06-21-2007, 06:00 PM
|
|
Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
|
|
How Does Mobile Favorites Work For You?
Mobile Favorites in the Windows CE/Pocket PC/Windows Mobile world has never worked quite right. Its original intent around 10 years ago was to have Internet Explorer synchronize websites to your device when you docked so you could view them in offline mode. You could set the page depth so you could even click 1-2 levels down. This made sense as virtually no devices back then had any online access unless you had a modem card/attachment for it. The feature never worked right and most people used Avantgo instead, which also never worked quite right, but that is another story. "Sucked less" was my feeling on the matter. :wink:
Now Mobile Favorites is best explained as a list of shortcuts in IE on your desktop in a folder called {drumroll please} Mobile Favorites that get synchronized to your device. In Vista using IE7, there is no offline capability that I can see, which is fine for two reasons. 1) Most devices can go online for themselves and 2) it never worked anyway, which I may have already mentioned.
You'd think this would be simple and useful. It isn't. Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) on Vista apparently really dislikes Mobile Favorites. Almost every time I sync, it deletes random favorites from my device and PC. It is so irritating that I have copied the \Windows\Favorites folder on my device to my SD card and after every sync, I copy it back from the SD card to my device. Right now, my device has 10 subfolders and 61 shortcuts in Favorites. Mobile Favorites in IE7 on my Vista PC has 10 subfolders and 19 shortcuts. I don't know why. It used to have 61 shortcuts. It will after I sync next time - after most assuredly reducing my device to 19 or fewer shortcuts first. :roll:
I know I am not alone in this either. How about you? Does it work for you at all?
|
| |
|
|
|
06-21-2007, 06:13 PM
|
|
Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
|
|
I was never very excited by mobile favourites. My mobile browsing is much different form my desktop browsing. I long-ago selected around 10 mobile favourites, and I don't think I have altered them in about 3 years ... decades in computing terms!!!
Anyway - Mobile Favourites work fine for how I use them. If they had been better 3 or 4 years ago, my habit might well be different.
Ultimately the reality is, outside of my stored favourites, I have all the websites I need stored in the most convenient place possible - my head!
|
| |
|
|
|
06-21-2007, 06:33 PM
|
|
Theorist
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 303
|
|
I've never had any problems syncing Mobile Favorites with XP and AS...
Until the last time I synced my Q after hard resetting it a week ago, wherein I lost one of my Mobile Favorites. :|
|
| |
|
|
|
06-21-2007, 06:52 PM
|
|
Neophyte
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 9
|
|
My solution has been to use del.icio.us so that my favorites are device independent. Not ideal but works OK. Windows Live Favorites would be even better but mobile devices were not supported last time I checked.
Will
|
| |
|
|
|
06-21-2007, 06:54 PM
|
|
Intellectual
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 211
|
|
Tried to use it with XP and my iPaq 2200 device, but it just didn't do what I expected/needed. I think I just gave up on it at that point and disabled it from ActiveSync. Of course, that was a pretty much offline-only device, so all of my connections were done through the ActiveSync passthrough - I couldn't justify a wireless card or similar.
I have a Wizard now, which works pretty well, but I don't bookmark many things even then. I just don't browse as much as I send e-mail, check my RSS Feeds, GMail, etc. The rest is pretty much standard PDA/Phone stuff - no real need for PIE. I do wish that alternative browsers worked better - trying Deepfish for some of its functions and it's not bad, but still no AJAX support, which really hurts when trying to use against modern sites.
-Pete
|
| |
|
|
|
06-21-2007, 07:28 PM
|
|
Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 209
|
|
You guys should try Sunnysoft World Offline. WOL is like RSS Reader on Steroid!
Sunnysoft Word Offline provides a little utility that allows to cache any web site (no RSS knowledge required) at a link depth level chosen by user. And make the contents available for offline browsing.
Read more HERE!
|
| |
|
|
|
06-21-2007, 08:15 PM
|
|
Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 651
|
|
I thought it was just me, I usually keep all my favorites stored in mobile favorites so I have one list of favorites no matter what device i'm on. I've always noticed that some folders would be empty and I couldn't never seem to track down what was doing it. This happened when I was using XP and is still happening with Vista. It's annyoing as like you Ed I have a copy of my favorites on my sd card that I move back and forth. Still I also have to copy my favorites over to the pc as well :evil:
|
| |
|
|
|
06-21-2007, 08:18 PM
|
|
Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
|
|
I use a home page stored locally with about 30 of my most frequently used links, and have a bit over 900 URL files in the \Windows\Favorites folder. I tried Opera, a couple of versions, but as it won't import or browse to my URL files I've abandoned it as borderline useless. I just use too many links for them not to be available. So Pocket IE and NetFront for me, as both use the same links folder and home page easily.
And as I've been 'connected' since summer of 2000 (starting with a Casio CF dialup modem, then a Socket, then a couple of Wi-Fi CF cards, now the built-in Wi-Fi in my Toshiba e830) I just don't see the point of deliberately synching content from the PC. I hardly ever connect the PPC to the PC, as my PC has more of a media-feeder role for my PPC than anything else. Since I don't need a PC to go to websites, I just dont use it for that.
Tried once synching Mobile Favorites, before my Casio modem arrive in July 2000, and it cost me a bunch of links on the PC. Worse than useless. Never tried again.
|
| |
|
|
|
06-21-2007, 08:41 PM
|
|
Contributing Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,389
|
|
By "Mobile Favorites Feature" I guess that you mean the sync conduit on the desktop.
I tried to sync the favorites on my device long ago. Never offline pages, just the favorite links. However it would always delete random links which got very irritating.
So i stopped syncing favorites. I still use them on my mobile device but do not sync them. I have over 100 favorites on my device all nice and organized in folders. (Half of them are links to versions of google, LOL)
I copy the folder over to my storage card from time to time for an extra backup.
Syncing would be pointless any way as I ONLY use firefox now. I haven't used IE for years.
But i do have a nice way of getting my firefox favorites onto my phone. I simply export my firefox bookmarks. they are stored in a nice simple HTML document that renders nicely in PIE. I either set that file as my home page or have a favorite in PIE that takes me to the local file.
Much nicer than randomly loosing favorites every sync. 
|
| |
|
|
|
06-21-2007, 09:24 PM
|
|
Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 541
|
|
I have tried the offline feature of Mobile Favorites in 2000 with my Jornada 545 but it didn't really work...
Then I used them as "normal" bookmarks on my phone editions last couple of years and for the most part I didn't have any problems. But lately my Mobile Favorites folder is different after every sync, it's just unusable.
I'm trying to find a good online sollution for storing all my bookmarks, so that I won't need to sync bookmarks between all my machines...
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Linear Mode
