ReenSoft Release PIEPlus V1.3 beta 1

[Jonathon Watkins]

I've been using PIEPlus for a while now. I liked it's feature set and the way it made PocketIE usable and was disappointed to see that it was not happy with WM2003SE. It's been difficult to browse without it, but no longer. I got an email from ReenSoft the other day and they have just released PIEPlus V1.3 beta 1 to address the problem. They've also added a few more features along the way:<br /> <br /><li> WM 2003 SE support (including support for VGA devices) <br /><li> Tabbed multiple windows. Tab control has 2 additional buttons to close the window and toggle screen drag feature.<br /><li> Full screen button in the toolbar <br /><li> Play sound or make window foreground when page is loaded <br /><li> Screen drag. You can also set sensitivity for screen drag<br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/PIEPlusV1_3_Beta1.jpg" /> <br /><br />You can <a href="http://www.reensoft.com/download/PIEPlusSetupV1_3_Beta1.exe">download the beta</a> at the <a href="http://www.reensoft.com">ReenSoft website</a>, though I can't find any documentation other than the email I was sent. It's free for registered users and unregistered users can try it for 14 days. Just be aware that this is not a finished product, so the usual warnings about backups etc. apply. I have spotted a few issues, but it's good to be browsing in true VGA with PIEPlus again. I hope they release the final version soon. 8)

[marcm]

Just downloaded it. The new tabbed interface makes it more like firefox! I love it!

[OSUKid7]

I've been happy using Spb Pocket Plus's PocketIE mods for now, but every time I see PIEPlus think "wow, that's looks so much better." :lol: Maybe I should bite the bullet and get it...hmm I think I'll DL the trial now. :)

[Jonathon Watkins]

A word of warning that it's not rendering websites in quite the way I expected. I read the Inquirer and it used to show everything fitting nicely on the screen. Now I have to flip to landscape mode to fit everything in, both in SE_VGA and in true VGA mode. The tabbed browsing text also sometimes freaks out and goes tiny, but closing and opening the tab fixes that. I do know that it's a work in progress though, so I can live with quicks like that.

[bbarker]

I have been using MultiIE for years. It is a mature product, it works great and it has supported WM 2003 SE and VGA for some time. I haven't tried PIEPlus or other products, though so I can't give a comparison.

[ctmagnus]

Two things:

1) It doesn't like my PIE start page that was adapted from Dave Beauvais' source (http://www.beauvais1.com/archives/2004/04/10/pocket-internet-explorer-start-page/).

Image here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/media/users/3482/PIScreenshot19315.jpg).

2) The ability to change the height of the tabs is a necessity.

[yanathin]

Nice plugin, but it's still missing one huge thing...

Will something ever be made to disable IE's double-sized images and tables on VGA devices? Either that, or ThunderHawk for VGA.. Anything that's not buggy... :cry:

[johnm]

I used to use Netfront, bu then I dropped it and switched to ftxPBrowser. Now that I have my 4705 I'm looking for a new browser as ftxPBrowser development seems to have stopped. The last update was Jan 2004. Im in the process of switching to MultiIE . I only have a couple of complaint with it so far. I'd be interested in reading a good comparison of MultiIE and the new PIEPlus.

[Menneisyys]

I used to use Netfront, bu then I dropped it and switched to ftxPBrowser. Now that I have my 4705 I'm looking for a new browser as ftxPBrowser development seems to have stopped.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's useless. Actually, ftxPBrowser is still the most lightweight tabbed solution for the PPC platform. Furthermore, it's free.

I've just checked the memory requirements of opening a new tab in both ftxPBrowser and the latest MultiIE (3.1). The former requires only 1-2 kbytes overhead for each tab; the latter, some 950 kbytes (about 3 orders of magnitude more!). Sure, MultiIE has tons of features, but unless you really need functions like draggable screen, image saving, URL tricks, adding favorites (still a prob with ftxPBrowser) and the like, ftxPBrowser may be a much better choice.

BTW, ftxPBrowser works tolerably well in forced VGA mode, except for messed-up menus (fortunately, unlike Netfront 3.1 running in forced VGA mode, without problems with the most-important Favorites menu) and address bar. Furthermore, it's not started when the PPC starts, unlike MultiIE - that is, no performance/memory hit (if any) will occur outside browsing. (I will, along with the most important Today plug-ins, test the generic outprocess performance/memory hit introduced with MultiIE too.)

The last update was Jan 2004. Im in the process of switching to MultiIE . I only have a couple of complaint with it so far. I'd be interested in reading a good comparison of MultiIE and the new PIEPlus.

I will also test PIEPlus and post here what I find out.

[David Loendorf]

After 30 minutes of frustration I unloaded this software. I have an hx4700. While there were numerous problems, I will mention two that caused me to unload it.

First, it would go into a strange mode where it continuously cycled through controls on the page being viewed. But, not only did it do that on the page being viewed, when I selected the Start menu it was continuosly cycling through the menu items. I then tried looking at their Options pages and found that all of the dropdown lists were cycling. No matter what I selected to close the list, it always ended on the last item when the list closed. Then when I selected a soft reset button I have on Spb Plus, and the dialog comes up to confirm this is what you want to do, it was cycling the Yes and No buttons. I was able to catch it on the Yes button by tapping numerous times.

Second, I had three tabbed pages opened. I closed one of them using the close button in the tab row. It seemed to break any access to the site, but left the tab there. Then I selected full screen mode, and the tab row stayed on the screen about two-thirds of the way down the page. The restore area at the bottom of the screen did not work, but I found that if I tapped on one of the tabs it would restore. I also found that it would hang IE, never get to rendering the page, even a simple page such as Google.

All in all, not a good experience. I understand it is 'beta', but I have been writing code for many, many years (since 1965), and I would not put this out as beta. :(

[SteveHoward999]

Two things:

1) It doesn't like my PIE start page that was adapted from Dave Beauvais' source (http://www.beauvais1.com/archives/2004/04/10/pocket-internet-explorer-start-page/).



It works fine if you set PIE to show Standard not Pocket view. You can set up a button to toggle between the two views, so it is not relly so much of a pain.

[ctmagnus]

'k, I'm switching from MultiIE :D

[Jonathon Watkins]

It works fine if you set PIE to show Standard not Pocket view. You can set up a button to toggle between the two views, so it is not relly so much of a pain.

I don't notice any difference toggling between those views when I view the Register and Inquirer web pages. I still need to horizontally scroll for those. :? Hope it's fixed soon.

[wormie_dk]

Nice plugin, but it's still missing one huge thing...
Will something ever be made to disable IE's double-sized images and tables on VGA devices? Either that, or ThunderHawk for VGA.. Anything that's not buggy... :cry:

Yes that would be very nice!

For now I am using Netfront with the brute force VGA hack (http://www.tweaks2k2.com/how_to/index.htm#doublepixeling)


BTW, ftxPBrowser works tolerably well in forced VGA mode, except for messed-up menus (fortunately, unlike Netfront 3.1 running in forced VGA mode, without problems with the most-important Favorites menu) and address bar. Furthermore, it's not started when the PPC starts, unlike MultiIE - that is, no performance/memory hit (if any) will occur outside browsing. (I will, along with the most important Today plug-ins, test the generic outprocess performance/memory hit introduced with MultiIE too.)


The menus are a bit strange but renaming /Program Files/NetFront3/NF3ResourceLib.dll to NF3ResourceVGALib.dll makes it usable...

[Jonathon Watkins]

Welcome wormie_Dk. Good to see you. 8)

For now I am using Netfront with the brute force VGA hack

I'm using SE_VGA when I browse. Lets hope a more elegant solution emerges. :?

[bbarker]

'k, I'm switching from MultiIE :D
Can you explain why? I am using MultiIE and I'm interested. Thanks.

[ctmagnus]

Pocket View for most sites. 8)

[Menneisyys]

I've played a bit with Spb Pocket Plus 2.1's PIE add-on and found it much better than MultiIE speed- and memory consumption-wise. Check out http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=35615 for more info.

[Menneisyys]

I've been using the beta version for some days and I'm not happy with it at all.

1. Sure, it has some nice features usable in pre-WM2003SE machines (Pocket View), but they're completely useless on a WM2003SE with the new page viewing modes of PIE. If you still leave Pocket View on, it'll make links totally useless because it inserts spaces in them too (or at least this is what it may do.)

2, in Landscape view, the bars occupy far too much screen estate. In MultiIE, you can change their height and in Spb Plus, there're no tabs at all.

3, also in Landscape, page up/down don't work as intended: you always have to scroll up/down a bit to read the row that it hides. This isn't a problem in Portrait mode, however.

It has some advantages over MultiIE, however: the easy switching between screen drag and text select-mode. Also, both programs have the advantage over Spb Pocket Plus 2.1 that they dynamically change the tab captions, unlike Spb.

I think both MultiIE and Spb Pocket Plus 2.1 are better choices than this beta because of the very annoying bugs and the lack of tab height configuration.

[Gator5000e]

Anyone know if ReenSoft is still around and developing PiePlus? I have gotten used to it and want to keep using it with WM5. Thanks for any information.

[SteveHoward999]

Try http://www.reensoft.com/


seems a little quiet but they are apparently beta testing an update ...

[Gator5000e]

Thanks Steve. The home page has been showing that for a very long time. As you can see the last news update was march of 2004. So I am susptecting they are not active any longer.

[SteveHoward999]

I guess you missed the fact that this thread started as a post about a beta version of version 1.3, with a link to the fille

http://www.reensoft.com/download/PIEPlusSetupV1_3_Beta1.exe


Note also that the beta was updated a little while ago

http://www.reensoft.com/download/PIEPlusSetupV1_3_Beta2.exe


I am not certain, but I think version 1.3 should be available by now ... not that this is clear from the website of course. But anyway, my point really is that while they definitlly appear to be a little slow, they are definitely still supporting and developiong PIEPlus.