Well not exactly for all, but Mozilla are edging towards a beta release of Fennec/FireFox Mobile. Why I say not exactly free, The cab install file is 9.6 Mb and ram and processor consumption is off the wall. I actually backed up twice before I installed the Alpha, and I installed it to device, something I rarely do with trial software.

The problem here is the size of the file and the specs of your device. If you are still using an older WinMo device like me, there’s not a lot of hope for you with this Alpha. It just hangs and doesn’t offer any options. If Fennec is going to be a viable option, it will have to be a lot less resource hungry. Just the start up/load time of the app was an indication that this wasn’t going to work for me.
Even though it graphically looks good, at this stage, this load screen appeared for about eight minutes. Not a good omen in anyone’s books. Basically, it would load the start page, and then do very little else. So I’ve uninstalled it. Even though I’ve posted optimistically about this before, we are looking at an app that will need a device with specs to boot.
Remember that film where they say “ if you build it, they will come!”. Windows Mobile devices are probably evolving at a rate that will accommodate this application, but for now, it’s a wee bit sketchy.
How ever you want to take it, it’s still nice to see the development progressing.Check out the  latest change logs for the current alpha here, and give it a try if you want! I’m a bit uninspired, and disappointed that this update didn’t take this browser up a level, that makes it useable on windows mobile. Try it out for sure!

There’s been a huge amount of Windows Mobile Browser news over the past week, courtesy of the MWC. Also our friend Werner over at SmartPhoneMag has put up a full list of all the browser news, and his insights as to the current situation with Windows Mobile browsing. One of the  browsers, Iris from Torch mobile, is finally out of Beta and ready for public consumption, and it’s still free.

I have tried out Iris many a time through it’s development, and of course it didn’t last, install, try, uninstall you know the drill. Although, as with all mobile browsers, the rule of thumb is to deliver the closest thing to a desktop browsing experience on a mobile phone, as possible.

Market leaders in the Mobile browser world, Opera, have defined the feature set, paradigm, for what we expect from a WinMo browser, and all other browser developers, including Microsoft have been playing catch up for quite a while. As most WinMo users are using Opera mobile for a comparison platform for a browser, any software that comes close for free is going to be a viable option, in steps Iris…

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Not that I’m obsessive or any thing, but the quest for a windows mobile browser that serves up a desktop browsing experience is, a lot of peoples gripe. Opera have a good solution, but it is tailored to really top end windows mobile devices like the Diamond and the touch HD. device memory seems to be the key with all of the newer browsers.

Apparently the rumoured entry from Mozilla is about to go to Alpha testing, when earlier  we heard that it would not appear for years. It seems there’s going to be a release, and if someone could tell me how to get on to the alpha team I’d appreciate it.

Via WMExperts

LinuxInsider. [Via Unwired View & Gizmodo]