12-19-2002, 12:15 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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NetFront 3.0 for Pocket PC's Available
NetFront, the guys who built next-gen Palm browsers, have released a new version for Pocket PC's. Features include- HTML 4.01, JavaScript 1.5 compliance
- Tabbed-window browsing
- Horizontal fit
- Offline browsing
- Optional PersonalJava support, applet support
Has anyone given this a try? I use Thunderhawk myself, but this may be another promising alternative to Pocket IE.
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12-19-2002, 12:29 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 33
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For some reason i can not get to the link. Hmmm if it is a alturnitive to pie then that would be so great. as someone really needs to make a alturnitive browser for the pocket pc. also wanted to add a review here http://www.infosync.no/news/2002/n/2252.html it talks about all the features of the browser etc.
Garrett
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12-19-2002, 12:39 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 651
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I just tried it and I really like it. It is a big program but I can finally access my credit union's account using my ipaq. I'm going to play with it some more and see if I can access some media sites that didn't work with pie. The biggest problem I have is with news sites like msnbc who use java and embedded windows media players. Now I can access the site but I haven't found a way to play embedded windows media streams in it  . If anyone knows could you let me know
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12-19-2002, 12:43 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,768
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landscape
Can anyone tell me if it works in landsape mode.... or with alternatively, if it works well with one of the landscape utitlity apps? Also, can it view PPC formatted sites if desired?
__________________
Jonathan (JonnoB)
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -Edmund Burke
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12-19-2002, 12:53 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 102
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No don't work in landscape
but if You want I tested this soft in English a week ago for a review and you can have a look there, Sorry in French but with Bablefish you may be able to have an interesting translation.
http://ppcreviews.sorobangeeks.com/index.php?revue=32
It is honestly an amazing Software! just some 2 or 3 little missing stuff but Amazing.
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12-19-2002, 01:22 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 92
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It is very well implemented. The peformance seems on par with PIE. The supported helper apps and file extensions are, however, limited. Windows Media file extensions are not supported. MPEG videos formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-4, streaming MPEG, etc.) are supported through external helper apps like PocketTV, PocketMVP.
Quite disappointed that it does not support landscape mode. Guess I misunderstood the meaning of "horizontal fit" support. It just means content can be wrapped horizontally (words are broken up, however) so there's no need to scroll over horizontally. Guess we'll have to wait for WindowsCE .NET for true landscape support. Hope that by the time the CE .NET spec is out, VGA resolution is supported on the newer generation of PPC devices!
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12-19-2002, 03:56 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 111
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I just checked out Thunderhawk's preview pages and that looks really nice. I would be very interested, if not for the $49.95 price tag. And what's worse, that's just for a year's subscription. Subscription-based pricing on software like this is evil... just pure evil.
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12-19-2002, 04:20 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 106
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Thunderhawk
Janak, what do you think about thunderhawk. I contemplated getting it, but 50$ is a lot to spend on one program for only a year. Does it work well. Does it handle sites PIE can't? Is it really any faster than PIE? I think a lot of people would like a front page post with impressions about thunderhawk, as many of us use our ppcs for web browsing. I personally have a T39 through bluetooth hooked up to my 3970, and love it. The only problem is that I do IT work, and PIE can't handle the cgi script that handles my company's web and email server.
Jeff
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12-19-2002, 05:24 AM
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Review Coordinator Emeritus
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 451
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IMO, Thunderhawk is well worth the investment if you're serious about web browsing on your Pocket PC. When I was considering it, I tried the then beta version of NetFront along with NVD to see if I could get anything like the clarity and readability of Thunderhawk with another product at the resolutions that Thunderhawk supports. Nothing else even came close. Web browsing in portrait mode just doesn't cut it... I don't care how capable the browser is. And only Thunderhawk has the fonts specifically optimized for web browsing on the Pocket PC.
Portable and effective web browsing on my Pocket PC is something that I use all the time. Thunderhawk is the only product that can provide a near PC-quality web browsing experience on the Pocket PC. If that's not worth $4 a month, then I guess you really don't value such an experience very much. If I have one less Mickey D's Extra Value meal per month, that pays for Thunderhawk, and Thunderhawk doesn't clog my arteries. :wink:
Subscription based pricing for Thunderhawk is necessary because you're not really buying a piece of client software, you're buying an ongoing service. Bitstream processes web pages through their own servers to provide the exceptional clarity of the images Thunderhawk provides. That's a fundamental part of the design of Thunderhawk, it's what makes it special. And, guess what? Nobody provides Bitstream with free server hardware and administration. So they have the "audacity" to charge for the ongoing use of their servers. To call it "evil" just because it's a subscription is unfair, in my opinion. If it was just software, I'd agree, but that's not the case.
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12-19-2002, 07:46 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Doug, well-put.
I justified the price of ThunderHawk by realizing that I won't keep equivalent software for more than 1 or maybe 2 years at the most anyway, so the subscription service is still conceptually affordable as compared to shrink-wrap.
But it's definitely not for everyone -- it's on the high-end of the PPC price curve.
--janak
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Linear Mode
