Pocketnow Reviews MultiIE

[Pat Logsdon]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=503' target='_blank'>http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=po...=reviews&id=503</a><br /><br /></div><i>"One of the nicer features to be added to browsers recently was the ability to load multiple web pages, which you can easily switch between using a tabbed interface; Mozilla Firefox users: you are well aware of what I am referring to. Instead of multiple windows, you have one window with tabs for each separate page. When you move to the small screen, things aren't nearly as nice. In fact, Pocket Internet Explorer doesn't just not support a tabbed interface, it doesn't support "multiple instances" to allow you to open more than one web page at a time. For a quick look at a particular site, that isn't an issue, but, if you use your Pocket PC for more than incidental browsing, you'll find yourself often wishing you could open more than one page at a time. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to open multiple web pages, simultaneously, in PIE. Wouldn't it be even nicer if you could easily switch between them without having to use a task switcher program? "</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/logsdon_20041022_multi.gif" /> <br /><br />Pocketnow's Russ Smith takes a look at the application and I'm pretty sure he likes what he sees. I'm a NetFront ACCESS man myself, but I've used MultiIE in the past, and found it to be a decent program. Once you use a tabbed interface, you can't go back. :) MultiIE will <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&amp;jid=X86EA2118XC379F2B2B3XD54914D6969&amp;platformId=2&amp;productType=2&amp;productId=128159&amp;sectionId=0&amp;catalog=30&amp;topSectionId=-1">set you back $17.95,</a> and there IS a trial available. [Affiliate] For those of you that have used this, what's your take on how it compares to other similar programs?

[cuteseal]

If you're after a free multi-tabbed browser, get ftxpbrowser from here:
http://park15.wakwak.com/~ftx/ftxp3e/

[David Johnston]

If you're after a free multi-tabbed browser, get ftxpbrowser from here:
http://park15.wakwak.com/~ftx/ftxp3e/
D'oh, beat me to it :)

[Gerard]

Funny, I've never liked the tabs thing. A Pocket PC screen is small enough without losing even more of a web page to a tab bar, even one only 12 pixels high as I've tried setting them in MultiIE. I don't need to know the names of the 4 or 5 windows I might have open all the time, as for one it's a breeze to switch between them using GigaBar or any other decent swither bar, or even using MultiIE's own menu where full page names are displayed and tappable. If I ran tabs, I'd have three seperate ways to switch windows in PIE! Don't really need that much redundancy for such a simple function.

Otherwise, I've enjoyed MultiIE a great deal since it was released. Used Pete's freeware multi-window tool TapRight before that, helping him get the bugs worked out alongside x999x, or 999 as he was known then. Great softwares. While Pocket IE's many coding bugs and limitations still make the implementation of all MultiIE's tools such as saving images and text in all pages impossible, and still block the much sought after Search function within pages, the functions he's been able to add make PIE truly usable. Without it, well, I'd probably use a PC. Of course, ftxPBrowser is quite nice, and I use it once in a while. I miss the context menus in MultiIE though, having a handful of frequently-used links there all the time without having to go to the Favorites folder which is so slow to load (with over 700 links in it, anyway). Toggling fullscreen or the addressbar with buttons is very cool too, in both apps.

NetFront I use for banking and PayPal, and on the Dell forums where PIE won't work, and the odd other site which needs a fuller-featured Java browser. But for the most part NetFront is too slow, both internally and in the way it bogs down everything else I'm running. With an X-scale device one really shouldn't have to wait 3 or 4 seconds for the Start Menu to come down, as is always the case for me with NetFront running. Or with TextMaker for that matter, but at least TM is a massively powerful app, and I'm usually not multi-tasking when that's open as I am when using a browser.

[Stephen Beesley]

I am another one who has been using MultiIE pretty much from the first day that I mangaged to get my PPC (then a Jornada 545) connected to the net. MultiIE and NetFront have been living together on my PPC for at least a year now and I tend to use one or the other depending on what I am doing. NetFront seems to load pages a bit faster than PIE and the fit to screen options (especially Smartfit) means that I really find a page that I cannot read easily.

However, there are some features in MultiIE that make it very useful. In particular the context menu and being ablet to save a page as a txt file. I find this particulary good for news stories I want to keep a copy of. I also use the predefined prefix menu all the time.

All in all a great program.

[jasondearyou]

i'd sure like to use the double tab thing, cause it's just common sensie, looking up something in google, checking the news, posting a reply in pocketpc thoughts, while doing my email.
:mrgreen:

[Cortex]

are there any other FREE multi explorer view programs you folks recommend???

[ctmagnus]

Just a wee heads-up: I had the latest version running in my iPaq 5550. I had to do a hard-reset and restore my latest Sprite backup. MultiIE wouldn't initialize after the restore. PIE would, but the space that the MultiIE icons shoud be in had nothing.

I did another hard-reset and reinstalled everything because I had issues with other programs and settings, and all is fine now.

[sylvangale]

I think the only free multi-tab browser is the FTX browser mentioned in the second post of this thread. It works pretty well. I used it for WAP sites and stick with Netfront for everything else.

Anyone know of any features that MultiIE offers that would justify choosing that over the free FTX browser? Something other than tab-views?

[Gerard]

Here are a few shots showing the MultiIE-added context menus in PIE, with my link extensions, and Vito Mobile Downloader's plugin component:

http://www.luthier.ca/other/forum/multiie_features1.gif

http://www.luthier.ca/other/forum/multiie_features2.gif

http://www.luthier.ca/other/forum/multiie_features3.gif

Hope this explains it in part.

[lapchinj]

Once tabs were mentioned I had to try it. I haven't really used IE for a couple of years now so I figured this is the way to go on the PPC also. I looked at the ftxpbrowser browser but it's not out yet for 2003 but doesn't look worse than PIE. I guess I'll look for the 2003 version when it becomes available and watch what happens with it - thanks for the URL. (Maybe the site turned me off a little thinking that the product had the same mindset. MultiIE on the other hand seems to be a stable product with some very nice reviews, comments, bells and wistles.

At first I would have been much happier at first if MultiIE was an app for itself instead of being a mounted atop PIE. That sort of turned me off but I thought about this for a while and realized that on the desktop I just wanted to get away from IE whereas on the PPC I'm hoping it's more of an enhancement. I'll use the trial for a few days to see if something really sick turns up but for now it looks like it's a buy and well worth the $18 :).

It was good that I read the review first before loading it to the PPC (RTFM - is so very true) since if you try to load it to the storage card (where all apps should be able to be loaded) it doesn't copy the files to the correct places and the links become invalid when a reset is done. This I think is a major drawback - memory is still scarce and with people having 60 or more programs on their PPC's I think it's unforgivable not to be able to install to a storage card. This is the only reason I didn't buy it to begin with since if I start running low on memory I end up having to uninstall it :cry:.

Jeff-

[Menneisyys]

I've just fiished testing the latest (3.1) MultiIE because of its ability to set the wallpaper (I test all the programs that are able to do this because I'm currently working on an article wallpaper-related stuff under WM2003(SE)).

First and foremost, forget about its wallpaper functionality. It doesn't even try to convert / crop / resize the files it handles. It just downloads them into \Windows and renames them to tdycust.gif. By far the worst wallpaper setting "functionality" I've ever encountered.

Furthermore, the memory consumption of Version 3.1 on a VGA machine is 1 Mbytes/window (the PocketNow article still speaks of 360k/window). It may be intolerably large, especially on a 64MByte machine (hx4700, Dell x50v, A730).

[Gerard]

lapchinj; ftxPBrowser has had a version for WM2003 for over a year:
http://park15.wakwak.com/~ftx/ftxp3e/index.html

Menneisyys; Yes, the size of the current version of MultiIE is large. I'd like to see it reduced. Frankly there are a lot of functions I don't use, ever, such as all those URL shortcut tools. I always write in full URLs, and don't see the point in having to tap extra stuff to avoid a 'www' or whatever. And the Nyditot plugin is mostly useless, as the NVD 320x320 mode is very awkward in use and eliminates most of GigaBar's functionalality by locating it off-screen. But MultiIE makes PIE the most speedy and flexible browser for PPC, in terms of all the other stuff I do use, so I run it and just put everything else I can into a file store or SD card.

The 1MB+ per window is also a pain, agreed. I'm seeing closer to 4MB per window in many cases. Older versions didn't do this.

[disconnected]

I'm not sure what the problems are supposed to be, but MultiIE seems to be working fine from the iPAQ file store on my 4700. I've never gotten any error messages, and I do LOTS of soft resets, for various reasons.

[Gerard]

And you're sure it's there, not in Program Files? Installing to an alternate location, whether under Activesync or using CabInstl or a registry hack to modify installation behavior can often look like it's working as instructed, but with some apps the files get dumped to default anyway. It's all in the coding of paths in the CAB. Just asking...

[Gerard]

Strike that. I just did a full Sprite backup, removed the shortcut to MultiIE from \Windows\Startup, uninstalled it, renamed ishell32.dll in a registry string to a .old suffix, soft reset again, removed the stubborn DLL from the \Program Files\MultiIE folder... then installed fresh to \Built-in Storage\programs\MultiIE in my X5, running WM2003. Another soft reset and no errors. Works great. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. With the file store fixes in WM2003 it seems perfectly fine to install this plugin there.

I use a modified CAB install technique, if anyone's interested. Just takes a couple of registry edits and an install of a small program, enabling total control over install locations of most apps. Have a look here if interested:
http://www.vancouverpocketpc.com/CAB_installation_tweak.html

[disconnected]

Not having read any warnings, I'm pretty sure I just used the normal desktop installer and told it to go to the file store. It really did go there -- the Southway folder is in the file store, and contains MultiIE.exe along with various other MultiIE files. It's been a month or so, and my memory isn't as good as it used to be. It's possible I first installed it to main memory, and then uninstalled it and reinstalled it to the file store when I was going through my "save main memory" phase; I don't know if that would have made any difference -- might it have put some vital dll or something in main memory and left it there? Sometimes luck is better than knowledge. :D

[Menneisyys]

Menneisyys; Yes, the size of the current version of MultiIE is large. I'd like to see it reduced. Frankly there are a lot of functions I don't use, ever, such as all those URL shortcut tools. I always write in full URLs, and don't see the point in having to tap extra stuff to avoid a 'www' or whatever. And the Nyditot plugin is mostly useless, as the NVD 320x320 mode is very awkward in use and eliminates most of GigaBar's functionalality by locating it off-screen. But MultiIE makes PIE the most speedy and flexible browser for PPC, in terms of all the other stuff I do use, so I run it and just put everything else I can into a file store or SD card.

The 1MB+ per window is also a pain, agreed. I'm seeing closer to 4MB per window in many cases. Older versions didn't do this.

The memory consumption over the 1 Mbytes (which is just the PIE code + a lot of MultiIE overhead) is done by PIE and has nothing to do with MultiIE. It's just that IE, upon decoding and rendering a HTML file, takes a LOT of memory. For example, the PIE help, which is a 21k HTML, takes some 460 kbytes after reading. (I've checked this many times.) For a rule of thumb, PIE reserves at least an order of magnitude more memory for displaying a given HTML page than the original size.

(BTW, this is what rendered PIE under PPC2k2 almost useless. Under PPC2k2, even a 110k HTML file grinds the PPC to halt. BTW, I've tested the different PIE versions in one of my old articles on PPC connectivity, which can be found at http://menneisyys.freeweb.hu/gprs . Unfortunately, the language of the article isn't English.)

I've just mentioned MultiIE has a LOT of memory overhead, so the above-mentioned 1 Mbyte/tab is not just the mem. consumption of IE. I've just tested SPB Pocket Plus 2.1's PIE plug-in and found out that opening a blank page in Pocket Plus 2.1/PIE only results in 300-350 kbytes of additional memory consumption - way less than that of MultiIE. Indeed, Pocket Plus 2.1 may be a better solution for people wth meager main memory.

I'll test PIEPlus too as soon as possible.

[Menneisyys]

MultiIE on the other hand seems to be a stable product with some very nice reviews, comments, bells and wistles.

I wonder if the review authors have extensively played with the other PIE Plug-Ins as well :)

IMHO MultiIE is really bloated, with tons of useless functionality. Spb Pocket Plus is much better in everyday use.