Menneisyys

IMPORTANT NOTE: this is the nth part of my MWC (Barcelona) report series (a lot more to come!). Of course, I’ll try to cross-post them here too (I couldn’t do so while in Barcelona because of the very slow & expensive Internet connection), but it’ll take a lot of time; in the meantime, feel free to check out the original articles. It’s REALLY worth checking out them: many of them contain info that you won’t ever read anywhere else. Furthermore, some of the more “thematic” articles discuss all the news of a given area (audio encoding, Web browsing, advanced Bluetooth etc.)

MWC: New, revolutionary chipsets & related info: Samsung, Imagination, Qualcomm

MWC Audio Encoding News Roundup; Skype cracked!

MWC: Breaking Sony-Ericsson XPERIA X1 news & pics!

MWC: Bluetooth news: A2DP news & reviews (e.g. Voyager 855); a new BT access point; Nokia’s new DVB-H transmitter

MWC: Web browsing: WebKit, Thunderhawk news; a dedicated Web browser handheld

MWC: the competition: BlackBerry (RIM) and Nokia

MWC: Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 to come with WM 6.5?

MWC: a really-really great e-paper & WindowsCE- based (!) phone & reader from Polymer Vision: Readius – the first foldable(!) e-book reader ever

MWC: more S-E Xperia X1 shots & info; it'll be based on the Qualcomm chipset?

MWC: more S-E Xperia X1 info & photos

MWC Report Part I: Opera Mobile 9.5 pics, i-mate, Nokia, MS Press Conference, MSN Direct news etc.

OK, now, to the article:

This is the promised continuation of my previous MWC article, "MWC: Web browsing: WebKit, Thunderhawk news; a dedicated Web browser handheld"

Iris - another WebKit port from Torch Mobile

In the previous Web browsing-related MWC article, I’ve elaborated on Wake3’s WebKit port, which is, as opposed to what some say, is in no way waporware.

The developer, Torch Mobile, already has a more or less working and testable, albeit VERY (as of version 1.0.4) unstable, public version of the browser. It’s available for download HERE. Note that it’s WM6 and Pocket PC only – pre-WM6 and/or touchscreen-less MS Smartphone (WM6 Standard) devices won’t work.


(VGA Pocket PC; note that, just like with Wake3’s (current) version, it requires extensive horizontal scrolling with most pages on QVGA devices as it has no “Fit to screen” or “One column” mode)

It’s VERY slow and some links just aren’t clickable. (For example, I was unable to execute the Acid2 test because the link was just not clickable on the homepage; it was only the pre-rendered reference shot that I could click).

Other (menu) screenshots:
Navigate menu
Page / Tools
Page / Zoom
Page / Tabs

All in all, the current version is pretty much useless. Let’s hope future versions will be better, though.

Access’ Netfront 3.5 (current Technical Preview)



I’ve also very thoroughly spoken to the Access folks on the fate of version 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5. Most importantly, I asked them what happened to 3.4; how come they haven’t ever released 3.4 for the masses as a purchasable product, and how come they have already released a Technical Preview of 3.5, even without 3.4 having been released.

After some serious communication problems (the Access guy I spoke to at first didn’t seem to really understand English; after my having repeated the question at least ten times and he’s still not answering it but starting to speak about something completely different (it was a very technical question, which I couldn’t have explained straight in Japanese)), fortunately, we received help.





I’ve been told 3.4 is only sold and offered for OEM’s and not end users. This is why they withdrew 3.3 from Handango and other retail sources (which, incidentally, also led to our having to withdraw it from the Best Software Awards 2007) and this is why there isn’t a sign of Netfront 3.4 in anywhere, except for being pre-installed on some OEM models.

The only aim of Access’ releasing 3.4 Technical Previews for the masses was to collect bug reports and, consequently, improving on their product. Also, the current 3.5 is an enhanced version of 3.4 (with, of course, the well-known TP restrictions like the lack of Flash), which already contains some bugfixes / enhancements based on the reports / feedback of existing, final 3.4 users.

I’ll try to get a fully-working (read: not Flash / Java-less) version for a test because the Access guys stated they have also fixed the major Flash issues (for example, the 100% CPU usage).

Server-side transcoders

I’ve tested (or, at least, run into) the offers of some other, server-side Web content transcoders. The Israeli InfoGin is one of them.



InfoGrin is a recoding / transforming technology (main product homepage HERE) like Skweezer, which (unlike Skweezer or any of the web content encoding / transcoding services I’ve reviewed for example HERE) must be run on the mobile operator’s side. This means the server intercepts all HTTP requests (unless it’s configured to bypass them – this is also possible) and, consequently, you can enter traditional, “real” URL’s in the address bar of your Web browser. Note that for example on the screenshot below, you will still see the direct URL of the “non-hidden” transformer service (which isn’t very good for the casual user); the InfoGin folks assured me this won’t be the case when deployed on a mobile operator’s Internet access infrastructure as a service intercepting page request calls.

By default, it produces something like Skweezer, but has some additional goodies; for example, it collects all the links from the top / bottom of the page and presents them in a separate ‘links’ dialog. (BTW, implementing this – it isn’t at all hard – would be pretty useful in other browsers as well.) For example, this is why there aren’t any (author) links at the top of the page in the following shot:



Incidentally, you may also see that, in the above shot (showing our blogs), the entire text is underlined. This might be caused by the InfoGin’s parser not being able to correctly parse HTML pages. The second chunk (as I’ll also explain, it, as with the comparable technologies, breaks up long(er) pages to small, mobile friendlier chunks) of the same original page, on the other hand, no longer showed the same problem:



BTW, this technique is pretty well demoed in their online demo (see the “See a Demo” link on the left.) Unfortunately, there isn’t any online, true demos of their technology anywhere – they seem to have shut down the one they’ve used as the demo server.

It, as with Skweezer and most other, comparable techniques, breaks up long pages into (more) manageable chunks.

Beeweeb’s Mobile Web Toolkit




I’ve also talked to another company, Beeweeb, on their Mobile Web Toolkit. It provides Web mobilizing capabilities for companies with strong Web presence, wanting to quickly present optimized versions of their pages. They explained the given company can quickly define what to present (what to keep, what to abandon) in a quick drag-and-drop session. Should you want to give their solution a try, just download the free version.

__________________
MS MVP- Mobile Devices.

buzzzqwert

I wonder why Netfront dropped the auto-fill of previously typed usernames and passwords in 3.5. It has always been part of Netfront right up through and including 3.4. I have some specific sites I go to that require more than one layer of login's and Netfront was my browser for those sites. Now I use Opera or PIE as long as I have to key in everyting, why open Netfront?

Can anyone explain the idea behind the spinning wheel of favorites (visual bookmark)? If I have a list of 30 favorites I don't want to click on 30 pictures in order to get to the one I want and that's only if I remember which number it is. Is it me and I don't understand its use or has anyone else simply unchecked the visual favorites box in favor of the "old" list and folder approach?

Menneisyys

Originally Posted by buzzzqwert

Is it me and I don't understand its use or has anyone else simply unchecked the visual favorites box in favor of the "old" list and folder approach?

I've done the same - it's an eye candy but pretty useless in practice.

__________________
MS MVP- Mobile Devices.