Today Bitstream released version 1.5 of their free Bolt browser. Bolt is a Java ME app and runs on most phones. If you are using a previous version of Bolt should be prompted to update as soon as you try to visit a web page. If you don’t already have Bolt, visit boltbrowser.com with your mobile browser or boltbrowser.com/download.html using a PC browser and follow the prompts to download and install Bolt 1.5. With 1.5 Bolt loses its Beta label … Continue reading
Today AT&T and Opera announced the impending release of four new feature phones with a: “faster HTML mobile browser and att.net service, combining the best of full HTML browsing with unique features for personalizing favorite bookmarks and local searches. The new att.net mobile platform utilizes advanced data compression from Opera Software, allowing for much faster delivery of HTML Web pages.” The press release is short on details about the browser, which is branded as att.net rather than Opera, but I … Continue reading
The words “Coming very soon: The next generation in mobile browsing” and a map jigsaw puzzle image appeared on Opera Software’s “teaser” page at opera.com/next/. Opera used a similar page during the PR buildup leading to the release of Opera Unite. Five days before Unite’s release, Opera posted a page reading “On June 16th at 9 AM (CET) we will reinvent the Web” If Opera follows the same model this time we should expect something new in mobile browsing five … Continue reading
At the Nokia World keynote today, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvou (OPK) called the N900 the “best browser device ever”. Strong words and clearly aimed at the iPhone which is often said to have the best mobile browser. I’m really hoping that OPK is right as I don’t consider the iPhone’s browser all that great. It’s OK, with pretty good rendering and JavaScript support and it’s easy to use. I don’t even mind that it doesn’t support Flash, personally I wish … Continue reading
Late yesterday SkyFire released version 1.1 of their namesake browser for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 and Symbian S60 3rd edition. You can download SkyFire 1.1 to your phone or PC from get.skyfire.com. I’ve been using SkyFire since the first Symbian release over a year ago. From the beginning it has done an amazing job with videos. It’s the only mobile browser that lets you watch the Flash videos on almost any web site including, YouTube, Daily Motion, Vimeo, Veoh, … Continue reading
It’s a big news day in the mobile world today with Nokia announcing a netbook, Spinvox spokesman and well known mobile blogger James Whatley leaving the beleaguered company and Google openning submissions for the second Android Developer Challenge. Somewhat lost in the flurry of news were a couple of other stories that I think will have a big long term impact on the way we develop for and use our mobile devices. First up, TorchMobile announced that they have been … Continue reading
About a month ago All About Symbian‘s Rafe Blandford published an extensive set of browser speed test results. Rafe compared page load times for ten well known US and UK sites using eght different Nokia S30 3rd and 5th editon devices plus the T-Mobile G1, iPhone 3G, Skyfire and Opera Mini. Latter Matthew Miller at Smartphones and Cellphones updated Rafe’s data with numbers for the iPhone 3GS and Opera Mobile 9.7. Rafe and Matthew’s data showed that smartphone browsers are … Continue reading
Photo: Yummy Scummy by Zach Manchester – Some Rights Reserved There’s been quite a stir lately about the viability of the Web on mobile devices with various folks pronouncing it inferior especially in comparison with mobile applications. Yesterday Malcolm Murphy at Mobile Industry Review blasted; “Can we all admit that ‘Mobile Web’ is total rubbish? ” He pointed out that there’s a huge gap in performance and usability between web apps in desktop browsers and those on phone. Specifically; Mobile … Continue reading