Database Users

Browser War! Netfront 3.5 is available !

We've already seen that Opera 9.5 is soon going to be avaialble. That should transform our web browsing experience.
Now, not to be outdone, Netfront 3.5 is also dramatically improving the speed too.
Read this article for details, and for beta test of Netfront 3.5 if you're as interested as I am.
http://www.mobilehornet.com/archives/988

The new king of mobile web browser is here!
Earlier today, I posted that Opera Mini 4 was the fastest available web browser I have tested. Now, just few hours later, I have to say very happily that a new king has been found. Look at the relative performance
Web site: smh.com.au
Picsel browser: 65 sec
Pie with Pieplus: 84 sec
Opera 8.65: 52 sec
Opera mini 4: 26 sec
Netfront: 10 seconds
Website: XDA-developers.com home page
Picsel browser: 28 seconds
Pieplus: 43 seconds
Opera 8.65: 30 seconds
Opera Mini: 32 seconds
Netfront: 23 seconds
Website: ppcsg.com
Picsel browser: 58 sec
Pie with Pieplus: 59 sec
Opera 8.65: 57 sec
Opera mini 4: 32 sec
Netfront: 14 seconds
Website: cnet.com
Picsel browser: 77sec
Pie with Pieplus: 54 sec
Opera 8.65: 86 sec
Opera mini 4: 25 sec
Netfront: 16 seconds
As you can see, there is no fight! Until Opera 9.5 arrives, that is.
I'm so excited with this browser war. We the users will ultimately be the number one winner of this.
Go get yourself the netfront 3.5 browser now.
BTW, Leoni, your video does not have the same basis of measurement as mine. Mine measure the time until the browser COMPLETELY stop downloading and rendering, NOT till the time when the full webpage is useable. For Opera Mini 4 for example, you can see the complete webpage and start using it at about 1/3 to 1/2 the time posted here, while the "in process icon" is still spining.

is it over wifi or 3g or ?
i ask because 3g's speed would prob variate with reception str
where wifi would prob do so less

Rudegar said:
is it over wifi or 3g or ?
i ask because 3g's speed would prob variate with reception str
where wifi would prob do so less
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point.
My tests were done over 3G connectio with 4 bars reception.
My service provider's speed is ok but not the best in town. I had done a test before and found that Telstra's speed is faster than optus'.
But you're right. The network speed would affect the result.
However. it should not affect the RELATIVE result.

Is your opinion that Netfront, based on your research is a faster browser of 3g?

Kenjari said:
Is your opinion that Netfront, based on your research is a faster browser of 3g?
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Click to collapse
On speed alone, that seems to be the case. However, this is still a beta. i've already noted some bugs. The scrolling does'nt work quite correctly and reliably yet, it seems...

i'm stuck on gprs today, and have noticed that page will render then partially blank then re-render, this forum in particular. but if im stuck on gprs just stick it on simple browsing and watch it fly.
was in weatherspoons (pub chain decent beer & low prices) anf using their free wlan access!
full browsing is as fast as laptop, from what I could see.. nothing imperical, just observations such as the beowulf was much nicer than the derventonian..
nf is faster than om4 on wlan, tried a couple of forums using hybrid threading and the guardian site and all were rendered well and very quickly. so far I love itself !
however typing this in no virtual screen simple render means the end of the text box gets cut off, with no option to drag and scroll the box, using smart-fit rendering does solve this

fards said:
i'm stuck on gprs today, and have noticed that page will render then partially blank then re-render, this forum in particular. but if im stuck on gprs just stick it on simple browsing and watch it fly.
was in weatherspoons (pub chain decent beer & low prices) anf using their free wlan access!
full browsing is as fast as laptop, from what I could see.. nothing imperical, just observations such as the beowulf was much nicer than the derventonian..
nf is faster than om4 on wlan, tried a couple of forums using hybrid threading and the guardian site and all were rendered well and very quickly. so far I love itself !
however typing this in no virtual screen simple render means the end of the text box gets cut off, with no option to drag and scroll the box, using smart-fit rendering does solve this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed the same too. I hope the beta testers would point these out and get it fixed before the final version is released.
I like the trend that I'm seeing though. Improved engine, speedier rendering. Lots of third party software competing with each other.

omg, it is so amazing I can't find the words to describ it
I have been waiting years for this, why did it take them so long and why didn't ms do it ?

Does it do tabbed browsing like opera?

decimusmaximus7 said:
Does it do tabbed browsing like opera?
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Click to collapse
Yes it has tabbed browsing.

JwY said:
Yes it has tabbed browsing.
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Click to collapse
Yes - but it took me a while to realise that when it asked if I wanted to open a link in a new Window it was actually meaning a new tab!
NetFront 3.5 is great

Can the new Netfront be changed to read as "Desktop" mode? Currently, I can only go to webpages in "Handheld" mode.
Thanks

Kenjari said:
Can the new Netfront be changed to read as "Desktop" mode? Currently, I can only go to webpages in "Handheld" mode.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Select Menu/view/browser mode/full browsing.
Then Menu/view/Display mode/Normal.
This will make your display 100% identical to desktop browser.

Thanks eaglesteve. That worked for the most part. I think there are some websites that reads a certain code on the browser that will convey to the site that it is handheld or desktop.
With Opera, it gives you the ability to switch. With Netfront, it kind of chooses for you!!!
Thanks again buddy!

Java support?

wgary said:
Java support?
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Click to collapse
Unfortunately, no. Also, not able to play classical youtube videos.
I think that will also be the case with Opera 9.5, until Adobe decides to release FL3 for window mobile platform.

you can change the user agent strings. menu/tools/browser settings/menu/network
theres also some other interesting settings under that second 'menu' including file type association to external progs

I tried this on my Wizard with WM5. Neither yahoo mail nor gmail worked. For both get some kind of an error. Anyone else have this problem?
For Yahoo I get the error when I click on my inbox. For gmail it comes up when I try to login.
This is what it says:
Browser Warning
Cannot load page.
Check that you are properly connected to the network.
Type:TCP connect

sevakm said:
I tried this on my Wizard with WM5. Neither yahoo mail nor gmail worked. For both get some kind of an error. Anyone else have this problem?
For Yahoo I get the error when I click on my inbox. For gmail it comes up when I try to login.
This is what it says:
Browser Warning
Cannot load page.
Check that you are properly connected to the network.
Type:TCP connect
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried Yahoo Mail on Athena running wm6 with no problem.

support for low-bandith friendly transcoding proxy in Opera 9.7[Opera Turbo]

edit Feb13: Opera Turbo http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2009/02/12/ does exactly what i want to do. so does toonel (it refuses to run on my device though)
anybody willing to work on this? i looked it up but got nothing as there are no full-fledged bandwidth friendly web browser.
adding the ability for opera mobile to use these proxies (like opera mini) would make opera far more usable to many people that use their phones on hsdpa/3g/edge/gprs
UCweb and opera mini both use a transcoding proxy for all their http traffic. for example loading www.engadget.comm on opera mobile is about 1MB vs only 80KB for the same page on UCweb or 90kb on opera mini. the smaller version have no flash and lower quality pictures (not that important on a phone tiny screens and resolutions)
for me a good compromise is to use two browsers one for wifi (opera mobile with all it cool features) and another for 3g/edge(UCweb). but i rather simplify my life + it would be really good to make use of all the extra featurs of opera mobile when browsing in low badwidth mode

btw
for thoes that dont know it, the advantages of using a browser like opera mini and UCweb:
-significantly cheaper (should be about %80 cheaper)for thoes that dont have flat rate.
-much faster experiance especially for thoes who are on edge.
-better battery life since you can turn off 3G and still maintain a reasonable speed browsing the low badwidth version of the same page on edge/gprs.
-telco blocked sites work

I dunno about a proxy you can configure your browser onto. But I do know:
http://www.skweezer.com/ and the (IMHO) better http://www.mlvb.net/ since its a lot more configurable.

thanks schaggo
your two sites are very usuful to what i want to do indeed. i will play with them some more to see if i can get them to run better on my wvga Xperia
it would however be very useful to to somehow get opera mobile make to use them or a similar site as proxy with a flick of a button.
i wonder if such a simple and useful feature is on the to do list of a future opera mobile version

I havent thought that one through, but couldnt you just set a prefix in the options (opera:config) which goes like http://www.mlvb.net/ which then would preceed all the adresses you enter. No...?

You should check Toonel
http://www.toonel.net/
It is free and it has a windows mobile version (check the downloads page).
I used it a couple of times with opera mobile and it works.

This is abso-excuse me-****ing-lutely great! Seriously, in 3 years I was looking for something like this and today you point it out to me!
Do you maybe want a new car? Or coffee machine? Maybe my wife?

never got toonel to work on my device but i just got to read this
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=2906
'Opera Turbo" comes to Windows Mobile
Just when you thought browsing couldn’t get any faster, Opera unveils its latest innovation for better browsing, Opera Turbo.
Opera Turbo is a compression solution, similar to its Opera Mini, which will be usable on the desktop with Opera and also for Opera Mobile. It reduced data transfer by up to 80%, thereby speeding up browsing. By taking the processing load onto Opera’s servers it will also allow low-end devices to enjoy a good web experience and fully supports dynamic Web technologies such as Ajax and Flash.
In a press release Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software said "We are living in a time and place where access to the Web should be a universal right to all. Technology has advanced us to the point that we can very nearly access the Internet anytime and anywhere from a growing number of devices,", "As part of Opera’s commitment to provide the best experience on any device, Opera has developed the Opera Turbo solution.”
The service is to be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress, and is to be sold to cell phone carriers and OEM’s as a way to conserve resources and provide end users with a good web experience independent of the hardware or network conditions.

schaggo said:
This is abso-excuse me-****ing-lutely great! Seriously, in 3 years I was looking for something like this and today you point it out to me!
Do you maybe want a new car? Or coffee machine? Maybe my wife?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i would like a coffe machine

white paper for opera turbo. hope it works better than toonel
worth a read very short paper
http://www.opera.com/business/file/Opera_Turbo_white_paper.pdf

stupid question:
anyone got a proxy i can use with toonel?

You might also be interested in Google Wireless Transcoder. Though not as many options as in mlvb or skweezer, it's definately faster than them.

Google Wireless Transcoder is blocked in my country becuse horny teens might end up using it to watch low quality pixelated heavely compressed dirty pictures. the only reason why skweezer and mlvb still work is because our proxy people did not notice them yet
bad jokes aside, i think a browser with this (transcoding)or similar feature will be a major thing to be supported

fatso485 said:
never got toonel to work on my device but i just got to read this
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=2906
'Opera Turbo" comes to Windows Mobile
Just when you thought browsing couldn’t get any faster, Opera unveils its latest innovation for better browsing, Opera Turbo.
Opera Turbo is a compression solution, similar to its Opera Mini, which will be usable on the desktop with Opera and also for Opera Mobile. It reduced data transfer by up to 80%, thereby speeding up browsing. By taking the processing load onto Opera’s servers it will also allow low-end devices to enjoy a good web experience and fully supports dynamic Web technologies such as Ajax and Flash.
In a press release Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software said "We are living in a time and place where access to the Web should be a universal right to all. Technology has advanced us to the point that we can very nearly access the Internet anytime and anywhere from a growing number of devices,", "As part of Opera’s commitment to provide the best experience on any device, Opera has developed the Opera Turbo solution.”
The service is to be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress, and is to be sold to cell phone carriers and OEM’s as a way to conserve resources and provide end users with a good web experience independent of the hardware or network conditions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
doesnt opera mobile already support that? by turning it on, the rendering seems to be done elsewhere, although the pictures are still loading slower, this is pretty damn useful!
EDIT: @dexter: wow, the google proxy is damn fast!

Opera mini
I've tried the various site (ie the google's one). They work, quite well, but you loose completely the original format of the web pages. You win the zoom capability of Opera mobile.
But I still think the last version of OperaMini/Jbed is faster and easier.
Really irnterested though in this new Opera Turbo. We will see.

the_fish said:
doesnt opera mobile already support that? by turning it on, the rendering seems to be done elsewhere, although the pictures are still loading slower, this is pretty damn useful!
EDIT: @dexter: wow, the google proxy is damn fast!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are talking about opera mini(UCWEB is better if you ask me btw) and that ties you to a simple browser
wish i could test the google proxy. whats the ip address of that server mabe they forgot to block the ip address in our proxy?

ather90 said:
i would like a coffe machine
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Click to collapse
Too many expenses this month and I just got a Touch Pro while still holding on to my XPERIA. I guess you'd have to wait another month or so
fatso485 said:
Google Wireless Transcoder is blocked in my country becuse ...
bad jokes aside, i think a browser with this (transcoding)or similar feature will be a major thing to be supported
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
<- first par of msg
but yeah, youre right, speeding up mobile browsing is a good thing to do, especially if - on top of it - compresses the datastream and you save some bandwith. Theres only one major flaw until now: there is the word b-u-s-i-n-e-s-s in the URL to the whitepaper, seems like its something you have to license and pay bigtime to use it. Hmmm...
fatso485 said:
you are talking about opera mini...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess not. Enter opera:config in Opera Mobile and in the searchfield which will appear on the page which loads enter turbo and do a search. Tick the checkbox and restart Opera...

i enabled the turbo mode like schaggo said but there is no difference in speed or anything if it does nothing why do they include it

I think the Turbo-option in Opera Mobile has nothing (not yet, at least) to do with the announced Opera Turbo-technology. Because the option is there since like ever, long before Opera announced Turbo. It has to be something different, this option triggers, I have no idea what, though.

This is the Turbo Mode currently available in Opera:
Disable Turbo mode
While this might sound a little bit strange at first to disable turbo mode and present it as a tip to speed up Opera it becomes clear soon. Turbo mode means that Opera pre-draws any image which means that you see part of it although it is not fully loaded. This uses CPU and memory and could increase overall performance especially on slower computers. It should not be noticeable on fast computers though.
Type about:config and enter Turbo into the search field. Disable Turbo Mode and click on save.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Taken from: several blogs in my.opera.com, including Tamil's one.

HD2 Opera and Internet Explorer

If you run any speed test, IE always come out on top on HD2. Way faster than Opera Mobile 9.7. Neither are reprocessing the info so anyone have a idea why Opera 9.7 is so slow? I used mobilespeedtest.com 1mb file and dsl mobile site.

dallastx said:
If you run any speed test, IE always come out on top on HD2. Way faster than Opera Mobile 9.7. Neither are reprocessing the info so anyone have a idea why Opera 9.7 is so slow? I used mobilespeedtest.com 1mb file and dsl mobile site.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get exactly the opposite when using the stock versions of those two browsers...snarksneeze and I were just testing that this evening.
I got about 350kbps speed with pIE (.7xx s latency), twice in a row...then when I immediately switched to Opera, I got ~895kbps, .35x s latency.
I used dslreports.com/mspeed for all the tests. I don't, and won't, use mobilespeedtest.com

Skyfire is no longer letting TmoUS HD2 to access internet free...

Just to update all - Skyfire is now reporting that data connection is needed and the loop-hole no longer works to access the internet (3g) for free...

try using uZardWebP as your browser instead.
I think it renders pages better and it also includes flash.

Strange ........... Here in Europe it still works ..........

here, in turkey, its not working anymore

Take a look at their HP, they relaunched it and now have version 2.0 for Android (still 1,5 for WM).
Seems to be a temporary problem, maybe they change/Update their servers and everything will be fine in a few days again.

scrizz said:
try using uZardWebP as your browser instead.
I think it renders pages better and it also includes flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
which version should i dl for tmobile us? vga or qvga? the hd2 specs say it is wvga? thanks.
nevermind...answer is on uzard web page. thanks!

as long as you have data plan you will be able to surf. You will have to download vga version for hd2.
if you dont have data plan on ur phone you will not be able to browse anymore. tmobile have patched loop hole. so no browser will allow you access to internet unless you are having data plan. however you can access free websites offered by tmo usa using ie or opera mobile 10. skyfire , opera mobile 5 and uZardWebP will not work.

I have the Shadow data plan.

different speeds while using different browsers

i have been using opera mobile 10 and windows explorer as my main browsers and i was getting between 50- 450kbps at mobilespeedtest.com, but today i downloaded opera mini 5 which is great by the way, and ran the test and came up with 1958kbps & 1978kpbs, is this the actuall speed or is opera mini causing it to spike like that.

last time i run the test using IE on my touch pro2 i got 7+MBps.

opera mini fetches the page on their server then sends to your phone, so the speed u got is actually their sever to mobilespeedtest, not actually your phone to mobilespeedtest

The only browser that gives accurate speed test results is Opera Mobile. This is the only browser for WM that does not compress packets or manipulate data links in any way before sending it to your device. All processing is done on the device end. IE compresses data packets before they get to your device giving fluctuating results. Opera Mini, Uzard, and previously Skyfire all render pages remotely and then pass the rendered page onward to the device.