Mobile phone web browsers

Browsing web pages on a mobile phone is interesting in recent years due to the maturity of the mobile devices' (particularly smartphones) OS and their browser. There are a handful of mobile 'mini browsers' that are quite capable of rendering web pages on tiny screen, making mobile phones function just like a mini computer. Let's explore some of them:

1) Internet Explorer Mobile: This is the came-along web browser for Windows Mobile phones and Windows CE devices. Formerly known as Pocket Internet Explorer. It is an Internet Explorer in miniature. Current version is still not a full HTML browser but expected to be one in its coming soon version 6.

2) Symbian S60 OSS: This is the web browser for the popular Symbian S60 smartphones. Mostly found in Nokia phones. Rendering web page in full makes it a very capable HTML browser. Its development is in parallel with the Symbian OS, S60 particularly.

3) MobileSafari: This is the miniature version of Safari web browser by Apple, Inc. Of course, it is the build-in web browser of the popular iPhone. So, no questions about its capability.

4) Opera Mobile: The miniature version of Opera web browser for smartphones and PDAs. The ability to render web pages is good. This is not a free web browser. The free version that uses JAVA platform is called Opera Mini.

5) NetFront: There is no desktop version of this web browser. It started as an embedded browser for mobile devices and evolve into a more capable one. The popular PSP web browser is based on NetFront. It was deployed mostly by Japanese mobile devices' maker.

6) Google's Android: This new born open-source platform by Google is making its official appearance just recently. Its web browser should have inherited some good genes from its parent.

7) Mobile Firefox: Not yet born but will be in near future. Mozilla Firefox for PC, currently version 3 undoubtedly was gaining its popularity in recent years. So, users do have some high hope for its mobile version of web browser. Just wait for the good news!

Asus EeePC UMPC or netbook

Few weeks ago I decided to replace my heavy and bulky 5-year old notebook PC with a smaller and highly portable one, and so I bought my Asus EeePC 1000H.
With its reasonable price (~$500USD), I think it is worth owning one if you need a mobile computer that can perform the basics just like a notebook and is more portable (smaller form factor and ligther in weight)

This is the brief specification of the EeePC 1000H:
Display: 10.2" TFT LCD with resolution 1024 x 600
Processor (CPU): Intel Atom 1.6GHz
Memory: 1GB DDR2
Graphics: Intel GMA950 integrated
Hard drive: 2.5" 80 or 160GB
Size/ Weight: slightly smaller than A4 paper size; slightly less than 1.5kg
LAN 10/100, Wifi supports 802.11n (faster than 802.11b/g), Bluetooth
VGA port, USB port (3x)
Webcam 1.3mp
6-cell battery pack
Pre-installed with Windows XP Home edition (service pack 3); DVD for system restoration

+ points:
Good battery life, last at least 5 hours for average usage after fully charged (less than 2 hour charging time)
Decent display with adequate brightness
Good sound (Dolby Sound Room!)

- points:
relatively heavier than other netbooks on the market (due to its 6-cell battery)
only one slot for RAM

Types of 'Smart' mobile phone available on the market

Are you confused with so many types of 'smart' phones being addressed and available in the market. Here are some guide and explanation that you may find useful. But first of all, they are called 'smart' mobile phones because they have an OS (operating system) build upon them making them 'smarter' than normal non-OS based mobile phones. This OS extends their functionality from normal phones, and can be equivalent to mini mobile computers if you like them to be called (not wrong, right?).

1) Windows mobile (OS) based, no doubts this is one of the popular one available in many smart mobile phones found in the market. More appropriately, it should be called PDA-based phone because its 'PDA' function is usually more than its 'phone' function. Yes, this is the younger brother of our computer popular OS from Microsoft Windows. Its current version is Windows Mobile 6, anyway. Popular manufacturers are like HTC, HP, Asus and Samsung (just join in the race), etc.

2) Symbian (OS) based, the most popular one is Symbian S60 platform, mostly implemented by Nokia in its wide range of smartphones. Nokia is Symbian's strong supporter and sponsor of development. They just introduced their touchscreen version of S60 platform recently, so we can expect a bright future for this OS-based phones in future due to many well-received products. It can also be found in new range of Samsung smartphones and some Sony-Ericsson smartphones.

3) Linux (OS) based, less popular and can be found in a handful of mobile phones only. Few of them are from Motorola. This is the younger brother of its elder brother, open-source Linux for PC and servers.

4) PlamOS based, once very popular for their user-friendliness of PDAs and later smartphones. Most market share being taken by Windows Mobile, I assumed. Having its own brand of PDA and smartphones.

5) RIM Blackberry (OS) based, becoming more popular nowadays due to its easy-to-use operation, was originally designed for business use especially for heavy email usage. Recently it was integrated with considerably multimedia support.

6) iPhone OS from Apple inc., becomes popular since its first generation of iPhone. Multimedia-rich and user-friendliness is its selling point. Its second generation of iPhone was released out few months ago.

7) Google phone. This is a new born baby, just joining the range of 'smart' mobile phones, is based on an OS called 'Android' by Google. Its first phone is built by HTC, called T-Mobile G1. What will be its fate? Too new to comment, just wait and see.

What is UMPC?

UMPC is the abbreviation for Utra-Mobile PC. It usually refer to a category of mobile computer in which its size (form factor) is much smaller than a normal notebook PC but much bigger than any mobile phones (smartphone, PDA phone) and PDA.
The form factor was actually proposed in a project called Origami, a joint development by Microsoft, Intel, Samsung and others. Their initial plan only includes tablet PC. Until now, many types of design under this form factor are also considered as UMPC. Let's look at some of the types:

Tablet type UMPC (initial intent of project Origami):

Popular one: Samsung Q1/ Q1 Ultra; others: BenQ S6, etc

Slider type UMPC

Popular one: LG XNote B831, Sony UX490n, Gigabyte MID M528, etc

Notebook type UMPC

Many are under this category: Asus EeePC, MSI wind, Acer AspireOne, Dell Inspiron Mini, Kohjinsha SX3, HP Mininote, Lenovo IdeaPad, etc

Why buying one like this (UMPC) and which one to choose? I will talk about it in later post.

Nokia first S60 based touch-screen phone: 5800 XpressMusic

It maybe slow sometimes, but it can be slow and steady. The long-awaited Nokia first touchscreen phone based on popular Symbian S60 OS was officially released recently and it was named '5800 XpressMusic'. Hearing the name, we might not be able to sense anything 'special' about the phone because the name 'XpressMusic' was shared by a handful of other Nokia phones. Let's us look at some of the photos and specification to know about the phone better:



Specification:
Network-based: Quad-band GSM 850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900/ UMTS (3.5G)
Dimension: 111 x 51.7 x 15.5mm
Weight: 109g
Display: 3.2"TFT 16 million color touchscreen, resolution 360 x 640 pixes (sensor for auto turn-off, auto-rotate, handwriting recognition)
Processor: ARM 11 369MHz CPU
Memory: 81MB internal, 128MB SDRAM
Card slot: microSD supports up to 16GB
Connectivity: GPRS/EDGE Class 32, HSDPA 3.6Mbps, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, Wi-fi 802.11b/g, v2.0 microUSB
OS: Symbian series 60 rel. 5
Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser: WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Camera: 3.2 megapixel, CMOS with Carl Zeiss lens (Flash, Autofocus), video (VGA@30fps), secondary videocall camera
Others:
Built-in GPS receiver (Assisted-GPS support), Nokia Maps 2.0 Touch
MP3/ WMA/ WAV/ eAAC+ audio player
MPEG4/ WMV/ 3gp video player
Stereo FM radio with RDS
TV out, 3.5mm audio output jack
Battery: Li-on 1320mAh (standby 406h, talk time 8h 45m)

The estimated retail price for this phone is EUR279 before taxes and subsidies.

You may want to learn more about the phone, please visit Nokia official site: http://europe.nokia.com/A41271008