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Opera Software Brings Its Browser to Mobile Phones
13Echo writes "Now this is cool! Opera Software has presented a technology today that solves the problems of web pages on small screens. They have created a small-screen HTML rendering technique that slightly reformats web pages to fit within the bounds of small displays. Some screenshots can be found here along with extra details as to how they do it. A full press release can be found here. As a result, horizontal scrollbars are not needed, and it even features zooming abilities for magnifying web pages."
ok, nice!
The next thing we need is phones with slightly bigger screens.
Small is beautiful, but I like it practical as well.
Look at the first mobile phones (GSM style). They were thicker. That is not good. But they were broader than the current models without that ever being a problem.
Why not go back to the slightly larger models and put a bigger screen in them?
120 chars is not enough!
mmmmmm forced useability.
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thank god allmighty for tities and beer
If the authors of the copyrighted (note spelling) work didn't want the appearance "changed" from some initial appearance, they shouldn't have used HTML in the first place.
HTML is just text and markup - there is no appearance until it's rendered in a user agent, and one of the basic rules of the web used to be that the rendering was 100% up to the user agent: ALT-attribute if you cannot render images and all that.
To complain that some content is transformed before display on a device is like complaining that you lose the colors if you use a B&W photo copier with a colored book.
By its nature, how HTML is rendered is up to the browser. An HTML document doesn't have a set "appearance". Or are you saying that opening a website in a text-only browser is some kind of copyright violation?
I don't think ad-filtering proxies have ever been found to be illegal, anyway.
I personally find no need to have a web browser built into my phone (or for that matter, I have no use for a phone that CAN have a web browser built in).
I have similar feelings and a simple solution for us both:
Don't buy one!
Just because you don't like the idea doesn't mean technology should stop right then and there. Sheesh.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
It's called travelling. You make it sound like you've never been more than 15 minutes away from home. :)
If you're out in the middle of nowhere on a road that's not even on the map what do you do?
a)Wander around aimlessly in hopes of making it back to the main roads?
b)Call someone who knows the area better than you do?
c)Download a better map from the web?
d)Profit!?
I'd love to have a web enabled phone thingy. It's much less clunky than a laptop, and it will soon be affordable to everyone. Most people nowadays fail to realize the potential of the web, seeing it as some sort of frivolous entertainment thing that you could do well without. The web is an extension of your limited memory. With omnipresent web access and well developed google skills you effectively know *everything*, it's just not on your brain yet. Computers (and the web), as foretold by Vannevar Bush, are increasingly becoming an indispensable expansion of your brain. Learn how to live with it, and you'll have a great advantage over those who don't.
If enough people start surfing the net from small devices, web logs will show that and the web designers will have to listen.
Other than that, this is the way to go. We don't need yet one more document format for small devices. Better use HTML/XHTML and adapt the rendering to the device you are using ...