Netfront: it is worth trying !

[JMP]

i have been reading so much against netfront that i did not even want to try it. Instead i have played around with primary tools such as webprov and pocketmirror... i was so disappointed...
finally i decided to spend a couple of hours trying the most hated clie app... and l am now a netfront lover ! finally a browser that renders the page properly. And i completely understand now why it s much bigger than the so-called competitors !

this shall be a REVIVAL thread for netfront ! i am submitting this from NF itself...

now back to work, my colleagues are already jeaous

:D jmp

[kmrdeva]

Yes, despite all it's limitations, IMHO, NetFront is still the best web browser for the NX.

I'm not too worrried about its size, since I use PowerRun to move it to the memory stick.

[Clié Guru]

I'm surprised Larry has not flamed you guys :^)... I've found NF, despite all its shortcomings (more than a few), is relatively stable and useful to have controls at bottom. Why it has to take up so much damn RAM is beyond me.

There used to be chatter over at Netscape about porting the Gecko engine to mobile devices, which I assume would mean Palm before PocketPC, but who knows for sure these days. Has anyone heard of this?

The other browsers I have tried seem to do the same thing with a much smaller footprint than NF, but after numerous hard resets I finally decided to go back... ok, now its my turn to take cover. Cya :^)

[n2ifp]

I am here and I guess I don't have to explain where I stand. BTW, it's Pocket Link not Pocket Mirror. No biggie, as Pocket Mirror is a very good app for OutLook conduits.

What I'd really like to see is a browser that one can view via landscape.

The more as I tried to use Net Front, the more frustrating it was! Interesting that Pocket Link works fine for my brother and myself, but others are having difficulty??? Blazer and WebPro are nice in that they are fast and all I have to do is scroll down with my turbo enabled jog wheel. For general viewing purposes they are fine, but I do agree Net Front may have certain advantages, if I could the @#$&%* pages to load! ;)

[kmrdeva]

Hmm. PocketLink eh? Gotta try that one too, then.

I generally browse only PDA friendly sites, since Avantgo is still not running well on OS5. Maybe that's why NF is ok for me..

...running away....

[sevenafter]

Okay, of these browsers, which of them will allow you to view content stored locally (on memory stick)?

Thanks, Tim

[nlode]

Originally posted by sevenafter
Okay, of these browsers, which of them will allow you to view content stored locally (on memory stick)?

Thanks, Tim

Netfront has an Auto-Cruise function for bookmarks, so you can download those that you selected to the MS for later viewing.

[zzarg]

If you want to view in Landscape mode... try TapLiner... works quite well, when their proxies are running....
Tried NetFront... can't say I'm a fan
Don't care if Gecko dies... it's bloated and overly convoluted (the fact Apple decided not to use that engine for the new Mac browser says a lot)... I use Mozilla 1.3a on Windows but it's got nothing over IE
I actually really like Opera... and at least they've ported to Symbian, QNX, Model60 etc so there's hope for PalmOS if enough people ask real nice....

[nike33]

Opera was fantastic on my Palm 7.

But last I heard from the Opera guys.... no port to Palm OS is planned, oh well.

[LSAlford]

I also have tried all(?) of the browsers available for the PalmOS, and am happiest with Netfront despite it's size and speed limitations. For speed, Eudora is the best, but for a true graphical browser, I'm sticking with Netfront.

[LSAlford]

P.S. to above: for offline viewing I use iSilo. Used to use Avantgo before migrating from NR70V to NX70V.

[oneeyesquare]

I really have had a good experience with Netfront. I am able to load most pages with images and table. Animations, css and java I don't really need anyway. Clie Source is about 50/50 on the "page to large" error. Wish they had enabled flash thru the browser- seems kinda stupid to have it installed and not available for browsing.
And the obvious complaint.... NO LANDSCAPE!!!!!

[davidy]

TIM,

Without conversion, Netfront can view html files stored anywhere on the memory stick. Just type in the path in the 'Enter Address' page eg. file://MS/htmlfiles/name of file.htm. Alternatively, 'Saved File' allows you to see html files saved in MS/palm/programs/msweb/. Now I wonder if Netfront on the Zaurus SL C700 works the same way. I am getting impatient for a good palm html viewer.

I tried WebProV to answer my own question of whether it could also view html files on the MS. The short answer is no. This is despite having a menu item 'View Saved Pages' which is similar to Netfront's 'Saved Pages'. You can only view saved pages that were saved via WebProV using the menu 'Save Page'. This function however appears to only save the address of the page in question. You need to be connected to the internet, or have loaded a page off the net before the save function can be used. On line or off line, the save function only saves the web address of the current page in WebProV. You need to reconnect to click open the saved pages again. There doesn't seem to be any functional difference between the 'Save Page' + 'View Saved Pages' and 'Bookmark URL' + 'View Bookmarks' in WebProV. There is the date of saving using 'Save Page' - not much point.

Correct me if I am wrong about WebProV. I would dearly love an alternative to Netfront for offline surfing of the MS.

Does anyone know of any alternative to surfing html files stored on the MS?

[Clié Guru]

Originally posted by n2ifp
[...]The more as I tried to use Net Front, the more frustrating it was! Interesting that Pocket Link works fine for my brother and myself, but others are having difficulty???[..]

With PocketLink, I've been getting fatal alerts when a web page cannot load. Otherwise its a cool browser, I'll give the next version a try.

[Clié Guru]

Originally posted by LSAlford
P.S. to above: for offline viewing I use iSilo. Used to use Avantgo before migrating from NR70V to NX70V.

I'm gonna go slightly off path here... as it seems a lot of folks consider the iSilo learning curve to be too steep. If you are in that boat, you are doing a disservice to yourself as iSilo is much more powerful, versatile and open than Avantgo. A little patience to get over that initial curve and you'll be rewarded with a quite simple and highly configurable tool with an abundance of content**.

What sucks for us is Avantgo seems to make exclusive deals with content providers in an effort to make the mobile web Avantgo proprietary. For this reason (& slow development), I gave up on Avantgo. This can mean giving up on a few mobile web sites in bed with Avantgo, but there are usually alternatives. Was disappointed, though, when 'Le Monde' went that path!

** www.turcic.com lists hundreds of mobile-friendly web sites.

[nmincone]

Netfront is by far the most flexible of the browsers available, it has its bugs but the quality has not been matched. As for its size, it's actually only double the size of most other 1MB browsers. It required the 6MB foot print only for overhead.

[dpascar]

Are there any browsers that you can open up webmail with. It asks to open another window and Netfront doesn't work. I use outlook at work and hop on via exchange. Let me know. I can't find it in other threads and I have looked for hours.. Thank you,

Dan

[zzarg]

search for webpro (the Tungsten browser - see a modified version to work on the Clie though)
rumour has it Opera may be coming to the platform (don't hold breath) and that there is a 3.1 version of NetFront due... but I imagine there won't be upgrades for older users

[dpascar]

I will pay for it as long as I can use it for what I essentially bought it for!! I don't mind dropping $20 if I can get a browser that will work.

[GodOwnsAnNX80]

NetFront works both landscape and portrait for the UX. Is it a different version?

I think landscape mode is overrated, and here's a prime example.

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/images2/sony-ux33.jpg

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/images2/sony-ux34.jpg



As you can see the PORTRAIT mode displays more content. This will be especially true for PDA-lite versions of web sites, or any page that has many carriage returns/line breaks. Theoretically, a page that is nothing but unformatted words would display exactly the same amount of data.

[zzarg]

um... am I missing something.... NetFront on the UX has a rotate option ?!

[larry kabo]

Has anyone had any success moving Netfront to the MS or CF? I tried using Filez to move it but it would not run from the MS.

[ir803]

i read that tapliner browser allows rotation, does this apply to the NX73/80 clies ??

[rened]

Originally posted by zzarg
um... am I missing something.... NetFront on the UX has a rotate option ?!

Í've got the same question. And is the answer is yes: will the TH have the same option (which version of Netfront is installed on the UX?)

[winexprt]

The thing is the new TH55 has a new version of NetFront...v3.1. This MAY enable you to view in landscape on a High-Res+ screen! Now won't THAT be a treat!

[dach95]

I've tried NF and find it sufficient to use for casual browsing. Plus, by turning off the cache, I experienced less memory problems on most pages.

Plucker is a great open-source web clipping tool that allow l a n d s c a p e viewing. I'm lovin' it! There's also a library of free books online to download in this format already...

http://www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg

 

 

 

 

[winexprt]

hey dach95...that little guy holding that sign always nails which ISP, OS and my service provider I am using. Boy is he smart. ;-)

[flypenfly]

haha i go to rochester.edu too.