browser

SurfCube 5 for Windows Phone 8 is now available to consumers. This major release of the popular web browser introduces a number of new features, including support for the new speech API in Windows Phone 8. The app is a popular choice for those who require that little bit extra which Internet Explorer doesn't quite provide. So what joins speech in version 5?

UC Browser, an alternative web browser for Windows Phone, has recently been updated to version 2.8. The developer has been busy pushing UC Browser further on the platform. We last looked at the app back in December when it was bumped to 2.7 and introduced a number of improvements and new features, so what's new in the latest release?

We’re not sure if this is just a temporary error or something more nefarious but Google appears to have changed something whereby Windows Phone users are now blocked when trying to access maps.google.com.

Granted, it’s not clear why you would want to use Google’s less-than-awesome mapping service through a browser, but humor us for a second. The move appears to be a continued approach to lockout all Google services from those who adopted Windows Phones. Or it’s just poor service.

We were able to verify on our Windows Phones that when going to maps.google.com we are redirected to www.google.com/m for mobile, regardless of IE10’s settings i.e. Desktop mode. Reports suggest that maps.google.co.uk still works for some folks but for us that too redirects, making this an in-motion change that is evidently occurring worldwide.

Now that the Windows Phone 8 SDK is nearing full-public release and the OS is RTM, we can get a better idea of some of the HTML5 benchmarks.

We last compared these numbers a few months ago and while HTML5 compatibility has greatly increased from IE9 to IE10, it’s still not as robust as Android (ICS), iOS6 or BlackBerry 10.

The current build of Windows Phone 8 scored 319 (+ 6 bonus) on the HTML5 Test with iOS6 (via the iPhone 5) coming in at 360 (+9 Bonus). Of course all of that is ironically trumped by RIMs in-gestation BlackBerry 10, which has a super high score of 447 (+10 bonus) and while that is high, 3^rd party browser Dolphin for Android (currently in beta) gets 450 (+3 bonus).

Internet Explorer 10 is good but is it the best?

Although Windows Phone 8 is still a few months away from release, it doesn’t mean we can’t start to gather information about it or one of its main new features: Internet Explorer 10.

The new browser was revealed back at the Summit in June and it will match the desktop component found in Windows 8 Desktop, due in late October. Featuring a new JavaScript engine, better performance, twice the HTLM5 compatibility, advanced privacy features and optional data-compression, the browser should really be a step up for consumers.

Browsing Bild.de can be hazardous to Tango's health

With Windows Phone Tango rolling out it is perhaps not a surprise that some isolated bugs may be discovered along the way. So far, not too many have cropped up but there is one that is interesting though seemingly rare.

Users have found that navigating to the German news site Bild.de on their phone, with “Desktop” enabled can result in the browser locking up the device. The site Bild.de does default to a mobile WAP version and there is a Windows Phone app too but users are free to use their IE9 in desktop mode to view the site “as is”.

We’ve tested the scenario on our Tango phone (Focus 2) and sure enough, upon loading the page the second time it does lock up the device. Since Internet Explorer is a native app, native apps can crash the OS whereas third-party apps should not be able to do so.

The theory seems to revolve around the idea that Bild.de is very graphic intensive with a lot of photos being pushed to the browser. Combined with Tango's low-overhead for 256MB devices and it seems to zap all of the available memory on the phone (of course we can’t rule out javascript errors or something else, either). You can replicate the crash yourself by following these directions:

• Turn “Desktop” mode on in the browser
• Navigate to Bild.de, it may load just fine
• Navigate to another site then go back to Bild.de
• Browser should crash when loading

The resulting crash means you would have to pull the battery (or hold the power button for 10 seconds) to reboot the phone. We tried this on a Windows Phone Mango device (HTC Titan) and could not replicate the crash. We also had no issues with a Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.1 meaning this most certainly seems correlated with Windows Phone “Tango”.

Is it a dire bug? Certainly not but it could be used as a browser-exploit by some nefarious people out there, even though that seems remote to us. Still, hopefully Microsoft will see this and patch it up for their next OS build.

Update: To make things even more confusing, it's not all devices. Our Lumia 900 with Tango is okay, but reports at XDA of the Radar, Omnia 7, Lumia 800 and our Focus 2 do have the crash.

Source: XDA; Thanks DerAusgewanderte, for the tip

UC Browser is an alternative to Internet Explorer on Windows Phone, one of the first of its kind. It's been around for some time (it was on Windows Mobile) but only supported Chinese for the Windows Phone build which under went beta testing a few months ago. The browser was recently updated and now has language support for English.

UC Browser is a well designed web browser and pages loaded with a little zip. There's still some work to be done to complete the transition to English and a few features we've yet to discover. But all in all, if you're looking for a change of pace from IE9, UC Browser is worth a try.

Heads up folks, if you're looking to spice up your Internet Explorer experience, we should steer you towards Surfcube. A browser-wrapper of sorts (it uses IE9 as the core), Surfcube gives the user a whole new way to interact with their web browser with a 3D rotation cube that enables full-screen browsing and a simple way to access tabs and bookmarks.

The app is normally priced at $1.99 but is now 50% off till January 1st, which we think is a pretty good deal. The app of course has a free trial or you could use the free, ad-supported version if you want. But at $0.99 this is a pretty great price for one of the top-rated apps around.  Grab it here in the Marketplace to take it for a spin.

It's been awhile since we've seen a contender for a browser-wrapper on Windows Phone. Here we mean an app that uses Internet Explorer 9 as the base but augments its functions. Metro Browser (no ties to the earlier Metro Browser) is a true full screen web browser with advanced video playback capabilities.:

"Metro Browser has custom made video decoders specifically build for Windows Phone with optimal performance for real-time streaming flash video. Due to the efficient design it is possible to even stream on 3G.

Metro Browser is optimized to handle large video files without the need for any free storage on the device, all streaming happens directly from the memory."

Indeed, as the photo above demonstrates, it is full screen and looks amazing on an HTC Titan. Video sites supported include MegaVideo, VideoZer, VideoBB and of course YouTube. Playback isn't perfect and the browser is a bit limited on version 1.0 but overall, it's a solid entry that we welcome with open arms.

The app fetches for $1.99 with a free trial, which translates into an ad-supported version here in the Marketplace. We think it's pretty cool, but it's crazy late here so we'll save the hands on for the morning Meanwhile, you give us your feedback in comments. Thanks, Binaer Jongleur, for the tip!