INTRODUCTION
In the old days, you
used to carry around a laptop to connect to the
internet and do some browsing. Now you carry a
Pocket PC. You've experimented with browsing
using Pocket Internet Explorer and have been a bit,
well, underwhelmed. The web pages don't seem to
format correctly. The pictures are too big.
It
takes forever to load the web page onto the screen.
You don't want to go back to lugging a laptop but
you'd really like to have a better experience browsing on
your handheld. BitStream created their
ThunderHawk browser as their solution to just this problem.
WHAT'S HOT
BitStream's ThunderHawk
does a lot more than simply bring web page content
onto your PPC screen. BitStream designed the
program to enhance the overall browsing experience on
"the small screen." To do this, they use a
proprietary proxy server that intercepts web page
information and reformats it "on-the-fly" to better
suit the PPC screen. BitStream's server resizes
pictures so that only the data necessary to display
the image is sent through to the PPC. Further,
the server reconfigures the fonts used by a web site
to use specially designed fonts on the Pocket PC.
The result is the equivalent of up to an 800x600 pixel
display on a Pocket PC's 320x240 display. You
can read that, but you won't really understand the
impact until you see it, so here it is.
Pocket Internet Explorer
-- 1.5 minutes to load
ThunderHawkII -- 10
seconds to load!
SETUP
BitStream doesn't use the
standard ActiveSync Add/Remove programs feature.
Instead, you download a "CAB" file which you then
transfer to your Pocket PC. You then run the CAB
file on your PPC and it decompresses into ThunderHawk
and all it's support files. BitStream has also
bypassed one of the standards for using CAB files to
install programs. Normally, a CAB file will
decompress itself onto whichever medium you place the
CAB file onto. In other words, if I place the
CAB file on my SD Card, the program will install onto
my SD Card. In the case of ThunderHawk, the CAB
file overrides this process and always installs into
main memory. You can't install it onto an
Storage Card or File Store.
When you first start ThunderHawk, the program will
automatically take you to an account set up page on
the BitStream web site. There you'll be able to
create an account with a corresponding User Name and
Password. The User Name and Password identify
you to the ThunderHawk server for your trial period as
well as after you've subscribed.
PROGRAM FEATURES
One of the first things you'll notice about the ThunderHawk display is that there are no icons, no tool bars, and no place to enter a URL. That provides maximum screen for displaying the web page. When you do need to enter information, you call up the tool bar/keyboard. You do that by pressing application button 1. It may differ on your Pocket PC, but on most PPCs that's the Calendar button. When you press it, you'll get the tool bar and keyboard as shown below:
ThunderHawkII with
keyboard and tool bar displayed
As you can see the keyboard takes up a lot of screen
real estate. Actually, I think it takes up too
much, even more than the built-in keyboard would.
At the risk of making it slightly harder to type, I'd
really like to see the keyboard shrunk in future
versions of ThunderHawk. With the keyboard
displayed, you really get very little usable web page
display above it.
Directly above the keyboard is the URL entry. To visit
a particular site, you can simply type in it's URL and
press the [Go] button to the top-right of the URL
entry. Like most well-behaved browsers,
you don't have to type the whole "http://www..." or
even the ".com" at the end. If you just type "pocketnow",
BitStream's server will locate the closest matching
URL and go to it.
ThunderHawkII with URL
history displayed
Above
the URL entry is the tool bar. There's an "ESCape"
key to the far left. ESC can be useful for some
internet and intranet applications. Next, the
[X] exits ThunderHawk. It's a real exit.
It doesn't place ThunderHawk in the background, still
running. The [<-] and [->] keys go back one web
page or forward one web page (after you've gone back).
You can do the same thing without calling up the
keyboard by using application button 4 for back and
application button 3 for forward. Application
button 5 (usually the Record button) will close
ThunderHawk.
To the right of the arrows is the "Halt" button. That
will halt loading information from the current web
page. To the right of that is the "Refresh"
button which will reload the current web page.
The magnifying glass button is a "zoom" control. It
calls up the dialog you see below:
ThunderHawkII Zoom
dialog
The screens we've been viewing were in 640x480 or "Medium" resolution. Here are examples of the other two resolutions:
ThunderHawkII in Low
(480x360) resolution
ThunderHawkII in High
(800x600) resolution
Next to the Zoom button is the "Favorites" button which reveals the following:
ThunderHawkII Favorites
screen
The "Open" tab lets you select favorites from your list. Clicking on one of the favorites will take you there immediately. Clicking [Done] will exit without moving to a different web site. The Add/Delete calls up the screen below:
ThunderHawkII Favorites
Add/Delete
Clicking on the [Add] button will add the current web page to your favorites. If you click on an existing favorite, you can then click on [Delete] to remove it. You can also create Folders to further organize your favorites.
The next button to the right is the User Options button. It calls up the screen shown below:
ThunderHawkII User
Options screen
The "Account Info" tab is simply for entering your
User Name and Password that you'll get when you sign
up to use ThunderHawk.
The "Advanced" tab currently has the one option you see below:
ThunderHawkII Advanced
Options screen
The "User Agent" string is the string that identifies ThunderHawk's capabilities to web sites which you browse. Currently, it describes itself as Internet Explorer 5.0 compatible with the additional ability to use KHTML. If you find a web site that won't behave properly while using ThunderHawk, modifying the User Agent string may help.
The final button on the tool bar is the Windows logo button. Pressing it allows you to temporarily leave ThunderHawk, leaving it still running in the background. This is useful when you want to cut-and-paste from another application or otherwise work with other programs on your PPC, but eventually return to ThunderHawk for further browsing.
There is one last feature of ThunderHawk that I'd like to call your attention to: When you first start the program, ThunderHawk automatically switches to the ThunderHawk home page as shown below:
ThunderHawk Home Page
This "portal" page gives you access to some links to search engines and other information sources. It also provides you easy access to your ThunderHawk account. It's quite a useful feature for those of use who generally hop on to the internet to do a quick search or to check weather.
HELP SUPPORT
BitStream provides
a very brief user guide in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format
for download from their web site. There is also
a specifications sheet, also in PDF format, which
shows which web standards ThunderHawk can process. In
addition, you can request
e-mail technical support or
new features via web forms.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
ThunderHawk will run on
Windows CE 3.0, Pocket PC 2000, Pocket PC 2002, or
Windows Mobile 2003 operating systems. There are
different CAB files for some of these operating
systems so you need to be sure you download the
correct one. ThunderHawk runs on Windows Mobile
2003 SE machines but doesn't allow portrait
orientation and doesn't take advantage of
VGA-resolution displays.
The WM2003 version requires 0.94MB of storage memory to
install and 1.3MB of program memory to run.
BUGS AND WISHES
I didn't find any program malfunctions or errors.
I do have a few things I'd like to see changed in
future versions though: First, I'd like to be
able to install the program onto a File Store or
Storage Card. Doing so would free up Main Memory
for use by running programs.
Second, I'd like to see a smaller keyboard/tool bar so that
you can see more of the screen when you're entering
text. While I'm on the subject of the keyboard,
I'd also like to see "sliding" functionality added to
it. On the built-in keyboard, if you tap on a
letter and slide up, it will capitalize the letter for
you. That's a fair bit faster for me than
tapping on the Shift key and then tapping on the
letter.
Finally I'd like to see ThunderHawk take advantage of the VGA
resolution that's becoming available. If you can
get 800x600 onto a 320x240 display, you could get at
least 1024x800 on a 640x480 display. Granted,
the text would be small, but I'd like to have the
option at least.
PURCHASING
ThunderHawk is available for download
from BitStream's web site. The download will
function as a 30-day free trial version until you
buy a subscription to use the ThunderHawk proxy server.
The subscription is $49.95 per year or $5.95 per month
for unlimited use during that time.
PROS
- Speeds up web page downloads dramatically
- Formats PPC display to act like 800x600 resolution
CONS
- Installs only in main memory
- Doesn't take advantage of VGA resolution
- Uses too much screen for onscreen keyboard
- Requires a subscription
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
I'm of mixed minds on
ThunderHawk. It dramatically speeds up web page
loading. It does a great job of formatting web
pages to the small screen. However, the user
interface needs a little more work, particularly the
on-screen keyboard. While I'm not particularly
fond of subscription services, I realize that there's
no other way to do what ThunderHawk does without a
server doing the "heavy lifting." If you only
occasionally do internet browsing on your PPC, you'll
probably find the subscription cost prohibitive.
If you want to regularly use your PPC for browsing,
you'll find the subscription is actually quite
reasonable for the productivity you gain.
The bottom line is that ThunderHawk, version II is a
must-have for anyone who relies on their PPC for
serious web browsing. The speed and the
true-to-the-web display of ThunderHawk take Pocket web
browsing from a tolerable curiosity to a usable tool.
The user interface could use a bit more work, but it's
still quite usable as it is.
All screenshots in this review are taken using SOTI's Pocket Controller Pro
Back to pocketnow.com |
Discuss this Review
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October 21, 2004
Review by: Russ Smith, Contributing Editor
INTRODUCTION
In the old days, you
used to carry around a laptop to connect to the
internet and do some browsing. Now you carry a
Pocket PC. You've experimented with browsing
using Pocket Internet Explorer and have been a bit,
well, underwhelmed. The web pages don't seem to
format correctly. The pictures are too big.
It
takes forever to load the web page onto the screen.
You don't want to go back to lugging a laptop but
you'd really like to have a better experience browsing on
your handheld. BitStream created their
ThunderHawk browser as their solution to just this problem.
WHAT'S HOT
BitStream's ThunderHawk
does a lot more than simply bring web page content
onto your PPC screen. BitStream designed the
program to enhance the overall browsing experience on
"the small screen." To do this, they use a
proprietary proxy server that intercepts web page
information and reformats it "on-the-fly" to better
suit the PPC screen. BitStream's server resizes
pictures so that only the data necessary to display
the image is sent through to the PPC. Further,
the server reconfigures the fonts used by a web site
to use specially designed fonts on the Pocket PC.
The result is the equivalent of up to an 800x600 pixel
display on a Pocket PC's 320x240 display. You
can read that, but you won't really understand the
impact until you see it, so here it is.
Pocket Internet Explorer
-- 1.5 minutes to load
ThunderHawkII -- 10
seconds to load!
SETUP
BitStream doesn't use the
standard ActiveSync Add/Remove programs feature.
Instead, you download a "CAB" file which you then
transfer to your Pocket PC. You then run the CAB
file on your PPC and it decompresses into ThunderHawk
and all it's support files. BitStream has also
bypassed one of the standards for using CAB files to
install programs. Normally, a CAB file will
decompress itself onto whichever medium you place the
CAB file onto. In other words, if I place the
CAB file on my SD Card, the program will install onto
my SD Card. In the case of ThunderHawk, the CAB
file overrides this process and always installs into
main memory. You can't install it onto an
Storage Card or File Store.
When you first start ThunderHawk, the program will
automatically take you to an account set up page on
the BitStream web site. There you'll be able to
create an account with a corresponding User Name and
Password. The User Name and Password identify
you to the ThunderHawk server for your trial period as
well as after you've subscribed.
PROGRAM FEATURES
One of the first things you'll notice about the ThunderHawk display is that there are no icons, no tool bars, and no place to enter a URL. That provides maximum screen for displaying the web page. When you do need to enter information, you call up the tool bar/keyboard. You do that by pressing application button 1. It may differ on your Pocket PC, but on most PPCs that's the Calendar button. When you press it, you'll get the tool bar and keyboard as shown below:
ThunderHawkII with
keyboard and tool bar displayed
As you can see the keyboard takes up a lot of screen
real estate. Actually, I think it takes up too
much, even more than the built-in keyboard would.
At the risk of making it slightly harder to type, I'd
really like to see the keyboard shrunk in future
versions of ThunderHawk. With the keyboard
displayed, you really get very little usable web page
display above it.
Directly above the keyboard is the URL entry. To visit
a particular site, you can simply type in it's URL and
press the [Go] button to the top-right of the URL
entry. Like most well-behaved browsers,
you don't have to type the whole "http://www..." or
even the ".com" at the end. If you just type "pocketnow",
BitStream's server will locate the closest matching
URL and go to it.
ThunderHawkII with URL
history displayed
Above
the URL entry is the tool bar. There's an "ESCape"
key to the far left. ESC can be useful for some
internet and intranet applications. Next, the
[X] exits ThunderHawk. It's a real exit.
It doesn't place ThunderHawk in the background, still
running. The [<-] and [->] keys go back one web
page or forward one web page (after you've gone back).
You can do the same thing without calling up the
keyboard by using application button 4 for back and
application button 3 for forward. Application
button 5 (usually the Record button) will close
ThunderHawk.
To the right of the arrows is the "Halt" button. That
will halt loading information from the current web
page. To the right of that is the "Refresh"
button which will reload the current web page.
The magnifying glass button is a "zoom" control. It
calls up the dialog you see below:
ThunderHawkII Zoom
dialog
The screens we've been viewing were in 640x480 or "Medium" resolution. Here are examples of the other two resolutions:
ThunderHawkII in Low
(480x360) resolution
ThunderHawkII in High
(800x600) resolution
Next to the Zoom button is the "Favorites" button which reveals the following:
ThunderHawkII Favorites
screen
The "Open" tab lets you select favorites from your list. Clicking on one of the favorites will take you there immediately. Clicking [Done] will exit without moving to a different web site. The Add/Delete calls up the screen below:
ThunderHawkII Favorites
Add/Delete
Clicking on the [Add] button will add the current web page to your favorites. If you click on an existing favorite, you can then click on [Delete] to remove it. You can also create Folders to further organize your favorites.
The next button to the right is the User Options button. It calls up the screen shown below:
ThunderHawkII User
Options screen
The "Account Info" tab is simply for entering your
User Name and Password that you'll get when you sign
up to use ThunderHawk.
The "Advanced" tab currently has the one option you see below:
ThunderHawkII Advanced
Options screen
The "User Agent" string is the string that identifies ThunderHawk's capabilities to web sites which you browse. Currently, it describes itself as Internet Explorer 5.0 compatible with the additional ability to use KHTML. If you find a web site that won't behave properly while using ThunderHawk, modifying the User Agent string may help.
The final button on the tool bar is the Windows logo button. Pressing it allows you to temporarily leave ThunderHawk, leaving it still running in the background. This is useful when you want to cut-and-paste from another application or otherwise work with other programs on your PPC, but eventually return to ThunderHawk for further browsing.
There is one last feature of ThunderHawk that I'd like to call your attention to: When you first start the program, ThunderHawk automatically switches to the ThunderHawk home page as shown below:
ThunderHawk Home Page
This "portal" page gives you access to some links to search engines and other information sources. It also provides you easy access to your ThunderHawk account. It's quite a useful feature for those of use who generally hop on to the internet to do a quick search or to check weather.
HELP SUPPORT
BitStream provides
a very brief user guide in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format
for download from their web site. There is also
a specifications sheet, also in PDF format, which
shows which web standards ThunderHawk can process. In
addition, you can request
e-mail technical support or
new features via web forms.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
ThunderHawk will run on
Windows CE 3.0, Pocket PC 2000, Pocket PC 2002, or
Windows Mobile 2003 operating systems. There are
different CAB files for some of these operating
systems so you need to be sure you download the
correct one. ThunderHawk runs on Windows Mobile
2003 SE machines but doesn't allow portrait
orientation and doesn't take advantage of
VGA-resolution displays.
The WM2003 version requires 0.94MB of storage memory to
install and 1.3MB of program memory to run.
BUGS AND WISHES
I didn't find any program malfunctions or errors.
I do have a few things I'd like to see changed in
future versions though: First, I'd like to be
able to install the program onto a File Store or
Storage Card. Doing so would free up Main Memory
for use by running programs.
Second, I'd like to see a smaller keyboard/tool bar so that
you can see more of the screen when you're entering
text. While I'm on the subject of the keyboard,
I'd also like to see "sliding" functionality added to
it. On the built-in keyboard, if you tap on a
letter and slide up, it will capitalize the letter for
you. That's a fair bit faster for me than
tapping on the Shift key and then tapping on the
letter.
Finally I'd like to see ThunderHawk take advantage of the VGA
resolution that's becoming available. If you can
get 800x600 onto a 320x240 display, you could get at
least 1024x800 on a 640x480 display. Granted,
the text would be small, but I'd like to have the
option at least.
PURCHASING
ThunderHawk is available for download
from BitStream's web site. The download will
function as a 30-day free trial version until you
buy a subscription to use the ThunderHawk proxy server.
The subscription is $49.95 per year or $5.95 per month
for unlimited use during that time.
PROS
- Speeds up web page downloads dramatically
- Formats PPC display to act like 800x600 resolution
CONS
- Installs only in main memory
- Doesn't take advantage of VGA resolution
- Uses too much screen for onscreen keyboard
- Requires a subscription
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
I'm of mixed minds on
ThunderHawk. It dramatically speeds up web page
loading. It does a great job of formatting web
pages to the small screen. However, the user
interface needs a little more work, particularly the
on-screen keyboard. While I'm not particularly
fond of subscription services, I realize that there's
no other way to do what ThunderHawk does without a
server doing the "heavy lifting." If you only
occasionally do internet browsing on your PPC, you'll
probably find the subscription cost prohibitive.
If you want to regularly use your PPC for browsing,
you'll find the subscription is actually quite
reasonable for the productivity you gain.
The bottom line is that ThunderHawk, version II is a
must-have for anyone who relies on their PPC for
serious web browsing. The speed and the
true-to-the-web display of ThunderHawk take Pocket web
browsing from a tolerable curiosity to a usable tool.
The user interface could use a bit more work, but it's
still quite usable as it is.
All screenshots in this review are taken using SOTI's Pocket Controller Pro
