Best software for Web Browsing, Chat, etc with PDA

[BobB]

Finally surfing the web with my NZ and Blue tooth via cable modem. Love this PDA and now it's time to have some fun hunting down the best in software. So I am asking you my fellow enthusiasts! What in your opinion is the best software for surfing the web (must be color), and possibly some chat software. (IM for the Palm OS?) Hey and maybe you have some other favorite package that you think is useful and really cool... I would like to know about that as well.

Cheers all...

BobB

[mape245]

I hate to burst your bubble' but unfortunately there is no good software available yet for web browsing and chatting. Netfront shows some promises but the current version is awful unless you are constantly tweeking the settings. The best that I've seen' in terms of high res web viewing is Pocketlink. However this software is incredibly slow at rendering pages. However, once it renders the page it does so very impressibly. I wish Thunderhawk made a browser for palm os 5. I used that on my pocket pc with the sprint cf card and that was extrenmely fast. By the way, does anybody know of a browser that will at least let me use ebay?

[n2ifp]

I use iambic mail, PocketLinkII, and AOL's freeware AIM.

[Unregistered]

How fast is netfront on the NZ? I have a Toshiba e740 and with netfront or pocket internet exploder, it is ok, but just barely faster than my TrgPro overclocked...

Thanks,

Greg

[pstoppani]

NetFront is pretty slow.

Blazer from Handspring is a pretty good browser.

Most email apps for Palm have at least one or two serious flaws that make them a pain to use; Clie Mail doesn't hold a monopoly on poor email software unfortunately.

If you use a fast connection that Iambi Mail is not bad, but it has some irritating UI issues; try it before you buy it.

I find Eudora to be the best if you use a slower internet connection; like bluetooth to a phone. It has a few bugs that make it crash on Palm OS 5, but once you figure what not to do, it is quite good at being speedy and useful. It even handles HTML email reasonably well. If you also install Eudora Web you can click on URL links in a mail message and Eudora fires up Eudora Web automatically. Eudora Web is a very simple web browser. It is text only.

[lanchman]

PocketLinkII, it's not fancy but it works.

[Mr. Thompson]

WebPro.

[peterh]

Netfront is pretty fast, and I think it does a pretty good job of resizing pages.

is Blazer highrez and OS5 compatible?

[BobB]

Thanks all for your comments and you have given me several options to pursue. I will start looking at these.

Thanks again for your opinions and advice.

BobB

[BobB]

PocketLinkII, it's not fancy but it works.

Where can I find this. I found PocketLink version 2.54 from MDevelope. Is this the same software?

Thanks
BobB

:p

[greg elmassian]

since i don't have a nz yet (but want to buy it today), can anyone tell me if netfront uses the full resolution of the screen? (i'm hoping you can use the grafitti area too)

Thanks,

Greg (chomping at the bit)

[oneeyesquare]

Highres+ or hires. You can toggle the graffitti like most programs. It runs better on my NZ than my NX for some reason as well...

[Unregistered]

I tried Pocketlink and found it to not be very useful because it won't let you scroll down to view more of a page until after it has load the entire page. try viewing this site with it!

[pstoppani]

Originally posted by peterh
Netfront is pretty fast, and I think it does a pretty good job of resizing pages.

is Blazer highrez and OS5 compatible?

Blazer 2.0 is not highrez but works fine on OS5.

[pstoppani]

Originally posted by Mr. Thompson
WebPro.

Where do you get WebPro? I searched on PalmGear.com and did not find it.

Thx

[greg elmassian]

Is hires+ meant to indicate full 320 x 480 resolution?

[dimensiondvdrob]

can iambic mail attach photos from the CLIE to emails like CLIE mail?

[dimensiondvdrob]

also, can iambic mail synch with more folders in outlook than just INBOX?

[BobB]

I tried PocketLink and it was but I like Netfront much more. The problem I have with NetFront is the size of the program.

PocketLink always gives me a "Fatal Error" whenever I go to weather.com, has anyone else noticed this....?

Would love to try WebPro if I could find it. Does anyone know what site may have it? I also checked PalmGear and Handango but to no avail...

Thanks,

BobB

[pstoppani]

Originally posted by dimensiondvdrob
can iambic mail attach photos from the CLIE to emails like CLIE mail?

l was able to attach pics but I could not get it to display them , it always gives an error msg saying the item is on the VFS; okay but show then to me Plz.! I gave up.

[Jun]

Originally posted by BobB
I tried PocketLink and it was but I like Netfront much more. The problem I have with NetFront is the size of the program.

PocketLink always gives me a "Fatal Error" whenever I go to weather.com, has anyone else noticed this....?

Would love to try WebPro if I could find it. Does anyone know what site may have it? I also checked PalmGear and Handango but to no avail...

Thanks,

BobB

I've been using a trial version of Powerrun and run NetFront through it and it is not bad at all. When in Netfront, I usually go to optimized sites for PDA and I can tell you, NetFront is fast. For weather information, I go to this Accuweather.com PDA site:

http://www.accuweather.com/pda/pda_5dy.asp

Try it on NetFront and you will see how beautiful it is.

Cheers!

[BobB]

Thanks MSGATE, I'll give that a go. Appreciate the advice.

BobB

[BobB]

Is there a listing somewhere of pda optimized sites? Really curious and trying to save some time hunting them down.

Thanks again,

BobB

[Jun]

Originally posted by BobB
Is there a listing somewhere of pda optimized sites? Really curious and trying to save some time hunting them down.

Thanks again,

BobB

Here they are,

http://www.shorecom.com/palmsites.html

http://www.cantoni.org/palm/links.html

Enjoy.

[mashoutposse]

NetFront is the best PalmOS browser, hands down. Just forget about the others (except for Blazer, maybe):

PocketLink

+Supports Hi-Res+ (320x480)
+Decent image rendering
+Not proxy-based (meaning that you download pages directly from the source instead of having it routed through an intermediary)

-Mediocre page rendering
*sometimes butchers pages (see CNN.com)
*doesn't retain page formatting
-SLOW (much, much slower than NetFront)
-Unstable (Fatal errors are common)
-Doesn't put extra resolution to good use (small text)
-Doesn't handle frames well
-Cannot download files from websites

Final Grade: FAIL -- too slow and buggy

WebPro

+Decent image rendering

-Poor page rendering (adequate only for single-frame text heavy pages)
-Proxy-based
*its dependence on an intermediatre server has resulted in inconsistent service
-Slower than NetFront in many situations
-Doesn't support Hi-Res+
-Cannot download files from websites
-Doesn't handle frames

Final Grade: FAIL -- not fast enough to warrant usage as a convenient second option, proxy based service has been unreliable

Handspring Blazer

+Fast
+Reliable, despite the fact that it's proxy based

-Worst page rendering
-Proxy-based
-Doesn't handle frames
-Cannot download files from websites
-Doesn't support Hi-res+
-Mediocre image rendering

Final Grade: PASS -- Consistent speed and reliability makes it a worthy 'just-in-case' backup to NetFront

I haven't touched the above applications for real web browsing in weeks.

It's interesting to note that NetFront, with everything disabled (except tables, which NONE of the above browsers handle), it produces pages that look far better than those rendered by any of the above three programs. For many pages, disabling CSS alone will prevent "Page Too Large" errors, so with images, it ain't even close :)

Check this thread for pics (bottom of Page 1; top of Page 2):

http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5761&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

NO CONTEST.

[mashoutposse]

Here's a pic of Weather.com with images enabled (no Page Too Large Error; page was completely rendered almost instantly):

[mashoutposse]

Here's a pic of an article on CNN|Money (look Ma, no scrolling! :D):

Also, go to those pages with your regular browsers and compare. Pretty impressive considering the current state of PalmOS browsers not named NetFront :)

[oneeyesquare]

Nice review, Mashoutposse! I tried the Pocketlink. The two times it didn't crash my NX, I thought it looked significantly slower.Never went back.
Netfront seems significantly more stabile on the NZ. I don't have anything to benchmark by, but I haven't had nearly as many PTL errors . I can consistently load Cliesource forums and the front page is hit&miss. Sometimes I can clean the cache and get the whole page and sometimes not.
Just for kicks the other night I tried to load a moving weather radar from my zipcode at weather.com. So close!!! Everything but the animation. That's a ton of webpage to load on a PDA and it almost does. I can easily load the static weather page though.
I've settled into a consistent setting profile of images, and tables on. I turn the rest off. Occasionally I'll turn java on on some of the fancy pages. I also run the cache at the 600kb setting. I think it's better for popping back and forth while surfing. Less wait times...
Give it a landscape mode and I'll never use the desktop again!!!!

[mashoutposse]

Same here!

[BobB]

I wish to thank you also mashoutposse, excellent review and advice. Net Front it is for me as well.

Also I wish to thank MSGATE for the links. They will be quite handy.

BobB

:)

[JOHNGAETANO]

With NetFront and Auto Cruise, how do I Auto Cruise like CNN mobile site, and get the links? I can Auto Cruise fine, but I only seem to get the first page of a site, not the links.

I like to be able to read the sites while I am mobile.

Any Tips?

[dayan_1977]

somebody knows where can i get the NetFront software, and if it's compatible with my NR70v? If is not compatible, what peogram is in Hi Res+? Thanks

[dayan_1977]

what I really need is a website where i can download the NetFront program to install it in to my Clié. Please try to help me. Thanks

[dks99]

Another suggestion for email:

SnapperMail with CodeDiver.
CodeDiver will enable for HiRez+ (although fonts stay big) but I found it the most feature rich email client out there (and not a memory hog like CLieMail - that thing goes into Megabytes... before you start downloading emails...)

SnapperMail, has a very nice attachment support it actually launches the different applications that are registered for each type of document.

They also have good popup menu option (Tap with stylus and hold and you will get a menu option with quick functions)
Its amazing how many applications forget to add this feature...

I mean, why do we need to constantly switch between HYPERLINK and SCROLL mode in NetFront.
Wouldn't it be nice if the thing recognized: tap and hold as scroll and just simple tap as hyperlink ? ? ?

Also (back to SnapperMail) their finger navigator is a nice idea altought I would like to see more customization options. (primarily in terms of fonts)

The only thing I really don't like is that Clie HiRez support doesn't seem to be a very high priority for the SnapperMail developers. (although I found a way around it) but still it would be a good idea to support primarily the companies that support our CLIEs :)

Later
dks

[YTTAN]

dayan_1977, Netfront is for OS 5 machine only.(NZ, NX and TG50)

[contempt]

I asked this in another thread, but nobody responded: is there an email client that supports hi-res fonts? Meaning small fonts. I want a program that I can see the entire message on the screen, not just three words per line.

[YTTAN]

You may try snappermail version 1.6 which can be download at palmgear. It can see more than 3 words per line in my set average 7 or 8 words per line with the help of font4nx.