Makayama TouchBrowser for Pocket PC

Ever because the launch of the iPhone, software program corporations and cellular gadget producers alike have been tripping over themselves to carry the revolutionary net searching expertise of the iPhone to Windows Mobile/Symbian/Palm OS units.

Obvious examples are the likes of Opera and Mozilla who’ve been busy updating the core performance of their browsers to allow options like resizable fullscreen searching. Also, Microsoft has shortly circled an replace to its Windows Mobile platform with extra finger- (slightly than stylus-) pleasant navigation and a greater Internet Explorer (IE) browser being the important thing enhancements.

So far, although, solely Opera has embraced the only most user-friendly characteristic of the cellular Safari browser; that of with the ability to transfer round a webpage by dragging your finger – even the up to date IE has eschewed the concept. Unfortunately, whereas each Opera Mobile and Opera Mini are very succesful browsers, their implementations of finger-scrolling are slightly clunky. In specific, when scrolling, pages transfer with a stutter and there’s no assist for prime pace scrolling by flicking your finger throughout the display. To put it merely, there’s undoubtedly room for enchancment.

So, with this lack of a very compelling resolution from the big-boys, smaller builders have had the chance to make a splash on this doubtlessly large market place. And the primary out the door is Makayama, with its TouchBrowser (full marks for unique naming) – a full display, finger-friendly net browser for Windows Mobile.

The software program was launched solely a few days in the past and also you in all probability noticed Gordon’s news story asserting that truth however, being software program, all that’s required to obtain a evaluate pattern is a fast alternate of emails and a brief watch for the recordsdata to obtain – no couriers getting misplaced this time. So, right here we’re at the moment with just a few units loaded up with TouchBrowser and we’re prepared for a full evaluation.

TouchBrowser is out there for Windows Mobile 2003, Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6 and all variations value the identical €11.95 (approx just below a tenner) for a time-unlimited single person license. In comparability, the present cellular browser favorite, Opera Mobile, prices $24 whereas Safari is clearly unique to the iPhone and iPod Touch and also you get Internet Explorer free with all Windows Mobile units. So, contemplating the choices, it’s not a foul value or at the very least so it appears.

Unlike all the opposite Mobile browser alternate options, TouchBrowser is definitely simply an extension of Internet Explorer so paying ten quid only for the sake of not utilizing a stylus appears slightly steep. Also, as a consequence of this it makes use of IE’s (slightly poor) rendering engine so that you’ll typically discover dodgily formatted net pages with footage, tables and menus scattered all over. Having stated that, if the browser gives a easy, easy-to-use, really finger-friendly searching expertise it’s going to immediately go to the highest of our net browser want checklist, even when just a few pages do look a bit odd.

We began by loading TouchBrowser onto two smartphones we had mendacity around the workplace, specifically the HTC Touch and HTC TYTN II. These each already had Opera Mobile on them and for the sake of comparability we additionally loaded them up with Opera Mini.

The set up course of for TouchBrowser (OK, regardless of the questionable inference to a slightly grim illness, I’m referring to it as TB any further) is extremely easy. Just one ”.cab” file is required to put in on Windows Mobile 6 units, whereas the Windows Mobile 5 and 2003 variations require simply two. Whichever model you select it’s only a case of dragging and dropping the recordsdata to your cellphone, and even downloading them straight from the website, and setting them operating. A few confirmations and an activation later and also you’re up and operating.

The very first thing you discover if you begin TB is that it instantly fills all the space of your cellphone’s display. It’s utterly devoid of any controls so not one pixel of display house is wasted. And, in contrast to some browsers which have a fullscreen ”possibility”, with TB it’s full display or nothing. At first this generally is a little disconcerting, particularly as I couldn’t for the lifetime of me initially work out how one can exit the browser. Once you compromise into it, although, you realise that that is how cellphone browsers ought to at all times have been. After all, if you’re really viewing a web page, why would you need to have menus, deal with bars, and all the opposite detritus that different browsers have cluttering the view?

A couple of seconds after you cease touching the display, a row of enormous straightforward to press buttons will seem. Alternatively, urgent the up button in your cellphone/PDA’s controls can even activate this menu. The buttons are all giant sufficient to be simply activated by a finger with out worry of urgent the unsuitable one. From these you’ll be able to enter an internet deal with, exit this system (studying the assistance web page doesn’t let you know that this requires a double faucet), search Google (that’s the query mark), return a web page, open the settings menu, and change between single column (cellular) and full web page (desktop) browser modes.

When you enter the Google search or URL entry web page, a keyboard of fingertip sized alphanumeric buttons fills the display, enabling you to shortly and simply enter searches and net addresses. By default TB places the vowels alongside the highest row and lists the remainder of the letters and numbers beneath it. This is slightly unusual at first however you get used to it over time. However, in the event you do need to change to a extra acquainted structure you’ll be able to select to have the letters listed in normal alphabetical order. Oddly, although, there’s no possibility for a QWERTY sort structure, which many individuals would like. Also there doesn’t seem like a approach of getting into extra unusual symbols like ‘-‘, which is sort of an unforgivable flaw.

The variety of browser settings may be very restricted. You can set the homepage, the period of time it’s a must to watch for the menu to look, the keyboard structure, and you can too view the assistance and about pages.

As talked about, TB simply makes use of Internet Explorer to render webpages so viewing sophisticated web sites like TrustedReviews can lead to some very odd layouts. More importantly, although, IE doesn’t have a approach of zooming out and in of webpages so that you’re at all times caught viewing one tiny portion of the web page at a time, which might result in irritating quantities of scrolling.

Of course, that is the place TB’s greatest weapon comes into play as you’ll be able to transfer the web page round along with your finger identical to it have been a bit of paper and, better of all, you’ll be able to flick the display to set the web page free scrolling identical to on the iPhone. This lets you scan webpages in a short time and makes the duty of navigating fullscreen pages a lot simpler. However, once we first tried this we discovered the motion to be utterly erratic and after a little bit of analysis and a few headscratching we discovered that the TouchFlo options on the 2 check telephones have been interfering with the finger scrolling.

Indeed, a fast go on an older HTC TYTN that doesn’t have TouchFlo confirmed our suspicions, so we set about figuring out if there was a technique to get TB engaged on the TouchFLo enabled units. It seems it’s a must to flip off TouchFlo scrolling within the Windows Mobile registry – which you’ll be able to solely entry by downloading some particular software program. Once we’d performed this TB labored as anticipated.

Just because the video on youtube demonstrates the scrolling actually may be very easy and a lot better than something that’s come earlier than. However, it’s not with out its issues. Flicking the display requires far too exact and fast a movement for it to be constantly and simply carried out one-handed and all too typically I discovered myself accidently activating hyperlinks or solely transferring the web page a brief distance.
(centre)”TouchBrowser on the left, Opera Mobile centre, cropped sceenshot of Firefox desktop on proper.”(/centre)

Also, whereas the movement is easy, it nonetheless frequently lagged behind my finger actions and would each every now and then appear to have a thoughts of its personal. Don’t get me unsuitable, the movement is best than every other browser on the market and switching to cellular view made viewing less complicated pages an absolute breeze. However, the problems it has with sophisticated pages and the ensuing (and tiresome) flicking across the web page to compensate make it irritating to make use of regularly. By simply including the flexibility to zoom out, TB would have nailed it.

There are loads of different frustrations as effectively, like the actual fact you’ll be able to’t exit the URL entry web page with out following the hyperlink – one thing that’s made doubly annoying by the actual fact you’ll be able to’t cease pages loading. Furthermore, not solely does TB not have a historical past, it doesn’t even save URLs you typed in so the one technique to revisit a web page is to reserve it within the favourites. Ultimately, whereas TouchBrowser comes far nearer than every other browser to enabling stylus-free searching on Windows Mobile units, it lacks too many basic options to be advisable.

”’Verdict”’

Makayama has created a far superior interface to the usual Internet Explorer browser, bringing true finger-friendly navigation to the Windows Mobile platform. However, in addition to having just a few self-made annoyances, TouchBrowser is basically flawed by the truth that it’s primarily based on IE and has to work with the browser’s restrictive and restricted foibles. Even although it’s cheaper than Mobile Opera, we’d nonetheless stick to the latter.

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”’Addendum”’

Following my evaluate makayama contacted me and knowledgeable me that quite a few the problems raised, like no URL historical past and no hyphen on the keyboard have been mounted within the newest model they usually additionally inquired concerning the TouchFlo points I raised. Pointing out to them what wanted to be modified, they stated they’d try to make it so the TouchFlo skills may very well be turned off when the browser open and turned again on once more when the browser was closed.

A couple of weeks later, I’ve now had the prospect to check the most recent model and it might appear all of the little annoyances I discussed have certainly been mounted so the browser is significantly extra person pleasant. Currently the one TouchFlo resolution is a tickbox setting within the browser that requires the cellphone to be rebooted, so it’s not superb however higher than nothing. Of course, none of this actually modifications the truth that the underlying browser is a load of garbage however the added usability and low value would now earn this software program an ”’8/10”’ in my eyes. I.e. it’s undoubtedly value contemplating in the event you haven’t already purchased Mobile Opera.