DS Browser movie

[mckmas8808]

I hardly call that cheating. It's a smart move. Sony really need to enable virtual RAM off MemStick to get more out of their browser.

How much space on the MemStick would you advise Sony to use? 16 extra MBs? 32? I'm curious because it's a good point.

 

[darkblu]

How much space on the MemStick would you advise Sony to use? 16 extra MBs? 32? I'm curious because it's a good point.

IMO they just need to stop trying to force down desktop memory management tactics onto the psp - it's a viable browsing platform alright, be it without a touch interface, but not for retro-fitted desktop browsers.

 

[StefanS]

IGN hands on with the browser...

Once the URL is in, it's back to the browser to be whisked away to that site. Did I say "whisked"? Maybe "trudged" is a better word. The speed of this thing harkens back to the dial-up days of the internet where most people were surfing for its gaming information and porn with a paltry 14.4K modem. Maybe comparing it to that might be giving too much credit to the Opera DS browser -- let's just say, it's slow. I'll fully admit that IGN isn't the most streamlined of internet designs, but it can at least be pulled into a PC, even a five year old laptop, in a few seconds via broadband. On the Nintendo DS, if it ever does completely download, it takes between three and five minutes to get the front page.

This could be due to the fact that, since this is a Japanese product, the unit's connecting to a Japanese server. It's possible that connecting in the US talks to a system in Japan, which will jump back to the US to download the data to spit it all the way back across the Pacific into our DS. When I tested the software at E3 back in May, it didn't seem as slow as the final Japanese product, so there may be some truth to my suspicions. Then again, it also could be attributed to the fact that the Nintendo DS just doesn't have what it takes under its hood, and Opera did everything it could to get the system to browse. We'll know for sure if and when Nintendo of America launches it stateside.

Now, most of my complaints are towards the speed of the browser on the internet. The functionality of it is actually quite good. Touch-screen surfing makes a whole lot of sense, and the fact that you can get a full-screen view of every page on one screen, and an up-close zoomed view on the other is a great feature for portable internet browsing. Many sites loaded accurately - our message boards system was near flawless, for example. But on the flipside, IGN's blog engine could only be partially downloaded.

The browser doesn't support a lot of Internet standards: no Flash, no movie files, no images other than .GIF and .JPG (and possibly .PNG), no Java. It's really not a good surfing alternative, and it's just more frustrating to use than it is fun and functional.

http://ds.ign.com/articles/725/725813p1.html

It seems it's not really worth spending your money on it.

 

[Rolf N]

I'll fully admit that IGN isn't the most streamlined of internet designs, but it can at least be pulled into a PC, even a five year old laptop, in a few seconds via broadband.

Yeah right.
IGN wrote the book on bloated inefficient website design. The html code for that article page alone is 100kB, with an extra 116kB of JavaScript code includes. And it actually just took me 18 seconds to fully load the page on my PC (2MBit/s broadband).

I can understand they have to pimp their own site from time to time. But using IGN as a benchmark for a portable browser is just plain nuts.

 

[darkblu]

not only that, but

The browser doesn't support a lot of Internet standards: no Flash

dude, the psp, being cutting-edge handheld tech, is barely making the ends meet here. one should be smoking some real bad shit to have expected flash on the ds in the first place.

, no movie files,

no shit!

no images other than .GIF and .JPG (and possibly .PNG)

whoever wrote that needs to be shot for darwinian sanitation.

no Java.

no JavaVM on the DS? the nerve of them!

It's really not a good surfing alternative, and it's just more frustrating to use than it is fun and functional.

aha. given that IGN site programming sucks monkey balls, surely the fruit is bitter.

 

[Skrying]

Wow, what a horribly (if even that) researched and thought out article. Seriously, did they only use the crappy IGN site for testing and then make assumptions for everything else?

 

[StefanS]

Wow, what a horribly (if even that) researched and thought out article. Seriously, did they only use the crappy IGN site for testing and then make assumptions for everything else?

More or less, they did. They tried their boards, blogs and their site itself. They also tried Wikipedia, but they didn't specifically point out the performance.

Even if their article is pretty crappy - i pretty much saw they same issue covered in the responses -, I am still putting purchasing on hold until i hear more about the browser. Hopefully, a more thourough review.

 

[Arwin]

How much space on the MemStick would you advise Sony to use? 16 extra MBs? 32? I'm curious because it's a good point.

Just make it configurable, with a dummy default setting.

I'm personally very happy with the PSP browser. It looks and works great, and the only website I've had problems with so far is gamespot. I'll try IGN and report later.

 

[mckmas8808]

not only that, but



dude, the psp, being cutting-edge handheld tech, is barely making the ends meet here. one should be smoking some real bad shit to have expected flash on the ds in the first place.



no shit!



whoever wrote that needs to be shot for darwinian sanitation.



no JavaVM on the DS? the nerve of them!



aha. given that IGN site programming sucks monkey balls, surely the fruit is bitter.

Dark they have to tell the readers of their site what the DS supports and don't support right?

 

[darkblu]

Dark they have to tell the readers of their site what the DS supports and don't support right?

right. just not in that 'it does not support a bunch of features that hardly anybody with a bit of brain tissue expected it to support, and oh, it sucks at our juggernaut site too!' manner. in case you had not noticed, there's no such thing as an ideal browser out there. even on the almighty modern desktop. some of the available browsers, though, are pretty good for some sane purposes. yes, you need a definition of 'sane purposes' here.

so what portion of the mobile crowd would you expect to care about those 'deficiencies' pointed out in that IGN's, erm, "review"?

 

[mckmas8808]

right. just not in that 'it does not support a bunch of features that hardly anybody with a bit of brain tissue expected it to support, and oh, it sucks at our juggernaut site too!' manner. in case you had not noticed, there's no such thing as an ideal browser out there. even on the almighty modern desktop. some of the available browsers, though, are pretty good for some sane purposes. yes, you need a definition of 'sane purposes' here.

so what portion of the mobile crowd would you expect to care about those 'deficiencies' pointed out in that IGN, erm, "review"?

Probably about 25%. Low but it should be said. If IGN didn't say anything lots of people would be asking, "Does it have a version of Flash like the PSP?" The 'its slow on IGN' thing was quite dumb being that they even know that their site is slow.

They should have used a website like Google or something. At least they didn't use ESPN as a selection right?

 

[darkblu]

Probably about 25%. Low but it should be said. If IGN didn't say anything lots of people would be asking, "Does it have a version of Flash like the PSP?"

ok, flash on the DS is probably something somebody may have fantasised about. how about the rest in that 'deficiencies' list, though?

The 'its slow on IGN' thing was quite dumb being that they even know that their site is slow.

doh.

They should have used a website like Google or something. At least they didn't use ESPN as a selection right?

unbelievable, eh?