Web Browser Update

[Catman51]

I have the cooked WM 6 rom on my 6700 and Thawk is working perfectly.

[sketchy09]

I simply don't understand the lack of a good browser on WM. It's been an ongoing problem for YEARS. I don't know anyone who's realy satisfied with any of the options currently available. Yes, Opera Mini is nice, but it has its own set of problems. WHY hasn't a developer stepped up and made a kick-ass browser? Is there some technical aspect of WM that prevents a good browsing experience? It's ridiculous that in (almost) 2008 our options are bad and worse. Thoughts?

-R

[Genjinaro]

People are considering Thunderhawk....?
Hell must've frozen over, so much was missing from it back in 2005 & I don't think its any better now.

What I'm about to say is not the sole problem of browsers on WM, nor am I implying it:

What doesn't help browsing is the pathetic amount of available program memory (RAM) some people have on the PDA itself (i.e 64MB = 24-28MB user free/left)

[riazrahman]

i'm a college student and a lot my friends have iphones; I'm "the loser" with "that ugly windows mobile BRICK." No, it doesnt matter to them that my phone is my GPS in my car - no, it doesnt matter that i have uber control over how my OS looks and operates with ROM updates and the myriad of programs able to customize WM - no, it doesnt matter that my slide out keyboard is so much slicker than their cumbersome onscreen keyboard...for all these iPhoners ALL THAT MATTERS IS THE BROWSER!

so i've been searching for a competitor to their slick, gesture-ific browser. I've tried all the contenders: PIE, Opera, Minimo, heck i even stole Deepfish off some shady website. Opera is clearly the best and has the richest featureset, but the pages still dont scale right regardless of what kind of options i select. I dont get that iPhone almost-like-a-pc-but-so-much-cooler snob factor.

Then I found old posts through Google about Thunderhawk and decided to give it a try despite the 6 bucks for a one-month trial (i know that sucks in principle, but...really guys? im a broke student and i can afford trying it for a month!).

I dont know when the last update to this program was (i thought i got a new PPC edition)...but if it WAS in 2005 then i APPLAUD their designers!!! This is THE BEST scaling i have seen on Windows Mobile! The browser is simply beautiful. The pages look like my desktop on EVERY website (minus a few font differences of course). AJAX elements look GREAT! The page elements are interactive (something the deepfish trial i had failed to do). Yes, there are some kinks with the slide out keyboard on my 6700...yes, it doesn't have tabs (do you REALLY multitask that much on your PPC that you need TABS?!?)... but the pages just look so sexy and render QUICK that i might actually stick with it! This really could compete with the iphone!

Now, ask yourself, if this broke college kid is considering to pay 50 bucks a year for a stupid phone browser...there MUST be something worthwhile in this program. after all the disappointments i've had in this area, this is the first near-success i've had with a browser. On my phone, i'm no power user by any means...but for everyday googling, email checking, looking up addresses, etc (you know, what normal people would need internet on a phone for) i dare you to give it a try.

sorry for the long post...just my .02 (and a little bit of venting, for which i apologize)

[Catman51]

I wrote to Bitstream requesting tabs for Thunderhawk, they said they would consider it for the next update.
Maybe if a few more wrote, it would really get them to take notice.