English Version of Xiino Coming June 1

Posted By: Ed Wednesday, May 15, 2002 1:14:15 PM

ILINX, Inc. has announced that an English version of Xiino will be available June 1. This is a web browser that has been available in Japanese for a long time. Many users have been eagerly awaiting its release in English because it offers Javascript support. It also supports 128-bit SSL encryption, color, tables, cookies, and frames. Xiino will cost $25.

Xiino is the replacement for Palmscape, which will no longer be available after today. Registered Palmscape users can upgrade for $15.

Xiino has the ability to download Palm apps (PRC files) and Zip files containing programs or data and can unzip and install them.

It comes with Xiino Cruiser, a Windows based app used for creating “Cruiser” files. Web pages built or stored on a PC are converted to Cruiser files and can be browsed by Xiino. These can be stored on external memory cards.

It makes use of a proxy server called the Xiino DataServer. This handles many complex processes for the browser client and makes data transfer more efficient. It can modify its compression method based on of the specific model of handheld.

For example, when accessing the Web from a handheld with a monochrome screen, the color images on a Web page are converted to monochrome, greatly reducing the amount of data transferred.

All images are reduced to a quarter their original size. In addition, Xiino DataServer removes tags and features not supported by the application.

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Why 'WebSafe' colour conversion ?

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2002 1:47:24 PM #

According to their site, Xiino does convertion of every picture into websafe, 256 colour palette - why don't include the ability to decide, if user wants 16-bit pictures (but with way better quality) and slower download ? I hope it supports high resolution palms, like CLIE, CLIE NR series and even Handera...
Overall sounds great, can't wait to check it for myself...

RE: Why 'WebSafe' colour conversion ?

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2002 2:07:56 PM #

I'm guessing that option will be there in the next version or the one after. What I'm worried about, and maybe they are too, is how their proxy server or servers will respond to the increase in traffic when word gets out that there's an English-language browser out there that fully supports javascript. More bandwidth going to you is more bandwidth going through their server, unless I misunderstand the process here.

That said, I'm definitely going to be checking this puppy out.

Dan

RE: Why 'WebSafe' colour conversion ?

Coyote67 @ 5/15/2002 7:48:51 PM #

You know I'm kinda tired of browsing through other's proxies. I'd really like to see them release the proxy server too. Would be very easy for me to run the server on my win2k box and just connect to it. It would solve traffice problems. Imagine a community of proxies, would be great. You could put in like 5 different proxy servers, and before you go online you could ping each of them and the browser would use the one with the best response time. Bah, no one listens to me anyway. Delete above post.

---------------------------------------
When you have a Clie shoved up your mouth, you can only talk in vowels.

RE: Why 'WebSafe' colour conversion ?

drw @ 5/15/2002 10:41:40 PM #

How about peer to peer network of g3 smartphones? Pretty soon cancer society supercomputer will be calling your smartphone when you sleep to utilize spare processor cycles to find a cure for cancer. :-)

David in Pflugerville, TX

RE: Why 'WebSafe' colour conversion ?

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2002 11:54:48 PM #

> You know I'm kinda tired of browsing through other's
> proxies. I'd really like to see them release the
> proxy server too.

But then they'd NEVER be able to charge you for browser service! You DO realize that that's what's planned here, right?

Personally, I'd like to see somebody tweak Plucker so that it does live lookups via proxy. That's Open Source, at least.

English vs. Japanese Versions?

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2002 2:21:11 PM #

Although Xiino looks good (I have been testing the beta for a few weeks), I am confused by the differences between the soon to be released English version and the new Japanese (v2.0) version. The latter appears to have quite a few more features. Given, I am basing this solely off of the info on their website.

$25? Outrageous!

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2002 6:34:28 PM #

$25 is about the same price for black market babies.

RE: $25? Outrageous!

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2002 6:39:43 PM #

I'm sure your mother didn't pay that much for you...

RE: $25? Outrageous!

TDS Computer @ 5/16/2002 1:23:44 AM #

//* Begin Sarcasm

Wow, can I hire you? It appears that you work for free! I love people who do not expect to be reimbursed for their hard work!

//* End Sarcasm

Visit us at www.tdscomputer.com

RE: $25? Outrageous!

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/16/2002 2:18:19 PM #

I'll happily pay $25 if it's good. Free isn't always free.

I have to go now. I need to download the latest IE patch to this machine and reboot. No joke!

hotmail.com webmail

drw @ 5/15/2002 10:35:23 PM #

I've tried numerous browsers to access hotmail from my qcp6035 smartphone. None work. Wonder if this browser will work.

David in Pflugerville, TX

RE: hotmail.com webmail

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2002 11:57:41 PM #

Try Pocket Explorer.

...Which Microsoft (oddly enough) hasen't released for the palm platform yet.

Seriously, Hotmail has had problems with several non-IE browsers - The more conspiracy-minded assume that this is part of some dastardly monopoly-plot on the part of Microsoft - I think it's just as likely to be poor programming practices - Either way it's unlikely to change soon.

I'd suggest migrating to a POP3-based solution, or at least going with a free Email site that actually believes that non-IE browsers exsist.

RE: hotmail.com webmail

TDS Computer @ 5/16/2002 1:18:00 AM #

No problem. You can access hotmail through Eudora, AvantGo or Blazer. All you have to do is store your Username and password in the URL. Use this as a template. I find Eudora works the best.

"http://lc1.law13.hotmail.passport.com/cgi-bin/dologin?
login=<Your Username here>&passwd=<your password here>"

Of course, don't put the angle brackets around the username and password. This works great in all of the PalmOS Browsers I have found.
Doug

Visit us at www.tdscomputer.com

RE: hotmail.com webmail

Solo @ 5/16/2002 10:02:50 AM #

Or simply use www.gopherking.com like I do. Works great and it's really not expensive.

By the way, you'd better believe the conspiracy theory when M$ is concerned... Netscape, Palm, Stacker and tens of others didn't believed it neither.

BTW I'm in no way related to the Gopherking company, just a happy customer.

Solo

High-Res?

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/16/2002 1:17:27 AM #

Isn't this the browser that supports high-res? Is the English version not high-res?

Any word on Palm's browser?

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/16/2002 11:29:22 AM #

Does anyone know what features Palm's new browser will have, and if/when it will be released?

I'm using a demo of Blazer right now which works quite nicely, but I'd like to see what else is out there before I buy.

My setup is a Palm m515 with a bluetooth card and an Ericsson T39m.

RE: Any word on Palm's browser?

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/17/2002 12:30:17 AM #

When I last saw it there was no javascript support, no hi-res... it was pretty lame. There is no point them releasing something that is substandard compared to what already exists on the market!