Kyle Barrow <kyle@pukupi.com>, 2007-01-10 14:36 +0900:
> I'm using a WebKit browser on my E61 and it renders pages beautifully
> but the zoom feature is a poor way of navigating wide pages on a
> small screen
Not to split hairs, but that zoom feature isn't part of WebKit.
It's a propietary part of the S60 browser UI that Nokia built
around the WebKit core.
Anyway, for most use cases, I also personally prefer the
small-screen rendering approach that Opera uses. Particulary when
reading a lot of text. When talking about their Mini-Map feature,
I have heard speakers from Nokia cite a usability study showing
that users prefer the Mini-Map approach, but I've not seen the
details of the study and don't know if its public (if anybody on
the list knows if they're available, I'd sure like to see it).
> and it ignores the handheld CSS media type defeating the
> W3C approved method for content differentiation.
I guess that's because Nokia chose the Mini-Map approach in order
to present pages in roughly the same layout as what you'd get when
viewing the pages from a desktop browser (@media screen instead of
@media handheld). But it does seem like they should at least
provide uses with the option of viewing it with the handheld
stylesheet applied, if they so desire. Maybe they will end up
doing that at some point.
Anyway, just because it's currently the case in the S60 browser
doesn't mean it'll be the case with other mobile browsers built on
WebKit. WebKit itself has the support. The S60 browser's just not
exposing/implementing that support.
> From the demo, the Safari iPhone browser looks to be the same, with
> no small screen rendering or media switching as found in Opera.
Well, I guess it's because Apple has decided to follow the same
approach as the S60 -- which is to display the @screen layout of
the page, and provide capabilities to zoom in and out. There are
some that would argue having the zoom capability obviates the need
for a handheld stylesheet. Though I wouldn't -- I think the
choice of whether to get a handheld view (if the content provider
has created a stylsheets for one) should be left up to users.
> I strongly suspect Apple didn't originally want to announce the
> iPhone this early but was pretty much forced to with the hysteria
> during the last couple of months. This would explain the lack of FCC
> approval, an as yet unsigned agreement with Cisco for the iPhone
> trademark, the June delivery date, and all those missing features.
I guess that sounds possible.
--Mike
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Received on Wed Jan 10 09:54:01 2007