News

A full screen Web browser for a pocket PC

by Guy Kewney | posted on 16 March 2003


Typography is the key; you really can (it is claimed) render a full Web page properly, and legibly, on a Pocket PC.

Guy Kewney

They call it "a breakthrough wireless Web browser for Pocket PCs." It's from Bitstream and it's called ThunderHawk, and it will debut at the CTIA show in New Orleans next week.

<1/> an iPaq displaying a full screen browser.

The picture tells the story. By turning your PocketPC on its side, you get a screen with the normal computer "landscape" aspect ratio, so instead of a browser which turns a Web site into text, you have one which can read the original detail.

The claim is that even an SVGA (800 by 600 pixel) Web page will display correctly. You may find this unlikely, since some web pages have very small typography! - but you can check it out with a 30-day evaluation copy of Thunderhawk at the download page.

There is one odd detail: that you can't buy this. It's available, extraordinarily, for rent only - at an annual $50 subscription rate.

There's also an Enterprise Edition of ThunderHawk which lets corporate IT departments deploy ThunderHawk on their networks, enabling mobile workforces to browse both Internet and intranet Web pages.