Web Browsing On WP7S

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/03/the-same-markup-wont-be-happening-any-time-soon-on-winphone.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss#' target='_blank'>http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/ne...m_campaign=rss#</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"One of the most appealing parts of the iPhone is its Web browser. Mobile Safari is powered by the WebKit engine, and this same engine also powers the desktop browser. The result is a Web experience that, while not identical to the desktop experience, is not far off. Windows Mobile, on the other hand, has a browser that's roughly derived from Internet Explorer 6. The result? A decidedly second-rate Web experience. Windows Phone 7 Series will improve things somewhat-to approximate parity with Internet Explorer 7-but it remains behind its desktop counterpart."</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I'm finding it hard to put any kind of posiive spin on this&nbsp; - fact is, it's hard to be positive about a lot of the WP7S news that's come out over the past few weeks. I can (probably) learn to live with most of them, but this is one area that I'm going to&nbsp;find hard to gloss over. If we had access to alternative browsers like Opera that's one thing, but it looks like that's still going to be a ways off with the restrictions Microsoft is placing on developers. Getting on par with IE7 may be good enough, but...who knows? WP7S is coming late to the party as it is, and a dated web experience is just one more strike against it.</p>

[efjay]

The article author doesnt give any proof to back up his statement, I would be inclined to wait and see what the final product is like.

[Jason Dunn]

I don't know, the browser on the Zune HD is pretty good, and the WP7 browser is going to be an updated version of that I believe. So as long as it continues to improve, I don't see much to complain about. :confused:

[virain]

Allow me to disagree with the author. I don't know what his motivation was to write that, either he looks for sensation to stear up a debate, or just a die hard Apple fan, for whom any positive news about MS product is like a salt in a bleeding wound. But I own iPhone, 1st gen, HTC Touch Pro 2 with WM 6.5 and Zune HD 32 Gb. I can say that even Touch Pro IE looks and feels better than iPhone's browser, in fact I prefer it to Opera as well. And yes, unlike some fruit browsers with adveturous names IE does support Flash!

[djdj]

While the browser on Windows Mobile 6.x phones is based on IE6, it's a totally different animal. As far as rendering goes it is much closer to IE7 or maybe even IE8. It is definitely better than IE6 was.

I also have found the browser on the Zune HD to be quite good. In some ways it's better than the one on the iPhone, namely performance and font rendering quality.

Not only that, Windows Phone 7 is still many months away. We don't know what the final product will look like. It's irresponsible of the author to give it such a knock when we don't even know what it is going to be like.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Thanks guys, with all the shocks of the past couple of weeks, I might be getting a bit too down on WP7S. The proofs in the pudding as they say, so I guess we'll just have to wait til October to find out. Meantime, I'm still living having to live with WM6.1, and the prospect of not being able to carry over all the apps I've invested in over the years.:(

[Craig Horlacher]

My question is, will Microsoft be stupid like Apple and not allow us to install Opera or another 3rd party browser?

[TKETZ196]

as far as third party web browsers are concerned, i would have to say that for now, there won't be anything other than IE Mobile. I think there would obviously be support for third party browsers along with other apps, but i think the chances are slim at launch. I think it would be dumb for MSFT to alienate development companies that already are behind Windows Mobile like Opera. Currently, i use Skyfire on my current device and had no major complaints about it. I just wish that it would have tabbed browsing. They have to bring a quality browser. As of right now, there is no Flash support. For some that is bad, for others, they can live with out it. I have faith that IE mobile will be good, but the proof really is in the pudding.

[Jason Dunn]

My question is, will Microsoft be stupid like Apple and not allow us to install Opera or another 3rd party browser?

Why wouldn't they? I haven't heard anything about Microsoft planning to block apps that "duplicate functionality" the way Apple does.

[frankenbike]

The big question, and it looks pretty doubtful, is whether it will run true Flash or Java. The test is always video streaming sites. Hulu, Justin.tv, Ustream.tv, Vimeo, etc.