This Browser’s Gonna BOLT You Off Your Feet
When it comes to browsers on Windows Mobile, the native Pocket Internet Explorer is commonly replaced by a plethora of choices. Names such Opera & Opera Mini’ the highly regarded Skyfire, the upcoming Iris and the not to be forgotten NetFront are just some of the more popular choices when it comes to replacing PIE. Soon, you will be able to add another browser to that mix: BOLT.
Introduction
I first came across the BOLT broswer a couple of weeks ago on XDA Developers where one of the members brought it up and was asking for opinions. Going to BOLT’s website did pique my interest with its potential but the lack of a referral code (which is required for its current closed beta trial) had me disappointed. Fast forward to today when a I stumbled across a referral code from SolSie.com (referral code: THBOLT) and you now have this short article which I can’t wait to share.
BOLT is a JAVA-based web browser so you’d think to pit it against the Opera Mini. However, it does have some rather interesting capabilities such as limited video streaming (which can be found in Skyfire) and split view. So how does the web browser itself handle?
Installation
Not really a breeze. After registration, I was emailed the link to download the file which was trouble-free. Not so after that. The file had no extension so I could not open it with the JAVA manager on the Touch HD. It was only after the jad extension (not .jar) was added that things got moving along again. Installation completed as expected from there.
First Impression
When you first run BOLT, it will ask if you want it to let it communicate with it’s server which looked rather dubious. Putting the URL that it requested into my desktop browser brought this page up:
So it seems that the developers of ThunderHawk, a really great subscription-based browser, are behind the BOLT browser as well. I couldn’t confirm this but considering that the browser was communicating with this server would suggest so. Not a bad start.
But from there on, I realized that the BOLT browser was maybe not meant for high resolution screens. The fonts were really small and even at the highest magnification in the settings, it didn’t really help.
There was a mouse cursor which would be great for those who do not have a touch screen device as you could then use that cursor to help you navigate a site.
Other than that, the interface reminded me a lot of Opera Mini, but with a blue theme. Unlike Opera Mini though, the settings on BOLT is rather clunky. From the Start page that you see on the left, the only setting made available to me was for font size. It was only after viewing a web page that the Settings option gets populated with choices like image quality and mobile view.
Navigation
So let’s get to the meat and potatoes of BOLT: the browsing aspect. It does load pages really quickly, thanks to server-side rendering that shrinks the amount of data needed to be sent to your phone. I was able to load the NY times in under 10 seconds.
What I find interesting is the split screen function which I have not seen on any other browser at the moment. With split screen, the lower quarter of the screen shows you the zoom in version on a section of the page while the rest of the screen above it shows a page overview. To me, this was a really nifty way of viewing web pages because you no longer had to zoom in and out and pan across pages to find what you were looking for.
Once you found where that content was, double tapping on it would remove that preview pane and zoom in. It is a rather different way of browsing but after a couple of minutes of using it, you do come to appreciate this fresh way of surfing on a mobile device.
The rest of the interface did not get in the way of navigation and on the Touch HD, this can be a really problem. It’s already a disappointment to me that everything is so small and I need to pull out the stylus due to the lack of a DPAD on the Touch HD. But when the 2 softkeys disappear when you are on a page (I guess it’s part of the design) and you don’t have buttons on the device corresponding to it, bringing them up can be a hassle. Numerous times I tried and I would be hitting the Phone or Home key on the HD, causing me to exit the application. I guess users with more buttons or at least a DPAD would not be facing such a problem.
Video Playback
The last thing that I wanted to cover was that of video playback. According to BOLT’s FAQ:
BOLT supports media streaming Web sites, such as www.youtube.com, video.google.com, video.yahoo.com, vids.myspace.com, espn.com, blip.tv, dailymotion.com, and metacafe.com.
Depending on your phone, BOLT may play the video directly in the browser window, or it may play it through your device’s default media player.
Heading over to YouTube.com to test, you get the screen that I did as well. However, once you press play, the video is actually downloaded via PIE and automatically played by Media Player. Once you are done viewing and choose to exit, it would automatically go back to BOLT. Not really the clean solution I was hoping for but it does work.
Conclusion
BOLT definitely has the potential to be a great browser. It does have a lot of bugs at the moment but considering it still is in closed beta, that’s forgivable. On top of that, I was using a WVGA resolution device which is not widely supported, and you put those 2 together, the experience is not exactly a walk in the park.
As a Windows Mobile user, BOLT definitely has it’s work cut out for it. There are numerous options out there which does a great job but I can see it carving out a nice niche for itself on dumbphones which do not have a great browser to begin with (not counting Opera Mini).
If you are interested to give BOLT a try, head on over here and use referral code THBOLT to get your download link. I am not sure how long this code will last so grab it while it’s hot.
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“So it seems that the developers of ThunderHawk, a really great subscription-based browser, are behind the BOLT browser as well. I couldn’t confirm this but considering that the browser was communicating with this server would suggest so. Not a bad start.”
Bitstream is the company that made Thunderhawk. Bitstream is the company that made BOLT. They’re both made by the same company, so DUH!!! they’re behind BOLT.
Did you also not see on their website (http://boltbrowser.com) that they say that BOLT is based off of the Thunderhawk browser!?: “Built on Bitstream’s ThunderHawk browsing technology, BOLT is the result of 5+ years experience developing mobile browsers…”
Do your research before you publish something.
Just some other thoughts. BOLT was clearly not designed for a phone that costs hundreds of dollars, and anyone willing to pay that much shouldn’t be above paying for a high-quality browser. There are other Windows Mobile phones for which BOLT might be a better match, such as the Blackjack (or Blackjack II) which does not have a touchscreen and has two soft keys for accessing the corresponding buttons within BOLT, but even then Skyfire is a better option. BOLT was simply not made for Windows Mobile devices and there should be no notion that it should compete with the more powerful browsers that can be used on Windows Mobile, especially since Internet Explorer Mobile 6 includes Flash support, which is pretty far above the capabilities of any Java-based browser.
Interesting
I am hoping browsers get better. I keep up grading my PDA’s hoping more resources improve its performance. A better browser the better for me. Especially on my Nokia N95 (I know old now) but it works for me.
Well I have been testing this out for about a week now, and find it a little buggy, but it is fast. Not sure if I am going to make this a solid add for me quite yet. Al
Sweet, gotta check this out. Hopefully faster than Opera on my phone atm. I
youtube screen doesnt fit properly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i really need youtube !
my samsung jets media player fails to stream youtube!
bolt is the only alternative i can look up to
pls help me wid da prob!
all works well itz loads plays!
but da upper half is behind the players frame n not visible!
HEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP