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TIPS to search 1
billion Web pages fast!
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Lindsay Pereira
Among the many reasons WAP is still not popular - at least in India -- is that it fails to compare, in any way, with the Internet. Where the latter has colour, interactivity, and images, the former offers nothing but incessant screens of boring text, site peepholes, and tiny windows.
All of that is about to change though, if Bitstream has its way. The change ought to come with the launch of its new ThunderHawk browser.
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Get this. ThunderHawk users can say goodbye to the stripped-down versions of the Internet they've had to grow accustomed to. What they will receive is the Internet, the way you and I see it on our monitors. This is possible thanks to Bitstream servers that will compress sites into files small enough to be downloaded to high-end handheld devices with colour displays.
One of the reasons for this success is that, unlike current wireless devices, ThunderHawk doesn't use WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) or cHTML (Compact HyperText Markup Language). Therefore, sites simply won't need to build separate pages for desktops and wireless communication. What users get are real Web pages, full text legibility, and images, all without excessive scrolling.
Manufacturers of wireless PDAs and cell phones can also integrate the
browser directly into their devices. A renowned developer of font technology, Bitstream claims to be able to display full pages on small colour LCD screens (320 x 240) while maintaining legibility. Added advantages include a thin client code, ease of operation, and a small footprint that's less than 100 KB.
The company has already filed 12 preliminary patent applications for its new technology. Can't blame them. Sitting on a gold mine, wouldn't you?
Additional resources on
Wireless Browsers.
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