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Sometimes you will come across a website that does not have a mobile optimized version and does not render well in mobile IE.  There are of course a couple of options available to you, you can try Opera Mini, or you can try out Netfront. 

The new version includes a lot of speed improvements over the old one, how much faster I cannot say, I have never used the old version, however from experience with other browser technologies on the Tilt, this one is certainly promising.

One of the neat features is the virtual canvas, the browser will mimic the size of a standard desktop browser, so that sites that normally don’t render in 320×240, render nicely and the browser will allow you to zoom and scroll over the site with simple dragging of the stylus or using the keypad.  The scrolling is smooth and fluid and works really well.

The draw back of course is that if you have a limited data plan this might not be the best solution for you, because the full version of the site will be downloaded, which makes downloading pages a little slow at times.

One good example of better rendering is slashdot.  The site does not render well in IE and there is no mobile version available.  In Netfront it renders just like you were viewing on a desktop browser.  The one noticeable glitch is the slashdot header isn’t fully showing, but since its still a beta/concept version I’ll let it slide.  It could also be related to the device itself, as in IE it doesn’t render fully either.

The image on the left shows Netfront, the image on the right shows standard IE.  As you can see the Netfront rendering is much cleaner and is a more accurate representation of the site.

If you feel adventurous though, check it out.  Be warned this is a concept version and it will expire 31st August 2008.

Check it out here.

Chris Motch (4 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook