[HCbassist]

hell all/ i am new to this forum and i am thinking about saving up and getting the mitac mio 8390. i read that it had pocket internet explorer, i was wondering if anyone could post a screenshot of this program in action so i can see how it works. like how the html pages are displayed. i am asking cause whenever i pull up a html page on my k700 it is like really close to the page and i have to scroll both left and right and up and down.

[HCbassist]

hell all/ i am new to this forum and i am thinking about saving up and getting the mitac mio 8390. i read that it had pocket internet explorer, i was wondering if anyone could post a screenshot of this program in action so i can see how it works. like how the html pages are displayed. i am asking cause whenever i pull up a html page on my k700 it is like really close to the page and i have to scroll both left and right and up and down.

[Mike Temporale]

Well, it really makes a difference how the web page is built. Some pages look great because they are "mobile aware" and format the page accordingly. Other are not so nice.

All that is due to change once Opera releases their browser for the Windows Mobile Smartphone. There is no date yet. This was just announced in the last week or so.

The site you're trying to load, have you checked if they have a mobile version of the page?

[HCbassist]

theres no mobile version of the site i was loading. it was a friends goecities site. and is opera free?? or hmm what would i need to use opera, like a 19.99 internet play or just a 4.99 unlimited wap thing (im on t mobile)

[Kris Kumar]

You can try out the Emulator that comes with the Smartphone development kit. This way you can test drive the pocket IE and create screenshots yourself. ;-)

But the process to install the Emulator is not straightforward. :-(

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/fo...pic.php?t=3993

[HCbassist]

i didnt get the emulato. couldnt figure out how to get it to work. but i did find some screenshots somewhere. i cant recall. it was some review for the phone. i do believe they said it had two (i could be wrong) options of viewing the page

[Mike Temporale]

I think the options are format for one column, or multiple columns. However, my experiences are that it's never going to be great unless there is a mobile version of the site. The formating options help, but it's not a really good solution.

[HCbassist]

do i need a 19.99 data plan to use the IE or can i use the 4.99 t zones to browse html pages?

[Kris Kumar]

$19.95 plans let you access the internet without any restriction.

In case of $4.95 plan, you can access only HTTP:// (e.g. news sites, Smartphone Thoughts, Google etc) websites. You cannot access HTTPS:// (e.g. Banks or online stores/ordering). Also you cannot access FTP or Sync with your corporate Exchange Server.

In short, the $4.95 restricts usage to, HTTP (port 80), POP3/IMAP and SMTP ports only. Anything else if restricted.

There was some speculation that T-Mobile had opened up the $4.95 plan and now anything on the internet was accessible with this plan. But I was told by the T-Mobile rep that it was due to a glitch in their system.

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/fo...pic.php?t=6029

If you are not a heavy internet user. Go for the $4.95 plan and upgrade to the bigger plan if you need it.

[HCbassist]

so the 4.99 plan will allow me to view html pages as long as im not buying or doing stuff like that. whats the loading time on average for a normal http site? can anyone tell me that, cause when i use my k700 to pull up a http page it takes a while if there is a lot of stuff on the page (searching google doesnt work i have to use the wap one) does the IE explorer help with this?

[Kris Kumar]

The actual internet access bandwidth is the same regardless of the device. Somewhere between 18Kbps to 34Kbps. As for the time the device takes to render the pages. I find that Smartphones based on WM2003, like the Mitac one you are considering, renders the pages faster than the 2002 based phones like MPx200. But don't know if the rendering is faster than the SE device.

And overall I have found that the pocket IE renders lot more websites than the browser on the competing devices.