I can't remember how I got to finding this, but I found the Mozilla project aimed at Windows-based mobile devices. The project is called minimo. It is based on the same rendering engine that Firefox uses, and so I had to try it! Version 0.2 was recently released, so I downloaded and installed it on my trusty PDA phone, an Orange SPV M600. With the built-in WiFi, testing net browsing is very easy, and here are the results.

Installation and Home Page

Installation is very easy and uneventful - you download an installer, connect up your device, start the installer and follow the post-synch installation instructions on the handheld. This creates an icon in the Programs list. Click that, and the minimo splash screen starts up with a progress bar - yes it's quite a large program.

minimo splash screen minimo home page

The default home page of minimo is called homebase. It's quite a tidy and neatly arranged area. At the very top, there is a URL address entry bar with a Google search bar immediately underneath. Below is a list of mobile-friendly services, such as the del.icio.us mobile RSS feed, weather, and Google maps. As you browse, your history gets added to this page, a very cool feature, and certainly a time-saver.

Browsing and Tabs

This is the coolest feature of minimo: built-in tabbed browsing support. When I read about this, my gut reaction was that the screen is too small to have more than one tab. Well, let me tell you that this was a very wrong assumption. The tabs are somehow nicely squeezed in, and make mobile web browsing a true pleasure. I was able to actually browse for an hour or so without feeling cramped.

The other neat thing about minimo is how it managed to display websites in a way that minimized horizontal scrolling. To take two examples close to heart, I took screen shots of minimo displaying eKstreme.com's home page, the Socializer, and OSNews. Very nice and tidy, but it also depends a lot on the underlying HTML; for example, OSNews has a mobile-friendly version that's automtically served to handhelds. For stubborn sites, there is a panning button in the toolbar at the bottom that allows you to use the stylus to pan around the web page. Again, a great feature for small screens, and built right into the interface. Major kudos.

minimo displaying eKstreme.comthe Socializer in minimo OSNews in minimo

Menus and Settings

The minimo interface is very menu driven. If you tap and hold on an empty bit of the page, you get a context menu. Tapping and holding a tab will show the tabs menu. Further, there is a "..." button on the toolbar that displays the global menu bar. Everything in it is straightforward, so I'll just explore the Preferences menu a bit more.

The Preferences are arranged in five categories symbolized by five colored buttons. The settings are easy to understand and change, and once done, just tap the save button. There is one feature worth mentioning though: the SSR. It took me a while to figure out what that means, but eventually, the minimo FAQ explained it best:

What is SSR and how do I use it?

This question has come up several times. SSR adjusts the look and feel of a page via CSS. SSR attempts to adjust image sizes, fonts, and layouts to maximize page space. SSR also attempts to eliminate side scrolling. To use SSR simply click the blue globe and choose SSR. This will attempt to adjust the layout of the page to better fit on your screen.

minimo settingsminimo menu

Bugs

Having said all this, there are a few bugs still be ironed out:

• When I first ran minimo, it complained of low memory. Problem is, that was the last peep I heard: the whole device crashed. The only way to recover was to remove the battery. However, that was the only crash I saw from it, so perhaps it was a fluke.
• As you can see from all the screenshots, the text entry bar that shows up by default in Windows Mobile is not visible. It's supposed to be at the bottom of the screen, but somehow, minimo pushes it off or hides it. This means that you cannot change the text entry method once minimo started. Another bug: minimo doesn't work with the Transcriber entry method. Instead of getting your scribbles showing up on the screen and interpreted as text, minimo interprets all screen taps as interactions with the displayed web page. This means you'll be randomly clicking links or even displaying the context menu. This is the most serious bug I've found.
• Quitting doesn't quit. More specifically, clicking the 'x' button at the top right doesn't close minimo. To quit, you need to click the '...' menu button in the toolbar and choose Quit. That works a treat.
• Gmail has a mobile-friendly interface that works really well in mobile Internet Explorer. However, in minimo, I got an XML error message.
• Finally, more of a feature request than a bug: I don't like Google, preferring to use Yahoo! most of the time. I really would like to have a Yahoo! search option built in, especially on Homebase (the home page). Yahoo has a mobile-friendly search, so it shouldn't be too hard to build it in.

Concluding Thoughts

I was very impressed with minimo. Actually, using minimo showed me that mobile net access might just work. Everyone has been predicting the mobile revolution but I never thought it would happen simply because the screen are too small and the interfaces cramped. Somehow, minimo sidesteps all these and it made a convert out of me.

Granted, there are still a few bugs to fix, some of them serious, but remember this is still a development version. Frankly, it's perfectly fine to use on a daily basis as it stands, but I have great hopes for its future releases. The developers should be commended for their hard work!

Minimo Resources

• Minimo forums
• Minimo FAQ
• Minimo home page

[tags]minimo, review[/tags]