Web pages would load a lot faster if you didn’t have to deal with the pictures and other graphics, or Javascript and other technologies. That might not be a big problem when you’re surfing the web on a desktop computer with a fast internet connection. But on a mobile device with a slow connection (or a monthly cap on how much data you can use), sometimes it might be nice if you could just view the text on a website.

That’s exactly what TextOnly does. It’s a free web browser for Android that only shows you the viewable text on a website. This helps web pages to load very, very quickly.

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Nothing eases the transition from desktop to mobile quite like having easy access to your desktop Web browsing profile. Whether you’re using Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, or Opera, there’s usually a way to keep handy bits like your favorites synced up between your mobile device and your desktop. Firefox, of course, syncs neatly with its diminutive mobile sibling and with the Firefox Home app on iOS.

Opera Mobile and Mini for Androis and iOS play nice with the company’s desktop browser, too — and now there’s a way to access your Opera data in the cloud on Windows Phone 7. Just download Opera Link for WP7. It’s an unofficial app, but it’s able to pull down your Speed Dial pages, bookmarks, and notes for quick on-the-go access. There’s no built-in browser, unfortunately — links will pop open in a new Internet Explorer window instead.

While an official browser from the crew in Oslo would be most welcome on WP7 (particularly while we’re waiting for Mango to arrive with a more up-to-date Internet Explorer), Opera Link for WP7 will do just fine for those of you who simply don’t want to recreate all your Opera bookmarks on your Windows Phone. Find it in the Marketplace, or scan the Tag after the break.

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Maxthon has posted an updated version of its Android Web browser over at the xda-developer forums. The default Maxthon themes have been slightly recolored, but it’s below the surface that the most important change has been made.

Maxthon now supports pinch-to-zoom, which was one of the few critical pieces of functionality the browser was missing. The browser’s rendering and synchronization engines have gotten a speed boost, its interface has been polished and refined, and the address bar now offers suggestions as you type.

If you haven’t tried out Maxthon yet on your Android device, it’s definitely worth a download — it’s speedy and packed with useful features (including an RSS reader). You can find the stable version in the Android Market, or grab the updated .APK from Maxthon’s post on xda-developers.

via xda-developers

While tabs are pretty much standard on desktop web browsers, most mobile web browsers come without support for browser tabs since they take up precious pixels on tiny smartphone screens. But just because the default iOS, Android or webOS browsers don’t support tabs doesn’t mean you can’t find alternate browser that support them if you like. Unfortunately for webOS users, there hasn’t really been a good tabbed web browser available for HP and Palm phones… until now.

Complete Browser is a new browser available for download from the Palm App Catalog. The folks at PreCentral report that not only does it put tabs at the top of your screen to make switching between open browser windows quicker, but it also supports anonymous browsing — something else that’s absent from the default browser. This lets you surf the web without saving any cookies or other data to your phone. It can come in handy if you’re… ummm… shopping for a spouse’s birthday present which you want to keep a secret. I suppose there may be other uses for a porn private browsing mode, but I can’t think of any at the moment.

The $0.99 app also makes it easier to access some browser functions such as the ability to clear cookies or cache files. But some users have reported that it’s tough to click on some links in the browser and that the user interface doesn’t really seem to be optimized for webOS, due to lack of support for keyboard shortcuts or gestures.

The Windows Phone 7 web browser is alright… but have you ever found yourself wishing your mobile web browser was in… 3D? Yeah, me neither. But the folks at SurfCube have developed a 3D web browser for Windows Phone 7 anyway.

It’s not 3D in the sense that it will convert 2-dimensional images and web pages into stereoscopic images. Instead, the user interface is modeled after a 3D cube. When you load a new web page, the page tilts so that you can see new content appearing on the bottom of the cube and view a list of your favorite sites at the top. Scrolling up will also rotate the cube, allowing you to add the current page to your favorites.

From the main browser page you can swipe left to right to open your history window, or swipe right to left to open the settings. The visual effect is the same in all instances, making it look sort of like each new window was hiding on another side of the cube. You can also enable flick detection to flip through various parts of the cube by jerking your phone up, down, left, or right.

The app runs $1.99 from the Windows Phone Marketplace.

via Engadget

Mozilla has uploaded the latest beta version of Firefox Mobile to the Android Market, making it much easier to download and install the mobile web browser. If you’ve been testing earlier builds of the browser, Mozilla recommends uninstalling them before installing the new version from the Market.

Firefox 4 beta for Android also adds better support for Android keyboards, support for uploading files through the browser, new Android-style menus, a save as PDF, function, and some bug fixes. Mozilla has added copy and paste functionality to the URL bar. It’s also easier to set up Firefox Sync to synchronize your bookmarks, open tabs, and other data with the desktop version of Firefox.

You can read about other changes in the release notes.

Nokia recently took over development of the Symbian platform used by most of the company’s phones, and it looks like the company has plans to step up the pace quite a bit in 2011. Instead of launching one major update every year or two, Computerworld reports that Nokia plans to offer 4 or 5 updates throughout 2011.

The first will bring more than 50 tweaks, including a new design for the web browser, reportedly making it “more intuitive” to use. That update is due in th efirst quarter of 2011. Later in the year, Nokia plans to give the entire Symbian user interface an overhaul, as well as improve the software update experience.

Symbian doesn’t get a lot of attention these days, especially in the US. But it’s still the global leader in the smartphone space. Computerworld reports that nearly 30 million Symbian phones were sold during the third quarter of 2010. But with Google Android’s market share growing at a ridiculous rate, it’s not clear how long Symbian will be able to hold onto that lead — unless Nokia manages to build some pretty serious excitement over the updates it has in store for the OS.

via Engadget

If you upgrade an iPad to iOS 4.2 this week you’ll notice the difference right away: The software update adds support for multitasking, Game Center, icon folders and much more. But most of those features were already available to iPhone and iPod touch users with iOS 4.1. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any goodies packed into iOS 4.2 for handheld users though. In addition to the much-hyped support for AirPlay media streaming and AirPrint connections with internet-enabled printers, there are a number of other under-the-hood changes.

One of those features is accelerometer and gyroscope support for the mobile Safari web browser. That might seem like a small thing, but ultimately it could lead to the development of third party web apps which can act more like native apps since they can tap into your phone’s hardware.

Developer Maximiliano Firtman put together a very simple demo which lets you move a ball across a screen by tilting your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. You can check out the demo at ad.ag/wjmtgt. I tried it with my iPod touch and it worked perfectly. When I visited the same page with my Google Nexus One browser, I got an error message saying my browser wasn’t supported.

If you don’t happen to have an iOS 4.2 device handy, you can check out Firtman’s video demo after the break.

via SlashGear

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