04-09-2002, 07:38 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Bitstream Thunderhawk now available for HP Jornada
http://www.bitstream.com/hp/
Michael van Oosten has the scoop of the day! Bitstream has released their Thunderhawk browser, and I'm in the midst of trying it out...it can best be described as "great potential, but really odd". There's a free download trial for Jornada users, although the CAB file might work on other Pocket PC 2002 devices. Thunderhawk is a combination of browser and proxy server, so the $39.95 per year is reasonable if you use your device wirelessly a lot and dislike the limitations of Pocket Internet Explorer.
They're working with a different paradigm here - the Contacts key is mapped to the browser, and the pop up keyboard takes some getting used to. The font technology is very impressive, however, and I'll let you know what I think of the browsing experience when I use it more.
"ThunderHawk gives you the same browsing experience on a Jornada as you are used to on the desktop. You can biew the full text and images of any Web page without excessive scrolling. Because we do not rely on WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) or cHTML (Compact HyperText Markup Language), ThunderHawk does not require Web content providers to repurpose their content - or build one Web site for the desktop and another for the wireless world."
UPDATE: Thunderhawk isn't quite ready for public release, so the links above don't have the download (it was pulled). When they have their final release up, you'll be the first to know. Until then, be patient. :-)
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04-09-2002, 07:47 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 21
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Jason, I tested it on my Ipaq (PocketPC2002) and it works!
I admit there are some issues with some pages, but in general it rocks :P
NB. Did you notice how cool your site looks on it 
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04-09-2002, 07:55 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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This has potential, but it also has a lot of strange quirks...I'm trying to get a screen shot, and the app has taken over all the buttons except the home button! It's also highly CPU-intensive - my Jornada is very sluggish with it running over 802.11b. It has some great features, namely the ability to track every single URL that goes through it, and the zoom is cool, but the speed is brutal. My Jornada is practically useless while it's running. Every command has a lag time with it.
Still, this is much closer to real desktop browsing than anything I've ever seen - it's a good start!
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04-09-2002, 08:00 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 21
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Strange, didn't experience a real problem with CPU time on the Ipaq. Did had some issues with white pages turning up, but when doing another go it showed up fine.
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04-09-2002, 09:09 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 779
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I've been looking forward to this. I'll have to try it on my iPaq. Does it use any kind of compression, like Bluekite? And does it access sites that PIE can't handle -- like volvooceanrace.com for example?
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04-09-2002, 09:10 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 57
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Bitstream Thunderhawk
Briefly looked at the software. Seems kind of clunky to me and relatively slow. Don't like the keyboard too much. Yet another thing to learn and each character backspaces individually. Couldn't seem to highlight a whole address to enter another one. I can tell you that Thunderhawk doesn't work through the ActiveSynch pass through like IE does, in fact it doesn't work at all that I could determine.
Hopefully some of these things will be ironed out. I had thought that the software was originally going to work with Pocket Internet Explorer, not be a whole different application! The Thunderhawk web site mentions a cost of the software subscription of $39.95 a year. Is that correct? Seems a little pricey for another web browser, doesn't it? Especially at CDN prices.
Thanks
I stand corrected, it does work through ActiveSynch.
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04-09-2002, 09:15 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 21
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Actualy, I DO use it through activesync and it does it about 4 times faster then PIE does.
I agree on the keyboard. Besides that, it also seems to have no bookmark function (next release?)
<edit>
I tested the volvooceanrace.com, it loaded within 10 sec completely with all the graphics and stuff. Seems to work fine as far as I can tell
As we are on the subject of images, you can't seem to disable the image download.
</edit>
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04-09-2002, 09:30 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 157
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I have tried to use it through activesync to no avail. Perhaps it cannot read my proxy settings in Connection Manager.
__________________
Charles Pickrell
Sacramento Mobiole Computing SIG
A chapter of the NorCal Mobile Computing SIG
www.mobilecomputingsig.com |
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04-09-2002, 09:53 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 22
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Download taken offline?
Can someone please post an alternate link to the installation file? They have apparently taken it off the page. It currently says "Note: This is not currently available but will soon be released. "
Thx!
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04-09-2002, 10:00 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,341
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This reminds me of Compaqs Ipaq update... one minute it's there the next it's gone, no explaination nothing.
I downloaded it but could not get it to install on my PC. It said it could not find the source file although it was there when I first checked, but when I went back to double check it was gone. Weird! hopefully they will sort it out. I would like to give it a go.
Dave
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Linear Mode
