Iris Update v1.1.7

Have you tried Iris on your Windows Mobile smartphone? It's a great mobile web browser and the update makes it even better. The best part of Iris is that it's free (at least for now). I find that mobile browsing is great, but it also drains my battery quickly. Medical students who want to browse during their clinical rotations will probably need to carry an extra battery (or two).

Those using an Apple iPhone may need one of those external battery packs. Do you think the next iPhone will have a removable battery? No. Look at all the iPods that Apple has released. None of them have a user-removable battery. This is probably one of the major drawbacks of using the iPhone as a mobile internet device (MID).

Iris Browser Update

The Torch Mobile Iris Browser has been updated again. It's a good mobile browser for my XV6800 Windows Mobile PDA/Smartphone, but I occasionally get an "out of memory" error if I visit busy web pages. Like many other mobile browsers, you can zoom in and out very easily and scan pages quickly. I've also been playing around with Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, Skyfire, and Pocket Internet Explorer. Proxy servers speed things up if they're configured properly.

Prevent Opera Mini from Freezing in Windows Mobile

I've been testing Opera Mini on my Windows Mobile device and I was pleased by the speed and performance, but I noticed that it would freeze up occasionally. My entire device would crash and I'd have to reset the phone. I decided to change the Network Protocol from Socket to HTTP. Now, I have yet to experience a freeze or a crash. Opera Mini 4.2 has become my favorite mobile browser on my XV6800 (HTC Titan, Sprint Mogul) Pocket PC because it's so much faster than Skyfire, Opera Mobile, Iris, or Pocket Internet Explorer. So, if you use your mobile device to browse medical websites and participate in CME activities, I would urge you to try Opera Mini. You won't get any "out of memory" messages and if you switch your Network Protocol, you shouldn't get any frustrating freeze-ups. Caveat: you won't get Flash content on Opera Mini.

Iris Browser v1.1.2

The Iris Browser (by Torch Mobile) has been updated to v1.1.2

It may not be mobile Safari, but it's a really nice browser for Windows Mobile. I also use Skyfire, Opera Mobile, and Opera Mini. I'm still waiting on mobile Firefox (I haven't tried the sub-beta alpha test version because of reports that it's so slow). My experience so far with the new and improved version of Pocket Internet Explorer has been quite positive on my XV6800. I'm running Windows Mobile 6.1 and I don't think my device can handle 6.5 so that's somewhat disappointing.
At least I should be able to find a good mobile browser that will work on my device.

Improvements to Skyfire

If you use a Windows Mobile device, I hope you've tried Skyfire. It's probably one of the best mobile browsers currently available. I think it beats Pocket Internet Explorer, Opera, and Iris. I say this because you rarely run into a "out of memory" error using Skyfire (although you may not get this problem if you use a different phone. I've only tried it on my XV6800).

Skyfire is still in beta, but the most recent version adds social networking Web 2.0 features.