Bitstream Releases ThunderHawk 2.0 [Archive]

Janak Parekh

09-21-2004, 09:00 PM

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.bitstream.com/wireless/products/pocketpc/index.html' target='_blank'>http://www.bitstream.com/wireless/p...etpc/index.html</a><br /><br /></div>We've reported on ThunderHawk before, and users have been very impressed with the technology, but had one major complaint: it was very slow at scrolling. Well, Bitstream has released ThunderHawk 2.0 today. I've been trying the prerelease version, and I can safely say they have completely fixed the scrolling problem -- it's <b>very</b> fast, yet maintains all of the features of ThunderHawk 1.0. They've also added a bunch of other smaller features, including cut-and-paste support and improved text entry.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040921-Thunderhawk2.gif" /><br /><br />It's a free upgrade for existing ThunderHawk users (in fact, you can download the .CAB straight to your Pocket PC now), or you can sign up for a free trial to give it a shot. And as the picture above suggests, it works very well on my Samsung i700 using the 1xRTT connection -- in fact, I was logged into the "desktop" view of Pocket PC Thoughts last night on the train ride home using the TH2 preview. :mrgreen:

buzzard

09-21-2004, 09:19 PM

Whenever I get tired of waiting for Netfront or Multi-IE to load up on my PPC I immediatly switch to Thunderhawk and wonder why I paid money for the other two. As good as they are, nothing on a PPC can compare to T-Hawk and now with the scrolling issue resolved it's even better.

jkendrick

09-21-2004, 09:26 PM

I believe it's displaying quad-pixelled on a VGA screen. Still better than Netfront or PIE (which is a disgrace in VGA) but not crisp and sharp.

2.0 is lightning fast though.

Tye

09-21-2004, 09:27 PM

:rock on dude!:

Trokair

09-21-2004, 09:31 PM

Amazing, is all I can say. The scrolling issue has been my single problem with Thunderhawk ever since I started subscribing to it a year ago.

Hooray!

-Kyle

logo20heli

09-21-2004, 09:37 PM

Version 2.0 is much nicer. Thank goodness they resolved the scrolling issue! Now what I want is the ability for the TH browser to utilize cookies that are stored on my PPC. The advantage is that I would not have to log into sites like Brighthand forums all the time to easily see what new messages are available in the forums.

I'm also in the market for a VGA device (probably the Dell Axim X50 at this point). I'm wondering what Bitstream's plans are for TH on a VGA device. I guess they've had almost a year to think about it since the Toshiba e805 has been out nearly that long. And it doesn't look like they've made a version that supports 640x480, but instead support the 320x240 and use quad-pixels as with QVGA applications.

BTW, for people considering alternate ways to view forum sites like Brighthand, take a look at Skweezer. That product is $15/year and it loads up Brighthand forums much faster than PIE. The formatting is not the prettiest, but it definatly reduces the wait time. And as a bonus, it supports cookies on your PPC, so you can remain logged in to a site unlike with TH.

Golfer

09-21-2004, 09:42 PM

How do you do the cut & paste function ?

gadgetguru

09-21-2004, 10:03 PM

The piece of software looks great but I wonder how many people actually subscribe to this piece of software since it's subscription-based.

foebea

09-21-2004, 10:12 PM

Thungerhawk definately cant be beat for usability of the web on a ppc, however it still has some serious flaws. If I hit a pls to stream radio it doesnt know how to handle the link. I am unable to download anything. These (and other) features are very important for me to use this on a regular basis, and should not be very difficult to include, if it is not renderable in the browser, it should be handled differently differently by thunderhawk, or even passed to PIE rather than ignored outright.

Another nice thing would be the option to change from landscape to portrait. I love the landscape while on the move, but at my desk it might be nice to have a portrait view. Since this is just rendered content coming from the remote server, it should not be difficult to implement something like this.

In addition, Thunderhawk claims to pick up lost connections easily, however twice now since i started using it about 30 minutes ago it has lost connection and the only way to get it back was to exit thunderhawk, reconnect and then restart thunderhawk. It went to the connection lost page and I could find no way to go back to the page I was on. I also tested how well it recovers from poweroff. It does not, rather than reconnecting through bluetooth, it fails to connect and i have to restart thunderhawk to get it to work.

I may be wrong, but that is what I am waiting for before I will spend 5$ a month for this software. With PIE Plus and the PIE options added through SBP Pocket Plus, browser functionality and usability is approaching that of a desktop. If Thunderhawk would release thier font for use in PIE I would happily pay 30 bucks for it.

davea

09-21-2004, 10:29 PM

Question - Does Thunderhawk require a secure (https) access to the internet? My T-Mobile digital account doesn't include this access??

jcsickz

09-21-2004, 10:41 PM

still scrolling incredibly slowly on my t-mobiole pocket pc phone edition.

Gator5000e

09-21-2004, 10:48 PM

PiePlus by reensoft is the best solution I have tried and I have tried all the ones mentioned here. www.reensoft.com (and no I don't work for the company :))

Jonathon Watkins

09-21-2004, 11:40 PM

PiePlus by reensoft is the best solution I have tried and I have tried all the ones mentioned here. www.reensoft.com (and no I don't work for the company :))

I've downloaded it and will give it a spin. :)

foebea

09-21-2004, 11:46 PM

PiePlus by reensoft is the best solution I have tried and I have tried all the ones mentioned here. www.reensoft.com (and no I don't work for the company :))

Dont forget to combo PiePlus with SBP Pocket Plus. PiePlus does wonders reformatting the page to make it highly useable, map all your buttons (forward, back, fullscreen, favorites, etc) which is great.

Pocket Plus adds to this functionality by including a menu in PIE which allows for view source and save image.

Reensoft has plans for future version which will include this, but for now, this combo rocks 0X

muntaser7

09-21-2004, 11:46 PM

I bought the Ipaq 6315 from T-Mobile 2 days ago and I was seriously considering on returning it this week but after trying TH2.0 I LOVE IT!!!
This thing is simply amazing.

cgavula

09-22-2004, 12:01 AM

People need to remember that you aren't paying for the software, you are paying for the service. Thunderhawk is NOT browsing software. PIE and Netfront are browsing software. Thunderhawk is more like a Citrix client connecting to the Thunderhawk proxy server. You pay for the proxy service. The software simply redisplays (and formats) the screen. That's part of why it's faster - the Thunderhawk proxy does most of the work at the server (caching, etc) to speed up the process.

The problem is that you give away some security to Thunderhawk (since they have to track where you are going on the web) and it makes things like streaming harder to do. Streaming is a direct-to-client kind of function (UDP) and doesn't translate well to connection-based (TCP) redirected services like Thunderhawk.

--Chris

foebea

09-22-2004, 12:07 AM

Streaming is a direct-to-client kind of function (UDP) and doesn't translate well to connection-based (TCP) redirected services like Thunderhawk.
--Chris

Exactly, which is why for links it can't render, it should pass those links back to the ppc with instructions to launch pie or a view capable of handling it.

Jonathon Watkins

09-22-2004, 12:22 AM

Dont forget to combo PiePlus with SBP Pocket Plus. PiePlus does wonders reformatting the page to make it highly useable, map all your buttons (forward, back, fullscreen, favorites, etc) which is great.

Pocket Plus adds to this functionality by including a menu in PIE which allows for view source and save image.

Reensoft has plans for future version which will include this, but for now, this combo rocks 0X

Well, the Reensoft FAQ says this:

IF PIEPlus does not work
If you installed PocketPlus, turn off PIE extension in PocketPlus option. To turn it off, please tap [Start Menu] -> [Settings] -> [System] tab -> [Pocket Plus] icon -> uncheck [Pocket Internet Explorer].

I.e. they say they are not meant to play together......

foebea

09-22-2004, 12:28 AM

Mine must be broken then :oops: I am making a fresh back up now and will treasure my good fortune to have these working well together. :)

muntaser7

09-22-2004, 12:47 AM

Paragon

09-22-2004, 01:06 AM

on Bitstreams website it says that u can install TH2 on your SD card........
Hmmmm.... I have been trying to install it on my SD card with no luck, its a .CAB file and it gives me no option when i tap it.

Anybody has any idea?
Thanks

Yup, You want to install .cabinstall. Check the freeware sites for it. It allows you to install .cab files anywhere your little heart desires.

Dave

yanathin

09-22-2004, 01:22 AM

cludwig

09-22-2004, 01:58 AM

still scrolling incredibly slowly on my t-mobiole pocket pc phone edition.

Be careful to be sure you're running the new version. If you already have TH installed on your PPCPE, it doesn't uninstall 1.10, instead it installs an additional THII app (this may be true on all platforms?). If you have shortcuts, etc. pointing to TH, you'll still be running the old version. It didn't "arrive" on my T-Mobile PPCPE's Start Menu until after I did a soft reset... then the problem was obvious and after seeing how TERRIFIC this new version is I just uninstalled TH 1.01 (with Settings->System->Memory->Remove Programs) You'll know right away if you're running the new one... it has a much nicer splash screen and XP-style 3D effects on must buttons / scroll bars. You can also bring up the keyboard, then press the "check box" preferences button to check version number.

:multi: I have to say I'm truly amazed at the quality and speed of this product... everything about THII seems zippy... I'm actually starting to believe that GPRS might be good enough for PDA surfing now. I was worried for a while there that the number of TH subscribers was low enough that development would slow then stop. I'm pleasantly surprised that quite the opposite is true -- they've taken a good product and made it really great.

I have to agree with another poster's comment about cookies... Heck, I'd even trust them to store them on their server if that made it easier and faster.

Shuushin

09-22-2004, 02:33 AM

Amazing.
Never even heard of it afore now...WHY?!

Tye

09-22-2004, 05:22 AM

For some reason the trial didn't work for me, so I took a risk and bought the monthly subscription... Everybody seemed to love it, so I took your guys' words. Sure enough, it's great. Yet another one of the countless times PPCT users helped me out, haha.

But I would also like to know how to use the copy/paste function... I can't seem to highlight any text or anything to copy.

The copy text thing is a bit misleading, me thinks. You can only copy/paste text that is in a text box, not text that is on the page. This, in my opinion, is a big oversight but I'm sure they'll add this feature in a later release.

You can copy by pressing the 'ctrl' button then 'c'. Paste, cut, etc. all follow the standard keys.

Tye

09-22-2004, 05:25 AM

And a nice trick that I didn't find in the manual is to tap and hold anywhere on the screen and the keyboard will pop up. I always hated having to use the hardware buttons for that stuff.

Dolphin

09-22-2004, 05:52 AM

And a nice trick that I didn't find in the manual is to tap and hold anywhere on the screen and the keyboard will pop up. I always hated having to use the hardware buttons for that stuff.
Hey... thanks for that post! I never knew there were hardware butons except the 5 way navigation! I aways hated having to tap and hold to get the keyboard to come up so I could select the forward and back buttons!

muntaser7

09-22-2004, 06:27 AM

Oleander

09-22-2004, 08:47 AM

It's a nice idea but for the approx. 4 billion people not having english as their first language, it's of little use.. :?

Since I'm forced to use their interface all my troubles to localize my PPC are down the drain. If I could use my national keyboard i would subscribe. But I can't, so I won't .

berslan

09-22-2004, 11:38 AM

joefuture

09-22-2004, 01:50 PM

I was pretty excited to learn of TH since it lets be browse in landscape mode on my "carly fiorina bite me because you won't upgrade my iPaq 4355 to WM2003SE but I'm not bitter" Pocket PC.

But I'm skeptic now. I installed the free trial, couldn't connect through my company's firewall (registration isn't over HTTP & port 80?), noticed I have to pay $50/year for a browser, and had a problem shutting it down. Since I wasn't able to register, I get a nice screen telling me to hit the record button to close TH, but it didn't work. I had to soft reset to get back to my Today screen.

So, nice attempt, almost got me, but I'm going to keep looking for something better.

squiggs1982

09-22-2004, 03:01 PM

buzzard

09-22-2004, 03:44 PM

Hmm... I just get "Sorry! Could not start a new ThunderHawk browser session." then "No data connection is available, please try again later."

It's not a problem with my internet as pocket ie works fine. Am behind windows sp2 firewall and a router, couled either of these be the problem?

I have the same problem with the firewall and have emailed their support regarding it. They generally answer quickly. The old T-Hawk 1.10 didn't have a problem with proxy servers and I can see the correct proxy address and port 8000 on TH2 so I'm not sure why it won't connect.

ikesler

09-22-2004, 04:39 PM

Much better and much faster............. all around
Might have to actually register it this time! :)

berslan

09-22-2004, 05:26 PM

I haven't seen anything about VGA support on the site, and my Asus A716 was listed among the supported devices. So I installed it to give a shot, but the none of the text on the screen is readable. :( This includes the keyboard. I must be doing something wrong but I have no idea what it is. Could you guys help me out with this?

Hey! Am I invisible, or is this common that newbies are ignored in general. Wouldn't expect that from this forum though! :|

Zagleft1

09-22-2004, 06:59 PM

I've been a Thawk subscriber for a while (on a pocket pc phone) and I agree that for speed and page viewability nothing out there touches Thunderhawk. The input interface is a weakness, though. You're forced to use the on-screen keyboard. In Thawk I you could set up "shortcut" text completion commands to speed up data entry, but I can't get that functionality to work in Thawk II. The other bug is that in Thawk I I could download files, but that functionality is not yet available in II. Support said they were known bugs that they were working on when I asked during the beta period and I'm a little surprised they didn't fix that before the full release.

Still the greatest browser available, though, IMHO.

Steven Cedrone

09-22-2004, 11:35 PM

Hey! Am I invisible, or is this common that newbies are ignored in general. Wouldn't expect that from this forum though! :|

Well, I'm certainly not trying to ignore you, I just don't have any answer for you! Try to wait a little longer, I'm sure someone will be able to answer your question!

Steve

bbarker

09-24-2004, 07:44 PM

I'm pretty happy with Sqweezer and MultiIE. What does TH do beyond what these do?

buzzard

09-24-2004, 08:55 PM

I'm pretty happy with Sqweezer and MultiIE. What does TH do beyond what these do?
Other than a lot more money for T-Hawk....I'd say not a whole lot. Thunderhawk is a little faster in my opinion maybe because it doesn't take the time to "sqweeze". If you're used to the full size version of CNN on your PC, then you know where to look on the Thunderhawk page for specific items. Skweezer's reformatting will show everything but not where they should be. All in all I don't see much difference but I'll still pay the money for T-Hawk when my year is up....and use Multi-IE + Skweezer on occasion as well.

bbarker

09-24-2004, 11:15 PM

Very helpful response. Thanks!

Janak Parekh

09-25-2004, 10:38 PM

I haven't seen anything about VGA support on the site, and my Asus A716 was listed among the supported devices. So I installed it to give a shot, but the none of the text on the screen is readable. :( This includes the keyboard. I must be doing something wrong but I have no idea what it is. Could you guys help me out with this?
Not sure what VGA support has to do with anything, as the A716 doesn't have VGA (it's QVGA). In any case, I have no problems reading the text in landscape -- your best bit is to contact Bitstream support and see what they have to say.

--janak