Mobile Link: m.gethuman.com
Rating:Content Usability
Doctype: HTML
Home Page Weight: 1107 KB (516 KB compressed)
Category:  Search

Description:

One of the ways that companies try cut costs is by making it hard to reach a customer support representatives. Some of the tricks they use include hard to find support numbers, forcing callers into obtuse automated help systems and long hold times.

If you have ever been frustrated trying to get support for a product or service, GetHuman is the site for you.

Created in 2006 by Kayak.com co-founder Paul English, GetHuman is a crowd sourced directory listing the best customer service numbers for thousands of companies around the world. In many cases GetHuman is able to provide a number that bypasses self service and takes you straight to a live representative. Where that's not possible, GetHuman tells you which buttons to push or phrases to say cut quickly through the interactive voice response (IVR) system and reach a human. The site also lists company's email support addresses and live chat URLs.

GetHuman's mobile webapp works well in smartphone browsers and with proxy browsers like Opera Mini. The relatively heavy page weight may be an issue with legacy mobile browsers or for users on metered data plans.

Screenshots:

 WAPReview.com Some rights reserved.

Mobile Link: pandodaily.com
Rating:Content Usability
Doctype: HTML
Home Page Weight: 5050 KB (3461 KB compressed)
Category: Tech News

Description:

Founded in January, 2012 by former TechCrunch reporter Sarah Lacy, PandoDaily has quickly grown to be one of the top news sites covering Silicon Valley and the startup scene.

Like virtually every other news site and blog in the world, PandoDaily is built with WordPress. Unlike the majority of WordPress sites, Pando uses a Responsive Web Design inspired custom theme that adapts on the fly to mobile, tablet and PC browsers.

The design, by Sara Cannon generally works well. As the browser viewport gets smaller, PandoDaily's signature "Ticker" timeline of breaking news mini-posts moves from the sidebar to below the main content. At the same time, the five column "Week in Review" footer reformats as a single column to fit smaller screens.

In my testing, PandoDaily looked good and worked well in the Android and iOS browsers, Opera Mini and Mobile, Firefox Mobile and Nokia's S40 Xpress browser, across viewports ranging from 1680px to 128px in width. However, the site's 3MB page weight will not be appreciated by users who pay for data by the KB.

Screenshots:

 WAPReview.com Some rights reserved.

I did a post a while ago explaining how to modify Opera Mini's jad file to hide the unneeded touch keypad that displays at the bottom of the screen on some touchscreen phones. The post included a link to the modified Opera Mini. I received a request asking for a copy of the latest signed Java version of UC Browser modified to hide the keypad.

The process for modifying the UC Browser or any other Java app is exactly the same as what was described in the original post:

1.Download the app's jad file to a PC. You can get UC Browser jad files (signed or unsigned ) at www.ucweb.com/English/UCbrowser/platform.html?platform=java

2. Open the downloaded mini.jad with a text editor or Windows Wordpad

3. Scroll to the bottom of the file and paste in the following lines:

Nokia-MIDlet-No-Exit: true
Nokia-MIDlet-On-Screen-Keypad: no
Navi-Key-Hidden: true
UseNativeTextButtons: hide
ReverseSoftkeys: hide
UseNativeCommands: hide
MIDlet-Touch-Support: true
MIDlet-ScreenMode: ROTATE
MIDlet-Landscape-Support: true
LGE-MIDlet-Width: 240
LGE-MIDlet-Height: 400
LGE-MIDlet-On-Screen-Keypad: no
LGE-MIDlet-Display-Mode: both

4. Upload the file to Dropbox.com or another file sharing service that is easy to use in your phone browser. Click here to get a free 2GB Dropbox account (by using this referral link I get an extra 250 MB of storage in my Dropbox which I thank you for).

5. Visit Dropbox with your phone browser and click the modified mini.jad link to download it to your phone.

If that didn't work or you don't have a PC or are just in a hurry, here's are links to the latest signed version of the UC browser as well as some older versions.

Latest Version

UC Browser 9.0 (25-Apr-2013) The latest "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. According to UC, new features in it include:

• Fast Video and Audio Playing We have designed the Fast Video and Audio Playing feature to break through storage limitation and poor network connection. The new feature allows users to play video files that have been saved to UDisk directly, without having to download those big files to local phone storage. Enjoy the fluent videos watching on Java Phone.
• Account Information Saving To make logging-in to your favourite webpages more convenient, we’ve added the ability for you to save usernames and passwords on several websites, such as Facebook and GMail.
• Improved User Interface We’ve given our user interface a makeover, optimizing the design to provide an enhancement of user experience. The menus, night mode, operation in touch screen phones and more has been optimized.
• Bug Fixes The stability of this version has been increased and there have been numerous bug fixes, such as a solution to the missing Speed Dial issue.

Download the modified UC Browser 9.0 jad at:
wapreview.com/download/UCBrowser_V9.0.0.260_Java_pf70_(Build13042317).jad
Short Link: is.gd/uc90touch

To install, go to is.gd/uc90touch with your phone's browser.

Older Versions:

UC Browser 8.9 (29-Jan-2012) A "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features include: Incognito Browsing, Improved Search Bar, Select and Copy and Optimized Text Input

Download the modified UC Browser 8.9 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.9.0.251_Java_pf70_%28Build13012415%29.jad

Short Link: is.gd/uc89touch To install, go to is.gd/uc89touch with your phone's browser.

UC Browser 8.8 (25-Dec-2012) Another "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features include: increased download speed, customizable shortcut keys and an improved File Manager.

Download the modified UC Browser 8.8 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.8.1.252_Java_pf70_%28Build12122410%29.jad
Short Link: is.gd/uc88touch To install it, go to is.gd/uc88touch with your phone's browser.

UC Browser 8.7 (7-Nov-2012) This is a "full" (non-cloud) UC Browser release. New features include: users can switch between multiple accounts when signing in to a website, long press the OK button to invoke the Actions menu, users can save pages directly without changing the page name.

Download the modified UC Browser 8.7 jad at:
dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.7.0.218_Java_pf70_%28Build12110609%29.jad
Short Link: is.gd/uc87touch To install it, go to is.gd/uc87touch with your phone's browser.

UC Browser 8.6. (20-Sept-2012): This is a "full (non-cloud) UC Browser release.  New features in this release are: full offline download support with synchronous status shown in the download manager, you can now preview the images before uploading,  "clear all history" option before exiting UC Browser added, new options to disable the virtual keyboard, faster uploads  and display of the upload speed in KB/sec while uploading. This version uses the new user interface from the cloud version with different menus for touch screen and non touch screen phones

Download the modified UC Browser 8.6 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.6.0.199_Java_pf70_%28Build12092011%29.jad
Short link: is.gd/uc860touch To install it, go to is.gd/uc860touch with your phone browser.

UC Cloud Browser 8.5 (6-Sept-2012): This is first non-Beta version of the UC Cloud Browser, a redesign of the original UC browser optimized for smaller download size and faster page loads.   New features in this release are: new user interface with different menus for touch screen and non touch screen phones. Supports copy and paste in the URL bar and all input fields. New screen brightness setting. New share image on Facebook feature. New Game Center free game download store.

I've posted the modified UC Cloud Browser 8.5 jad at: dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.5.0.185_Java_pf83_%28Build12082909%29.jad
Short link: is.gd/uc85touch. To install it, go to is.gd/uc85touch with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.4 (23-Jul-2012):. Major changes are: simplified theme installation, the traffic statistics display is back, the link to browsing history has been moved to the top of the bookmarks page and a there's a new Tools > Phone menu option for making phone call or send a texts from within the browser. See my review for more about 8.4: UC Browser 8.4 for Java Released With Bug Fixes, New Features.

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.4.0.159_Java_pf70_(Build12070415).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc84touch

UC Browser 8.3 Alpha (7-Jun-2012): New features include; UDisk cloud based storage and the App Gallery, a new home screen tab providing quick access to UDisk, bookmark backup and restore and the Quick Reads news deader.

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.3.0.154_Java_pf70_(Build12053010).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc83touch. To install it, go to db.tt/ajY88aHm with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.2.1 Production (non-Beta) (20-Apr-2012): New features include a built in RSS reader and bookmark backup and restore. See my review for more details.

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.2.1.144_Java_pf70_(Build12041210).jad
Short link: db.tt/ajY88aHm. To install it, go to db.tt/ajY88aHm with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.2 Alpha (21-Mar-2012): It features many enhancements and bug fixes see my review for details. This is the latest patch release that adds swipe navigation and fixes a bug that made entering URLs on bada phones impossible:

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.2.0.132_Java_pf70_(Build12032111).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc82touch. To install it, go to is.gd/uc82touch with your phone browser.

UC Browser 8.0 (1-Feb-2012):

dl.dropbox.com/u/4637247/UCBrowser_V8.0.3.107_Java_pf70(Build11112416).jad
Short link: is.gd/uc8touch. To install it, go to is.gd/uc8touch with your phone browser. WAPReview.com Some rights reserved.

On Monday Opera Software released Opera Mini 7.5.2 for Android. It was mostly a bug fix release but also included font changes. I noticed that the fonts on many sites were smaller in the new release. The new fonts made text on the effected sites hard to read and I immediately went back to the previous 7.5.1 version. Play Store reviews of the new version were largely negative as were comments on Opera's own forums.

Today Opera released Opera Mini Android version 7.5.3 to address the font size issue. I upgraded to the new version and can confirm that font sizes are larger in 7.5.3 (third image, above) than they were in 7.5.2 (middle image) but are still a little smaller than in 7.5.1 (first image). Click the images to view them in their original size. I find the new fonts readable. According to a post on the Opera Mini Forum the changes in 7.5.3 are:

• Font size and page layout improvements
• Fixed crash on http://www.drudgereport.com/

The new version identifies itself as 7.5.33361 in the browser's Help > About Menu. It's available now from the Android Play Store. I wasn't able to find a direct apn download on opera.com. Users without Play Store access download a copy from WapReview here: Opera Mini_7.5.3.apk (7.5.33361)

Related Post: Opera Mini For Android Updated to Version 7.5.2 WAPReview.com Some rights reserved.

Opera Software has updated Opera Mini for Android. Opera calls the new release 7.5.2, although the version number on the browser's Help > About screen is 7.5.33286. The previous 7.5.1 version was 7.5.32193 internally.

According to a post by an Opera employee on the My Opera - Opera Mini Forum the changes in this release are:

• Improved font calculation method
• Improved fonts for hi-res devices
• Page layout improvements
• Various stabilization fixes

I upgraded to the new release on several devices. There definitely are some font changes. The font on many pages is noticeably smaller. The screenshots of the dabr.co.uk Twitter web app (above) and the My Opera Forum below show the difference. In both sets of images, the first one shows the old version and the second the new one. My old eyes prefer the previous version. I recommend you backup Opera Mini using an app like the free ES File Explorer before upgrading in case you don't like the changes.

Opera Mini 7.5.2 is available now in the Google Play store. Opera's forum post claims that it "...will be available on our servers later". I hope that's true, however Opera.com's download page hasn't offered direct downloads of any of Opera's mobile browsers since it was redesigned earlier this year.

For anyone without Google Play access, I've put a copies of the new Opera Mini 7.5.2 on the WapReview server for you to download: Opera Mini_7.5.2.apk (ver 7.5.33286).

And if you upgraded to 7.52 without heading my warning to backup the old version first, here's the previous version: Opera Mini_7.5.1.apk  (ver 7.5.32193).

Other than having smaller fonts the new release seems good. It reportedly works better on tablets and may have even fixed the Black Screen of Death bug that afflicted the last couple of Opera Mini Android releases. That bug manifested itself when you restored Opera Mini to the foreground after it had been in the background for awhile. The screen would be completely back with no user interface at all. The only way to recover was to terminate Opera Mini with a task manager app or from the Android Manage Applications screen.

  WAPReview.com Some rights reserved.

Mobile Link: m.slashdot.org
Rating:Content  Usability 
Doctype: HTML
Home Page Weight: 333 KB
Category: Tech News

Description:

Slashdot, the venerable (founded 1997) user powered tech and politics news site, which was recently acquired by Dice.com, has a new mobile webapp.

Slashdot stories, as well as polls, questions and book reviews, are submitted by users. Other users can vote stories up and down and leave and rate comments. Randomly selected user moderators label stories and comments as interesting, informative, off-topic, flamebait, etc. Stories are primarily assigned to the front page by Slashdot editors rather algorithmically.

The latest mobile version of Slashdot has Stories, Polls and Firehose tabs but no UI for accessing Slashdot's tags or categories. If you don't like the mobile webapp, there's a link to the desktop version in the mobile page footer.

Slashdot Mobile is optimized for iOS and Android browsers. It also works well in the Firefox and Opera Mobile browser but not in Opera Mini, where only a blank page is displayed. There's a legacy text-only mobile version at slashdot.org/palm/ that works in all browsers.

Screenshots:

 WAPReview.com Some rights reserved.

Mobile Link: mobile.thewrap.com
Rating:Content  Usability 
Doctype: XHTML-MP
Home Page Weight: 29-288 KB
Category: Movies

Description:

Since its launch in 2009, The Wrap has quickly grown to become one of the most respected and popular sites covering Hollywood and the movie business. The Wrap was founded by author and former New York Times Hollywood correspondent, Sharon Waxman who currently serves as the site's CEO and Editor in Chief

The Wrap's mobile version is an adaptive site that uses different layouts for various classes of devices. Their are at least three versions (images below) ranging with page sizes ranging from 29 KB for the lightest version to 288 KB for the richest.

Screenshots:

 WAPReview.com Some rights reserved.

Mobile Link: sfist.com
Rating:Content  Usability 
Doctype: HTML Transitional
Home Page Weight: 4437 KB
Category: City and Campus Guides

Description:

Part of the Gothamist network of city blogs, SFist covers local news, food, art, entertainment and events for San Franciscans.

Like the other Gothamist sites, SFist has a magazine style front page that uses responsive design techniques to adapt on the fly to all screen sizes from mobile (left image) to PC (right image). It's one of the few responsive magazine style designs I've seen and it works well and looks good on the desktop and in the Android browser and Opera Mini. However page loading is a bit sluggish with the Android browser thanks to the 4.3 MB page weight. I'm also not a fan of the 300 x 250 px desktop banner add that dominates the page above the fold on mobile devices.

Screenshots:

 WAPReview.com Some rights reserved.

The 2013 NCAA College Basketball Championships, better known as March Madness or the Big Dance, is about to begin. Easily the most popular college sports event in the US, March Madness is a pair of three week long long single elimination tournaments that pack 130 games into three weeks on non-stop action. This year's madness starts March 19th for the men's teams and March 23rd for the women.

Many of the games happen during working hours posing a problem for fans whose employers block sports sites at work or for other reasons can't send hours a day glued to the PC or TV. That makes the mobile web a perfect match for March Madness.

Click here to visit the Wap Review Directory's top picks in March Madness mobile Webapps. WAPReview.com Some rights reserved.

Opera Software has released an initial Beta of a new version of Opera Mobile for Android that's based on the open source Webkit browser engine instead of Opera's own Presto engine.  Opera is winding down Presto development and will eventually use Webkit for all its products.

The new release, called Opera 14 Beta, is available now in Google Play for devices running Android 2.3 and latter.  It was announced in a post today on the My Opera - Opera Mobile For Android forum.

According to the post, what's new in this version is:

• everything :)
• New UI
• Improved Speed Dial, all your bookmarks and saved pages in the same place
• Discover, a new way to discover content and collect news
• Off-road mode, Opera Mini compression built-in
• Omnibar, combined search and URL field, with auto-completion

Known issues:

• no support for tablets bigger than 7.5 inches
• problems with localized strings not fitting into places
• problems with rendering 'Discover' section on Samsung Galaxy Y
• crashes on start on Samsung Galaxy S2 with Android 2.3.5
• crash on start on Motorola RAZR device
• hardware back key issues on Samsung Galaxy Y
• display issues on HTC One S (Android 4.0.4)

I tried the Opera Mobile Beta on a Motorola Photon running Android 2.3.4. Performance on this older Tegra 2 based device seemed quite good with fast page loads and no apparent user interface lag. Rendering seemed accurate on the pages I tried and I didn't encounter operational issues with any site.  I did experience one crash in about an hour's worth of browsing, not bad for a first beta.

As expected in an initial Beat release there are lots of missing features. The most glaring omissions are:

• No text reflow after pinch zooming
• No bookmarks
• No Opera Link

The user interface changes are a bit of a mixed bag. I like the unified search and address bar and being able to create folders on the Speed Dial page. But I miss full screen mode and the ability to create custom searches. I'm not a fan of the new tab picker. It only shows four tabs at a time and requires double tapping to select a tab.  The end result is that it takes more taps and swipes to switch tabs, and making users work harder is never a good thing.

The Discover feature (images below), which is essentially an RSS reader, looks great and is easy to use, but I wish it let me choose individual feeds rather than only being able to pick from a fixed set of curated categories.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the Opera Webkit Beta. It's very polished, stable and fast for an early Beta. It's usable as is, although the lack of text reflow and bookmarks (or a way to import them) keeps it from being my daily driver for now. WAPReview.com Some rights reserved.