Microsoft releases "Deepfish" browser for Windows Mobile

Nothing, and we mean nothing, can distract us from sleep like a new and cool bit of software and a bit of spare time late in the evening. Microsoft's Live Labs threw down an interesting take on mobile browsing today with a technology preview of their new mobile browsing interface, Deepfish. The Deepfish gimmick is the ability to see an entire web page on your Windows Mobile screen and then zoom in on the bits that you want to read, click, and the like. The software takes a screenshot of the webpage and uses it as a map; the rub here is that because of this approach, no dynamic content is supported. The controls are dead simple: hit the joystick on your Windows Mobile device to bring up a small gray focus window, move it where you like, hit it once more and bam! Zoomed. Poking the joystick again displays an arrow to tackle the clickable elements on the page and fill in forms. A fun first effort, and only Microsoft knows where it may end up, so hit the link to download a copy, but hustle, the preview is of the limited variety.

[LS @ Mar 29th 2007 4:29AM]

uhm....ain't no opera fanboy here but surely their zooming tech in their browser - whilst also supporting dynamic content - is easily the better mobile browsing option?

[LS @ Mar 29th 2007 4:32AM]

damn it I should have read the article closer

"Current Limitations

As a technology preview, Deepfish is early in its development cycle (still a few releases from beta quality). As a result some features are not implemented or are only partially implemented. Currently, the technology preview does not support ActiveX controls, AJAX, cookies, Javascript, and HTTP POST."

Guess the cool stuff is gonna be in there at some point closer to Beta

[Daniel Cheung @ Mar 29th 2007 4:46AM]

All slots already have been filled :(

[Kishen @ Mar 29th 2007 4:52AM]

Just like the iPhone browser?

[Waseem Traish @ Mar 29th 2007 4:53AM]

a little searching and here ya go. download links y'all

Sorry -- can't have linkage to it from here.

[Taylor @ Mar 29th 2007 7:19AM]

Thanks bro, you saved me! :)
-Taylor

[Waseem Traish @ Mar 29th 2007 5:01AM]

i spoke too soon... needs an activation code.... anyone?

[jp @ Mar 29th 2007 5:31AM]

Now where else have I seen this before...

Oh yeah http://www.s60.com/browser/

[Gil @ Mar 29th 2007 5:59AM]

Opera anyone?

[ryanwalklin @ Mar 29th 2007 6:20AM]

Wow, it's really really good! Well, compared to PIE at least. No AJAX/Flash is a bit limiting, but for static sites, it's great.

Seems to be a rumour spreading that when you zoom in, Deepfish re-downloads a high-res version from a MS server. This doesn't make a lot of sense, from my use it looks like the page loads, then the zoom is device-based rendering, anyone able to confirm either way?

[JaE @ Mar 29th 2007 6:24AM]

It sucks it requires a 'promotion' code. I want this two years ago.

[Luigi193 @ Mar 29th 2007 7:22AM]

Its like the wii browser!

[Demens @ Mar 29th 2007 7:28AM]

**Kishen @ Mar 29th 2007 4:52AM**
**Just like the iPhone browser?**

Sorry, pocket-pc and palm devices had a similar browsing method even before apple. It's called "Picsel Broser" and it currently ships with some samsung ppc-phone. (i rememeber testing it like two years ago. It has pretty similar zooming method compared to iphone. But it's much more slick and can be done just with one finger.)

[Cheeky Monkey @ Mar 29th 2007 8:35AM]

here's a link to a video demo of the Picsel browser app

http://forum.irexnet.com/viewtopic.php?p=3137&sid=d47518a896f890cf37ed2fd51d68dd98

[nikster @ Mar 29th 2007 8:52AM]

ummm... sounds just like the browser i have been using on my N73 since last year. zooming n stuff. works good, nice to see MS catching up ;)

[patsy @ Mar 29th 2007 9:01AM]

WTF, WM5 only? This Microsoft OS amnesia is infuriating. It's not like you can easily upgrade most PPC devices, I bet there are tons more pre-WM5 devices out there than WM5.

[Mike @ Mar 29th 2007 9:19AM]

Oh man. I realllly want the fish. Anyone have any promo codes ? I'll be your best friend.

[James @ Mar 29th 2007 9:26AM]

patsy: Dammit, that's what I was going to ask about (the article doesn't specify -- Engadget, if you're reading this, please update to specify "WM5 only"). I have an Axim X3i, and it's like as soon as I bought it the product just fell off the face of the earth. No 2003SE support, so no landscape view. No WM5 love. And since PocketPC is such a closed platform, no hope of ever updating it myself. Hrm... can I flash it with Linux? I have some Googling to do...

[Christian Martin @ Mar 29th 2007 10:34AM]

All these photos of late make me miss my old Nokia 6800.

[kanzaki @ Mar 29th 2007 10:40AM]

Kind off topic, but I still use that nokia 6800... love that phone to death.

[AlanJC @ Mar 29th 2007 11:23AM]

There are links and codes for this cropping up on most of the popular PocketPC sites, happy hunting :)

Don't really get the "oh like the iPhone" kind of comments, when the iPhone is basically an Apple PocketPC phone ;)

[Jeff @ Mar 29th 2007 1:29PM]

Downloaded the software last night and havent tried it yet. However, typed in my e'mail wrong and now cant resubmit because they aren't taking any more people. Sucks....I've got the download if anyone else has an activation code.

[Eric @ Mar 29th 2007 4:28PM]

Here's a 16-digit activation code that works. Just use the download in the earlier message, then this code:


Sorry .. no serials here.

[kL @ Mar 29th 2007 4:56PM]

It doesn't remove need for horizontal scrolling, unlike Opera (Mini version is free, but doesn't support AJAX/DHTML, only basic JS and CSS: http://operamini.com)

[Jeff @ Mar 29th 2007 9:55PM]

Basic IE Mobile browser does remove the need for horizontal scrolling on most webpages, however. Set view to "One Column."

[william @ Jan 11th 2008 1:49PM]

please someone email me an activation code so that i can try this out.