Can the PPC-6700 handle AJAX?

November 14, 2005 2:09 PM

PDAfilter: Does anyone know how the Sprint PPC-6700 (or any other variety of the HTC Apache or Wizard) does with AJAX-style web2.0 apps?

I use Writely, meebo, gmail, yahoo360, flickr, and the like for nearly all my computing needs. I rarely use traditional applications and so all my data is on ye olde Intarweb. I'm ready to spring for the above device, if it can handle AJAX with aplob (or if there's some way to wrangle it to do so).

I can handle most tasks, up to and including recomping my damn kernel for the 10th time to get my sound drivers to work (circa 1999) so if it's a techies only solution, that's ok too...but extra points for style and ease of use ;)

posted by gnomicPerfect to computers & internet (9 comments total)

Oooooh......shiny!

I don't know if this helps, but I regularly use a Dell Axim with Windows mobile and it loads most sites OK. When I got Gmail I get a message that I am using a browser that does not support all of Gmail's features, but I can check my mail. If you like, email me some links and I will check them for you.
posted by LarryC at 2:56 PM on November 14, 2005

There's Opera for Windows Mobile devices, and Opera can do AJAX, but I've never used this version.

Worth checking out...
posted by unixrat at 3:03 PM on November 14, 2005

Very doubtful - at least with anything approaching desktop usability. I'm using Mobile Opera for Symbian and it's pretty hit-and-miss with any AJAX-enhanced sites, even though it purportedly supports Javascript. GMail downgrades to the HTML-only version, Writely is a complete no-go, Backpack and Basecamp work - just - but you can't add any todos. TiddlyWiki is a complete non-starter. No idea about yahoo360 or Meebo.

If these web apps are written properly then they ought to degrade gracefully and you should be able to get some functionality out of them, but don't expect a duplicate of what appears in your desktop browser.

Standard HTML sites seem to work fine and the small-screen rendering function is hugely useful. It would be great if these worked with mobile browsers but I suspect that full compatibility is still a long way off, given the limitations of the devices.
posted by blag at 3:27 PM on November 14, 2005

One other thought: you're unlikely to have any joy with Pocket Internet Explorer. I've not used 4.0, but js support in previous versions was a joke.
posted by blag at 3:40 PM on November 14, 2005

As a web designer involved with building AJAX sites, I can attest that websites are usually designed and built for compatibility with particular browsers, not devices. So if you want to use AJAX-style sites then you need a device that will run a good browser, i.e. Firefox.

Opera may have good mobile penetration but its market share on the desktop is so low that I doubt many AJAX sites are tested thoroughly on it.
posted by bruceyeah at 4:26 PM on November 14, 2005

You'll need to install Minimo (currently in alpha), that's the only thing that'll support AJAX on Windows Mobile. Check out these screenshots of Minimo displaying Google Maps.
posted by exhilaration at 8:36 PM on November 14, 2005

As a follow-up to unixrat's comment, Om Malik just had a post as to the AJAX-ification of Opera Mobile
posted by misterbrandt at 10:16 AM on November 15, 2005

To be clear, it is a post as to the fact that AJAX is now supported by Opera Mobile...
posted by misterbrandt at 10:17 AM on November 15, 2005

Yeah, Opera just made this announcement.
posted by exhilaration at 12:48 PM on November 15, 2005