Wap Review, Page 2

Added to the Wap Review Mobile Directory: PandoDaily's Responsive Site

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Dennis Bournique

New Site Added to the Wap Review Mobile Directory

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Mobile Link: pandodaily.com
Rating:Content Usability
Doctype: HTML
Home Page Weight: 5050 KB (3461 KB compressed)
Category: Tech News

Description:

Founded in January, 2012 by former TechCrunch reporter Sarah Lacy, PandoDaily has quickly grown to be one of the top news sites covering Silicon Valley and the startup scene.

Like virtually every other news site and blog in the world, PandoDaily is built with WordPress. Unlike the majority of WordPress sites, Pando uses a Responsive Web Design inspired custom theme that adapts on the fly to mobile, tablet and PC browsers.

The design, by Sara Cannon generally works well. As the browser viewport gets smaller, PandoDaily's signature "Ticker" timeline of breaking news mini-posts moves from the sidebar to below the main content. At the same time, the five column "Week in Review" footer reformats as a single column to fit smaller screens.

In my testing, PandoDaily looked good and worked well in the Android and iOS browsers, Opera Mini and Mobile, Firefox Mobile and Nokia's S40 Xpress browser, across viewports ranging from 1680px to 128px in width. However, the site's 3MB page weight will not be appreciated by users who pay for data by the KB.

Screenshots:

Posted in Tech News Sites | Tagged mobile site review, Responsive | Leave a comment

Latest UC Browser 9.0 (Signed Java Version) Modified to Remove the Virtual Keypad On Samsung, LG and Other Touchcreen Phones

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Dennis Bournique

I did a post a while ago explaining how to modify Opera Mini's jad file to hide the unneeded touch keypad that displays at the bottom of the screen on some touchscreen phones. The post included a link to the modified Opera Mini. I received a request asking for a copy of the latest signed Java version of UC Browser modified to hide the keypad.

The process for modifying the UC Browser or any other Java app is exactly the same as what was described in the original post:

1.Download the app's jad file to a PC. You can get UC Browser jad files (signed or unsigned ) at www.ucweb.com/English/UCbrowser/platform.html?platform=java

2. Open the downloaded mini.jad with a text editor or Windows Wordpad

3. Scroll to the bottom of the file and paste in the following lines:

Nokia-MIDlet-No-Exit: true
Nokia-MIDlet-On-Screen-Keypad: no
Navi-Key-Hidden: true
UseNativeTextButtons: hide
ReverseSoftkeys: hide
UseNativeCommands: hide
MIDlet-Touch-Support: true
MIDlet-ScreenMode: ROTATE
MIDlet-Landscape-Support: true
LGE-MIDlet-Width: 240
LGE-MIDlet-Height: 400
LGE-MIDlet-On-Screen-Keypad: no
LGE-MIDlet-Display-Mode: both

4. Upload the file to Dropbox.com or another file sharing service that is easy to use in your phone browser. Click here to get a free 2GB Dropbox account (by using this referral link I get an extra 250 MB of storage in my Dropbox which I thank you for).

5. Visit Dropbox with your phone browser and click the modified mini.jad link to download it to your phone.

If that didn't work or you don't have a PC or are just in a hurry, here's are links to the latest signed version of the UC browser as well as some older versions.

Latest Version

UC Browser 9.0 (25-Apr-2013) The latest "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. According to UC, new features in it include:

Fast Video and Audio Playing We have designed the Fast Video and Audio Playing feature to break through storage limitation and poor network connection. The new feature allows users to play video files that have been saved to UDisk directly, without having to download those big files to local phone storage. Enjoy the fluent videos watching on Java Phone.
Account Information Saving To make logging-in to your favourite webpages more convenient, we’ve added the ability for you to save usernames and passwords on several websites, such as Facebook and GMail.
Improved User Interface We’ve given our user interface a makeover, optimizing the design to provide an enhancement of user experience. The menus, night mode, operation in touch screen phones and more has been optimized.
Bug Fixes The stability of this version has been increased and there have been numerous bug fixes, such as a solution to the missing Speed Dial issue.

Download the modified UC Browser 9.0 jad at:
wapreview.com/download/UCBrowser_V9.0.0.260_Java_pf70_(Build13042317).jad
Short Link: is.gd/uc90touch

To install, go to is.gd/uc90touch with your phone's browser.

Older Versions:

UC Browser 8.9 (29-Jan-2012) A "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features include: Incognito Browsing, Improved Search Bar, Select and Copy and Optimized Text Input

Download the modified UC Browser 8.9 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.9.0.251_Java_pf70_%28Build13012415%29.jad

Short Link: is.gd/uc89touch To install, go to is.gd/uc89touch with your phone's browser.

UC Browser 8.8 (25-Dec-2012) Another "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features include: increased download speed, customizable shortcut keys and an improved File Manager.

Download the modified UC Browser 8.8 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.8.1.252_Java_pf70_%28Build12122410%29.jad
Short Link: is.gd/uc88touch To install it, go to is.gd/uc88touch with your phone's browser.

UC Browser 8.7 (7-Nov-2012) This is a "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features include: users can switch between multiple accounts when signing in to a website, long press the OK button to invoke the Actions menu, users can save pages directly without changing the page name.

Download the modified UC Browser 8.7 jad at:
dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.7.0.218_Java_pf70_%28Build12110609%29.jad
Short Link: is.gd/uc87touch To install it, go to is.gd/uc87touch with your phone's browser.

UC Browser 8.6. (20-Sept-2012): This is a "full (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features in this release are: full offline download support with synchronous status shown in the download manager, you can now preview the images before uploading, "clear all history" option before exiting UC Browser added, new options to disable the virtual keyboard, faster uploads and display of the upload speed in KB/sec while uploading. This version uses the new user interface from the cloud version with different menus for touch screen and non touch screen phones

Download the modified UC Browser 8.6 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.6.0.199_Java_pf70_%28Build12092011%29.jad
Short link: is.gd/uc860touch To install it, go to is.gd/uc860touch with your phone browser.

UC Cloud Browser 8.5 (6-Sept-2012): This is first non-Beta version of the UC Cloud Browser, a redesign of the original UC browser optimized for smaller download size and faster page loads. New features in this release are: new user interface with different menus for touch screen and non touch screen phones. Supports copy and paste in the URL bar and all input fields. New screen brightness setting. New share image on Facebook feature. New Game Center free game download store.

I've posted the modified UC Cloud Browser 8.5 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.5.0.185_Java_pf83_%28Build12082909%29.jad
Short link: is.gd/uc85touch. To install it, go to is.gd/uc85touch with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.4 (23-Jul-2012):. Major changes are: simplified theme installation, the traffic statistics display is back, the link to browsing history has been moved to the top of the bookmarks page and a there's a new Tools > Phone menu option for making phone call or send a texts from within the browser. See my review for more about 8.4: UC Browser 8.4 for Java Released With Bug Fixes, New Features.

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.4.0.159_Java_pf70_(Build12070415).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc84touch

UC Browser 8.3 Alpha (7-Jun-2012): New features include; UDisk cloud based storage and the App Gallery, a new home screen tab providing quick access to UDisk, bookmark backup and restore and the Quick Reads news deader.

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.3.0.154_Java_pf70_(Build12053010).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc83touch. To install it, go to db.tt/ajY88aHm with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.2.1 Production (non-Beta) (20-Apr-2012): New features include a built in RSS reader and bookmark backup and restore. See my review for more details.

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.2.1.144_Java_pf70_(Build12041210).jad
Short link: db.tt/ajY88aHm. To install it, go to db.tt/ajY88aHm with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.2 Alpha (21-Mar-2012): It features many enhancements and bug fixes see my review for details. This is the latest patch release that adds swipe navigation and fixes a bug that made entering URLs on bada phones impossible:

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.2.0.132_Java_pf70_(Build12032111).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc82touch. To install it, go to is.gd/uc82touch with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.0 (1-Feb-2012):

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.0.3.107_Java_pf70(Build11112416).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc8touch. To install it, go to is.gd/uc8touch with your phone browser.

Posted in Browsers | Tagged Java ME, LG, Samsung, touchscreen, UC Browser, Virtual Keypad | 236 Comments

Opera Mini For Android Updated Again To Fix Font Size Issue

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Dennis Bournique

On Monday Opera Software released Opera Mini 7.5.2 for Android. It was mostly a bug fix release but also included font changes. I noticed that the fonts on many sites were smaller in the new release. The new fonts made text on the effected sites hard to read and I immediately went back to the previous 7.5.1 version. Play Store reviews of the new version were largely negative as were comments on Opera's own forums.

Today Opera released Opera Mini Android version 7.5.3 to address the font size issue. I upgraded to the new version and can confirm that font sizes are larger in 7.5.3 (third image, above) than they were in 7.5.2 (middle image) but are still a little smaller than in 7.5.1 (first image). Click the images to view them in their original size. I find the new fonts readable. According to a post on the Opera Mini Forum the changes in 7.5.3 are:

Font size and page layout improvements
Fixed crash on http://www.drudgereport.com/

The new version identifies itself as 7.5.33361 in the browser's Help > About Menu. It's available now from the Android Play Store. I wasn't able to find a direct apn download on opera.com. Users without Play Store access download a copy from WapReview here: Opera Mini_7.5.3.apk (7.5.33361)

Posted in Browsers | Tagged Android, Opera Mini | Leave a comment

Opera Mini For Android Updated to Version 7.5.2

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Dennis Bournique

Opera Software has updated Opera Mini for Android. Opera calls the new release 7.5.2, although the version number on the browser's Help > About screen is 7.5.33286. The previous 7.5.1 version was 7.5.32193 internally.

According to a post by an Opera employee on the My Opera - Opera Mini Forum the changes in this release are:

Improved font calculation method
Improved fonts for hi-res devices
Page layout improvements
Various stabilization fixes

I upgraded to the new release on several devices. There definitely are some font changes. The font on many pages is noticeably smaller. The screenshots of the dabr.co.uk Twitter web app (above) and the My Opera Forum below show the difference. In both sets of images, the first one shows the old version and the second the new one. My old eyes prefer the previous version. I recommend you backup Opera Mini using an app like the free ES File Explorer before upgrading in case you don't like the changes.

My Opera - Opera Mini 7.5.2

Opera Mini 7.5.2 is available now in the Google Play store. Opera's forum post claims that it "...will be available on our servers later". I hope that's true, however Opera.com's download page hasn't offered direct downloads of any of Opera's mobile browsers since it was redesigned earlier this year.

For anyone without Google Play access, I've put a copies of the new Opera Mini 7.5.2 on the WapReview server for you to download: Opera Mini_7.5.2.apk (ver 7.5.33286).

And if you upgraded to 7.52 without heading my warning to backup the old version first, here's the previous version: Opera Mini_7.5.1.apk (ver 7.5.32193).

Other than having smaller fonts the new release seems good. It reportedly works better on tablets and may have even fixed the Black Screen of Death bug that afflicted the last couple of Opera Mini Android releases. That bug manifested itself when you restored Opera Mini to the foreground after it had been in the background for awhile. The screen would be completely back with no user interface at all. The only way to recover was to terminate Opera Mini with a task manager app or from the Android Manage Applications screen.