Windows Phone Thoughts: Web Browsing Made Easy (Or At Least Easier): MultiIE v3.0 Reviewed

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Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Web Browsing Made Easy (Or At Least Easier): MultiIE v3.0 Reviewed

Posted by Doug Rausch in "SOFTWARE" @ 10:30 AM


Mega-Options
If you didn’t like the way MultiIE implemented a particular feature there’s a pretty good chance you can change it through the options menu. One of the things I look for in an application is the amount of usability prior to changing any options, just how fast can I get to work. MultiIE scores big here, plenty of customization but the defaults get you a long ways.


Figure 15: Page options.

Here you can set things like what you want to see when you open a new blank window, what application you want to use to view page source with, and some common registry setting hacks such as how you want PIE to be identified to Web servers, enabling ClearType, and showing JavaScript errors.

One feature I found that I really used in MultiIE was the ability to load a new page in the background. I could tap & hold on a link, tell it to open the new window in the background and I could go on reading the foreground page while my new selection was loaded. MultiIE allows you to specify how you want to be notified when the background page is loaded. Here you can tell it to play a particular sound or to bring the window forward once it’s loaded.


Figure 16: Tab and Address settings.

Here you can specify how many window tabs you want at the bottom of the screen, but more importantly if you didn’t like the URL builder choices or the go button menu shortcuts here’s your chance to modify them.


Figure 17: Screen options.

Lots of ways to specify what you want to see on your screen for controls and what you want to hide in exchange for more real estate.


Figure 18: Configure Hardware buttons.

MultiIE supports mapping of your hardware buttons for immediate access to program functions.


Figure 19: Preset configuration.

Easy to update your preset Web sites and where you have access to them.

Conclusion
I find a lot to like about this program and not much to hate, or even dislike. My Web browsing sessions seem more productive as I can get where I’m trying to go faster, I can navigate the information easier, and capture what I need and move on. I’d like to see built-in screen reformatting rather than having to go through a service like Skweezer, but that’s not a knock on the current program as much as a wish list item for the future.

This is the second program I’ve looked at that expands on the features of PIE (PIEPlus was the first) and both offer capabilities that I’d like to keep, unfortunately you can’t use them both at the same time as they both use the same hook into PIE. I’d like to see more programs like this that expand on the basic capabilities of the software I already have loaded rather than have to add complete new applications. Granted sometimes the supplied software isn’t even worth expanding, but as long as it’s sitting in ROM why not use it (or let me uninstall it and use the space).[b][/b]

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