Mobility Now

With yesterday’s release of Opera Mini 4 Beta, I thought it would be a good time to do a browser comparison to show what the options are in the world of mobile browsing. I’ll review a standard WAP browser (as found on the vast majority of cellphones), the S60 browser (found on recent Nokia smartphones), Opera Mini 3 (used by over 15 millions people on any Java cellphone), Opera Mini 4 Beta (just released), Pocket IE (found on Windows Mobile smartphones) and the iPhone (although no hands on testing can be done yet). First let’s see which criteria can differentiate the browsers.

Criteria

The look

The first and most visual feature in comparing browsers, is how the pages look. There are 2 typical presentation styles: phone view and desktop view.

Phone view is the typical view a WAP browser gives you. Basically it takes the HTML and other web input, and formats them to fit the screen. This means that the page isn’t shown in the way it was intended to be, it can be painful to scroll through, and some elements may not appear at all. However the data transfer is less since there is only a minimum amount of images, and the power required is less so rendering may be faster.

Desktop view is what newer browsers are starting to adopt, and instead render the page as it would appear on a desktop browser, and then provide 4 way scrolling, as well as a rectangle where the user can focus and zoom in/out to read a section of the page. This can be done in 2 ways, either the screen shows the zoomed in view, with a mini map showing the full page (the S60 browser does this), or the screen shows the full page, with a mini map allowing for zooming (the new Opera Mini 4 Beta does that).

To illustrate these features, here are shots of the same 3 web pages (Yahoo!, The New York Times and Digg) on a WAP browser, the S60 browser, and Opera Mini 4 Beta.

Features

The other obvious point to compare with these browsers is the features they support. This includes everything from web standards, JavaScript, AJAX, bookmarks, but also extra features like RSS feeds.

Also worth noting is if the browser is in beta or not, as it may contain bugs or stability issues. A crashing browser is not a pleasant web experience.

Availability

Finally of importance is also the availability of the browser: whether it comes pre-installed on handsets, if it’s available for download, and if it costs anything. It’s also worth noting which programming language the browser is written in, since different devices support different languages.

The browsers

WAP

The first in the list is the standard WAP browser. This is the browser that comes pre-installed on the vast majority of phones, and also the least powerful of the bunch. Some popular ones include NetFront, Openwave and PocketWeb. It’s the oldest type of browser and still the most used today on low end phones around the world.

These are usually part of the firmware of the phone and comes with handsets, and they provide a phone based look of the web. The early WAP browser only supported WAP pages, special sites ending with the extension “.wap” and not normal Internet sites. Modern WAP browsers also support basic HTML sites, and remove everything except text and sometimes images.

As far as features, they usually provide bookmarking, and that’s about it. Very rarely will they support even basic JavaScript and secure transactions, and you can forget any Web2.0 sites.

Pocket IE

The second browser is Pocket IE (also called Mobile Internet Explorer), the Microsoft browser that comes with Pocket PC and Windows Mobile smartphones. This browser is made by Microsoft and has been through several versions already.

It provides a view of the web similar to the WAP browser, meaning it will take web pages and display them to fit the phone screen, instead of showing them as they were intended. It does display all the proper images, but they are smaller and not in their original locations. It’s worth noting that Microsoft currently has a new engine called Deepfish in development which will convert Pocket IE to display pages in the desktop view.

For features, PocketIE is much better than a WAP browser. On top of bookmarking and normal text and images, it supports the full set of web protocols like HTML, JavaScript, secure transactions and AJAX.

S60 browser

The S60 browser is an open source project from Nokia that uses the khtml engine and was introduced in the spring of 2006. It’s available pre-installed on all S60 smartphones since early 2006.

This is the first browser to provide a desktop like web experience on mobile devices. It provides a zoomed in version of the page, and allows users to scroll in all 4 directions with the joystick or keys. When scrolling, a mini map appears showing all the pages. It also provides a back feature which shows every page in a scrolling list. For devices that support landscape mode, the latest version also supports it.

The S60 browser supports all the web protocols as well, plus RSS feeds in a special Feeds folder.

Opera Mini

Opera Mini is the popular Java browser that runs on almost any phone which supports Java. It comes pre-installed on a few phones, but it’s also available for free download. The latest stable version is 3.1, but the beta version 4 was released recently.

The original look of Opera Mini was the same as WAP or PocketIE, meaning that web sites would be displayed to fit the phone. In version 4, this is changed to display pages in desktop view. Note that as of yet it does not support landscape mode.

Opera Mini supports all the web features, including RSS feeds. Note however that some features such as RSS and secure transactions are not available yet in version 4 beta.

iPhone

The iPhone will come with a version of Safari. This browser is based on khtml, the same as the S60 browser. It’s not yet available, so the only things we know is what Apple has said. We do know it will be exclusive to the iPhone.

The display will be like the S60 browser and Opera Mini 4, showing a desktop based view. It also supports landscape mode, and provides a zooming feature. Apple also said that iPhone applications will be built around Safari.

We should also expect similar features as what the S60 browser provides, since it uses the same engine.

Conclusion

Obviously, if you intend to do a lot of browsing with your mobile device, the browser is an important part of the buying decision. That’s where smartphones such as S60 devices come in handy. If your device comes only with a WAP browser, but you can install additional Java applets, the latest Opera Mini seems like a clear choice. It’s currently the best free browser that can be downloaded.

As far as look, it seems clear that the future is headed to web style browsing, with the S60 browser, Opera Mini 4, Microsoft Deepfish and the iPhone all heading that way. In a year’s time, everyone will be expecting this type of full web support on the road, as it should be.

I’ve been using an S60 smartphone for years now, and the ability to add third party apps is the cornerstone of owning a smartphone. I wrote a “must-have” list a few years back but over time applications changed so this list needed to be redone. Let’s start with applications every phone can use because they are Java based:

• Google Maps for Mobile is the Java based version of the Google Maps site. It allows you to see maps of every corner of the world, satellite images, ask for locations, directions and even traffic reports. It also now supports GPS on a few devices, and is a must have for finding your way on the road.
• Google Mail is the other Google application I use all the time, although for Yahoo! email users you would prefer the Yahoo! Go client. I find these applications very integrated and useful to quickly access your web based mail.
• Opera Mini is the most popular third party browser for phones and is really a nice way to browse the web if your phone doesn’t come with a full featured browser. One of the nice feature of this browser is the Opera proxy which compresses full web sites into a mobile friendly format. Almost all content except Flash and some more complex AJAX sites can be seen with it.

Now to some programs that require a S60 smartphone:

• MWeather is a mobile weather program which uses the Yahoo! API to get forecast. It provides all the basic information on upcoming weather and can be configured to show multiple cities.
• Fring is, out of all the multitude of choices, my favorite IM client currently. It supports MSN, SIP and Skype VOIP calls.
• Nokia Podcasting is the open source software that Nokia developed to allow people to download and synchronize podcasts directly from their smartphones. It works very well, especially if your device supports wi-fi.
• Nokia Internet Radio is another Nokia open source application which allows you to stream radio from your smartphone. It does use alot of data so 3G or wi-fi is recommended.
• ShoZu is a recent project which integrates your handset with various online services like Flickr. You can upload software directly to Flickr as soon as you take it, and that site comes up with more features all the time.
• Metro is a very old application that first came out for original Palm platforms and provides maps and directions for subway systems from many cities around the world.

One feature that is usually found on mobile devices spec sheets is the amount of memory. Unfortunately, there’s often only one type of memory shown, and it’s not always obvious which type it is. In order to know exactly what a handset can support, it’s useful to know the different types of memory that each devices can have.

Asking how much memory a phone has can actually result in multiple, different answers, and to make things harder a lot of web sites confuse the different types. In general, these are the types of memory a phone can have:

• ROM: This is non writable memory, containing the basic operating system of the phone. When you do a hard reset and format the memory of the phone, what’s on the ROM is what stays and why your phone can always be reset to factory settings. The amount of ROM a phone has is irrelevant since you can’t add things to it.

• Flash / internal memory: The amount of internal memory, sometimes called flash memory, is the space inside the phone where programs reside and where you can store messages, contacts and files. It’s usually the number you see when you look at a phone description and it says, for example, that the Nokia 6620 has 12 Megs of memory. If you are trying to save data such as a game on your phone and your phone complains about memory issues, this is probably what it needs.

• RAM: This is the temporary memory used to run programs. It must not be confused with the flash, since it can’t be used to store data. The memory is cleaned every time the phone is turned off. This is very rarely written in descriptions, but it’s very important since it dictates how many programs you can run at once. Some tools can tell you the number, such as FExplorer for S60 phones. The 6620 has 26 Megs. In some devices, built in flash is used for both internal memory and RAM. When trying to run a program, if it complains of memory issues, or closes due to running out of memory, this is what it needs. Note that the operating system itself as well as other running applications use up RAM and it’s often possible to free some more memory by closing applications or sometimes with firmware updates.

• External memory: This is simply the external memory cards that can be added to the phone. Many phones have extension slots now, but you need to be aware of the maximum size they support (512Megs, 1G, 2G, 4G and so on), and also the type (MMC, MSD, MiniSD, MicroSD and so on). There are not a lot of differences between the various types other than physical size and power consumption. Some recent models also introduced some DRM (copy protection) capacities.

• SIM: A SIM card is the little card used in GSM phones to store your phone number and contact information. These cards also have memory that can be used to store information. Usually it’s limited to contacts and sometimes a small amount of messages. The memory size can be tiny, such as 64KBytes, but it can be useful to transfer contact lists between phones.

When shopping for a phone, especially a smartphone, it’s important to have all the numbers. For example, a Nokia N80 has less free RAM than a N73, and will have more problems running multiple applications, even if both are modern smartphones. It’s important to check for these numbers in specs sheets or reviews to know if the phone will meet your needs, and then you’ll be sure to never run out of memory.

It’s easy to fall in for an advertisement claiming you can get a state-of-the-art phone for $99, or sometimes even free. It feels even better when you go see a dealer and they tell you they can get you a contract for only $20 a month. The surprise usually comes when you get the first bill after a month, and the amount is quite a bit more expensive. Unexpected contract charges is the number one complaint from cellphone users. This is not to say contracts are all evil, in fact most cellphone users in North America are using contracts, although they are less common in other parts of the world. Lets see what pitfalls to avoid with contracts and prepaid, and which choice is best for which customers.

The way providers work is simple. They get a deal with a phone manufacturer to get a phone branded with their name. They customize the phone, then they sell the phone through their dealers at various prices. They sell it at the full price if you intend to go with prepaid, or they will give you big rebates if you agree to sign a contract, since they know they will make more money from you during the contract time. For example, the Nokia 5300 from Rogers Wireless will cost you $229 if you buy the phone without contract. If you agree to a 1 year contract, it will cost $179. $129 on 2 years, and $79 on 3 years. So as you can see the rebate can be big.

When looking at the actual monthly fee, the biggest difference is the included features and the unexpected fees. With prepaid, you go out every month and buy a prepaid card (or call in to add money with a credit card, or online) and the money you spend is what you get as far as airtime. There are no added fees, and there’s several features included. For example with Rogers Wireless, you can buy a $10 card and get 30 minutes of airtime, with call display and voice mail included. For a contract, a $20 plan will give you 150 airtime minutes. However to get the voicemail and call display you need to add $10. Plus, contracts add a $6.95 monthly access fee, and $0.50 911 fee. This means the $20 contract will actually costs you $37.45, plus taxes. You still get more airtime for the amount, but you have to be careful about such hidden fees.

The story is the same for all providers. For example on Verizon Wireless, their prepaid service includes voice mail and call display. Their plans also include both, however their lowest individual contracts start at $39 for 450 minutes, plus fees, taxes and surcharges. One thing to note is that most providers allow you to use any phone you may own with prepaid. Others will only sell you a few phones for prepaid, especially CDMA providers.

For data, fees usually change between plans and prepaid. For example on Rogers Wireless, there are data packs that can be added to a contract and provides free data usage including a small download size. You can spend $7 per month for 1 MB of download, with $0.02 per KB after that. On prepaid, it will cost you $0.05 per web page, regardless of the size. So for data usage, prepaid will be a much better choice in this case.

The general rule is that plans will usually be the best choice for people using their phones a lot for voice calls. You can get a large number of airtime minutes for a lower price than if you used prepaid. However, with a plan, you usually need to pay for each additional feature, plus there’s often hidden fees. Also if you don’t keep track of how much you use your phone, you will end up with a big surprise at the next bill. Remember that if you want to cancel your plan before the term is over, you will be charged a very large early cancellation fee. Also most plans will require a credit check, and a lot of personal information, which is not required for prepaid.

Prepaid is usually better for low voice usage, for people wanting an emergency phone, or for those who want to keep control of their service. There’s often features that you get for free on prepaid, and there is no hidden fee. If you want to pay the least amount per month this is the way to go. However remember you will not get access to the rebates on phones so you will pay the phone full price, and you won’t get a lot of airtime for your money. Also note that providers will usually let you switch your prepaid service to a contract should you wish to, for free or for a little fee. The final advice really, is to investigate fully before deciding anything, because each provider has a very large small-print page.

Installing third party applications and games is a big part of smartphones and even many normal cell phones. Yet many people don’t do it, either because they don’t know how, or they only use their provider’s options. Here I’ll attempt to describe what it takes to add software to your device and the ways to do it.

The first thing to find out is what your device supports, and then how to get the software on the phone. Java is the universal language in mobile phones. Most phones support Java applets, and most applications are thus Java based. There are some devices who do not support them, such as most BREW devices which are CDMA phones on providers such as Verizon or Sprint in the US. Also some Windows Mobile devices don’t come with Java support but that can be downloaded from Microsoft.

On top of Java, smartphones have the particularity of using a real operating system, and being able to run native applications made for their system. Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry and Palm are the most popular devices. One particularity to be careful about for native systems is the version used. For example a Symbian S60v3 application will not run on S60v2 or on Symbian UIQ.

Once you’ve found out which types of applications your device supports, then you need to figure out how to transfer the application on the device, or if you can at all. If you have a locked device that came from a cellular provider, it may be locked preventing you to install third party software. The reason they sometimes do this is to make sure you only buy software through their online store and thus get more money from you.

Now that you know you can install applications, you have a couple of options on how to transfer the file. You can use Bluetooth, a USB cable or over the air (OTA). If your phone supports Bluetooth, and you have a laptop or a USB Bluetooth dongle, then that is the easiest way. You can make a connection with the computer and beam the file over using the PC client software. If the device or computer doesn’t support Bluetooth, you can get a USB cable and use the manufacturer’s software to transfer the file. Note that this can be a much harder option, and varies considerably between manufacturers. Also some manufacturers don’t make their client software freely available.

If local transfer modes fail, you can always install it directly from the phone as long as you have mobile web access. Note that this will cost you data usage unless you have an unlimited data plan. Simply go to the web site containing the application you want, or save the file on your computer then upload it to one of the many free online hosting sites, then download it from the phone mobile browser. The device should detect it and offer you to install.

Finding out how to install third party software can be tricky at first but is very easy once you know how. A last piece of advice would be to not download from untrusted sites, as it may contain viruses or pirated software. Here is a list of some popular software sites:

• GetJar - Free and commercial Java software
• Handango - Commercial software for Palm, Symbian, Blackberry and WM
• PocketGear - Commercial Windows Mobile software
• All About Symbian - Free and commercial Symbian software

Choosing a phone is usually based on many factors: look, style, type of phone, recommendations from friends, and hopefully features. Many people forget features and go purely for look, but that’s for another time. One thing that the vast majority of consumers forget, is battery life. At most, we see a 4h talk time / 260h stand-by time listed on the box and don’t think twice about it. However, it’s the first thing that comes to haunt us when the phone dies on us while in the middle of a crucial operation.

One myth about batteries is that all phones are pretty much the same, with relatively poor battery life. This is not the case. Most phones will, with typical usage, last a couple of days, but there are extremes. Some will literally not last a single day, and will require charges every couple hours, unless left totally unused. Others will be usable for weeks, where you can actually spend a full 2 weeks without charging it.

There are 2 factors that determine battery life. First is the power of the battery, which is based on the size and the electric charge measured in milliampere-hour (mAh). If the phone is very small or thin, the battery will also be smaller. This means the battery will most likely not last long. If it’s a bigger device, and the manufacturer can put in a bigger battery, then chances are it will be able to power the device for longer. The electric charge of the battery can also vary, usually between 860mAh and 1500mAh for most phones. There is a very big difference between one extremity and the next. Also sometimes the manufacturer will offer a “standard” and an “extended” battery of the same size, and if you look at the specs, what changes is the electric charge.

So now that we know what the battery is capable of, the second factor to look at is the power consumption of the phone. Again, it varies greatly from one feature to the next. The operating system on the phone will take power, and having a smartphone with multiple applications running will of course drain the battery faster. Being connected to a GSM or CDMA cellular network takes very little power, but 3G requires slightly more. Using wi-fi, if your device handles it, will take a lot of power. Using built-in GPS is even worse. The screen is another thing that takes power, and as the screens get better, bigger and with higher resolutions, they require more power. Using a screen saver in this case is actually a bad idea because animating it takes power. The best thing is if the phone can shut down the screen after a few minutes of inactivity.

There are things that can be done to save battery life. If you only have access to a GSM or CDMA network and your phone supports 3G, going in the setting and turning 3G off is a good idea, because switching from 2G to 3G takes a lot of power. Switching wi-fi scanning off is also very good, because scanning using the wi-fi antenna every 15mins will drain the battery in no time. The same is true for GPS. Also any extra screen saver, animation or background application running will take more power.

Battery power is one thing everyone wishes would improve on mobile devices. For me it’s an important part of why I select a device, and on my Nokia E61i (with 3G off but using wi-fi) I can get a full week of battery life using it moderately, or a full 8h of browsing / messaging, because it has a large 1500mAh battery. Many older black and white phones also gave similar performances even with lower batteries simply because of the low demands of the phone. On the other hand, reading user comments from say the Nokia 6300 or Samsung X820, their latest thin phones, some people are reporting less than a single day of battery life when using it moderately, and only 4h of usage time. Some will say that battery life is not a huge issue, simply not using any of the phone features will solve the problem. I think that’s a fallacy since there’s no use paying for a high end phone with lots of features if the battery doesn’t support them.

There are a few questions that come up time and time again on smartphone forums, and one of them is “how can I use Instant Messaging on my device”. As people get more mobile, after SMS and email, the next thing they want to do is IM. As I said in a previous post, right now the mobile IM world is a mess. There are tons of products, more appearing all the time, and they are all evolving very fast. Unfortunately there is not one answer to this question, and they all have strengths and weaknesses. Here I will simply list some popular ones with the various features they have.

Official clients

First, there’s the official clients. Both MSN and Yahoo! Messenger have a mobile client. The Yahoo! one comes part of their Yahoo! Go package. That application is massive and includes the IM, as well as local search, news, stocks, mail, search and more. The client works on hundreds of phones, mainly high end and several mainstream ones. Many lower end phones do not support it, as is the case for most of these apps. Yahoo! Go is currently at version 2.0 “Gamma” and is free.

Microsoft has its own client also. Pocket MSN (now renamed to Live Messenger) comes pre-installed on Windows Mobile smartphones and Pocket PCs. You can also buy it from Microsoft if you don’t already have it. They don’t have an official client for any other type of phone, at least not in the US. Interestingly enough it was discovered that the MSN China site has a version for S60 Symbian phones, which I have to admit I think was the best mobile MSN client of them all. I say was because unfortunately that application no longer works outside of China and Taiwan.

As far as I know there is no official mobile IM client from AOL or Google.

Multi-services clients

There are a lot of unofficial clients, and those usually support multiple services. These typically come out of startup companies hoping to be your gateway to all the IMs of the world. Many of them now even support Skype or other types of VOIP.

One of the oldest and most popular choices is Agile. They have had a mobile IM client for a long time now and provide their application for most phones. Agile Messenger supports MSN, Yahoo!, GTalk, AIM, ICQ and XMP. A trial is available but then you need to buy the product.

IM+ is another application which supports MSN, Yahoo!, GTalk, AIM, ICQ and Jabber. It also has a free trial but then needs to be bought.

EQO is a more recent solution that also integrates all of MSN, Yahoo!, GTalk, AIM, ICQ and Jabber, but also includes Skype support. That means you can call other users of Skype, or even phone lines, over 3G or wi-fi, if your device supports it. This application is free and runs on a large number of devices.

Fring is very similar to EQO in features but it’s in beta and available only for some Nokia devices so far. It also supports Skype and comes free.

Then there’s Mig33. It talks to MSN, Yahoo! and AIM, but it also offers profiles, chat rooms and VOIP calls. It runs on most phones and the lite version is free.

The last one I’ll talk about is the IM client which may already be built into your device. Many phones, mainly most Nokia and some Sony Ericsson devices, come with a built in IM client. If the application hasn’t been configured by the provider, it won’t do anything without what’s called a Wireless Village server. That is a fairly old concept that was intended to provide a central service for mobile IM and not much ever came out of it. Fortunately someone recently started a service called Packetbox that aims to make those clients work again. It’s still in testing and not very stable but it may end up being yet another solution.

Lastly a note of caution. These multi-services clients all require you to signup for an account, and then require your login information for the various services you want to connect to, since they act as gateway between you and the official IM services. This is fine as long as they are trustworthy, but it’s something to keep in mind.