You won’t need any form of spiritual revelation to accept that the world has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the development of technology in recent times. Above all is the emergence of mobile technology. Gone were the days when we were “libraries away from information”. Later things changed to “cybercafe away” from information.

I remember those old days of visiting cyber cafes (Some still do) just to check my mail. Not too long after this, mobile phones manufacturers rolled out internet-enabled phones into the Nigerian market. This made things easier. Those were the days when people bought a mobile phone simply because “it can browse”.

From all this, I begin to wonder, things have really changed indeed! Just this afternoon, I took a journey into my “old analog” lifestyle and I tried as much as possible to compare those days with today’s reality.

With this revolution in web and mobile technology, I have been able to:

• Increase my knowledge bank: Google links me with the information I need. Through this, I have been able to read Gigabytes of ebooks and several pages of information. This is the most important to me.
• Connect with my old friends: Honestly, I did not bother to search for my old secondary school friends on Facebook when I  joined…but thank God they did and found me. Now, I am connected with a handful of them.
• Connect with potential clients (Facebook has connected me with numerous people who end up becoming clients).
• Make more Impact: via SelfGrowth.com, my Blogs and through my FB updates.
• Stay connected with Friends, Families, and most especially my Mentors. (via email, FB, and phone calls).
• Make more money (by fixing systems, designing websites and offering various  tech services).

I have been able to do more with technology, especially in recent times, but I have decided to limit it to the above.

So, what have you been able to do with technology (either mobile or any other form of digital product)? Comment below please.

A few days ago, we published a news item on the release of the latest version of the Iris browser, developed for WinMo devices. The statement from TorchMobile about the new release reads:

The Iris Browser is an advanced, high-performance and versatile Web browser application for mobile and embedded devices. Based on the WebKit rendering engine, it is specifically designed to function in resource-constrained environments. It brings the full Web experience to mobile phones, set-top boxes, mobile Internet devices, portable media players, Ultra-Mobile PCs and other embedded devices – in a fast and user-friendly manner.

I have taken the browser for a spin over the last couple of days, and hereby present my review:

The Iris pre-configured homepage

The default homepage is a custom page by TouchMobile that includes a search box. Tap the “Navigate” softkey on the right, and choose “Show address” to pop up the address bar at the top of the screen. Other options include “Home”, “Back”, “Forward”, “Stop”, and “reload”.

The left softkey is labelled “Page”, and under that menu are options to access bookmarks, history, zoom, tabs, set screen view, tools, and options (settings).

The browser allows the opening and running of up to 4 tabs.

Under “View”, the options to choose include: Mobile Mode, Desktop Mode, and Column Mode. Then there’s a full screen option applicable to whatever mode you choose.

Left: Mobile Mode; Right: Column Mode

Personally, I am comfortable the most with Column Mode. In this mode, the entire page is fitted into the screen and you only scroll up and down. This is by far the most user-friendly way to browse on a mobile device. The other modes will leave you having to scroll horizontally to read page contents.

When a page is loaded, by default you get an overview of the whole page, really zoomed out so you can see the entire page. You then zoom into the section you want to read.

Zooming in can be done by simply double-tapping on the section you want. It works well. Alternatively, you can use the left softkey to access a Zoom menu.

But in all modes apart from Column Mode, zooming in messes up usability, because the content you have zoomed into is not fitted to the width of the screen. To read text, you have to scroll horizontally. This is a no-no. My advice: stay in Column Mode. Don’t touch the dial.

Iris offers a nice page transition effect, with the pages sliding in and out and dropping in and out.

History function

The History function is neat. You get three images of the pages in history on the screen at any time, and you can simply move through your history with finger swipes. Tap the central image and that page loads.

Unfortunately, Youtube videos are not supported

Still, there are limitations on this browser. One of them is flash support. A visit to Youtube and attempting to watch videos resulted in a “Get the latest Flash player” error message.

Besides that, it loads images well, gives you the option to save them, save pages, search through text on pages, and also track your internet usage.

Iris handles secure sites well, and I was able to login to my bank’s internet platform.

The Iris browser is a good job. It leaves Mobile Pocket Explorer in the dust (which is not saying much), but it also gives Opera Mobile a run for its money. I’m not sure which of the two I prefer yet; just a few days is too little time to choose between these highly capable browsers.

Thumbs-up to TorchMobile. But while the browser proves itself capable, I am not too sure that what it offers redefines the mobile web as the developers claim.

Mobile applications developer, TorchMobile, have released a new major version of their mobile browser, Iris. The browser is built on the popular webkit engine and is available for WinMo 5 and 6 devices.

From the TouchMobile blog:

There are many surprises waiting inside, including support for the Flash Lite ActiveX control, big performance gains, reduced memory usage, preliminary RSS and SVG support, the highest Acid3 score of any shipping mobile browser, and HTC accelerometer support.

Yomi has downloaded a copy and is currently putting it through its paces on the Samsung i900 Omnia. His review should be available tomorrow or the day after.

In the meantime, you can download your copy too.