DR800 web browsing and surfing is possible on DR800SG

[OrcaBlue]

Originally Posted by badbob001

This is the url for google's mobile search page, which water downs the content for speed and small displays. It may make things speedier:
http://www.google.com/gwt/n

What does the flipbar do on a webpage? I'm guessing left/right moves between links and long-left/right is page up/down.

Exactly that what the flipbar does. It jumps from one link to the next. Thanks for reminder on google's mobile page.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by OrcaBlue

Exactly that what the flipbar does. It jumps from one link to the next. Thanks for reminder on google's mobile page.

It is kind of weird seeing technology taking steps forwards *and* back at the same time. With many phones using webkit browsers that support the original layout, it's easy to forget about, web-mobilizing proxies, web pages with mobile versions (is there one for this site?), or even WAP. I would not be surprised if the web slowness on the dr800 is due to a serial-port 115K speed connection to the wireless modem. Also suspect is the 400MHz CPU and 128MB of ram, which I had seven years ago in my iPaq (not to be confused with iPad )

[penartur]

I'm using mobile versions of some sites even on my PC with broadband internet, just because sometimes mobile versions more useable than "desktop" versions with banners etc here and there

[OrcaBlue]

When I used Mobile Google search page and searched for Los Angeles Times. It proivided me the LA Times but formated for mobile device as well. Yes, I can heard the DR800 trashing when it try to download page with lots of graphics.

[cmdahler]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Would you rather they had pushed the DR800 back even further just to get a dictionary with the first firmware? I'm sure you would have complained about that even more. Then again, I'm sure no matter what they do, you're going to find a way to complain about it.

Of course, for $400 I would have rathered that they included it fully functioning from the get-go. It seems Sony and Apple have basic functionalities like dictionaries figured out from the start. I guess that's too hard for your beloved company to manage after months of development? Comes from spending too many lunch breaks at the local "coffee house" in Amsterdam, I suppose. I mean, this is a company that designs a book reader that cannot go directly to a specific page in a book!

You're right, I probably would have bitched about it because I'm sure they would have managed to completely dick it up somehow. The dictionary function probably would have caused a 50% battery drain in an hour or something like that, and a couple of years later they probably would have gotten around to fixing it in the iRex way: put out a firmware update that deletes the capability entirely!

I'm sure you would have managed to find a way to turn that into a positive, though (wow, that dictionary is SOOO powerful it must be really CPU intensive, isn't that great! But really, they've promised to fix it, and I'm sure that firmware update is right around the corner!).

Anyway, back to the Wikipedia-on-reader concept. That right there is so interesting it might actually make the reader worth the money to buy. I don't think a Wiki article would be very readable on my 505, but the 8" screen would be quite nice.

[cmdahler]

Originally Posted by Mr. X

I'm working on porting http://users.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/~tt...iaOffline.html to run on the DR, but it requires building python and php and I'm not sure how it'll run in the limited amount of memory we have. Should clock in with a couple spare gigs on an 8GB card.

Yes, I looked at that page linked from the Wikipedia database site. I think this is the same sort of programming some guy used to put Wikipedia offline on the iPhone. The bz7 database is 5.6 GB, so if the DR800 will support a 8 or 16 GB SD card, this should work just fine.

The main problem, if this coding is anything like the iPhone version, is search and redirects. I don't think the 5.6GB tarball has anything except article text and titles. I don't think redirects work because Wikipedia maintains a separate database for redirects. I don't know if this coding on your linked page takes that into account. You might want to look into that, since that was just about the most annoying thing about the iPhone offline version: without redirects, you had to know exactly how the article was titled before searching for it or a search would fail.

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

The main problem, if this coding is anything like the iPhone version, is search and redirects.

Yeah, unlike a number of the offline wikipedia programs this one builds a search index with xapian so you can do approximate searches and get useful results. intra-wiki links work, links to outside unsure (indications are that the browser connects the modem when needed so maybe). I'm going to start by building wictionary since its a considerably smaller file to work with.

[cmdahler]

Originally Posted by Mr. X

Yeah, unlike a number of the offline wikipedia programs this one builds a search index with xapian so you can do approximate searches and get useful results. intra-wiki links work, links to outside unsure (indications are that the browser connects the modem when needed so maybe). I'm going to start by building wictionary since its a considerably smaller file to work with.

Cool.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

Of course, for $400 I would have rathered that they included it fully functioning from the get-go.

So you'd be happier if it wasn't available for sale until April?

Anyway, back to the Wikipedia-on-reader concept. That right there is so interesting it might actually make the reader worth the money to buy. I don't think a Wiki article would be very readable on my 505, but the 8" screen would be quite nice.

People have already gotten wikipedia working on the iLiad and (I think) DR1000. I would start looking at those threads. Should be relatively compatible with the DR800 as well.

[cmdahler]

Originally Posted by Mr. X

intra-wiki links work,

One other point (keep in mind all I have to go on is my previous experience with the iPhone offline reader): the intra-wiki links on that offline reader often failed as well because the links themselves required the redirect database to function properly. Is that something that you've solved with your code?

[MobileTechReview]

Now this is really interesting. When I first got the reader and reviewed it several weeks ago I tried hyperlinks embedded in ePUBs but never though to try an HTML file. I just made my own page of links and loaded it onto the reader and it works perfectly. Even with 70% signal strength on EV-DO it doesn't load that fast but the webkit browser certainly renders pages much, much better than the Kindle. Nice find!

[OrcaBlue]

Originally Posted by Mr. X

Yeah, unlike a number of the offline wikipedia programs this one builds a search index with xapian so you can do approximate searches and get useful results. intra-wiki links work, links to outside unsure (indications are that the browser connects the modem when needed so maybe). I'm going to start by building wictionary since its a considerably smaller file to work with.

Wictionary would be great. Thanks!!!

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by badbob001

With many phones using webkit browsers that support the original layout, it's easy to forget about, web-mobilizing proxies, web pages with mobile versions (is there one for this site?), or even WAP.

www.mobileread.mobi

[electrotype]

(deleted)

[cmichaelis]

Internet access has been blocked with the new 2.0 firmware.

I have an HTML page created with links to some book sites, after I upgraded to 2.0 when I click on a clink I get this message "This device does not support opening internet links: cannot open http://....."

Hopefully someone can port a simple web browser for this device, it was great to be able to go to mobileread to download ebooks when away from the PC.