browser

Surfy alternate IE shell for WP7 having a hard time getting to market

March 17, 2011 | By Surur

Alternate IE shells are pretty popular on Windows Phone 7, and Surfy is the latest to try and bring something new to the Windows Phone 7 browsing experience.

The browser offers tabbed browsing, and features a slightly more intuitive method of switching tabs than the native IE browser.

The app features:

Tabbed browsing. Flick to move between tabs or jump to a tab by selecting it from a list of all tabs.
Full-screen viewing. Maximise screen real estate by switching to full-screen view. Switch back instantly using a semi-transparent button.
Open links in their own tabs. With Surfy you can open links either in the same tab or in a new tab.
Autocomplete – searches as you type.
Supports landscape and portrait orientations.
Supports locking of page orientation.
Assisted browsing with auto-complete. Surfy suggests links by searching the web as you type in the URL box.
Set your default page.
Manage Favorites.
Share a page/link via email.
Open in Internet Explorer.
Comprehensive help – A user feedback system where you can report a bug, or suggest new features to help make Surfy better.
Plus many more features in the making.
It’s free!

There were some confusion earlier that the Marketplace Certification has turned down the app due to duplicating the IE browser too closely, due to “failed testcase 2.1 because its primarily functionality is a web browsing experience“. It later turned out this was however a miscommunication, and the Surfy husband and wife coding team have been asked to re-submit their app.

Surfy should therefore not yet be available, but should hit the Marketplace soon.

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Opera Web Browser Coming To Windows Phone 7 At CTIA? (Updated – No)

March 17, 2011 | By Pradeep

Opera Software today announced that its web browser is coming to Windows Phone 7. Opera will show the browser at CTIA Wireless conference to be held next week. Its a surprising move by Opera, but the question here will be whether Microsoft will allow 3rd party web browsers into the marketplace. Recently, there were reports that Microsoft has blocked app by Daniel Vaughan and Katka Vaughan because of the reason its primarily functionality is a web browsing experience. I’m not sure its true, but will update the same when I get more info. Also we have reached out to Opera about this matter. Will update on that too, when we get info from them.

Opera full press release after the break,

Update: Here is the Opera’s comments,

Yes indeed the press release is correct. It is WIndows 7, I know it is a bit confusing but Windows 7 (the desktop OS) is also used on certain tablets and touch desktop devices. This version of Opera Mobile 11 is for the first time to optimized for tablets – hence the connection.

Hope that clarifies it.

So no Opera Web Browser for Windows Phone 7 for now.

Via: PocketNow

Continue reading →

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IE9 on Windows Phone 7 being shown off at South by South West

March 14, 2011 | By Surur

ie9wp7

We posted a few weeks ago that IE9 may be pushed out to Windows Phone 7 much sooner than the Mango update will arrive. We cant confirm yet if this will happen or not, but what is certain is that IE9 seems to be mature enough to be taken out into the wilds and shown off in real life at the huge South by South West Social Media convention.

Joe Marina, who is a Windows Phone 7 program manager, has just tweeted that he will be showing off the new browser at the Microsoft booth, so if you are wandering around in Austin make a point of heading that way and maybe catch a bit of video of the software in action.

Via LiveSide.net

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Another HTML5 demo on Windows Phone 7

February 18, 2011 | By Surur

WPcentral recorded these videos of Microsoft’s developer day at MWC 2011, showing the latest HTML5 features of the updated IE Mobile browser.

They note that the WP7 team still have the ability to push out out of cycle updates just for the browser, but we suspect that is rather unlikely.

See a longer 7 minute video with more detail for developers after the break.

Continue reading →

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IE9 on Windows Phone 7 will make browsing much faster than iPhone

February 14, 2011 | By Surur

In the above video by 99Percentage, we have Joe Belfiore demonstrating IE9 on a current gen Windows Phone 7 handset with the IE9 update promised today, and the video demonstrates the benefit of hardware acceleration in the browser, with the Windows Phone 7 handset managing to render 50 fish using HTML5 smoothly, while Safari on the iPhone 4 appearing to struggle with only a few.

The improvements Microsoft is bringing to the browser on Windows phone 7 is doing a lot to reduce demand for other third part browsers, and it seems Microsoft may be able to tout it as the best browser, even across platforms also.

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Windows Phone 7 “Mango” update will bring IE9 Mobile

February 10, 2011 | By Surur

IE9 brings mobile geo-location support

ZDNet’s Mary Joe Foley has shaken down her contacts, and have come away with a few more bits for the rumour mill.

The first, somewhat obvious but still encouraging, is that the rumoured “Mango” update will bring HTML5 support to Windows phone 7 using a mobile version of IE9. Supporting this is that the RC release of IE9 contains geo-location support, which Microsoft said the browser inherited (a bit backwardly) from the mobile build of the software.

She also notes that the browser may not bring in-browser Silverlight support anymore, which is probably just as well, as it would likely slow the browser down.

Further updates, either with Mango, or after, should bring twitter integration to the People Hub, and 3rd party multi-tasking support.

Ominously Mary Joe suggests that Mango has slipped from August/September to “Holiday 2011”, and that these may be the only updates for 2011, though apparently Paul Thurrott disagrees with this.

SurfCube 2.0 teased, shows joystick and tabs(Updated)

February 5, 2011 | By Surur

I am sure most of us never expected to need a joystick to browse the web, but Kinabalu Innovation’s SurfCube 3D browser shows it may actually come in quite handy. The developer’s of SurfCube are open to feedback and suggestions and they noted us that many of the features added are from user’s feedback.

The video shows of version 2.0 of his software, which is still to hit Marketplace, and which brings many features demanded by users, including tab support. Here is the change log from v1.3:

V2.0

- Added Tab browsing:

- History is now on top side, Tabs are on left

- Unlimited tabs, but we do optimize for memory usage

- long press on links opens them in background or new foreground tab

- Open favorites in new tabs with a new button next to them

- Open tabs are remembered between sessions (except in Private Mode)

- Added joystick navigation based on user feedback, especially for HTC devices with capacitive buttons.

- Drag the joystick to rotate the cube

- Tap the joystick to go back to browser side

- Flick the joystick for really fast navigation on the cube

- Long press the joystick to change size and position

- turn the joystick on or off in settings

- Reset joystick settings with one button

- Brand new cube rotation logic: smoother and should get rid of the occasional glitches

- Reworked tutorial to show off new features

- Page title is now detected even before the page loads

- Small Usability tweaks all over

- Brand new tips section

SurfCube costs $1.99. The current version of SurfCube can be found here, with version 2 expected in the next few weeks.

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Chrome to WP7 now supports IE 8,9, other browsers

December 6, 2010 | By Surur

internet-explorer-logo1 The only major issue with Chrome to WP7 is that it only supported Chrome, which only has about 15% market share.

This problem did not last long however, with Chrome to WP7, which lets one send links from the desktop to one’s phone, now also having an accelerator for IE8 and IE9, and a bookmarklet for all other browsers (Firefox, Opera, Safari, et al). Chrome to WP7 still however needs to be set up first on the desktop.

Via MobilityDigest.com

5

Opera Link for Windows Phone 7 coming

December 1, 2010 | By Surur

Opera_Link Now we know its not easy to bring alternate browser engines to Windows Phone 7, but like the iPhone alternate browser shells using the IE Mobile engine are more than welcome, as we have already seen with a number of clients.

It now appears a Windows phone 7 client of Opera Link is in the offing. The client, by Opera intern and Windows phone 7 developer Martin Rauscher promises to provide access to data on Opera Link, including bookmarks, speed dial and notes.

It is not clear if its an official or unofficial client, but much of the source code can be found on Github here.

Now we only need a similar Weave client for Firefox (as they have done for the iPhone) and we would have moved as far as we can go without actually having an alternate rendering engine.

Thanks dropqube for the tip.

3

2nd third party browser shell for Windows Phone 7 offer better landscape support

November 29, 2010 | By Surur

WPCentral has published this review of Browse On, a new IE Shell for Windows Phone 7.

The main differentiating feature is again the use of tabs, but the browser also offers better landscape support.

The software, which costs $0.99, does not offer the incognito browsing of Browser Plus, suggesting current owners of that software are better of waiting for an update from that company.

On the other hand, its only $0.99…

The software can be found in Marketplace here.

Windows Phone 7 browser virtually as fast as the iPhone 4’s

November 22, 2010 | By Surur

Jeff Gregory from Wirefly.com has passed us this video of their simple browser speed test of Windows Phone 7’s IE Mobile vs Safari on the iPhone 4.

While he felt the Samsung Focus finished loading faster, a frame by frame examination does show the iPhone had 1 second on the Focus.

It is however very clear there is not much between the two handsets, making browser performance another non-factor in choosing between the two devices.

Thanks Jeff for the tip.

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Chrome to WP7 pushes desktop links to your phone

November 22, 2010 | By Surur

Developer Dave Amenta has just created the dream application for users who start their browsing on the desktop and continue it on their phone (likely in the bathroom).

The app, which has just been submitted in Marketplace, gives you the ability to quickly send links and selected text from within the desktop Chrome browser to your Windows Phone.

A push notification is sent to the phone, which will show up as a toast, and upon opening the app, a list of your most recent links and text are available, regardless of whether or not the push notification succeeded. From within the app, you may email the Title/URL/Text, or open the link.

The app is still waiting for Marketplace certification, but the software is already available for iPhone and Android, and the desktop portion can be downloaded here.

Via MobilityDigest.com

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Windows Phone 7 browser compared with iPhone and Android

November 19, 2010 | By Surur

People considering the Android platform should likely consider whether their devices are still the best alternative to the iPhone.

Batista70 have compared the Windows Phone 7 browser to the one on the iPhone 4 and the Android Acer Liquid.

Now I don’t understand a word of Italian, but what is pretty clear from the video is that the 1 Ghz Acer Liquid struggles pretty hard, while the Windows phone 7 browser is just as fast and smooth as the iPhone one.