Database Users

best webbrowser for the wizard?

today at the university I tried out the wlan capabilitys of my device and it was a great experience sitting in the cafeteria and surfing at some news sites with that little fellow when all the others used big laptops occupying all their tablespace :lol:
I used the internet explorer first and then tried out the mozilla minimo browser. IE was "ok" and minimo just sucked with the handling and speed. I also know there's an opera version but I never tried it online. any other good browsers out there? any favs? :wink:

A lot of people seem to agree that Opera 8.6 is a really good browser. It's not free though. You get a 30 day trial, but after that you must pay for it. It's 24USD I beleive.

Try Thunderhawk. http://www.bitstream.com/wireless/

I've been using Thunderhawk ( http://www.bitstream.com/wireless/index.html ) with great success. I absolutely love it. They route all traffic through their servers and software so you end up with the web page designed for your desktop rendered nearly perfectly on your Pocket PC.
The methods they use reduce all graphics to a size managable by our devices without any drop in quality. Pages load extremely fast and I'm just using my T-Mobile internet connection. Between it and IE, just isn't even a contest.
I have not used Opera though, so I can't comment on it. But I highly reccomend trying Thunderhawk.
I don't have the Screenshot program installed on my device, but here are a couple of pics I snapped so that you can see the layout. First is DrudeReport.com and I'm sure you're familiar with the second. :wink:

B**tard! You beat me to it!

but thunderhawk is not free!
I use PIEPlus, which is very nice.

Thanks guys I will check out both, thunderhawk and pieplus. But actually pieplus doesn't seem to be free either.
Let me extend my question at this point
Which cool and usefull internetrelated software do you use on your wizard?

Also give Netfront 3.3 a trial though it is not free.
I am using it and am very satisfied with it. Specially if you surf the web with a fast WiFi connection then sites with flash animations really turn out great. It is the only WM5 browser with flash support.
Regards

Opera 8.6.
I used others but this one allowed me to run java scripts that PIE couldn't.
I can use it on my banking sites and other secured sites that other have had trouble or simply don't work.
It is worth the money. IMO.

thunderhawk vs Opera? Anybody?

Opera Mini 2.0
It's a Java App. and it's free.
Go to mini.opera.com on PIE and download and install.
To me it has the fastest and best performance when compared to native WM browsers. I use it daily... the only time I don't use it is when I want to look at an animated radar image. That is about the only limitation to Opera Mini... no animated images. You can still download files, and save images from it. 8)

To be honest I have stuck with PIE. Opera does format a little better but considering you now have to pay for it I will stick with PIE.

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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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

IE vs Picsel vs Opera

MODS: If this is not the correct forum feel free to move.
I have been using IE with the pocket plus features like tabs, smart scrolling, etc. but have been hearing a lot about the other browsers. I put Opera on for a couple days, but I think I was doing something wrong. Here are my questions:
1. How much space do they all take and can IE be removed if I go with one of the others?
2. Which is better on speed (any proof, or does it just feel faster?)
3. Do Picsel & Opera both have thumb scrolling & extra tabs without 3rd party app?

I would add NetFront 3.5 in this comparision as well.

Ghost26 said:
MODS: If this is not the correct forum feel free to move.
I have been using IE with the pocket plus features like tabs, smart scrolling, etc. but have been hearing a lot about the other browsers. I put Opera on for a couple days, but I think I was doing something wrong. Here are my questions:
1. How much space do they all take and can IE be removed if I go with one of the others?
2. Which is better on speed (any proof, or does it just feel faster?)
3. Do Picsel & Opera both have thumb scrolling & extra tabs without 3rd party app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) IE can be removed, but some of the files are used by system programs, and it is minute anyway.
2) PIE is the slowest, and the least accurate at page rendering, although I haven't used Picsel that much so I can't comment... Opera Mobile is brilliant! (Opear Mini, the one that runs in Java is great for not eating your data allowance).
3) Opera Mobile has thumb/finger scrolling, and tabs, not sure about Picsel though... Opera mini doesn't have tabs, and may not do thumb scrolling although I don't use it that much...

Out of those three, Opera Mobile is probably the best, but NetFront 3.5 SMOKES Opera Mobile.

yeah but netfront uses to much resources. if you even have it minumized it would slow down your device

what are the differences between opera mobile & opera mini?
Can they be used effectively without esmertec java [over 2MB] ?
For the record I did read the wiki on web browsers, but I had some more specific questions that I cant find the answers to and you guys have always been helpful

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetFront <---
&
opera mini == a java applet which is made to run on all phones with java
from nokia to htc phones with touchscreen
opera mobile is a native windows mobile application which only runs on that platform
native apps in general are better intergrated with the os and is often faster
pie is in the rom and if one removes it one have to cook a rom without
it and as said other programs depend on the files being there
and removing stuff from the dedicated rom space dont give more storage

Netfront CPU issues have been resolved with build 519, just redownload from the Access Website. PIE is the slowest and renders the worst, proof is in the testing done by the great Menneisyys here
You should read up on all his articles and Bibles, there's so much information he offers. Btw, trash Picsel. Just trash it.
Take your pick between Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, NetFront, and possibly SkyFire .
In general
Opera Mobile - high CPU usage, good compliance, speed varies greatly depending on device (so you'll have to try it for yourself). Grab the MAXSD cab of build 1126 to test.
Opera Mini - FAST. Can't do stuff like select text. Must use through a Java Manager (using Jbed, you can create a direct link to Opera Mini, so it's okay.)
NetFront - Even with the fixed CPU usage of build 519, still a memory hog. This one versus Opera Mobile is a pretty close race, it's up to personal preference.
SkyFire - Perfect rendering of everything (even YouTube videos), but that's because this is essentially a VNC app, meaning everything is rendered somewhere else, and you're just viewing a constantly refreshed image of a webpage. I don't like it, personally, but some love it.
They are all scrollable with your finger (pagepan), although only Opera Mobile and NetFront have flick-scrolling.

aahh yeaah opera mini also go passed opera's server which compress stuff and pass it on to the devices
which is why it is fast
but guess if opera's server goes belly up as does it
i personaly use opera mobile but then on pc i also use opera so ..

Azimuth21 said:
Netfront CPU issues have been resolved with build 519, just redownload from the Access Website. PIE is the slowest and renders the worst, proof is in the testing done by the great Menneisyys here
You should read up on all his articles and Bibles, there's so much information he offers. Btw, trash Picsel. Just trash it.
Take your pick between Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, NetFront, and possibly SkyFire .
In general
Opera Mobile - high CPU usage, good compliance, speed varies greatly depending on device (so you'll have to try it for yourself). Grab the MAXSD cab of build 1126 to test.
Opera Mini - FAST. Can't do stuff like select text. Must use through a Java Manager (using Jbed, you can create a direct link to Opera Mini, so it's okay.)
NetFront - Even with the fixed CPU usage of build 519, still a memory hog. This one versus Opera Mobile is a pretty close race, it's up to personal preference.
SkyFire - Perfect rendering of everything (even YouTube videos), but that's because this is essentially a VNC app, meaning everything is rendered somewhere else, and you're just viewing a constantly refreshed image of a webpage. I don't like it, personally, but some love it.
They are all scrollable with your finger (pagepan), although only Opera Mobile and NetFront have flick-scrolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you very helpful. I have read almost all that stuff and it is good info, but i like to have it confirmed. sometimes there is so much hype that a better option gets downplayed because it isnt as cool. All I have been hearing about is skyfire. Is it out yet?

Skyfire and Opera Mini 4.1, those are the two best ones I've come across.

Is there a way to get opera to download files other then mpeg ones? I can download avi's or almost anything else for that matter...or is opera just a browser in the literal sense?

Rudegar said:
aahh yeaah opera mini also go passed opera's server which compress stuff and pass it on to the devices
which is why it is fast
but guess if opera's server goes belly up as does it
i personaly use opera mobile but then on pc i also use opera so ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I know OperaMini goes through opera servers, but the difference is Opera servers compress the webpage, which is then downloaded onto the phone. With Skyfire, the webpage is never downloaded, so it is constantly using data to view the webpage being rendered on a Skyfire server. Therefore, Skyfire wins initial draw speed of a webpage, but loses during any interaction with said page (it must load when you zoom, for example.) Personally I use Opera Mini for the pure speed, but Opera Mobile when I must do something secure (logging into emails, PayPal, etc), because it never passes through a separate server.
@bartybet
I don't know why you can't download anything else with Opera (i'm assuming Opera Mobile), since Opera Mobile's download capabilities are very powerful. Check Menneisyys and his blog, he has a post about mobile browsers and their download abilities, with Opera Mobile topping the list.

So it sounds like it is between netfront and opera mobile.
would you recommend opera 8.65 or the 9.5 pulled from the diamond?

Skyfire id the best to me. That's the only one that you can play videos in.

Ghost26 said:
So it sounds like it is between netfront and opera mobile.
would you recommend opera 8.65 or the 9.5 pulled from the diamond?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
9.5 all the way... way nicer to use, faster, supports flash...etc..

dieKatze88 said:
Out of those three, Opera Mobile is probably the best, but NetFront 3.5 SMOKES Opera Mobile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol you funny netfront sucks opera 9.5.1126 owns it

Rudegar said:
aahh yeaah opera mini also go passed opera's server which compress stuff and pass it on to the devices
which is why it is fast
but guess if opera's server goes belly up as does it
i personaly use opera mobile but then on pc i also use opera so ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, cant wait for the bookmark sync thing to work, Opera Link or something....
On a slightly different note, do you think opera will
a) Update the diamond to the newest version of opera for free
b) Ask Flar to take down all links to opera beta cabs.
These are both if/when a proper version is released.
Rory

ChInEsE ChIcKeN said:
yeah but netfront uses to much resources. if you even have it minumized it would slow down your device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The CPU usage bug is stated to be fixed in the new (current) version.

steb0ne said:
Skyfire id the best to me. That's the only one that you can play videos in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you have a lot of alternate, REALLY superior means of playing back videos - see my YouTube Bible.

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...
Click to expand...
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.

Opera Mini 5 is out for WinMo! OFFICIALLY!!

Yes!!!! Finally... the java one was good, but had problems running on winmo.
Now... there's a real cab for it. yessss!!! I hate Opera Mobile and it's slowness. Finally!!
http://m.opera.com/next or http://www.opera.com/mini/next/

here is the cab

Okay, question. why use the mini 5, when you can use the opera mobile beta 10?

crusher11590 said:
Okay, question. why use the mini 5, when you can use the opera mobile beta 10?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When i am in the many areas i go to where t-mobile is gprs here in Illinois, it will TOTALLY come in handy. Much faster!

Yeah it would definetly help if your boosting 2g gprs signal..
If your like me an run 3g most of the time, then opera beta 10 is the best
Just my opinion...

And it's quite faster than Opera Mobile. I'd like to make it default browser. I have already tried the registry settings, it won't work. Any ideas?

I love opera mini in general, but this version for some unknown reason cannot accept my facebook username and pass. Thus I cannot login to that page, it just keeps refreshing when I hit Login.
This is only in FB, in other pages that require logging in everything goes fine..
Anyone else experiencing this?

great browser but how do u open email links and bookmarks from outside the browser I click em and it just opens the browser start screen not the page I want!

I had to turn the password autosave off in the settings so facebook could acepted password.

This release is brilliant! It is great for multitasking, which is a huge plus. Is there a way to make it the new default browser? (for opening links out of other applications, in my case MoTweets?

drpal181 said:
I had to turn the password autosave off in the settings so facebook could acepted password.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem here logging into faecesbook, but I don't think I've tried logging back into it yet.
I've never used Opera Mini, but it is pretty nice.. It doesn't draw very well though, I've tried several sites and it looks really bad.. Like http://geocaching.com the site is kind of organized in columns and the columns are quite narrow, and winds up drawing on top of itself.

Opera 10 beta 3 launched Veeeryy slow. It was the only reason for me , for deleting it for ever. Im going to try out the mini version.. thanks for the hint
I have installed opera mini 5 now, but on some pages, like
www.openingstijden.nu or m.opentot.nl it doesnt give any search Results.. can somebody test and confirm this please.

crusher11590 said:
Okay, question. why use the mini 5, when you can use the opera mobile beta 10?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because this version doesnt eat up 90% of the device's resources to run. I am constantly amazed that people use opera beta 10. You can run opera beta 10 and sense UI.... THATS IT. try to run anything else and your system starts complaining about memory.

cirrob said:
Because this version doesnt eat up 90% of the device's resources to run. I am constantly amazed that people use opera beta 10. You can run opera beta 10 and sense UI.... THATS IT. try to run anything else and your system starts complaining about memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what ROM you're running but I'm running WM 6.1 and when I run Opera 10, my ram is at 61 percent. I have no trouble running multiple apps when it's running.

DADDYDC650 said:
I don't know what ROM you're running but I'm running WM 6.1 and when I run Opera 10, my ram is at 61 percent. I have no trouble running multiple apps when it's running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that Opera 10 (and other versions of the "full" client) suffer more from the resource drain experienced overall in 6.5 vs 6.1; I'm running 6.1 as well, and I can run opera 10 and a bunch of other stuff (text, gmaps, music, etc) all at the same time.
Also, anybody using Opera 10 on 6.5 should try running the dynamic proxy resource and nopushinternet cabs to address memory use.

eff this thing! I cannot log into ANY websites, redbox, netflix, CAG..nothing that I have to input a user name or password and check a box to remember me. I guess I'll try to play w/ the 'save password' settings, but I'm back to using Skyfire until I figure it out..argh!!

To anyone using Mini: I know we all want to browse the web that looks mostly the same as on our home computers, and often that's nice, but try browsing with Mini in "Mobile View". It's really the best way to experience the web in Mini, it renders almost everything really nicely, no need for panning and zooming, you just scroll down the page in 1 direction and never miss anything. It's very nice and quick and easy for reading newsites and long articles and things like that.
I use Mini for this type of quick browsing and Mobile for anything more "heavy duty", it's a nice combo.

I would really like to set Opera Mini 5 as my default browser. If any one finds a solution please update this thread for all of us.