Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of both Bloglines and Skweezer. But together they drive me a little mad. Bloglines is the only RSS reader I use both on PC and mobile. I don’t really consider Bloglines Mobile to be a mobile site, in spite of it’s name. All unread posts in a feed display together on a single page, so any feed with more than few items is too big for most phones to even display. Saving … Continue reading
Update; The latest release of Opera Mini is version 3.1, read about it here. There is a new beta of the next release of Opera Mini available for download. I’m sure you’ve heard of Opera Mini, but in case you haven’t, it’s a free Java ME browser that is faster, more capable and has a more efficient UI than almost any of the browsers that come pre-installed on phones. There’s a page of information about the new release and download … Continue reading
There were 34.6 US mobile web users as of June, 2006 according to a recent report. The numbers are in a press release (pdf), announcing the Telephia Mobile Internet Report. The full report is available only to Telephia’s clients who are “leading Mobile Operators, Device Manufacturers, and Content Companies”. The numbers in the press release say a lot about the current state of the mobile web but being just highlights of the full report they raise questions too. You can’t … Continue reading
My fellow mobilist and host of this weeks Carnival of the Mobilists, Daniel Taylor at Mobile Enterprise Weblog has posted an interesting piece on mobile web usability or lack there of. Daniel’s article, Who Designs This Stuff? describes the difficulties and frustrations that he experienced trying to accomplish something on the mobile web that should have been easy – getting the arrival time of a airline flight. The problems Daniel experienced are typical of the frustration that many users experience … Continue reading
Does Opera Mini represent the future of mobile browsing? I don’t know for sure but I do believe it is the best mobile browser for most users right now. As most of you probably know, Opera Mini, or Mini for short, is a free Java ME application that can run on most current and many older phones. Mini is a small (100KB) application that implements a full html web browser that rivals and in many cases exceeds the performance of … Continue reading
Lately I’ve been playing around with my old Sony Clie SJ30 which runs Palm OS 4.1. I managed to tether it to an equally old Motorola i50sx iDEN mobile phone and soon I was browsing the web on the “big” 320×320 px screen during my commute on the train. That was pretty cool. I tried a bunch of different Palm browsers from the ancient (but free) text only Palmscape and Eudora Web to several commercial browsers, the best of which … Continue reading
Another sign of the coming explosion in mobile data and browsing. Google, one of the web’s Big Three has acquired Waterloo, Ontario based Reqwireless. Reqwireless was best know for it’s WebViewer a Java ME browser that works like Opera Mini using a Web Service to transform desktop web content for handheld display. WebViewer worked quite well, loaded in only 51KB and was compatible with many more phones than Opera Mini currently is. WebViewer sold for $20 which included unlimited upgrades … Continue reading
Opera Mini, the Java ME web browser which provides the best possible mobile browsing experience on most phones is now available as a free download to users anywhere in the world. The browser, which uses a proxy to compress and reformat desktop websites for optimal usability on the small screens of mobile phones, has been undergoing a phased rollout. Initially Opera Mini was only available in Norway and later in all of Scandinavia. If your phone and carrier supports over … Continue reading