Small Screen rendering for Pocket PC / iMate

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vodacom3g

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Forum to the rescue, please :)

Being a longtime fan of the i-mate family, I own a few and recently got the JasJar.

While I like the concept of a 3G-enabled PDA, there are few things that still are not quite right (I won't even mention battery life!).

Specifically, the IE rendering of WEB pages is not up to par with a device like the Nokia 9300.

I would like to browse pages like myADSL without having to pan left and right all the time. Even on the smallest zoom setting, the whole width of the page won't fit.

1) Is there something else I can set to force the page to fit?
2) Is there another browser that will allow me to do this? I tried Thunderhawk, but can't get it to run.

I know a few forumites (mams, bigcheese, etc.) have been playing with these units. Any suggestions?
 
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I would think it would be more depended on the specific webpage that you visit, Not?

I have the 9300, and i have same problem, where i am forced to scroll to the right because of the webpage being to big, due to the small screen of the 9300.
Although some pages do fit better than others.

Do you actuall mean the the phones browser should have a function that "shrinks" the page to fit?

Bmeister
 
I have a PAalm Treo 650 smartphone, and one particular site (mytreo.net) has a specific link you select if you're browsing from the Treo 650 and using the standard browser with the phone. (no colours, text only, correct size)
 
Hi v3g

In part, this is one of the well known limitations of Windows Mobile - web page rendering is just less than satisfactory. Alternative sources are developing a Minimo (mozilla based) browser which may address many of the issues, but we're stuck with Microsoft's sad efforts until then.

As far as the problem you describe is concerned, there should be a built in solution. On my Windows Mobile 2003SE device, when in Internet Explorer I can tap "view", then "layout" and then "one column". This will do some strange things to the rendering, but you do at least get everything on one page without having to scroll from side to side.

As I said, I have a different device but it should be worth a shot...
 
yes, use the View> One screen function and also try using View in Full screen..both help to a certain extent...
ILL LET U KNOW WHEN IVE FOUND A BROWSER THATS PERFECT...IM SEARCHING> WORKING ON SOMETHING..
 
Mams said:
yes, use the View> One screen function and also try using View in Full screen..both help to a certain extent...
ILL LET U KNOW WHEN IVE FOUND A BROWSER THATS PERFECT...IM SEARCHING> WORKING ON SOMETHING..
Click to expand...

For more information than you can shake a stick at, try

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=42017

Not updated for Windows Mobile 5, but a very good starting point.
 
vodacom3g said:
Any thoughts on ThunderHawk?
Click to expand...

I used Thunderhawk for the trial period on my iPaq 1940 and was very impressed - it generally does a much better job of rendering pages than the built in Internet Explorer - but there were a few things that kept me from subscribing to the service:

  • I upgraded to a device with a VGA screen and I hear that Thunderhawk doesn't work as well on these devices (Jasjar also has a VGA screen, of course);
  • No option for multiple pages open at the same time;
  • Didn't like the ide of paying an extra $50 a year (I think) to browse when I was doing it without the cost already;
  • Even though data is relatively cheap, I like the idea that I can do a whole lot of surfing through some compression services (e.g. Skweezer) for a whole lot less and it doesn't seem that Thunderhawk supports many of these compression services

That said, the service does have a completely free, no-obligation 30 day trial, so I'd suggest you use it for that period to see if it suits your needs. I must admit, I tried the service before really knowing about this forum, so I'd be curious to know how it works here.
 
I have the ipaq 6515 and is currently the pda with the smallest screen arround (240x240) and have major problems. Browsing normal webpages is almost impossible unless they are made for mobile ie. What also like soem sort of solution for this
 
veethree pointed me to Netfront 3.3 which is exactly what I wanted. It does a great job of rendering full pages on the smaller screens. This (type of) app alone will make me use my JasJar more than my laptop.

BTW, I couldn't get ThunderHawk to work on the JasJar. The single column option under IE help but full rendering is the real answer.

veethree, thanks and any idea on future releases?
 
I've used 3.1 and had the best results with it (on my IPAQ 6340). However I couldn't do internet banking with Absa or Nedbank.
 
How about trying Opera? I hear good things.

Also you can try a bit of a hack: Enter the URL http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=www.myadsl.co.za/vb and you will get the forums page, formatted for your device. It is using the google mobile proxy and you can use it for any site. Just make u= whatever site you want to visit or search from http://www.google.com/xhtml.

I tested this on a HP pocketpc and it worked. I had troubles going from the main site to the forums so thats why I just gave you the path to the forums.

I found this out by using google on my cellphone - 128x160 screen :eek: - and it works beautifully. Want to read something on wikipedia? just add wikipedia to your search terms and it will be the first link!

Very useful
 
I'm posting this from a JamJar (weighs as much). If I set view=default & zoom=smallest, the scrolling is minimal ... good enough for me.
 
How are you enjoying the Jamjar Roman? I have a k jam which is due for an upgrade soon. Is the Jamjar a significantly better instrument do you think?
 
When is the JASJAM coming out? ETA for Souf Afrika?

Pity you can't get the iPAQ 6915 on contract from Vodacom, it chews up all the other PDAs in the graphics & CPU benchmarks.

Why do i-Mates have the ****ty Samsung CPUs and not a proper Intel CPU?
 
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