When the iPhone was first introduced back in 2007, what we most loved was the sleek UI and massive web browsing abilities. A capable mobile browser is a must have in any smartphone. Today we are going to introduce to you Digital Poke’s 360 Browser for the iPhone which we believe marks a very important [...]
When the iPhone was first introduced back in 2007, what we most loved was the sleek UI and massive web browsing abilities. A capable mobile browser is a must have in any smartphone. Today we are going to introduce to you Digital Poke’s 360 Browser for the iPhone which we believe marks a very important step towards the future of advanced mobile browsers. It’s so good that we might ditch the mobile Safari very soon.
The 360 Browser has been developed by Digital Poke. This is their first iPhone app and it still did enthrall our minds. It’s like mobile Safari, only twice as good. Most of what we missed having in the stock iPhone browser is here. The app has just been approved by Apple and will make an appearance on the App Store later this month.
The developers at Digital Poke were kind enough to let us have an advance sneak peak into their app.
360 Browser is aimed at being an intelligent and highly customizable mobile browser which simplifies the user interactions, performs them faster and in an uncluttered environment. Let’s look at some of the most outstanding features of 360 Browser.
True Full Screen browsing experience
This feature lets you make most out of the limited screen space on the iPhone or iPod without compromising on any features. You can still have access to the 360 Arcs and Address Bar among other tools, when required without the need to step out of the fullscreen mode.
Intelligent Tabs
While the mobile Safari opens new links right next to the current tab, if you need a new blank tab you will have to scroll till the end to access the newest tab. 360 Browser overcomes that. Tabs can be inserted wherever you wish. Moreover, a tab’s browser orientation and privacy mode can be individually changed. There’s so much revolutionary here that we can’t stop talking about it. You can reload or close all tabs at once.
In-App Offline Mode
From our desktop browsing experience we all know how useful this feature is.
Open Source Plug-ins for that extra boost
A great step by Digital Poke to enable developers to submit plugins to further enhance the capabilities of 360 Browser.
Mimic Desktop Browsers
Many times we do desire if we could skip mobile versions of websites, rather than disabling mobile theme manually on each. You can make 360 Browser mimic Opera, Firefox, Safari, Chrome or even IE. Yeah, now you see how customizable it can get? The setting can even be made on a per tab basis.
360 Arcs to execute features on the go
While there’s almost everything unique about this new iPhone browser, one feature that totally stands out is the incorporation of the 360 Arcs. The 360 Arcs is something that you have never seen before on any mobile browser. The Arcs are built on the Prodigy Engine which enables it to interact with the user in a very unique way, besides they are also fun to play with.
While hidden, the Arcs appear in the form of buttons and reveal themselves once the user touches the button. The user can then drag their finger on specific features to select and execute that feature. All of this happens on the primary screen. The user can choose between “Touch and Drag” or “Tap and Tap” gesture for their interaction with the Arcs. The user can thus access multiple features like Adding bookmarks, zoom in/out and entering/exiting full screen view.
There are two such Arcs. One on Normal Mode and two on Full-screen. Overall the user can access more than 25 standalone features with the help of the Arcs and the time taken to access these features is reduced drastically compared to other Browsers.
Other Features
The feature set doesn’t just end here and includes advanced Ad blocking and theming abilities as well. But we’re saving the rest for later.
Our Verdict
Our first hands-on experience tells us that this is the start of something revolutionary and will further enhance the already magical experience that iPhone and iPad users are able to derive presently. It’s remarkable to see how the developers at Digital Poke have paid attention to some of the finest requirements of the mobile internet user and also successfully incorporated so many features right in the first version of the 360 Browser.
I daresay, this browser had achieved far more than Mobile Opera could. I can hardly wait to see the response of iPhone users once this App goes live.
Price and Launch Date
The 360 Browser will appear on the iTunes App Store on the 30th of September, 2010. The app will carry an introductory price tag of $0.99. Stay tuned with us or you can further check out Digital Poke’s blog for the announcement.
What do you think about this new browser? If you are really excited to try it leave us a comment as to which feature you like the most and we might get you a free promotional code.
Eliza Dushku
Adriana Lima
No comments:
Post a Comment