfire update to 0.8

For those of you fortunate enough to be beta testing Skyfire, I just found out that they released an updated beta. It is a lot quicker, gives you an option to make Skyfire your default browser, and has an option to install a start screen search box.
The new version also adds Flash to Windows Mobile. Haven't played around a lot with it yet, but looks promising. Looks like they are listening to everybody's comments/complaints.

Downloading it as we speak, I'll let you all know as soon as I run it through afew tests. Lord knows it needs a speed increase. the load times were silly.
Edit: Hmmm, seems my download link + sms link I got are still to the Skyfire_6843_PPC50.CAB link. Do not see or have access to the 0.8 beta.
EDIT EDIT: Wow I am stupid. That is the 0.8 beta. Running it now. lol i'll give feedback shortly.

WooHoo thanx for the info!

Awesome, thanks for the heads-up!

thx... installed it

Well after 8 hours and they finally fixed the authentication server error I have been able to use it. For those curious 0.8 does have a vast improvement in the speed and usage factor for the browser. I do like the way it runs however I have to admit that the scrolling and zooming feels clunky and just not very fluid. However this opinion is based off of using Opera 9.5 beta and it's functionality.
It has greatly improved in the browsing used with it and having flash working now is a very nice addition. But I still prefer Opera based despite the annoying out of memory error that pops up occasionally mainly due to the appearance and fluid browsing capability.
I do however look forward to a finished product as I am more then sure these issues will be addressed. Good chance they'll get my money for a purchase

scrolling still needs work. I get the checkers at the bottom. also, I notice a huge memory leak when using it. I Need to soft reset.

Improved interface but still VERY slow. IMO, not worth it until they deal with the speed issue, which has been there from the start.

I'm not sure what exactly happened today, but I uninstalled 0.6, installed Skyfire 0.8 this morning and put the phone in my pocket. About 2.5 hrs later I noticed that my pocket was a little warm. I pulled out my phone, noticed that my data connection was active and my nearly full battery had about 15% remaining life! I did a soft reset and the phone cooled down to normal again. Anyone else have this happen? I don't want to use Skyfire if it is causing my connection to stay on and my battery to die.

I'm amazed that you got 2.5 hours -- I was down to 50% in about 40 minutes of moderate use -- this app currently still eats battery... My biggest gripe followed by the delays/unreliable bookmarking in the app... The bookmarks ultimately work, but it may be the next day before they show up again after being "gone"...

It has new features and is better looking but ultimately it is unusable. The previous version was stable, this thing just lags, hangs and won't quit. I find myself having to terminate its process and/or soft boot or it will run in the background and obliterate battery life. At least for the Mogul, this update has been a big step backward. Maybe more RAM would help things?. I wish Opera would get a decent hardware keyboard capable non diamond v9 product out. Opera mini has a good feel, but is the worst of the bunch with memory usage (at least until Skyfire .08) and no downloads, Opera 8.65 feels ancient and ie is a very sad joke of a browser. Right now, I have 4 browsers on my phone and none are even close to being acceptable as my main browser, not to mention light years from Safari on the iPhone.

can't wait for VGA version.

First of all, Skyfire is a great product with real potential to be the hands down best mobile browser.
Some observations on 0.8:
I like the fact that text entry is now done in the input field (saves the step of pressing "ok".
Video playback has been improved.
FILE DOWNLOADS work!! One less reason to swap back and forth to IE.
The main thing I do not like is the zoom "improvement". It's cool that it tries to decide for me what to zoom into, but I miss being able to size the zoom box to exactly what I want.
Thank you and keep up the great work.

Nexus One vs HD2: Web Browsing Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmKyti2XEgY
Wow.....!!!
Results aside, that was a really great video, showing off what these phones can do.

Rematch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unrhua1stOg
Skyfire vs N1
Hmmm.....

I love how ill informed these reviewers are and the peons making comments. Android 2.1 supports multi touch, and there are browsers that take advantage of multi touch, even on 1.5/6 ROMs on my G1.
I do think the HD2 is one heck of a sexy phone! Too bad it is running WM, but maybe it will be nice and snappy with the dragon under the skin! I hope I get to test it for work, at the least.
Back on track, I think this matchup is pretty pointless, in the end, though. Both phones are going to surf at about the same speed, and comparing a proxy based browser to a phone based is flawed, to say the least. As well, Skyfire supports flash, which makes it even more flawed of a comparison. Come back in a month or two when Android has Opera Mobile 10, and flash support, then compare! Until then, it is flawed to make any sort of comparison.
Personally, as someone that was on a WM device before Android, both have pros and cons with their web browsing. Personally, the big thing with flash is youtube, and I think the Android youtube app trumps WM's. As well, I would say the overall browsing experience with the Android browser is better, especially when on a mobile network. But I was able to do a little bit more with WM, but it was a result of having 4 browsers to chose from.

Hehe, I guess we saw it differently. To me, the Nexus One absolutely hands down just slaughtered the HD2: Brighter screen, first to load content, first to finish, faster rotating. Hands down won in every category.
To be objective, plusses for the HD2: bigger screen (obviously) and more screen real estate (100% full screen once wepage fully loads), whereas the notification bar stays on screen permanently for Android. What I don't understand is that in Android 2.0, the address bar disappears once you scroll down the page. I wish there was an option to do the same thing with the Notification Bar. So you scroll down, and both the address bar AND the notification bar go away. Perhaps someone will hack this in?
(The skyfire test was kind of useless, since it "finishes" first, but the Nexus One loads content first, so you can actually, like... read stuff. But to be fair again, Skyfire does do flash, so plus for that.)

I agree that the Android browser was better overall in the side by side. But that doesn't change the fact it wasn't a fair comparison, and that with WM you can do more stuff on the internet(not much, but you can do more).

I don't even know why skyfire is even being used as a browser for comparison, since any web page is loaded server side with flash and all.
They should use Opera, with real load times, since its actually being loaded from the phones own power.

~~Tito~~ said:
I don't even know why skyfire is even being used as a browser for comparison, since any web page is loaded server side with flash and all.
They should use Opera, with real load times, since its actually being loaded from the phones own power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Server-side processing should always always always be faster at the cost of rendering integrity. Also, "winning" in my opinion is how fast content becomes accessible to the user, I can interact with pages while they're loading on the N1 but Skyfire doesn't display until loading is complete.

Nexus one is miles better due to WM on the hd2.. i sold mine

~~Tito~~ said:
They should use Opera, with real load times, since its actually being loaded from the phones own power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first video is using Opera on the HD2. The second (the "rematch") is Skyfire.

On Android you can start reading the page within 2-3secs while on both WinMo browsers you'll have to wait till the page is almost fully loaded. Advantage Android for me

Can the N1 browser play internet videos? I get a message like 'can't play on my handset' when I try to in msn, yahoo, etc. Do I need a plugin or something?

galaxys said:
Can the N1 browser play internet videos? I get a message like 'can't play on my handset' when I try to in msn, yahoo, etc. Do I need a plugin or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does not have flash support at this time.

opera mini 5 b2

Now available on the market for free.... its pretty decent, worth having imo....
If this has already been posted I apologize and mods please delete...

i just saw that on cnet. i was wondering if anyone has used it yet, and what the verdict was, in comparison to dolphin

timothydonohue said:
i just saw that on cnet. i was wondering if anyone has used it yet, and what the verdict was, in comparison to dolphin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very, very, very fast server side processing browser... not as rich of an experience as the stock or dolphin, but much faster and does a pretty darn good job. Lots of extra stuff, like good bookmarks and cached browsing.

Great option.
FAST browsing. Great homepage/bookmarks , great tabs.
I always like having a secondary browser. Opera IMO is the best secondary browser and if you can deal with jpg compression and alot of "mobile" looking pages its a fanstastic primary browser.
I just wouldnt use it to show off the beauty of the phone.

Its about the same as the windows version and yes Hella fast... and has the option to upload pics or files unlike the stock or dolphin, and download files that are not supported on the device....

Is there a way to zoom in/out in sites? (maybe it's just too late and I can't figure it out).
Anyway, the hebrew is all messed up unlike the stock / Dolphin / HTC Desire browsers - so I'll have to skip that one.

It is a very nice browser i must admit. For the next few days I will be using it to replace Dolphin. Just as a test drive.

I don't like it.
Reasons:
A) When you scroll down a page (that's already "fully" loaded), the pictures show really nasty puke-colored placeholder boxes.
B) The full-screen mode still shows the notification bar. It's not really "full screen" then is it?... (That is by far my favorite feature about the Desire Rom.)
C) There's no way to fine-grained zoom in to how you want. Double tap is either zoomed FAR out, or zoomed to 1 specific point. Why can't I choose my own zoom level?

Very fast browser & lite on memory. Will be playing more with it next few days...

Not bad for a first release.. I'm impressed.
Looking forward to future updates.. multi touch etc.

Pretty good, especially when you are getting weak signal.

getting a bit sick of.........

having to flick between 4 different browsers on my phone as not one of thems really any good....
opera 10: looks nice and sharp, quick but is well and truely let down with the default screen image size and zoom options, no pinch to zoom and vids wont play.....useless
opera 9.7: looks good with nice default screen size. has pinch to zoom but is pretty dreadfull to use, you do the finger motion and you end up nowhere near where you need to be. again, vids wont play.....useless
skyfire: looks ok but its pretty jittery and nowhere near as fast as opera. no pinch to zoom and the zooming options are nothing to write about but at least it plays vids.
ie: hardly ever use this one as its so slow.
appart from browsing i think the phone is pretty sweet, its just a real shame using the internet is (for me) becoming a pain. whats your thoughts guys....?

I think Opera Mobile is amazing. I couldn't fault it in any way. Why does everyone complain about no pinch to zoom when a swift double tap works better.

with Opera 10 you only have to tap once to zoom in!
its so smooth, the scrolling is as smooth as butter and its so fast.
sure not playing flash is a pain, but its not essential, especially if youre complaning that you cant watch youtube on your browser when youve got an app for just that

Opera is gorgeous, fast, so fast... and completely flawless.
I'm using the 9.7 build that comes standard on the T-Mobile USA model. I also tweaked tons of the Opera cache settings, page loading, thumbnail, and zooming functions as well.

I think your alone on this one bud.
opera is badass by its self. opera 10 is freakin sweet.
btw ... why so many complaints about a sweet ass phone?

each to their own bud. its just a useful feature. on opera 10, when i tap to zoom its still sometimes hard to hit links or page numbers as it still too small. altering the zoom is hit an miss as if you make the zoom bigger it ends up too large for the screen. if i had pinch to zoom could make links and what not just a bit bigger.
i dont like the fact i cant play youtube vids on opera either, my phone from 3 years ago could do it........
opera 10 runs very slick but has major flaws, just my opinion.

Reignzone said:
Opera is gorgeous, fast, so fast... and completely flawless.
I'm using the 9.7 build that comes standard on the T-Mobile USA model. I also tweaked tons of the Opera cache settings, page loading, thumbnail, and zooming functions as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you say what you have done tweak wise? i never seem to get a browsing experience to match my mates iphone...which im sure you can understand is annoying

IE seems pretty damn fast to me. I accidentally made it default and was shocked at how usable it was.
Opera 9.7 - not jittery, but i never use the pinch to zoom...ever. but I do use it because it launches and runs more snappily for a quick browse. it's lighter in resources.
Mobile 10 - my default. it takes longer to load than 9.7 and no pinch, but flash plugin works, double tap to zoom with reflow usually works. rendering good. fast, speedy. and page rendering without checkered boxes as in 9.7 or IE. Fab. Not perfect, but pretty damn good.
Never even needed to install skyfire after mobile10.
Why not try iphone instead? Or Android? I hear their browsers are even better
Just remember, technology is always work in progress. No browser, even on the desktop, is perfect. And I'm surprised they ALL work as well as they do on winmo - browsing is better on winmo than iphone and android. That was one reason that swayed me to winmo.

What do you suppose the better alternative is?
The iPhone browser?
I have an iPhone and its browser has nothing on Opera 10...even with pinch to zoom.
At least you have options. Flash isn't even an option on the iPhone!

I guess that I'm in the minority but I like IE best. The zoom on the Opera just isn't as easy to use as IE's slider control but maybe I just havn't used Opera enough. I also have an iPhone 3GS and while I like the browser and touchscreen response better, in every other category the HD2 wins hands down.

donwhann said:
having to flick between 4 different browsers on my phone as not one of thems really any good....
opera 10: looks nice and sharp, quick but is well and truely let down with the default screen image size and zoom options, no pinch to zoom and vids wont play.....useless
opera 9.7: looks good with nice default screen size. has pinch to zoom but is pretty dreadfull to use, you do the finger motion and you end up nowhere near where you need to be. again, vids wont play.....useless
skyfire: looks ok but its pretty jittery and nowhere near as fast as opera. no pinch to zoom and the zooming options are nothing to write about but at least it plays vids.
ie: hardly ever use this one as its so slow.
appart from browsing i think the phone is pretty sweet, its just a real shame using the internet is (for me) becoming a pain. whats your thoughts guys....?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you using the Latest Stock WWE 1.66 ROM
Opera Browsing here is second to none!

Maybe Opera Mini 5 is a good choice for you. Blazing fast, though no flash.
BTW: Opera Mobile 10 does support flash: settings - enable plugins - ready and IE also, to a certain extent, supports flash.

jigners said:
are you using the Latest Stock WWE 1.66 ROM
Opera Browsing here is second to none!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah im using the latest rom bud. dont get me wrong, opera 10 is very fast and slick but just seems set up wrong for the screen size.if there was a zoom slider like in ie that would be sound enough. as it is, opera10 seems unfinished. also, not been able to view embedded videos on most sites is just complete madness. I know some people are saying "well hd2 already has a decent youtube app, use that", but what goods that when the video I might wanna watch is embedded in a page that wont allow me to view it....?. it all just seems like such a wasted opportunity on such a quality device. its the phones biggest downfall which is mad given this screen was made for viewing the internet on.......

IE is the only one (other than skyfire but that looks rubbish) that plays flash videos on site like bbc news, so I'm always switching between using Opera 10 for speed and IE for video.
Count yourself lucky that you can install whatever browser you want on WM, Apple still hasnt approved Opera mini on the ****phone

DMAND said:
IE is the only one (other than skyfire but that looks rubbish) that plays flash videos on site like bbc news, so I'm always switching between using Opera 10 for speed and IE for video.
Count yourself lucky that you can install whatever browser you want on WM, Apple still hasnt approved Opera mini on the ****phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah its pretty good that you can install other browsers, its just a pity the fastest and best looking one doesn't function that well. hey, these are just my opinions guys and im happy your happy with it lol.......