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Windows powered smartphones are remarkable and highly functional devices. They
can do just about anything a high-end Pocket PC can do with the proper
software installed. The new 2nd generation smartphones, such as the
excellent Audiovox SMT5600, includes a full web browser capable of displaying
just about any page on the web. However, surfing the web on such a small
screen can be quite unpleasant. Most users, like myself, use this
feature for light surfing, especially when using the carriers own data
services. Thankfully, there is a company dedicated to providing the best
possible browsing experience for all you surf addicts out there. We
previously gave you a glimpse of their first release back when we looked at
the Motorola MPX200. The browser certainly had its advantages over
Pocket IE, but still had a few issues. Fortunately, Bitstream has just
released their latest version, Thunderhawk 2.0, which has addressed these
issues and much more. Today, I'll briefly show you why this is certainly the
best option for surfing the web on these tiny devices.
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Upon
installing, Thunderhawk automatically imports all your bookmarks/favorites
from Pocket IE. There is quite a bit involved though when installing, as
Thunderhawk 2.0 is subscription based, meaning that you will eventually need
to extend your account. Despite the recurring costs, it is still quite
an excellent product that may be worth it to those who find a strong need to
stay connected.
Browsing Enhancements
What
makes this browser the best option for smartphone users, is the crosshair or
cursor feature. This acts like a mouse pointer on your desktop PC and
will allow you to browse and click links on these small screens with ease.
There is also a very nice split screen feature to zero in on a certain section
of interest. This is particularly handy for larger sites that are not
smartphone-friendly. The only very minor issue I found was that this
version doesn't handle javascript as well as their previous version. For
example, our image enlargement script would not work with this version but
worked flawlessly with their previous release. This is something I'm
personally working with them on and they are definitely aware of it, so it
shouldn't be an issue at all.
Now, one of my complaints with their first
release was the speed of the cursor. While the cursor definitely makes
browsing on these small screens much more pleasant, it would still have to be
fast in order to be useful. Fortunately, the new Thunderhawk 2.0 lets you choose the cursor
speed from the options menu. You can now quickly and effortlessly
navigate through websites.
Faster Loading Pages
I put their new version through extensive
testing using all connection types, including Active Sync "Pass Through" via
USB and Bluetooth, as well as using AT&T's own GPRS data service.
What's really impressive with this new release,
is its load speed. Pocket IE, for example, would load painfully slow
regardless of what type of connection you have to the web. In fact, even
if you try to browse directly via USB, it is quite sluggish. I was quite
impressed with just how fast pages would load using Thunderhawk 2.0 when connected via USB
or Bluetooth. A large site like ours, which is certainly not designed for mobile
browsing, loaded almost instantaneously.
I don't generally review software here at
ExtremeMHz, but every now and then, I do come across a product that definitely
deserves the exposure. Thunderhawk 2.0 is an excellent alternative to
Pocket IE and is primarily designed to offer smartphone users with the best
possible browsing experience. For those surf addicts that absolutely
must be browsing no matter what extremes, this piece of software is certainly
worth taking a look.
Bitstream does offer a trial version of their
smartphone edition browser. It can be downloaded
here.
Questions? Comments?
Discuss them
here!
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