Menneisyys
08-05-2006, 09:31 AM
A brand new, Release Candidate 1 (RC1) version of one of the best Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE for short; also known as Internet Explorer Mobile starting with WM5) plug-ins has just been released. If you want to greatly enhance your PIE/IEM, make sure you check out at least the trial version.
Note that the final version, to be released in some weeks, won’t contain any new features according to the developer, ReenSoft; only (possible) bugfixes and optimizations. Therefore, reading this review (along with the older ones on version 2.0 and 2.1beta2 - review here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1029&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)) is highly recommended if you want to have a clear picture of what the new version is (and will be) capable of and how it compares to version 4 of MultiIE, the most important direct competitor. I’ve reviewed the latter for example here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1030&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) (make sure you follow the “Update” links in there too!) As with most of my "new version" reviews, I only elaborate on the changes compared to the last-reviewed version; therefore, do not expect a full review here. I don't have the time to write down again and again the same stuff when a new version of an already-reviewed application is released. This approach will also be more useful for people that do know the previous versions and would like to know whether it's worth upgrading from them and whether the bugs have really been fixed.
The new version, RC1, contains a LOT of enhancements and bugfixes compared to the previous version beta2 I’ve reported on here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1029&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) (I'll also refer to the previous version as 2.1b2, where 'b2' stands for 'beta 2'). Now that I’ve thoroughly (stress)-tested the new version, I elaborate on all these.
http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1MainScreen.bmp.png
Availability, pricing, compatibility and recommendation for PPC2k2 / WM2003 / WM5 users
The new version is available, as usual, here (http://www.reensoft.com/PIEPlus/). Upgaring to 2.1 (RC1) will be free to 2.0 customers and will cost $7.45 for 1.x ones.
RC1 runs on all Pocket PC 2002+ devices (yes, it is PPC2k2-compliant too: it runs just great on my old iPAQ 3660 too) and I haven’t encountered any kind of incompatibility on any of my (numerous) test Pocket PC’s I’ve deployed and tested it on.
If you have a PPC2k2 device, PIEPlus is the only choice as far as high-quality PIE plug-ins are concerned. MultiIE4, the other high-quality PIE plug-in, isn’t compatible with PPC2k2.
If you have WM2003 (and, of course, PPC2k2), the (by default, enabled) Pocket View mode (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1PocketView.bmp.png) will be one of your best friends. It’s only starting with WM2003SE that PIE has the extremely useful One column content rendering mode. Without that (and without using an online page content stripper/ reformatter service like Skweezer or MobileLeap – please make a search in my blog for more information on these services), most Web pages are very hard to browse on a PPC2k2/WM2003 device because of the need for horizontal scrolling as can be seen for example in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1NOPocketViewPPCMagFrontpagePCP2k2.bmp.png) (even with “Fit to Screen", the only standard way in PPC2k2/WM2003 PIE to make the rendering a bit more PDA-friendly, enabled). With enabled Pocket View, you won’t end up having to scroll the screen horizontally as can be seen in for example here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1PocketViewPPCMagFrontpagePCP2k2.bmp.png). In this respect (again, for PPC2k2/WM2003 owners only – people with later operating systems may safely rely on the built-in One column rendering mode and won’t really need PIEPlus' Pocket View), PIEPlus is still the best (and, for WM2003 users, much more recommended than MultiIE 4).
As far as strictly WM5 is concerned, compared to MultiIE4 D72 (the current build of MultiIE 4), PIEPlus 2.1 RC1 certainly excels particularly at page scrolling under WM5. That is, if you want to use your PDA in one-hand mode, prefer page scrolling and want to choose between the two apps, check out PIEPlus 2.1RC1 first before the lack of WM5 page scrolling in MultiIE4 (the biggest stumbling block with the current build of MultiIE4) is fixed. I'm pretty sure the WM5 scrolling-related problems of MultiIE4 will be fixed in the near future - I don't know when, though.
Changes: Scrolling
It’s here that the most changes have been made. (See my article on the scrolling behavior of the MultiIE 4 and PIEPlus 2.1b2 (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1077&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) for more information on what problems there are/were with PIEPlus 2.0/2.1b2 and MultiIE D71/D72, as far as the different operating systems and scrolling modes are concerned.)
Now, you can explicitly tell PIEPlus to switch back to the default (link-by-link in WM5 and page-by-page in pre-WM5) scrolling mode of PIE/IEM using the new, Scroll/ Scroll like IE checkbox (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1ScrollLikeIECheckbox.bmp.png). This is certainly welcome news! As can be seen in the above screenshot, these settings are all contained by the brand new “Scroll” settings tab.
One of the omissions (as opposed to MultiIE4) has also been fixed in this version: upon configuring full page scrolling, you can set the overlap percentage (and the pixel overlapping) (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1PageScrollPercentageSetup.bmp.png). This feature is working as expected if you use the “standard” D-pad to scroll; with the HTC Wizard’s volume slider, scrolling will, as with the previous version(s), always be one full page at a time, regardless of this setting (and what the scrolling type is set as default).
The only scrolling-related problem I’ve found with PIEPlus 2.1b2 - that is, it not supporting the Pocket Loox 710/718/720 Jog-dial at all - has been fixed in the new version. Note that, however, that the “Jog Dial by Line/Page” settings are NOT independent of the D-pad settings – the jog dial will use exactly the same settings as the D-pad. That is, you’ll need to keep the D-pad in page scroll mode if you also want the jog dial to scroll by page. This restricts one-hand operation a lot (if you often want to follow links in one-hand mode). But, after all, the jog dial is at least working, unlike in the previous version.
Also note that link scrolling is not possible under PPC2k2 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1NoLinkScrollPPC2k2.bmp.png) (and probably WM2003).
New location-based searching menu shortcut
A small subset of MultiIE4’s one of the best new and revolutionary features, location-based searching (see this (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=410684) for more info), is now added to PIEPlus (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1GoogleMaps.bmp.png).
For example, if you want to search for pizza in the vicinity of Germany’s capital Berlin, you need to enter “pizza near berlin germany” in the standard PIE address bar and, then, click the globe on the right, choose Google Service and, then, Maps (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1GoogleMaps-2.bmp.png). The results will soon be displayed (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1GoogleMaps-3.bmp.png).
(Note that, as far as Europe is concerned, Google Maps only contains most West-European countries; “as usual”, Finland, Greece and East-Europe (these I’ve explicitly checked) are not indexed and, therefore, not searchable (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1GoogleMaps-4.bmp.png).)
This is, of course, a handy shortcut (to avoid having to go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) and enter the search string there) and nothing really outstanding. Also note that, unlike MultiIE4, PIEPlus (still?) doesn’t support external GPS units for even easier location-based searches and inquiries.
Easier to configure where new links should be opened
A new submenu, Link Target, has been added to the link context menu. Now, you can tell PIEPlus where the actual link should be opened: in the current tab or in a newly opened one (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1LinkTargets.bmp.png) (by also telling it whether it should switch right to it or should load the contents in the background, keeping the focus on the current page). This is another welcome addition.
Page saving HTML parsing made better
In my article on MultiIE4 / PIEPlus 2.1b2 page saving and parsing capabilities (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1029&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), I’ve explained the problems with the way PIEPlus 2.1b2 parsed the HTML web pages to find referenced resources to be saved. Now, this problem has been fixed. For example, the new version downloads all the 14 referenced resources of the PocketDOS homepage (http://www.pocketdos.com/), as opposed to the two resource files saved by beta2. Kudos to ReenSoft for fixing this bug too!
What could still be worked on?
Location fetching from an external GPS device (not an issue if you don’t have a GPS and/or don’t want to use location-based services at all and/or you can also enter your exact location) as in MultiIE 4.
The ability to add secondary functionality to WM5 softbuttons. In MultiIE4, you can easily switch between the link/page/line scrolling mode and the full screen mode with long-pressing the (dedicated, hardware – it only works with dedicated buttons, not with user-assigned ones) WM5 soft buttons. While you can also assign these functionalities to any (other) hardware button in PIEPlus, it’d be still great to have the ability to (also) use the otherwise not redefinable WM5 soft-keys.
Note that these are really minor problems. Otherwise, PIEPlus 2.1 RC1 seems to be just great now that the bugs/ problems/ missing functionality I've found / elaborated on have all been fixed.
Verdict
All these changes and bugfixes are really welcome. Now that (almost) all my grieves with earlier PIEPlus versions have been fixed/implemented, I can only recommend upgrading to, or, if you're a new user, checking out the new version.
Recommended reading
The Web browsers category (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&cat=61) in my blog (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3) (which is, in turn, part of Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Expert blogs (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs)). It contains all my past reviews of earlier PIEPlus and MultiIE versions (and, incidentally, Pocket PC Web browsing in general). Make sure you check it out if you want to know everything about what Pocket PC web browsers there are, how they compare to each other and what problems/bugs they have.
Note that the final version, to be released in some weeks, won’t contain any new features according to the developer, ReenSoft; only (possible) bugfixes and optimizations. Therefore, reading this review (along with the older ones on version 2.0 and 2.1beta2 - review here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1029&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1)) is highly recommended if you want to have a clear picture of what the new version is (and will be) capable of and how it compares to version 4 of MultiIE, the most important direct competitor. I’ve reviewed the latter for example here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1030&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) (make sure you follow the “Update” links in there too!) As with most of my "new version" reviews, I only elaborate on the changes compared to the last-reviewed version; therefore, do not expect a full review here. I don't have the time to write down again and again the same stuff when a new version of an already-reviewed application is released. This approach will also be more useful for people that do know the previous versions and would like to know whether it's worth upgrading from them and whether the bugs have really been fixed.
The new version, RC1, contains a LOT of enhancements and bugfixes compared to the previous version beta2 I’ve reported on here (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1029&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) (I'll also refer to the previous version as 2.1b2, where 'b2' stands for 'beta 2'). Now that I’ve thoroughly (stress)-tested the new version, I elaborate on all these.
http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1MainScreen.bmp.png
Availability, pricing, compatibility and recommendation for PPC2k2 / WM2003 / WM5 users
The new version is available, as usual, here (http://www.reensoft.com/PIEPlus/). Upgaring to 2.1 (RC1) will be free to 2.0 customers and will cost $7.45 for 1.x ones.
RC1 runs on all Pocket PC 2002+ devices (yes, it is PPC2k2-compliant too: it runs just great on my old iPAQ 3660 too) and I haven’t encountered any kind of incompatibility on any of my (numerous) test Pocket PC’s I’ve deployed and tested it on.
If you have a PPC2k2 device, PIEPlus is the only choice as far as high-quality PIE plug-ins are concerned. MultiIE4, the other high-quality PIE plug-in, isn’t compatible with PPC2k2.
If you have WM2003 (and, of course, PPC2k2), the (by default, enabled) Pocket View mode (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1PocketView.bmp.png) will be one of your best friends. It’s only starting with WM2003SE that PIE has the extremely useful One column content rendering mode. Without that (and without using an online page content stripper/ reformatter service like Skweezer or MobileLeap – please make a search in my blog for more information on these services), most Web pages are very hard to browse on a PPC2k2/WM2003 device because of the need for horizontal scrolling as can be seen for example in here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1NOPocketViewPPCMagFrontpagePCP2k2.bmp.png) (even with “Fit to Screen", the only standard way in PPC2k2/WM2003 PIE to make the rendering a bit more PDA-friendly, enabled). With enabled Pocket View, you won’t end up having to scroll the screen horizontally as can be seen in for example here (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1PocketViewPPCMagFrontpagePCP2k2.bmp.png). In this respect (again, for PPC2k2/WM2003 owners only – people with later operating systems may safely rely on the built-in One column rendering mode and won’t really need PIEPlus' Pocket View), PIEPlus is still the best (and, for WM2003 users, much more recommended than MultiIE 4).
As far as strictly WM5 is concerned, compared to MultiIE4 D72 (the current build of MultiIE 4), PIEPlus 2.1 RC1 certainly excels particularly at page scrolling under WM5. That is, if you want to use your PDA in one-hand mode, prefer page scrolling and want to choose between the two apps, check out PIEPlus 2.1RC1 first before the lack of WM5 page scrolling in MultiIE4 (the biggest stumbling block with the current build of MultiIE4) is fixed. I'm pretty sure the WM5 scrolling-related problems of MultiIE4 will be fixed in the near future - I don't know when, though.
Changes: Scrolling
It’s here that the most changes have been made. (See my article on the scrolling behavior of the MultiIE 4 and PIEPlus 2.1b2 (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1077&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) for more information on what problems there are/were with PIEPlus 2.0/2.1b2 and MultiIE D71/D72, as far as the different operating systems and scrolling modes are concerned.)
Now, you can explicitly tell PIEPlus to switch back to the default (link-by-link in WM5 and page-by-page in pre-WM5) scrolling mode of PIE/IEM using the new, Scroll/ Scroll like IE checkbox (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1ScrollLikeIECheckbox.bmp.png). This is certainly welcome news! As can be seen in the above screenshot, these settings are all contained by the brand new “Scroll” settings tab.
One of the omissions (as opposed to MultiIE4) has also been fixed in this version: upon configuring full page scrolling, you can set the overlap percentage (and the pixel overlapping) (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1PageScrollPercentageSetup.bmp.png). This feature is working as expected if you use the “standard” D-pad to scroll; with the HTC Wizard’s volume slider, scrolling will, as with the previous version(s), always be one full page at a time, regardless of this setting (and what the scrolling type is set as default).
The only scrolling-related problem I’ve found with PIEPlus 2.1b2 - that is, it not supporting the Pocket Loox 710/718/720 Jog-dial at all - has been fixed in the new version. Note that, however, that the “Jog Dial by Line/Page” settings are NOT independent of the D-pad settings – the jog dial will use exactly the same settings as the D-pad. That is, you’ll need to keep the D-pad in page scroll mode if you also want the jog dial to scroll by page. This restricts one-hand operation a lot (if you often want to follow links in one-hand mode). But, after all, the jog dial is at least working, unlike in the previous version.
Also note that link scrolling is not possible under PPC2k2 (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1NoLinkScrollPPC2k2.bmp.png) (and probably WM2003).
New location-based searching menu shortcut
A small subset of MultiIE4’s one of the best new and revolutionary features, location-based searching (see this (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=410684) for more info), is now added to PIEPlus (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1GoogleMaps.bmp.png).
For example, if you want to search for pizza in the vicinity of Germany’s capital Berlin, you need to enter “pizza near berlin germany” in the standard PIE address bar and, then, click the globe on the right, choose Google Service and, then, Maps (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1GoogleMaps-2.bmp.png). The results will soon be displayed (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1GoogleMaps-3.bmp.png).
(Note that, as far as Europe is concerned, Google Maps only contains most West-European countries; “as usual”, Finland, Greece and East-Europe (these I’ve explicitly checked) are not indexed and, therefore, not searchable (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1GoogleMaps-4.bmp.png).)
This is, of course, a handy shortcut (to avoid having to go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) and enter the search string there) and nothing really outstanding. Also note that, unlike MultiIE4, PIEPlus (still?) doesn’t support external GPS units for even easier location-based searches and inquiries.
Easier to configure where new links should be opened
A new submenu, Link Target, has been added to the link context menu. Now, you can tell PIEPlus where the actual link should be opened: in the current tab or in a newly opened one (http://www.winmobiletech.com/072006PIEPlus21MultiIE4/PIEPLus21RC1LinkTargets.bmp.png) (by also telling it whether it should switch right to it or should load the contents in the background, keeping the focus on the current page). This is another welcome addition.
Page saving HTML parsing made better
In my article on MultiIE4 / PIEPlus 2.1b2 page saving and parsing capabilities (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1029&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), I’ve explained the problems with the way PIEPlus 2.1b2 parsed the HTML web pages to find referenced resources to be saved. Now, this problem has been fixed. For example, the new version downloads all the 14 referenced resources of the PocketDOS homepage (http://www.pocketdos.com/), as opposed to the two resource files saved by beta2. Kudos to ReenSoft for fixing this bug too!
What could still be worked on?
Location fetching from an external GPS device (not an issue if you don’t have a GPS and/or don’t want to use location-based services at all and/or you can also enter your exact location) as in MultiIE 4.
The ability to add secondary functionality to WM5 softbuttons. In MultiIE4, you can easily switch between the link/page/line scrolling mode and the full screen mode with long-pressing the (dedicated, hardware – it only works with dedicated buttons, not with user-assigned ones) WM5 soft buttons. While you can also assign these functionalities to any (other) hardware button in PIEPlus, it’d be still great to have the ability to (also) use the otherwise not redefinable WM5 soft-keys.
Note that these are really minor problems. Otherwise, PIEPlus 2.1 RC1 seems to be just great now that the bugs/ problems/ missing functionality I've found / elaborated on have all been fixed.
Verdict
All these changes and bugfixes are really welcome. Now that (almost) all my grieves with earlier PIEPlus versions have been fixed/implemented, I can only recommend upgrading to, or, if you're a new user, checking out the new version.
Recommended reading
The Web browsers category (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&cat=61) in my blog (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3) (which is, in turn, part of Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Expert blogs (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs)). It contains all my past reviews of earlier PIEPlus and MultiIE versions (and, incidentally, Pocket PC Web browsing in general). Make sure you check it out if you want to know everything about what Pocket PC web browsers there are, how they compare to each other and what problems/bugs they have.