Web Browser Wednesday
I have been the proud owner of the HP iPAQ 5455 for over a year now and it is great having the built-in wireless capabilities. One thing that every Pocket PC lacks in my opinion is a great browser. Opera has a nice mobile browser that I played with but I wasn’t compelled to purchase it after the 30-day trial. NetFront is also really nice but I ran into the same problem…I didn’t use it enough to fork out the money.
For a few months now I have stuck with Internet Explorer because I only browse the Web on my Pocket PC for no more than 20 minutes a day. Last week I took a stroll over to see how Minimo (Mozilla’s mobile browser) was coming along. I had checked on it a few months ago when it was in the very early/almost unusable stage and I thought it would be time to take another look at it. They had some nice screenshots up and I thought so I would give it a shot (yes, screenshots are an amazing selling point with me).
Being that it was only version 0.016 I didn’t have much hope that it would be a success. A primary reason I was installing it was because they provided a CAB installer for the Pocket PC, which meant I could download it directly on my iPAQ and install it without ever needing to dock it to my desktop PC. After the short download and installation I had it running…and I was very impressed.
Playing around with it more and more made me realize that this is truly a mini-Firefox. Checkout these screenshots and judge for yourself:
Overall I would have to say that it runs pretty smooth even though it does seem a little sluggish if I open multiple tabs, but I don’t do that on my Pocket PC much. I won’t be trading this browser in because it is a much better alternative to Pocket IE! Hopefully Mozilla will see a value in making a mobile browser and will continue to fine tune it.
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Tags: CyberNotes, Software
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I used a PDA for a very short time period as it really did not offer me enough. To mwe web browsing on it was just not very good because of the small screen.
What I am looking forward to are smaller tablet style PC’s in the size range of what you see on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Those would be really useful.
They will be coming someday. I just hope it is while I am still around.
A lot of people are looking for something that they can carry in their pockets which is why the Blackberry has really become popular. I like having the Pocket PC because it offers me a good way to stay organized and also the ability to stay connected (assuming I have a WiFi connection).
It’s odd - I hear a lot about this Blackberry thing, yet as I live in England have never seen one.
My Dad has a Palm Pilot Tungsten E, and it’s a great little organizer, plays some fun games and can double as a music, video and picture viewer. It lacks wireless, so has no internet capability, but that Minimo sounds like the browser I’d use if it did.
I also have a employer-issued Blackberry. The web browser is aweful. I can check scores on ESPN and some news from CNN and that’s about it. Minimo looks great. Maybe not the best place for this question but what Pocket PC is the preferred? Are those screen captures from a Compact iPAQ?
inferno_st1ke: The Blackberry’s are really really popular over here except for the fact that it will run you about $150 a month for service. That’s a little outrageous in my opinion but most people seem to get one from their employer like Lorenzo said.
Lorenzo: I own the iPAQ and I don’t think I would buy any other Pocket PC besides an iPAQ. I have owned 3 different models and I have loved them all. I don’t really have any other experience with the other brands so I am not sure which is better
I got the screenshots from the Minimo Web site but it looks exactly the same when I run it on my iPAQ, so they may have been taken on an iPAQ.
I owned 2 Dell Axim PDA’s and they were both great. Never had any problems with them at all.