Mobile Surfing

It's been a while since our last update, partly because we've not been out and about lately, partly because I was struck down with man-flu last week and partly because I've been surfing the world wide web on my mobile.

Last month I upgraded my mobile package with Three to include web surfing, up to a gigabyte of internet browsing for a an extra fiver a month seems like a pretty good deal. I've been browsing away on my little K800i and have hardly switched the computer on at all over the last few weeks.

The experience of navigating the web on a mobile has actually been better than I expected, I can now post to Blogger via Gmail, do quick updates in the sidebar using Twitter Mobile and of course check out my usual haunts - every weather page known to man!

It's not a breeze though and sometimes downright annoying! The handsets own browser is limited and to view non mobile pages you have to go through either Google's or Yahoo's mobile converter thingy which by the time it's stripped out non mobile compliant stuff, there ain't much left to look at. The built in rss reader wouldn't work with many feeds and now doesn't work at all.

I downloaded Opera Mini which is much better at rendering web pages and is a whole lot faster too. The included rss reader is great and I use that alot as using the mobile version of Google Reader is royal pain in the butt.

One thing that is missing from Opera Mini 3.1 is the ability to upload pictures, if you try to do that it just starts the camera which isn't any good if you want to load a picture you've already taken. For loading pictures I have to switch back to the built in browser and then switch back again to view them!

There is a new version of Opera Mini coming out soon, I've tried version 4 but it's still in Beta and there is no picture uploading or rss reader as yet so I'll hold off that one until the full version is released, which hopefully won't be too long.

I'm also finding that any applications I try to download now just report as invalid, I've tried the Opera Beta again and that now won't install. It's not for the feint hearted this mobile surfing lark but it does seem to be getting better and while I still have to use the PC for certain tasks, it won't be too long before the mobile will be able to handle pretty much everything.

I'm on holiday this week so I'll have plenty of opportunity to explore without Debbie's current favourite catch phrase, "will you put that bloody phone down", ringing in my ear...

Paul