Comments on: Window Mobile Needs some Browser Love!

By: TG

TG — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:34:30 +0000

Thank you Mike Temporale !!! Everybody constantly bashes IE on Win Mobile , calling it crap, but I stopped using Opera ( and I can’t use Safari on my iPod Touch ) for the very reason you mention. I don’t want to constantly zoom in and out and scroll left and right. The IE page reflow is the best, my device (Xperia ) has a keyboard and touch pad so I don’t need it to be thumb friendly so I actually use IE for mobile browsing , believe it or not !!

By: Shawn Roberts

Shawn Roberts — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:44:08 +0000

It sounds like HTTP 5 may obviate the need for flash. The concept of flash on a mobile browser sounds good, but it seems like in practice it is a headache that is unncessary.

By: Darren Humphries

Darren Humphries — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:21:16 +0000

Its a good point and actually HTC recognized that with the Hero. They made the browser so that it will reflow text to whatever zoom level you have. So, you end up with best of both worlds; full page view, but easy reading when needed.

Opera Mobile on WinMo is very close to being great, it just needs to have flash support. It will allow for desktop viewing or one column. It renders exceptionally quickly and has tabs.

I’m not saying Mobile IE is a dog – I still use it sometimes – but it should be a marquee browser and it isn’t. I’m hoping for “great” not “good enough”.

By: Mike Temporale

Mike Temporale — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:07:44 +0000

I knew I was going to get into trouble for that comment…

You see, on Standard devices IE Mobile has a really good feature and it actually works pretty well too. In One Column view, it will try and re-flow the columns on the page so that you don’t have to scroll from side to side. On web sites that don’t support mobile browsers, it works nicely to format the content to be readable on the device.

When using Safari, the page is displayed in desktop format which means way to much zoom out, scroll, zoom in, scroll left/right while reading, etc… it’s just not natural for me.

I’m all for better browsers, but I don’t want a desktop engine on my mobile device. It needs to be mobile-smart.

By: Darren Humphries

Darren Humphries — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:16:57 +0000

Mike, how can you say Mobile IE really works well and “Yes it’s slow. Yes it doesn’t support many of todays standards. Yes it’s limited in almost every way.” in the same comment?

Mobile IE is just not up to par with Mobile Safari or the Android browser. On WinMo Skyfire and Opera Mobile are much better than Mobile IE but still not good enough.

You need to spend some time with Mobile Safari to see what I mean.

I am hoping that Mobile IE in 6.5 is a lot better but I dont think we’ll see significant changes until WM7. I am truly hoping Microsoft proves me wrong.

By: Mike Temporale

Mike Temporale — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:35:03 +0000

I’ve had my fair share of issues with IE Mobile, but I have to be honest, it works really well, especially on Standard phones. Is it perfect? heck no! But it does have a very good One Column view that helps to view pages on a small screen.

Yes it’s slow. Yes it doesn’t support many of todays standards. Yes it’s limited in almost every way.

I have played with the new IE Mobile in 6.5 and it does do a much better job of loading the desktop version of the web page on a mobile screen, but I really don’t want to see the desktop version. Trim it down, show me everything in a single column.

I would like better, but don’t lose what good is already there.

By: Remo Knops

Remo Knops — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:51:12 +0000

I love the “lost my head here” part of the article !! )