Tired of the Ol' Horizontal Scroll? Give PIEPlus a Try [Archive]

View Full Version : Tired of the Ol' Horizontal Scroll? Give PIEPlus a Try

Doug Rausch

11-07-2003, 06:00 PM

Tired of moving that horizontal scroll bar from side to side as you try to read the latest Web offering? Eyes about to pop out of your head from trying to focus on the back and forth sliding text? If you’ve been thinking about an add-on to Pocket Internet Explorer to reformat Web pages to something more suitable to your Pocket PC screen, but you're unsure about using a subscription service, you may want to take a serious look at ReenSoft’s PIEPlus. I did and I was very pleased. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus1.gif" /> <!> ReenSoft’s PIEPlus v1.1 offers many additions to the basic functionality of Pocket Internet Explorer. The ability to open multiple browser windows, view in a full screen mode, and to identify Pocket Internet Explorer as either IE5.5 or IE6.0 are needed tools but admittedly available in several free packages as well. Where PIEPlus shines is in its ability to optimize Web page content to fit nicely in the confines of your Pocket PC screen, all but eliminating the need to horizontally scroll. If you use your Pocket PC for more than occasional Web browsing I would recommend giving this program a try. Easy Access The features of PIEPlus are accessed through the plus menu that is added to the bottom of your Pocket Internet Explorer screen. In Figure 1 you’ll see that I currently have three browser windows open with CNN selected and that I am using the Pocket View to look at this Web page. Before we go any farther let’s look at the configurable options offered by PIEPlus. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus1.gif" /> Figure 1: The Main Menu of PIEPlus Simple Configuration PIEPlus offers basically four configuration options as shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4. These options allow you to select what you see when you open a new browser window, what elements are visible in full screen mode, how text is split when using the pocket view, and some registry hacks for configuring Pocket Internet Explorer. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus2.gif" /> Figure 2: General Options <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus3.gif" /> Figure 3: Defining When to Split Text <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus4.gif" /> Figure 4: Pocket Internet Explorer Settings The Screen, the Whole Screen, and Nothing But the Screen PIEPlus supports a full screen mode which, depending upon the elements you've selected to hide in the program options, gives you a little bit more screen real estate. The full screen option is nice but PIEPlus lacks any way to switch browser windows without first reverting back to the normal screen so that you can access the PIEPlus menu. Adding a window option in the context menu or allowing the user to set a button to tab through windows would make this feature much more usable. I also noticed that PIEPlus seems to start another instance of Pocket Internet Explorer for each window that it opens. If I opened three windows in ftxPBrowser I would see one instance in my running programs list. When I opened the same three Web sites in PIEPlus I had three instances of Pocket Internet Explorer running. Probably not a big deal except that it seemed that PIEPlus used about 250k more memory to open those same three windows. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus5.gif" /> Figure 5: Full Screen Mode Figure 5 also gives an indication of how PIEPlus's strongest feature, its ability to optimize Web pages for the Pocket PC's smaller screen, formats the Amazon.com home page. Say Bye-Bye to the Slide If you're like me you'll sometimes find an interesting article you want to read while browsing the Web on your Pocket PC only to quickly get tired of scrolling back and forth, so you make a note of the link so you can read it later, back at your desktop machine. Some programs do a decent job of formatting the page to fit the screen such as ftxPBrowser and there are also subscription services are such as Skweezer available. This reformatting functionality is definitely PIEPlus's strong point and I was impressed by the job it did. I now found I was reading those articles on my Pocket PC rather than waiting until later. Figures 6 and 7 below are the two halves of an article that would require frequent horizontal scrolling to read. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus6.gif" /> Figure 6: Non-Optimized Web Page - Left Side <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus7.gif" /> Figure 7: Non-Optimized Web Page - Right Side By using the Pocket View feature of PIEPlus the Web page is reformatted into a form that requires no side scrolling. The result is actually quite readable. Often using the Simply View feature in ftxPBrowser I would notice that the elements were all present but they would often by stuck together almost like one long run-on sentence. PIEPlus does a very nice job of placing the contents of the Web page into a readable, and navigable form. Figures 8 and 9 show the same article reformatted by PIEPlus. Notice the photo from the right margin of the original article now has slid under the article byline. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus8.gif" /> Figure 8: Reformatted Web Page - Note Picture Placement <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus9.gif" /> Figure 9: Article Text PIEPlus also offers extended context menus giving you access to needed functions when activating links or for navigating a Web page. Notable omissions though were the ability to save the target of a link or to save an image. As stated earlier this would have also been a great place to allow the user to switch browser windows. A necessity in full screen mode. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus10.gif" /> Figure 10: Link Context Menu <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/rausch-oct03-pieplus11.gif" /> Figure 11: Page Context Menu Gotchas Although a solid program I've listed a few areas I found lacking. <li>No ability to save the target of a link or to save images; <li>No way to switch browser windows in full screen mode.Where To Buy The software can be <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=84128">downloaded from Handango</a> or purchased for $14.95 (affiliate link). Specifications This program will work on any color Pocket PC running Pocket PC 2000, 2002 or Windows Mobile 2003. The program takes up 108k of RAM on the device. Conclusions If it were only for the support of multiple browser windows, full screen browsing, or some of the Pocket Internet Explorer registry hacks I would not be recommending this program as there are other programs that do the same things better and some such as ftxPBrowser, that do it for free. ReenSoft, however, has done a very nice job of developing a package that reformats Web pages into a form that's easy on the eyes and on the horizontal scroll bar. As it is, this program is well a worth a look and if the next version incorporates a few of the shortfalls I've noted here it will be a very strong package indeed.

11-07-2003, 06:07 PM

I tried a demo of this app a while ago, before the latest update, and I liked it although not enough to purchase.

One feature I did like was being able to fool servers into thinking they were seeing IE 5 (or 6) rather than Pocket IE. Using this I was able to check my bank and credid card sites which I couldn't do before. The only downside was that PPCT no longer saw me as a mobile user and sent me to the main page all the time.

The main reason I didn't buy PIEPlus was that I don't do enough mobile browsing to really need it. I normally only visit two sites with my PPC, this one and the BBC News (pretty boring eh?). Since both are fine for Pocket IE are optimised as mobile sites I thought I was better off keeping the money.

Birdman

11-07-2003, 06:13 PM

I use RegKing to "trick" web sites into thinking that I am not using PIE.

Marcel_Proust

11-07-2003, 06:21 PM

I use RegKing to "trick" web sites into thinking that I am not using PIE.

Yes. I think this is a great program and bought it. But for the reformatting feature, which none can beat!
Try to see if it suits you. One of the most useful programs I found for my purposes at least until I can get a VGA PocketPC.

PocketPC Addict

11-07-2003, 07:57 PM

I've been comparing PIEPlus with other browsers and find their 'formatting' feature pretty tough to beat.

A few people have claimed it is slow in comparison to others, but with their latest update, they've worked to speed it up. Earlier today I was surfing with it and it seemed almost as speedy as my desktop browser. :D

Don't Panic!

11-07-2003, 08:23 PM

I'm buying this one although I wish ftxPBrowser had a version that let all it's features work with WM2003.

Don't Panic!
Bobby

plankan

11-07-2003, 08:32 PM

jrecampbell

11-07-2003, 08:55 PM

blusparkles

11-08-2003, 12:55 AM

I dont like PIEPlus, MulitIE, Thunder... or what they all called because they arenonly made for US. In fact we have a lot of users living outside us, maybe you dont know that! Anyway come alogn with some world wide apps so that we also can take advanttage of them!

I am a swede and I am not impressed about anything that comes from Microsoft orr any other munufactor of ppc. Thanks!

I don't know what you mean by "they are only made for US" - I'm not from the United States and I'm able to use all of those programs just fine.

UCCOFFEE

11-08-2003, 04:53 AM

I think he means it's mean for ENGLISH webpage user,
FtxP Browser is a lot more friendly with chinese / japaenese pages.

can pieplus map hardware buttons?

I m still using pocketpc 2002, ftxpbrowser s still the best, because of its simple view, single click to open new windows, hardware button mapping and it's FREE.

Anyone's try multiIE's map "tab" (keyboard) key? It doesnt work with my HP 1910

pschultz

11-08-2003, 04:54 AM

How does PIEPlus compare to MultiIE?

thanos255

11-08-2003, 04:55 AM

Is it possible to use this program WITH MultiIE at the same time?

Thanks
Thanos

grobin

11-08-2003, 05:35 AM

I dont like PIEPlus, MulitIE, Thunder... or what they all called because they arenonly made for US. In fact we have a lot of users living outside us, maybe you dont know that! Anyway come alogn with some world wide apps so that we also can take advanttage of them!

I am a swede and I am not impressed about anything that comes from Microsoft orr any other munufactor of ppc. Thanks! :D

It's a shame that not all developers can afford to write versions for all languages but it is a fact. I've been disappointed,too , not seeing some programs available in english. Live with it ... and accept it.

PIEPlus is awesome nonetheless and makes a ppc a real joy to browse with. Well worth the money for us that primarily use english.

Simon Hughes

11-08-2003, 08:07 AM

I'm just starting to use my iPAQ 5455 (with WM2003) with the T-Mobile HotSpot service and I'm finding that I'm running to some unexpected snags...

With IE6, I can't see a way to send attachements with Hotmail, and with Thunderhawk, although you can get to the attachment screen, the Browse button is inactive and typing a file name into the box and then trying to attach does nothing.

Is there any way to send attchments with any of the available browsers on a PPC?

blusparkles

11-08-2003, 11:55 AM

How does PIEPlus compare to MultiIE?

I did a mini-comparative review of the two here (http://www.jenneth.info/archives/003409.html)

Doug Rausch

11-08-2003, 01:17 PM

can pieplus map hardware buttons?

No, unfortunately PIEPlus doesn't support mapping the hardware buttons. One of the pop up menus offers "back" and "forward" selections to aid in browsing while in full screen mode but its not as handy as mapping a button like what you can do in MultiIE.

How does PIEPlus compare to MultiIE?

Good Question! I'm working on that review right now. I'm finding elements of both that I like, a lot is going to depend on which features you find personally most useful. Which brings me to...

Is it possible to use this program WITH MultiIE at the same time?

This would be fantastic but you can't use both programs at the same time :( .

As I look at different browsing solutions it really points to the need for a modularized browser where you can take the components of different solutions and use them together. Each has strong and weak points, it would be nice to put together your own "best of breed."

Doug Rausch

11-08-2003, 02:05 PM

It's a cool looking program. Does it though have an internal horizontal mode? If not does it still resize pages correctly if you are using Nyditot Virtual Display in horizontal mode (or hi-res)?

PIEPlus doesn't have the capability to rotate the screen to a horizontal mode by itself but it does work with Nyditot. My experience was that at the lower rotated resolutions PIEPlus took full advantage of the additional screen real estate and resized the text correctly. However, when using a higher resolution such as 640x480 the full screen was used but formatting was thrown off. At these higher resolutions I just found myself using the standard view.

Ekkie Tepsupornchai

11-10-2003, 02:13 PM

How does PIEPlus compare to MultiIE?

I did a mini-comparative review of the two here (http://www.jenneth.info/archives/003409.html)
Good review... both yours' and Doug's...

Southway

11-11-2003, 01:44 AM

You can't run MultiIE at the same time because both programs use similiar methods to hook in to PIE, and it's not possible to guarantee both programs aren't accessing PIE at the same time.

I had a prototype refit to display for MultiIE, but I wasn't happy with the results so it got pulled it from the release (with a few other features). Instead I wanted show the power of the URL macro creator to redirect the current page via web proxy's.

So, you can use Skweezer (www.skweezer.net) by default which costs a small annual fee, or try Mobileleap (www.mobileleap.net) which is free.

I will be looking at putting in refit in an upcoming minor release, but for now I have to get support for the 41xx devices working!

Cheers,
Pete

UCCOFFEE

11-12-2003, 01:28 PM

found a software that can help mapping button with PIEplus, it's called vito button mapper.

It's great experience using vito button mapper + PIEplus! i can even use a hardware button to emulate tapping "TAB" on keyboard.
nevertheless, vito is USD10 and PIEplus is USD15 .... too expensive compare with ftxp Browser (FREE) .....

still got 10 days before pieplus expired... I think i ll stick with Ftxp Browser until i upgrade my 1910 , since ftxp Browser s not supporting WM2003

ReenSoft

11-13-2003, 02:39 PM

found a software that can help mapping button with PIEplus, it's called vito button mapper.

We're developing PIEPlus V1.2 which could enable button mapping.
We'll enhance PIEPlus to make it best solution for browsing web.

volwrath

11-25-2003, 12:29 AM

Another thing that would be nice if pie plus did was instead of selecting the next hyperlink down when using a jog dial (like ie does), do a page down (like netfront does)

doctorc

12-07-2003, 09:08 PM

this is a very nice product, almost indispensable in fact. if i feel the same way about it after the 14 day trial i will definitely pay to register. only complaint, and this is a MAJOR frustration, is that it will not stay locked in fullscreen mode. every time i have to type something whether it be an url or entering a password, it automTically goes out of fullscreen mode and forgets to go back into fullscren mode. i realize this could be due to the fact that it is assuming you'll need an onscreen kwyboard, but a have a 4350 and hence ALWAYS want the thing to stay locked in fullscreen mode. is there a way to force the browser to stay locked at fullscreen? if not is there at least a way to force it to go back to fullscreen when done typing, or at the least a hardware button to toggle fullscreen on and off. this is a major shortcoming to an otherwise extremely excellent piece of software. thank you

doctorc

12-07-2003, 09:12 PM

on second examination i see that it does at least go back into fullscreen mode automatically after you are done with input (except in the case of entering urls in address bar). still would like a way to force it to lock in fullscreen mode. for example as i type this right now i still see a right hand scrollbar on the web page (no not the one for the textbox i am typing in but one for the web page overall) and i have no idea why as the little restore button still indicates that i am supposedly in fullscreen mode.

corphack

12-26-2003, 09:29 PM

One feature MultiIE has that I miss in PIEPlus, is the chirp that tells me the page has finished loading. I know its a very minor point, but my page loads from remote sites are so slow that I would rather be doing something else and have the PPC issue an alert that the page is ready for viewing instead of my having to watch the little wavy windows icon in the upper right corner.

chix

02-05-2004, 09:20 PM

I am considering downloading this. I use Web Outlook for e-mail. Presently with Pocket IE, I can't open the frame of the e-mail which makes it pointless.

Would the Reensoft browser eliminate this issue?

If I dl the 14 day trial and find it does not work out the way I want, can I simply un-install and go back to the way I was with Pocket IE?

Doug Rausch

02-06-2004, 01:27 AM

chix

02-06-2004, 02:47 AM

I didn't have any problem uninstalling the application and haveing Pocket IE revert back to its former operation.

As far as the web outlook goes - good luck, I had limited luck. I was able to get farther than in the original Pocket IE but PIE Plus still didn't result in a truly usable web outlook session.

Doug,

Thanks very much for your reply.

What were you able to do b4 with web outlook vs. after.

If you can at least view messages and reply That would be an improvement and make the upgrade more worthwhile.

Doug Rausch

02-09-2004, 12:42 PM

If I remember right seems like I was having some frame issues, its been awhile so don't take that to the bank.

The first thing you will also want to check is what version of owa you are running. The version in Exchange 5.5 won't work right with PIE due to the manner in which it opens the email windows. This works in Exchange 2000 and 2003.

You may want to try Netfront as a replacement for PIE, I've not tried it but I have heard that it will work with Exchange 5.5