Makayama's Touchbrowser

Now, here's a line that you won't see too often: I love software by Microsof and I love the iPhone. When first reading about the iPhone I wasn't convinced at all about its innovative power. But, once I got my hands on it, I was hooked. I think that the iPhone really is a next generation thing.

So, anytime I read that a piece of hardware or software brings the iPhone experience to Windows I am intrigued and I have to take a look. Now, when the TouchBrowser was announced I was very optimistic, because the pocket version of IE is, well, not too modern. After reading that the TouchBrowser was 'nothing more than a wrapper around IE' my hopes died immediately.

But, after using the TouchBrowser I think it really could be innovative. It eliminates all the clutter and chunky user interface bits that go with Windows Mobile applications. It really is a 'fingers only' application. It performs well and it maximizes the usage of your touch screen. And I love the way you enter URLs; I didn't flip my TYTN II open once to go to the keybard.

However, as said, it could innovative. There's a couple of things wrong and missing. First and foremost, you need a zoom function. You have no clue what is on the page. There's a couple of small scroll bars to tell you where you are on the page, but as you don't know what's on the invisible parts of the page, that doesn't help much.

Other things are minor, but I was looking for that. Increasing font size (if you
are over 40 like me, you need glasses or bigger fonts), better management of your Favorites (you get the IE-favorites), progress indicator for loading pages ("please wait" doesn't help)

There's also a couple signs that it's a first release. The close application button doesn't work, after ending the task via the task manager you can't restart TouchBrowser. There is no home button. The settings page looks clumsy. Stuff like that.

Final conclusion: we're not quite there yet, but I think the iPhone experience will eventually be available on Windows Mobile. It won't be with (this version of) TouchBrowser, but we're getting close. Rest assured I will give version 2 a very close look.

See http://www.makayama.com/touchbrowser.html

Bart Roozendaal, Sevensteps