ReenSoft PIEPlus v2.11

[dckiwi]

Mobile internet browsing... almost unheard of 10 years ago. Yet here we are, surrounded by WiFi and cellular networks, and with the ability to obtain a device capable of connecting to these networks relatively cheaply (WiFi at least). Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) is the default browser on most Windows Mobile devices. While it gets the job done, only limited configuration is available, and optimization is not completely implemented. Fortunately for Windows Mobile users, there are alternatives. One such application is PIEPlus. Does this software offer a better surfing solution than the default PIE? Read on to find out!

[JES]

I don't install to many third-party apps on my device. I try lots of them. When I tried PIE+, I knew it was one that I would be paying for. It has made browsing on my PPC Phone (ETEN M600) much more enjoyable and productive. The tabbed interface is great. As the reviewer said, like going from IE6 to Firefox. Only the difference is more dramatic.

There are a lot of features, and I have yet to experiment with all of them. It makes PIE VERY configurable.

I do have three complaints with V2.11, though.

1. The back button has a "drop-down" type option like a desktop browser. Whenever I am more than two pages deep though, whatever's shown is not in chronological order and it doesn't always go back to the page that it's showing. It almost renders the feature useless.

2. Twice I've encountered times when PIE (and PIE+) will not stay open. It's when I first open the application. As soon as it starts to download my homepage, it just closes right back to the today screen. I've tried different home pages. I've reset the device. Nothing worked until I turned off wi-fi AND reset the device.

3. A number of times, I've had a tab close for no apparent reason. This happens while another tab is loading. It's a pain in the butt. This may be page-specific, though.

Despite the above bugs (could be device/configuration-specific), I HIGHLY recommend this software. I would have paid double the asking price. I look forward to future versions.

ps ... Reensoft hasn't paid me for this review.

[akac]

My biggest issue with PIE Plus is I couldn't get it to work :) When I did a tap/hold Open Link in New Tab within my web based RSS reader, I would get the exact same page in a new tab. That and its full screen mode isn't as good as PIE's and finally it seems to take more RAM than my old 700w could afford. My 700wx is a lot better (I've been running lots of apps simultaneously without memory issues), but I don't want to bother anymore.

[dckiwi]

JES,

Sounds like you had some pretty significant problems. Seemed to work O.K. for me, but I do know what you mean about the order of the links... I didn't find it too annoying, but sometimes the links don't exactly line up with the pages, or the last link did not correspond to the last page.

I din't have any probs with tabs/pie+ closing inadvertantly. Maybe a software conflict somewhere....

akac,

I tried this with newsland (http://www.newsland.net/) (not rss though) and it worked fine. What rss reader are you using?

Cheers,

Robbie.

[JES]

1. The back button has a "drop-down" type option like a desktop browser. Whenever I am more than two pages deep though, whatever's shown is not in chronological order and it doesn't always go back to the page that it's showing. It almost renders the feature useless.

2. Twice I've encountered times when PIE (and PIE+) will not stay open. It's when I first open the application. As soon as it starts to download my homepage, it just closes right back to the today screen. I've tried different home pages. I've reset the device. Nothing worked until I turned off wi-fi AND reset the device.

3. A number of times, I've had a tab close for no apparent reason. This happens while another tab is loading. It's a pain in the butt. This may be page-specific, though.

I can live with #1 and #3. #2 is really starting to be a pain. Resetting is the only cure that I've found so far.

[dckiwi]

I can live with #1 and #3. #2 is really starting to be a pain. Resetting is the only cure that I've found so far.

Stupid question first, I take it you have enough free memory? Assuming that you do, does the fault occur during pass-through/gprs connections or only wifi?

How about different browsers (avantgo, etc.)

Cheers,

Robbie.

[JES]

35.35 MB Free Storage
27.50 MB Free Program
589.14 MB Free SD Card

I only use wifi.

The error never occured with the standard PIE. The only other browser I ever tried was opera, and that was more than six months ago. I'll find a different one and try it out.

Thanks ... JES

[dckiwi]

The error never occured with the standard PIE.
Thanks ... JES

Plenty of memory, if standard PIE is working I'd stick to that.

Good luck. Cheers,

Robbie.

[JES]

Plenty of memory, if standard PIE is working I'd stick to that.

Good luck. Cheers,

Robbie.
Well, I tried opera. I also un-installed PIE+ and tried standard. No problems.

So far on this last install, it's less buggy. The problem I have with sticking with the standard PIE is two-fold. First, I REALLY like the features of +. And second, I paid for it already. It worked well during my trial, then things just went downhill.

I'm still working on things like registry tweaks that I've made that may be affecting the performance.