<\/p>\n
Here’s a look at the capabilities of the Dolfin <\/span>browser on the Samsung Wave <\/span>Bada handset that I got at the Bada Developer Day<\/a> in San Francisco on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Dolfin is a WebKit based browser.\u00a0 Webkit is used as the basis of the majority of smartphone browsers including those from Nokia, Palm, Android, Apple and soon RIM.\u00a0 Although all these browsers are based on the open source Webkit core, as PPK points out, “There is no Webkit on Mobile”<\/a>, instead there are many mobile Webkit implementations with\u00a0 huge differences between them in usability and rendering.<\/p>\n
I started by running a couple of\u00a0 HTML5 compatibility tests on Dolfin;\u00a0 the W3C’s Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers version 2<\/a> and Momac’s HTML5 Test<\/a>, both of which are comprehensive tests of a large number of HTML5 elements, attributes and JavaScript methods.<\/p>\n
So on paper at least, Dolfin does a pretty good with HTML5 compliance, what of its real world performance and usability? In most areas it’s good.\u00a0 Google delivers the iPhone\/Android HTML5 versions of Search, Gmail, Maps and Calendar to it, all of which worked very well. Google Search and Maps were able to retrieve and use my location.\u00a0 Google Maps (image top, left) is particularly impressive in Dolfin with quick, smooth scrolling and zooming. It’s hard to tell that its not a native app. Google Reader defaulted to the WAP version but I was able to load the iPhone Reader at www.google.com\/reader\/i\/ <\/a>and it worked perfectly too.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, JavaScript bookmarklets<\/a> do not work in Dolfin.<\/p>\n
Here’s a look at the capabilities of the Dolfin browser on the Samsung Wave Bada handset that I got at the Bada Developer Day in San Francisco on Tuesday. Dolfin is a WebKit based browser.\u00a0 Webkit is used as the basis of the majority of smartphone browsers including those from Nokia, Palm, Android, Apple and soon RIM.\u00a0 Although all these browsers are based on the open source Webkit core, as PPK points out, “There is no Webkit on Mobile”, instead … Continue reading