Menneisyys
02-16-2006, 09:35 PM
You may have heard about MultiIE, PIEPlus, Spb Pocket Plus and/or ftxPBrowser. These excellent applications add a lot of really-needed functionality to the built-in Pocket Internet Explorer (it's called Internet Explorer Mobile, IEM for short, in Windows Mobile 5) browser; most importantly, the ability to use several windows (tabs) at the same time, meaning to be able to browse/download/fetch several Web pages parallelly.
You may want to check out the Pocket PC Web Browser Bible linked from the Recommended Reading section to find out what these four plug-ins are capable of.
Under Windows Mobile 5 (WM5 for short) the plug-in situation is quite different from that of the previous operating systems. This is why I've decided to elaborate on the WM5 compliance a little bit.
MultiIE and PIEPlus
Forget both MultiIE and PIEPlus. The developer of the former doesn't seem to be releasing a WM5-compliant version. The latest version of the latter application has just been released – without WM5 support (and, incidentally, only really superficial additions to the one-year-old beta versions – see this review (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=538&more=1) for more information). This may mean there won't be WM5-compliant PIEPlus versions in the near future – if ever.
ftxPBrowser
The free ftxPBrowser (see this introduction (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&title=do_you_know_ftxpbrowser&more=1) if you don't know this excellent tool) is in a bit better position – at least, it works. To a certain degree, that is.
Much as the Save Image feature in the image context menu (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM5ImageContextMenu.bmp.png) (this context menu isn't the same as the one in previous Windows Mobile/Pocket PC OS versions (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM2003SEImageContextMenu.bmp.png)) and other features like viewing the page source (Extra/View Source) (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM5PageSource.bmp.png) work, the link context menu (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM5LinkContextMenu.bmp.png) lacks everything (as opposed to the WM2003SE version (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM2003SELinkContextMenu.bmp.png)).
Furthermore, if you click a link, it won't be opened in a new window, even if you don't touch the by default enabled New Window icon, http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/ftxpBrowserNewWindowIcon.png. That is, the preferred (comparatively easiest) way to open a link in a different tab is
1. bring up the context menu of the link you want to open in a different tab
2. choose Add to favorites (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM5AddToFavorites.bmp.png)
3. go to your favories (click the http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserFavIcon.png icon) and click the newly added favorite (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM5ChooseFavorites.bmp.png). It'll be opened in a new window.
Note that any new address you enter into the address bar will open a new tab and, as we've seen, the same stands for the favorites. It was the latter that we used in our "hack" of opening links in a new tab. Of course, the above "hack" may make it necessary to clean up Favorites now and then. As ftxPBrowser can't delete these itself, you may want to delete these temporary favorites by hand from the \Windows\Favorites directory in the file system.
Please note that adding favorites is not guaranteed to work. Sometimes it works – and sometimes it doesn't. I haven't managed to find out why it's working sometimes and why it isn't in other occassions. If it doesn't work on your device, then, you still have the choice of opening predefined Web pages parallelly in ftxPBrowser, which may be sufficient with you if you don't plan to navigate to pages with new addresses.
Spb Pocket Plus
Finally, the fourth option, the Internet Explorer plug-in in Spb Pocket Plus (http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/?en) (current, tested version: 3.0.4) works flawlessly. It has all the known menu items in the context menus ("Open in New Window/Open In Background/Copy shortcut" in the link context menu (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/SpbPocketPlus304WM5-OpenLink.bmp.png) and the former three and "Save Picture As..." in the image context menu (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/SpbPocketPlus304WM5-SavePicAs.bmp.png)) under WM5, just like in previous operating system versions.
As far as the main menu (Menu/Spb Pocket Plus) (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/SpbPocketPlus304WM5-SavePageAs.bmp.png) is concerned, it also has everything you can expect from Spb Pocket Plus: opening a new window, closing an unnecessary one, Save As... (saving a Web page – only the HTML file, not with all the accompanying resources, unlike with MultiIE) and View Source.
It's in here that you can switch between windows as there're no top-level tabs in Spb Pocket Plus, unlike with MultiIE, ftxPBrowser and PIEPlus. As you're required to make three taps (instead of just one) to switch windows and, unlike with ftxPBrowser, you can't just iterate between the tabs with a conveniently assigned hardware button/just clicking an icon (the http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserIterateBetweenTabs.png icon in ftxPBrowser), it's highly recommended that you use a third-party task manager to dynamically put the tab icons on the taskbar of your Pocket PC. An example of this can be seen in this screenshot (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/MagicButtonShowsSixTabs.bmp.png), where six tabs are shown on the taskbar.
I recommend the free (!) Magic Button (http://www.trancreative.com/mb.aspx) (current, fully WM5-compliant version is 2.0 build 51023) (alternative, CAB only, 32 kbyte download here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/MagicButton20_51023.zip) for GPRS users/on-the-PDA installers.)
It, apart from some really minor problems, is a great utility and help at switching windows in both the Spb Pocket Plus-enhanced Internet Explorer Mobile and Opera. It's recommended by most WM5 users (see for example this thread (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=116969)). Its runtime memory consumption (I've measured!) is between 60 and 90 kbytes, which is really good. It also has a lot of other goodies; for example, battery level meter on the taskbar. Furthermore, it doesn't slow down your Pocket PC.
Naturally, you can go for a task switcher application like PHM's AltTab (downloadable from here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/AltTab.exe)), conveniently assigned to a hardware button to switch between windows. As, however, it's pretty complicated to use because of the needed fast reaction time, especially on a VGA device, I prefer Magic Button to it during everyday use.
Verdict
Go for the Spb Pocket Plus + Magic Button combo if you want really seamless, multi-tabbed browsing with the easiest and fastest way to switch between the different IEM windows.
Some tips for Spb Pocket Plus users
If you disable all the added (and, probably, unnecessary) functionality (after all, Magic Button provides both the program closing and battery bar functionality), you can save a bit more than 1 Mbytes of runtime RAM (and possible CPU cycles), which can be pretty much on a memory-constrained Windows Mobile 5 device.
Just go to Start/Settings/System/Spb Pocket Plus and uncheck all the checkboxes except for that of Pocket Internet Explorer, as can be seen in this screenshot (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/SpbPocketPlusDisableAllButPIEPlugin.bmp.png).
(For tech geeks/freaks: I've measured the runtime RAM occupied by Spb Pocket Plus on WM5 devices. If you enable the Today plug-in but don't go straight to the Today screen, you'll notice that you actually regained (freed up) about 700 kbytes of RAM. As soon as you go to the Today screen and the Spb Pocket Plus today plug-in is activated, you lose this and another 1.05 Mbytes of RAM, which you don't get back when you leave the Today screen or deactivate the plug-in. Therefore, unless you really need the Today plug-in functionality, it's better to keep it always off.)
Recommended reading
Roundup of Web Browsers (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,42026) (alternatives: iPAQ HQ (http://www.ipaqhq.com/forums/showthread.php?p=102643), AximSite (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?p=780770), FirstLoox (http://www.firstloox.org/forums/showthread.php?p=35739), PPC Magazine (http://pocketpcmag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17343), BrightHand (http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?postid=775428)). Please make sure you also follow the links in these threads to my newer, more up-to-date articles, reviews.
You may want to check out the Pocket PC Web Browser Bible linked from the Recommended Reading section to find out what these four plug-ins are capable of.
Under Windows Mobile 5 (WM5 for short) the plug-in situation is quite different from that of the previous operating systems. This is why I've decided to elaborate on the WM5 compliance a little bit.
MultiIE and PIEPlus
Forget both MultiIE and PIEPlus. The developer of the former doesn't seem to be releasing a WM5-compliant version. The latest version of the latter application has just been released – without WM5 support (and, incidentally, only really superficial additions to the one-year-old beta versions – see this review (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=538&more=1) for more information). This may mean there won't be WM5-compliant PIEPlus versions in the near future – if ever.
ftxPBrowser
The free ftxPBrowser (see this introduction (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&title=do_you_know_ftxpbrowser&more=1) if you don't know this excellent tool) is in a bit better position – at least, it works. To a certain degree, that is.
Much as the Save Image feature in the image context menu (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM5ImageContextMenu.bmp.png) (this context menu isn't the same as the one in previous Windows Mobile/Pocket PC OS versions (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM2003SEImageContextMenu.bmp.png)) and other features like viewing the page source (Extra/View Source) (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM5PageSource.bmp.png) work, the link context menu (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM5LinkContextMenu.bmp.png) lacks everything (as opposed to the WM2003SE version (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM2003SELinkContextMenu.bmp.png)).
Furthermore, if you click a link, it won't be opened in a new window, even if you don't touch the by default enabled New Window icon, http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/ftxpBrowserNewWindowIcon.png. That is, the preferred (comparatively easiest) way to open a link in a different tab is
1. bring up the context menu of the link you want to open in a different tab
2. choose Add to favorites (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM5AddToFavorites.bmp.png)
3. go to your favories (click the http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserFavIcon.png icon) and click the newly added favorite (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserWM5ChooseFavorites.bmp.png). It'll be opened in a new window.
Note that any new address you enter into the address bar will open a new tab and, as we've seen, the same stands for the favorites. It was the latter that we used in our "hack" of opening links in a new tab. Of course, the above "hack" may make it necessary to clean up Favorites now and then. As ftxPBrowser can't delete these itself, you may want to delete these temporary favorites by hand from the \Windows\Favorites directory in the file system.
Please note that adding favorites is not guaranteed to work. Sometimes it works – and sometimes it doesn't. I haven't managed to find out why it's working sometimes and why it isn't in other occassions. If it doesn't work on your device, then, you still have the choice of opening predefined Web pages parallelly in ftxPBrowser, which may be sufficient with you if you don't plan to navigate to pages with new addresses.
Spb Pocket Plus
Finally, the fourth option, the Internet Explorer plug-in in Spb Pocket Plus (http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/?en) (current, tested version: 3.0.4) works flawlessly. It has all the known menu items in the context menus ("Open in New Window/Open In Background/Copy shortcut" in the link context menu (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/SpbPocketPlus304WM5-OpenLink.bmp.png) and the former three and "Save Picture As..." in the image context menu (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/SpbPocketPlus304WM5-SavePicAs.bmp.png)) under WM5, just like in previous operating system versions.
As far as the main menu (Menu/Spb Pocket Plus) (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/SpbPocketPlus304WM5-SavePageAs.bmp.png) is concerned, it also has everything you can expect from Spb Pocket Plus: opening a new window, closing an unnecessary one, Save As... (saving a Web page – only the HTML file, not with all the accompanying resources, unlike with MultiIE) and View Source.
It's in here that you can switch between windows as there're no top-level tabs in Spb Pocket Plus, unlike with MultiIE, ftxPBrowser and PIEPlus. As you're required to make three taps (instead of just one) to switch windows and, unlike with ftxPBrowser, you can't just iterate between the tabs with a conveniently assigned hardware button/just clicking an icon (the http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/ftxPBrowserIterateBetweenTabs.png icon in ftxPBrowser), it's highly recommended that you use a third-party task manager to dynamically put the tab icons on the taskbar of your Pocket PC. An example of this can be seen in this screenshot (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/MagicButtonShowsSixTabs.bmp.png), where six tabs are shown on the taskbar.
I recommend the free (!) Magic Button (http://www.trancreative.com/mb.aspx) (current, fully WM5-compliant version is 2.0 build 51023) (alternative, CAB only, 32 kbyte download here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/MagicButton20_51023.zip) for GPRS users/on-the-PDA installers.)
It, apart from some really minor problems, is a great utility and help at switching windows in both the Spb Pocket Plus-enhanced Internet Explorer Mobile and Opera. It's recommended by most WM5 users (see for example this thread (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=116969)). Its runtime memory consumption (I've measured!) is between 60 and 90 kbytes, which is really good. It also has a lot of other goodies; for example, battery level meter on the taskbar. Furthermore, it doesn't slow down your Pocket PC.
Naturally, you can go for a task switcher application like PHM's AltTab (downloadable from here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/AltTab.exe)), conveniently assigned to a hardware button to switch between windows. As, however, it's pretty complicated to use because of the needed fast reaction time, especially on a VGA device, I prefer Magic Button to it during everyday use.
Verdict
Go for the Spb Pocket Plus + Magic Button combo if you want really seamless, multi-tabbed browsing with the easiest and fastest way to switch between the different IEM windows.
Some tips for Spb Pocket Plus users
If you disable all the added (and, probably, unnecessary) functionality (after all, Magic Button provides both the program closing and battery bar functionality), you can save a bit more than 1 Mbytes of runtime RAM (and possible CPU cycles), which can be pretty much on a memory-constrained Windows Mobile 5 device.
Just go to Start/Settings/System/Spb Pocket Plus and uncheck all the checkboxes except for that of Pocket Internet Explorer, as can be seen in this screenshot (http://www.winmobiletech.com/022006WM5IEMPlugIns/SpbPocketPlusDisableAllButPIEPlugin.bmp.png).
(For tech geeks/freaks: I've measured the runtime RAM occupied by Spb Pocket Plus on WM5 devices. If you enable the Today plug-in but don't go straight to the Today screen, you'll notice that you actually regained (freed up) about 700 kbytes of RAM. As soon as you go to the Today screen and the Spb Pocket Plus today plug-in is activated, you lose this and another 1.05 Mbytes of RAM, which you don't get back when you leave the Today screen or deactivate the plug-in. Therefore, unless you really need the Today plug-in functionality, it's better to keep it always off.)
Recommended reading
Roundup of Web Browsers (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,42026) (alternatives: iPAQ HQ (http://www.ipaqhq.com/forums/showthread.php?p=102643), AximSite (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?p=780770), FirstLoox (http://www.firstloox.org/forums/showthread.php?p=35739), PPC Magazine (http://pocketpcmag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17343), BrightHand (http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?postid=775428)). Please make sure you also follow the links in these threads to my newer, more up-to-date articles, reviews.