Microsoft Deepfish: a new concept for mobile web browsing

Microsoft Live Labs has created Deepfish – a new approach to web browsing on your Windows Mobile device that is very similar to how Safari will work on the iPhone (remember Steve Jobs’ demo from MacWorld?). Instead of loading a web page and only being able to see a small section of the page, Deepfish takes a screenshot of the web page so you see the entire page as it was designed (as opposed to the page’s header, sidebar, etc. being displayed all jacked-up). When you want to zoom-in on a specific section, click the center/joystick key to bring up a small gray focus box, move the box around the page with the directional keys, then click the center key to zoom-in. If you click the center key a third time, you’ll see an arrow cursor so you can click on buttons, links, text fields, etc.

Deepfish is in pre-beta and you need an invite if you want to try it…which is fine by me because the last thing I want to do is install buggy/unstable software on my smartphone and have it crash/reboot on me when I need to make a call.

Looks like Windows Mobile users will have a similar web browsing experience as their iPhone counterparts.

There’s a demo on the Live Labs website and there’s also a video of Deepfish in-action on a Palm Treo.

Filed under: Microsoft, Mobile Software, Web Browser, Windows Mobile, Wireless

Some Recommended Firefox Extensions

Looking for some good Firefox extensions/add-ons? Here’s a list of the ones I’ve found most useful:

• Foxmarks: Automatically synchronizes your Firefox bookmarks with Firefox installations on other computers. For example, I have this installed on my Mac and PC to keep my bookmarks in-sync between the two computers.

• Tab Catalog: Have you ever had, say, 8 different tabs open in Firefox and wanted to quickly see thumbnail images of each tab? Then, this extension/add-on is for you. It mimics Mac OS X’s Expose feature by displaying thumbnail images of all open tabs in one window and includes multiple ways to activate it – my favorite method is to click both the left & right mouse buttons at the same time but you can also click the F8 or Ctrl(Command)+Tab keys.

• Delicious: This add-on adds two Delicious buttons to your toolbar – one to view your Delicious bookmarks and another to tag the current web page to your Delicious bookmarks. So, the next time you’re viewing a web page, just click the “Tag” button to add it to your Delicious bookmarks. Very handy. By the way, there are several Delicious add-ons for Firefox but this is the best one, IMO. I would stay away from the add-on that was created by Yahoo! because it merges all of your Delicious bookmarks with your Firefox bookmarks.

• Forecastfox: Addicted to the weather? Addiction solved.

• Fotofox: A great add-on for uploading multiple photos to Flickr, Kodak Easy Share Gallery, SmugMug, and a few others. I use it with Flickr and it allows you to also add tags, title, and choose a photo set for each pic you upload. The only thing Fotofox doesn’t let you do with Flickr is add a description for each photo.

• AllPeers: This is a cool file sharing add-on that allows you to share files and videos with those on your AllPeers friends list. I’ve installed it but haven’t used it, yet…I gotta get some friends to install it!

Would you recommend other Firefox add-ons? If so, feel free to post a commment so I can check ’em out. 🙂

Update: (2/14/2007) Added two more extensions – Fotofox and AllPeers.

Filed under: Firefox, Firefox Add-On, Software, Technology, Web Browser