web browser

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?

UC Browser, an alternative web browser for Windows Phone, has been available on the platform for some time now. Since then the app has been updated a number of times and has now been bumped to version 2.7. It's worth noting that this is not a simple IE wrapper either. UC Browser is the real deal, offering a serious solution for those who wish to use something other than Internet Explorer. 

The above chart certainly paints an interesting picture about usage within IE on Windows Phone. Back at MIX'11 when we managed to get a demonstration by Joe Marini of IE9, the excitement began of a chrome-less browsing experience. Moving onto later previews and in-depth looks at what's changed in the browser, many began to question the move to take away the status bar and hide the tabs and featured sites. One of the major complaints about the new IE on Windows Phone though is the missing "Find on Page" feature.

Amin Lakhani has published an insightful article over at the Windows Phone Developer blog, which runs us through the reasoning behind the changes that have been made. Looking back at the chart above, it's clear to see that the majority of users neglect the tabs and favourites features in favour of the address bar (myself being one). It's all about gaining as much screen as possible from chrome and using it for content display, to tie in with the whole concept of Metro, Microsoft has actually done this rather well.

Not everyone is going to agree with changes made as not everyone uses the web in the same way. A user may see IE9 on Windows Phone as a tool for light browsing, should he wish to have multiple tabs active at once he may favour a laptop, desktop or tablet. It's good to disagree with the approach taken, but without an alternative there's little anyone can do. One thing's for sure, it's depressing to see the team boast about having HTML5 with Youtube. Surely we should only rejoice when the monopolistic search engine giant agrees to allow Microsoft to pull down Youtube content via the app?

Source: Windows Phone Developer Blog

This is describable in one word: awesome. Seriously, Windows 8, coupled with this and your Windows Phone handset, you'll have more tiles in your life than every DIY store in the world. DeviantART author ~flatmo1 has created this magic that is a simple reflection on the proposed look of Windows 8. You can pin a number of favourite sites or bookmarks to the homepage by simply editing a JS file (source.js).

Images for the logos are all loaded from a sub-folder so you can add what ever images you wish to have displayed per tile (make sure they're the dimensions stated in the sketch.jpg file) - same with gradients. Save the downloaded folder somewhere on your hard drive (or upload it to your web accessible server) and open up the index file in your browser. This works for Opera, Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer so you can have all your web browsers running off the same home screen and you'd only need to update once for changes to be reflected across board. Neat, eh?

To change images and links, all you need to do is open up source.js and change the lines corresponding to the tiles you wish to alter (numbers can be found in the sketch.jpg).

We've also compiled WPCentral tiles for you to use when customising this localised homepage. All dimensions are available in the folder so there's a tile for every placement. You can download the variety of WPCentral images here (mirror), but you'll need either the default package with WPCentral tile replacing iTunes or the default EIGHT home page here with no alterations at all. All we need now are tiles that will update to mimic live tiles found on WP7.

Source: DeviantART, via: @antibenz

Remember NetFront?  Made by Access, they were the original must-have browser on Windows Mobile, going back years ago when Mobile Internet Explorer was even worse (and called PIE).  (See the v3.5 review as a refresher).

While Opera Mobile and Skyfire have mainly taken the lead, it seems Access is making an attempt to woo us back, releasing NetFront 4.0 "Concept Version".  We imagine the concept part makes this a beta, so not everything will be peachy.

The big thang that Access is pushing is their new JavaScript engine, which is suppose to be way faster than....the one in version 3.5.  So how this racks up to Opera Mobile and Skyfire is anyone's guess at this point, though we'll take a look soon enough.

Our initial opinion of 4.0?  Meh.

Read their full press release and info here.  Go through the download process here.

And look for a full review from George, coming up next week.  In the meantime, why not comment on your experience with 4.0?

If you're hip and cool, you'll use your MS Tag app to just download directly to your phone, see below.

[thanks John Kreuzer!]

Playing around with the Fennec emulator has been fun. Its opened our eyes to a whole new way to browse the web from our mobile. Although cool, it really doesn't let us know what the actual application will ultimately look like once on the device.How fast will Fennec be? Is it stable? Will it be another IE?

Open source whiz Gnubeashie might answer some of those questions with an early attempt of what Fennec will look like on 6.1. Keep in mind this is a first attempt (and also just emulation, but at least it's WinMo emulation), but from the looks of it Fennec will be running smoothly.

Vid after the break.  [via wmpowerusers]