Bitstream’s BOLT browser brings lightning fast browsing, video, and social networking support to Android phones and tablets.

Optimized for small and efficient data transmissions, BOLT features unrivaled compression of Web content and speed – consistently 25 to 50 percent faster than its competitors.

Features of BOLT 3.0 for Android include:

• Flash, HTML5 video playback with compression
• Social Tab – currently dedicated for faster sharing on Facebook
• Web Apps for popular services like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Wikipedia and more
• Easy to use, intuitive user interface, optimized for Android

BOLT 3.0 for Android is now available for free to any user with Android 2.1 or later. Visit boltbrowser.com/android or Android Market

MiniBrowser Mobile is one of those sleek Qt apps for Symbian^3 devices. It is a fast minimalistic browser. I had been using the version 2.0 on my E7 for months now.

As a matter of fact, I recently went on a Qt adventure. What do I mean by that? I decided to adopt Qt apps as my preferred options. As such, if an app on the E7 has a Qt 3rd party alternative, I download, install and use that Qt app as my default app for the specific task.

As far as I know, MiniBrowser Mobile is the only 3rd party mobile browser for Symbian that is built with Qt, so it is currently the browser that I use on my smartphone.

MBM arrived offering tabbed browsing, autofill of forms, option to load web pages in mobile mode and can automatically pick your phone’s default access point.

In addition, there’s bookmarks, history, adblock, kinetic scrolling, address bar auto-completion, zooming, and full-screen mode.

Version 3.0 brought in some significant improvements, including the following:
- Smoother scrolling
- Multi-touch
- Images on/off
- Javascript on/off
- Autohide menu when browsing i.e. auto full screen

In all, MBM offers a sleek user interface and tries to get out of your way as much as possible. It is also much faster than the built-in Nokia browser. Unfortunately, there is no text reflow when you zoom in.

If you want something different from Opera Mobile and Opera Mini, MiniBrowser Mobile is a good alternative. It is smaller in footprint and very resource-efficient.

MiniBrowser Mobile is available for download from the Ovi/Nokia Store.

Nokia has introduced the Ovi Browser beta for Series 40 phones to help meet the needs of mobile Internet users in emerging markets and around the world. We believe users of Series 40 should be entitled to rich web browsing experiences like those of smartphones, but without the same price tag.

Ovi Browser brings rich web browsing to Series 40 devices that’s fast, easy, and saves on data charges. The browser is powered by patented cloud-based Internet compression technology that delivers advanced web pages to your phone. As a result, pages show up quicker than ever and over the air data usage is reduced up to 90%. Beyond performance, the browser includes an innovative user interface that makes it easy to access your favorite content directly from the start page without having to hunt through menus.

Supported Phones

The Ovi Browser is only supported on select Series 40 devices. Supported S40 devices include:

Nokia 2700 Classic, Nokia 2730 Classic, Nokia 3120 Classic, Nokia 3600 Slide, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Nokia 5220 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition, Nokia 5330 Xpressmusic, Nokia 5610, Nokia 6300i, Nokia 6303, Nokia 6500 Slide, Nokia 6500 Classic, Nokia 6600 Slide, Nokia 6700 Classic, Nokia 7210 Supernova, Nokia 7900 Prism, Nokia X3

Key Features

• Fast page load times
• Over the air data usage reduced up to 90%
• Three view modes – Full Page View, Zoomed-in View, Column View
• Integrated search on start page with selectable list of search engines
• Favourites
• Browsing and Search history
• URL and Form auto completion
• Snap to text during scrolling
• Speed scrolling using numeric keypad
• Automatically jumps to the main content on a page to reduce scrolling
• One click jump to login and search in Column View
• Page segmentation in Column View to simplify navigation

You can download Ovi Browser beta version by going to http://browser.ovi.com on your current mobile browser

Last year, RIM acquired TorchMobile, developers of Iris, a WebKit based browser that was available for Windows Mobile devices till that time. That move seems to be paying off already, as RIM has announced a new WebKit-based browser for its blackberry range of smartphones.

The browser supports:

• HTML 5
• Javascript
• Blackberry & JIL widgets
• Fast panning and zooming
• Proxy technology

And according to Gizmodo, it also scored a perfect 100 in the Acid3 rendering test.

Check out the demo video below:

Source

This effectively takes care of one of the major limitations of the BlackBerry platform – a modern, capable web browser. BlackBerrys just got more attractive to the average smartphone user.

A staff member of ours was at Ikeja in Lagos to carry out some business. Because of a new development on ground, he suddenly needed to check up some facts online.

Unfortunately for him, there was no cyber cafe in the vicinity. Well, he had on him a lower mid-range GPRS-enabled feature phone with a regular phone keypad. Thinking it would be a snap to get the required information on his handset, our man launched the browser and slowly typed out a search engine address. It took another few painful minutes for the phone’s low-end browser and his network’s GPRS connection to load the desired page.

Then he typed out his search keywords and hit the “Search” button. Five minutes later, he was still staring at the same page. Six minutes. Seven minutes. Ten minutes. Nada.

Well, he never did get the information he needed.

This incidence reminded us that there is not one factor responsible for a pleasant mobile web experience.

Network Data Capabilities
There is no doubt that if the phone in question had been 3G or HSDPA enabled, the search would have been smoother. The extra speeds available via 3G services would have made some difference, surely.

Browser Capabilities
Another factor is browser capability. Had the browser been a more decent application, surely we can expect better performance.

Text Input
Typing out fairly long strings of text with a regular mobile phone keypad can be painful and frustrating. SMS shorthand won’t help here because your search keywords have to be accurate. A hardware QWERTY keyboard, handwriting recognition or virtual QWERTY keyboard on a touchscreen certainly will help here.

Phone Processing Power
We all know that phones with powerful processors make everything – including loading of webpages – speedier. As such, phones with lower processing power may just lack that extra burst of energy that you may need for those quick searches and forays on the web when you are out and about.

This combination of factors, we believe, are the most vital in getting a good mobile web experience. While we are not expecting that people will need to use these features on their mobiles everyday, perhaps it is not such a bad idea that they think of the odd times that these functionalities may come in essential when thinking of their next mobile phone.

The user interface is another factor that deserves a mention, but that is a discussion for another day.

If you use the internet as a source of information, think about these things:

• Network Data Capabilities
• Browser Capabilities
• Text Imput Mechanism
• Phone Processing Power

Did we leave out anything?

Thanks to a news item by Wap Review, we can let you know that the official English version of UCWEB 7.0 is now available. UCWEB is a popular mobile browser that is available for Symbian, Windows Mobile and Java-enabled devices.

Dennis Bournique of Wap Review has provided some info on what to expect from the S60 and Java versions of UCWEB 7. We took UCWEB for a spin on Windows Mobile Standard, and came out frustrated.

We tried out Download via PC first, and using the phone selection wizard, we found the version for Samsung B7320 and downloaded, then transferred it to phone. When we initiated installation, we got an unsuccessful installation error.

So, we tried the phone download route. Again, download worked fine. Installation went well too. However, each time we launched the browser, we got an error message that there was a problem with UCWEB.exe.

We never got it to run even once. It looks like UCWEB 7.0 still needs some tweaking. We recall that we had some initial problems with using version 6.3 earlier on, but it works fine now – and we dare say we are loving it here at Mobility Nigeria.

Download:
Download UCWEB 7.0 via PC.

This morning, Bitstream, the developers of Bolt mobile browser, have announced the availability of Bolt 1.5, and a drop of the beta tag.

From the press release:

You will be automatically prompted to upgrade the next time you launch BOLT.

Many of the most significant upgrades occur “under the hood,” but you are sure to notice the results – v1.5 is the most reliable, fastest browser we have ever released – more than 15% faster than Beta3.

Other new features include the ability to stream videos of any length, a dedicated search bar, a download manager that downloads files directly from BOLT, improved navigation and text rendering, and a caching feature that enables browsing back to a previously visited page without waiting to reload.

Thanks to a heads-up from WAP Review, we present you the much welcome news that RIM, manufacturers of BlackBerry smartphones, have acquired TorchMobile, the developers of the Webkit-based Iris browser.

By way of a refresher, I reviewed the Iris browser on back in February of this year, and came off with positive impressions.

I also recently tried out the BlackBerry 8900 Curve, and found a great letdown and show-stopper – the highly limited web browser. Now with RIM’s acquisition of Iris, we can look forward to seeing a more modern and more impressive browser on future BlackBerry devices.

New lease of life for web browsing on BlackBerries – currently let down by limited web browser capabilities.

Webkit is dominating the mobile browser engine scene more and more, being the core for great browsers as found on the iPhone, Symbian smartphones, and Android smartphones. That is a huge chunk of the market.

RIM’s acquisition is certainly a smart one. The BlackBerry platform is about to become more attractive to mobile web users.

The guys at All About Symbian went all out to pitch the browsers on a number of competing mobile phone platforms represented by the following devices:

1. N86
2. N97
3. iPhone 3G
4. T-Mobile G1

AAS concludes:

In general the Nokia devices with version 7.1 of the S60 browser out-performed the iPhone 3G and T-Mobile G1. The iPhone and G1 had similar results (with the exception of guardian.co.uk), although the iPhone 3G just edges it.

Unbelievable? Certainly interesting. Nokia seems to have done a good job optimising the latest version of their browser. Shame the E75 missed it!

Head over to AAS for graphs, charts, and the whole report: Browser speed comparison – N86, N97, iPhone 3G, T-Mobile G1 and more.

Comments!

In the latest State of the Mobile Web report by Opera (April 2009), Nigeria continues to show impressive growth in the use of the mobile web, piping Poland to take the number 9 spot on the global top 10 list.

This is right along our projections here at MobilityNigeria. Nigeria has a population of over 140 million people, with a significant army of young people and small businesses who are discovering the benefits of internet access via their mobiles.

Recent launches of 3G data services by mobile networks have helped too. Add to this the cost of obtaining personal computers, and the mobile phone simply provides a much-needed succour to these categories of users.

The full report is available at http://www.opera.com/smw/2009/04/

Also from the report is the list of top 10 handsets used by Nigerians with Opera Mini in April 2009.

Opera Mini Top handsets for April 2009

1. Nokia N70
2. Nokia 3110c
3. Sony Ericsson K750i
4. Nokia N72
5. Nokia 3230
6. Nokia 6600
7. Nokia 6630
8. Sony Ericsson K800i
9. Nokia N73
10. Sony Ericsson W810i

The dotMobi WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete toolkit from dotMobi to help mobilize your WordPress site and blog.

It includes a mobile switcher to select themes based on the type of user that is visiting the site, a selection of mobile themes, extra widgets, device adaptation and a mobile administration panel to allow users to edit the site or write new posts when out and about.

The plugin gives tremendous customisation options. This plugin is what powers the mobile version of this site now. Below are images of the plugin at work on the built-in browser of the LG KS360:

The Mobility Nigeria mobile theme. Simple and easy to use

The Mobile Admin interface

I'm typing out the draft of this post on the LG KS360's built-in browser

More of the New Post interface

My draft has been saved, and a link for further editing provided

Comments moderation interface on mobile

The mobile admin interface is basic, but in my own opinion, that is exactly what is needed for it to be usable on the majority of mobile browsers in the market today.

You can download the dotMobi WordPress Mobile Pack.

In the first part of my review of the LG KS360, I examined the form factor and multimedia. In this second part, I am examining the internet capabilities, email, and other features.

Internet

The KS360′s built-in browser is by a company named – guess – Teleca. Ever heard of them? Didn’t think so. But they’ve been at the mobile browser thing since 1999, with the world’s first WAP 1.1 browser, though its development process started in 1997. Surprised? There’s more.

Teleca’s global market share was 14% as of 2007, and held 3rd place in mobile browser field. More than 600 million of mobile phones are equipped with Teleca products, and many of the excellent browsers built-into Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson phones are the handwork of Teleca.

Teleca has also produced a browser that’s a worthy competitor to all of Opera Mini and Mobile, Nokia Webkit and the iPhone’s Safari. Don’t take my word for it; see Dennis Bournique’s review of Teleca’s New Browser – Wow!

I know what you are thinking. No; I have not been paid to market Teleca. Or LG

Anyway, Teleca recently rebranded to Obigo.

Okay, I’m done with history class. Does the the Teleca/Obigo browser on the KS360 pass the test? It does a good job but it is just not the most capable of browsers.

Browsing dedicated mobile sites on the KS360 poses no problem, and browsing not-so-heavy HTML pages is not either. However, the browser runs into a wall when you attempt to load a very large page and displays an “out of memory” error.

I mean, this means I cannot do any serious work on that browser. I cannot log into Alireta‘s web-based client admin area. I cannot do any cpanel operations, et al. Add this to the fact that the browser is also a wee bit slow in loading pages.

The KS360 impresses me in many areas, but this limitations of the browser is a deal-breaker for me. It would serve a casual user of the mobile web quite aptly though, so its up to you to decide whether it will do.

However, if a website has been deliberately designed to be mobile-friendly, the Teleca/Obigo browser in the KS360 handles it beautifully well.

Email client

POP3 and IMAP4 email clients are supported. Attachments to email can be fully downloaded. The KS360 also has an auto message retriever that searches for new mails at set intervals and announces new mails with a tone/note.

There is an issue I have with the mail client. For some reason I am still not able to deduce, the mail client does not show me an up-to-date list of the most recent mails on my server. The list it presents always has the most recent week’s mails missing.

This is a deal-breaker for me. My most recent mails are important to me. Whether this is a server issue or a device isssue is not clear, though I doubt the former. All other email clients I have used work flawlessly on this score.

Photo Gallery

LG has provided a very sleek image gallery. The user can choose between 4 viewing styles, including thumbnail view, two 3D view options, and a list view. The 3D view options are stunning, though things can get sluggish a bit when viewing images stored on a a heavilly loaded microSD card. I had a 2G card in the phone.

There’s also a slideshow view option.

Organizer and Office features

Surprise; surprise! The KS360 comes with office document viewer, giving the user the ability to view MS Office documents. For a phone in this price range, that’s a deal.

Battery Life

The battery just lasts and lasts. Quite impressive.

Java

Other features:

- Voice Recorder
- FM radio
- Calendar
- memo
- Games
- Calculator

Conclusion

The KS360 is a noble effort from LG. The feature set is extensive, and the user interface nice and simple. But if you make extensive use of the internet and email, this may not be what the doctor ordered.

But its specifications, general performance and price makes this phone a recommended one for anyone on a budget and looking for an all-round device.