WebKit, which forms the basis of browsers inside Nokia’s S60 phones and Apple’s popular iPhone is finally making its Windows Mobile debut, thanks to Toronto-based start-up, Torch Mobile. The new Windows Mobile browser is called Iris Browser. (It is also available on the Qt and Qtopica platforms.) You can download and try it for yourself on their website. (You can download directly on your device by clicking here.) Torch’s president George Staikos is a key contributor to the WebKit project. I plan to try it out later today, especially if I can find a Windows Mobile device. (From the Archives: The Amazing Rise of WebKit Mobile.)
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5:12 AM PT
[...] WebKit [...]
6 comments so far
7:51 AM PT
Not just on S60 or iPhone… Apple’s Safari is also using WebKit on the desktops…. And the last nightly build that they released was some 3x faster than old Safari and 2x times faster than Firefox!! Webkit is surely beginning to rock…
8:03 AM PT
Yes you are right about that. It is pretty good and I have been enjoying it a lot. I just wanted to focus entirely on mobile only for the sake of this post.
8:40 AM PT
Wonderful, they force you to register to download the software. Welcome to 1999.
They really don’t do any form checking, so inputting “spam” as the name and “spam@spam.com” works just fine. They probably won’t like me posting this, but the direct download to the current version: (link)
Funny thing is, I don’t even use Windows Mobile; I just find these stupid forms that are forced on users irritating.
11:16 AM PT
Zac, sorry you feel that way. As this is an early preview release of the Iris Browser, we’re keen to gauge the level of interest we’re getting and get some idea of who is downloading it.
We deliberately chose not to put any kind of complex registration process in place so that – as you pointed out – if people want to remain anonymous by entering junk info in the form, for whatever reason, they’re free to do so.
For those people who really like the Iris Browser, we hope that they would be willing to give us their real contact details. Support is a whole lot more personal when you have a real person to deal with. We will always respect the privacy of anyone who gives us their email address, of course.
– George Staikos, President, Torch Mobile
12:20 PM PT
@Zac,
Excellent. Saving people time. I love it. I am going to link to the direct download. Thanks for helping out.
7:13 PM PT
I’m a bit disappointed, so hopefully I’m missing something. I was expecting controls and features similar to Opera Mini, but there doesn’t appear to be any decent zoom controls or rendering for a touch screen device. I have an HTC Touch, and the rendering and scrolling isn’t any better than IE Mobile.
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