The browser is available for Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices as well as the iPhone. There is also a lightweight Java version available in case you’ve not got the latest in mobile technology. Oh yeah, and it’s free ““ of course!

The version I’m testing is UC Browser 7.4 for the Symbian S60v5 operating system on a Sony Ericsson Satio.

Features

Much like the popular Opera Mini mobile browser, UC Browser doesn’t handle each destination within the application. Each request is handled by a server, compressed and sent to the phone. This essentially provides you with a fast, thin client perfect for use with mobile data plans.

As you’d (probably) expect by now, there’s multiple tab support and unlike Bolt Browser, you can have a whopping 12 open at a time. There’s also direct in-built support for searches too using your choice of Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Ask.com as an engine.

The mobile web browser’s home screen is an attractive and responsive hub with fast access to some oft-used services. You can pin 4 bookmarks to your home screen, and access to the rest of your favourites are only a click away.

The rest of the home screen is essentially made up of recommendations, and despite the odd dead link is functional with services like Orkut, GetJar and Zedge a few taps away.

There’s a couple of what seem to be sponsored links at the bottom, but they’re pretty easy to ignore and it’s free after all.

UC Browser 7.4 is able to tackle full web-pages, as well as the mobile web. You would probably be disappointed if it didn’t, considering most of the latest built-in mobile browsers do it by now. With this feature you’ve got the choice of multiple view modes for full web pages, to facilitate viewing on a tiny mobile screen.

Zoom mode (above) is much like Opera Mobile’s handling of web pages, providing vertical and horizontal scrolling and with text formatted so that it can be read easily. Adaptive mode (which is UC Browser’s default setting) removes the need for horizontal scrolling and works by stacking web content into one vertical stream.

I personally really liked this feature, as I find myself constantly moving the screen left and right whilst browsing with Opera Mobile ““ and the option of turning it on and off allows you to make your own mind up.

This isn’t all ““ the browser is absolutely jam-packed with other features. There’s even a file browser for sending files via Bluetooth (which I barely looked at, as most phones have that one covered), a night theme for dimming the screen in the dark (many phones also do that), quick sharing via SMS, and a powerful download manager that has a handy resume feature.

Performance

Starting UC Browser takes only a few seconds, and it’s generally very responsive. The home screen is easy to understand and provides for a nice clean interface and supports multiple themes.

Navigation is handled using the bar at the bottom of the screen, which acts as a context menu with different options appearing depending on what you’re doing. Whilst browsing a website you’ll have five options available ““ back, forward, menu, open tabs and home.

The menu button brings up an overlay menu with three separate tabs ““ Common, Settings and Tools. This is essentially the inner workings of the browser, and where you can make changes to the way the browser works.

Rendering is very fast on mobile sites and still quite speedy for full websites. I’ve not got my stopwatch out, but UC Browser is pretty much on a par with Opera Mobile (which makes both valid, speedy solutions).

There’s flash support (at least on the Symbian version I tested) for sites like YouTube, though I found I sometimes had to refresh the page in order to get videos working. Flash is not immediately loaded with the page, and you must select the object to load it.

Support is there, if a little flaky.

Download UC Browser

There’s a total of five different versions of UC Browser available for download, depending on your phone’s operating system:

• iPhone ““ download it from the App Store [iTunes link]
• Android ““ you can download the Android version by clicking here.
• Symbian ““ there are a few different Symbian versions available, choose yours on this page. Note: the S60v5 version is apparently compatible with Nokia’s latest Symbian^3 phones (like the N8).
• Windows Mobile ““ touch and non-touch versions of the browser are available here.
• Java ““ signed and unsigned Java versions are available, including low memory versions for older mobiles on this page.

Conclusion

UC Browser provides a well rounded mobile browsing experience that handles nearly everything you throw at it. Video support could use some work, but that’s my only real complaint. The attractive interface, speedy rendering and sheer number of features makes this mobile web browser stand out as a real contender.

The added bonus of compatibility with older mobiles means you can enjoy this one even if you’ve not got the latest smartphone. Let us know what you make of it and how it compares to your current favourite in the comments.

If you’ve had no joy with either of those, or simply love to have your phone loaded with every possible browser available then you may want to try Bolt, yet another mobile web browser for your Blackberry, Symbian or other Java-friendly handset.

Delivering a familiar dose of “real web on your phone“ much like Opera and Skyfire, Bolt has been developed with speed in mind. The developers have strived to reduce loading and rendering times, whilst at the same time managing to include video support and a decent home screen.

If you already want it, then head over to boltbrowser.com on your mobile device now. You will be able to download a one-for-all Java archive as well as a dedicated Blackberry version of the application.

If you’re still not convinced, then take a look at what Bolt offers. Utilising Flash and HTML5, YouTube is fully useable, despite a slightly small video window to peer at. You are given the option to run Bolt’s in-built video configuration the first time you try and watch anything, meaning there’s no fiddly set-up. As an aside, if you’ve recently configured Bolt for video and are having issues then restarting the browser should sort it out.

Video quality is lacking, especially compared to Skyfire (which fully implements Flash) but it beats Opera Mobile which can’t do video at all. It’s not the richest of YouTube experiences, but if you have an older and less-fancy Blackberry it might be as good as it gets.

Then there’s the speed. On my Sony Ericsson Satio running the Symbian S60v5 OS, I noticed it was considerably faster to render pages than Skyfire, with a nicer UI to boot. The start page is quick and responsive, and beneath the address bar and search field the page is split into three sections covering History, Favourites and Feeds.

History is grouped by day, making it that little bit easier to find what you’re looking for. Bundled favourites include YouTube, MySpace and CNN which should give you a pretty good idea of what the developers think their creation is capable of. You can add favourites and feeds using the context menu, though on a touch-screen device this can be fiddly.

Bolt also includes the ability to save webpages for offline viewing when your Wi-Fi or mobile signal disappears, which is nice.

One feature that makes Bolt slightly different to other mobile web browsers is the ability to install what it simply describes as “web-apps”. The browser attempts to integrate services such as YouTube into a separate tab, specifically engineered to provide you with a cut-down mobile version of the web-page.

At the moment it feels like somewhat of an after-thought, with YouTube’s main site working better than the dedicated web-app. There is certainly potential here however, as the developers are already keen to advertise Bolt’s compatibility with intensive services like Google Documents and the (oh-so-essential) Mafia Wars Facebook application. Web apps are installed via an online gallery so you won’t need to update the browser itself to add new apps.

Those of you glued to Opera Mobile, Safari or Skyfire might not raise an eyebrow, but Bolt is the five-years-in-the-making application that may just breathe life into your older Blackberry or basic Java phone. It’s not as pretty as Opera, and not as video-friendly as Skyfire but Bolt gets the job done and provides yet another fully-usable alternative to those horrendous in-built browsers.

The first thing I recommend is browsing over to a special Java test website called JavaTester. There is code on this page that will tell you if you can run Java Applets and if Javascript is enabled and supported by your browser. The answers will be shown to you on the webpage once it is completed loading.

My favorite part about this site is that it also gives you the HTML code that they used to create the tests. This allows you to add this code to your website to display the results.

When we get to the site this is what we will see:

You will be able to tell at a glance what your browser can and cannot do. For Javascript scroll down to the 3rd bulleted point and after it says: Is Java enabled?, you will either see true or false. True will let you know that you are using a Javascript enabled browser. If it says false you will need to see if Java is installed and if not, install it and enable it.

The Java test website goes on to explain that Java and Javascript are two very different programming languages and pretty much only share the first four letters of their name. To learn the difference between the two languages you can check out these two Wikipedia pages here and here to read about Javascript and Java respectively.

But they have another easy to use JavaScript test :

If you are looking for the easiest and quickest test possible the one above is it. But if you also need some more information regarding your browser’s capabilities you can check out this browser capability test website. This is a web application called Browser Hawk.

You can see the output from my FireFox 3.6.3 below:

All three of these web tests will be able to quickly tell you if your browser is actually Javascript enabled. If you have to send a user to a website to test their browser I would send them to the second one from JavaTester as it is the easiest one to see the results on.

If you are a programmer you can easily integrate the code from these pages to create your own test sites on your local intranet or website. If you do code up your own snazzy pages we would love to see them so hit us with the links in the comments.

If you are looking for a Java test website you can check this one out. It will work with all operating systems and Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla and Netscape.

Happily, it’s not all you have access to. Thanks to many technologies out there committed to cross-platform compatibility you can give any Linux distribution-from Ubuntu to Fedora to Gentoo-access to even more software than is out there by default. In the rare instance where you can’t find a tool for a job you’re trying to do this can be very useful, as it gives you access to even more free software. Let’s check these technologies out!

1 – Use Adobe Air Apps

Adobe Air,  if you’re not aware, is a software platform that runs on Linux, Mac and Windows. There are hundreds of free Linux compatible software applications over at the Adobe Air Marketplace that do everything from giving you newspaper-like access to the New York Times to viewing your Google Analytics Data.

Getting Adobe Air working on Linux is surprisingly easy. You’ll find a Linux-based installer over at get.adobe.com, or you can simply attempt to install any Adobe Air application and Air will install automatically.

Some MakeUseOf posts covering cool Adobe Air apps:
- 3 Really Cool Adobe AIR Apps for Movies and Music
- 8 Adobe AIR Apps that DON’T Suck
- 4 Adobe AIR ToDo List Apps For Managing Your Tasks

2 – Get Java Going

Java is the original cross-platform programming language. To this day many programmers use Java to create programs that work equally well on Linux, Mac and Windows. We’ve covered many Java apps, the most recent being “Pauker – An Easy-To-Use Freeware Java Flash Card Program” which Varun wrote all about.

Java’s probably in the repositories of your Linux distribution already. If you’re on Ubuntu you’ll find that Java is instaled when you install the “ubuntu-restricted-extras” package discussed in Varun’s article “10 Applications You Must Install On Ubuntu Lucid Lynx”

Alternatively, you can install only java with the following command:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

Thanks to Ubuntu Geek for that command.

3 – Wine For Windows Apps

There are millions of Windows appications out there, and the Wine project gives Linux access to many of them. Wine attempts to provide a compatibility layer between the Linux operating system and Windows programs. It’s far from perfect, but it’s worth a shot. Check out “Run Windows Applications on Linux (or Mac) with WINE”  to learn all about making use of wine.

Wondering if a certain program is compatible with Wine? Check out the database over at WineHQ.

Wine is availible in the package manager of pretty much every Linux distribution in existence, so check yours.

4 – DOSbox for Old DOS Games

Simon recently pointed out 4 sites where you can download old games for free. If these old games were meant to run in DOS you can run them in Ubuntu; all you need is DOSbox. This DOS emulator can run most any DOS program you can throw at it, but it’s really tailor-made for games.

DOSbox is included in the package manager of most fine Linux distributions, so look for it and set it up. You can learn all about using DOSbox in Shaminder’s article about using DOSbox on Windows XP. Yes, the article is about Windows XP, but the principle is basically the same.

If you’re really geeky you could even setup DOSbox to run Windows 3.1. I did using this guide just for so I could play Chip’s Challenge the way God intended: in Windows 3.1.

Conclusion

Using these tools you’ll give Linux access to many programs it does not by default. They won’t necessarily run as well as native programs, but are worth taking a look at if you want to run a certain program or can’t find a native tool for a particular job.

Can you guys think of any other ways to make Linux compatible with more software? If so, I’d love it if you shared. I’d also love to hear what sorts of programs you use in Linux via these technologies, so comment away.

Sun Microsystems developed the Java programming language and architecture in 1995. Since then, it has become a valuable and integral part of the evolution of the Internet. Paul provided a great list for Java Application examples that should prove very helpful to developers, and Karl provided a useful guide on how to remove older versions of the JRE from your system.

In this article, I’d like to take a moment to reflect upon the reasons Java is considered one of the most trusted architectures for developing and running applications over the Internet and cover a little bit about how Java applets work. As most readers may know, the beauty of Java is that the Java Virtual Machine architecture allows Java to run on multiple platforms – including Windows, Solaris, Linux and Apple. The ability to write common applications that can run on multiple architectures makes Java one of those web programming models that have survived and flourished for over a decade and a half.

Why You Can Install & Run Java Software Anywhere

The reason Sun’s model worked so well is, in part, because of the fact that it was created to overcome one of the many drawbacks of the early Internet. Few very “useful” applications could run over the Internet because of all of the security concerns in allowing an Internet based application with access to the browsers settings and information – or worse, the computer’s file system and operating system. Early architecture developers realized that for any web software environment to survive, it would need to take those security considerations very seriously.

Before we get to security, I’d like to briefly cover the architecture itself and what made the system so effective and powerful for both software developers and Internet users who wanted more useful and functional web applications.

If you take a look at my poor attempt at drawing above, you’ll see a rough representation of the Java program flow. Essentially, Java developers write an application. I’m focusing on Java Applets, because this is about Internet apps – local Java applications are a whole different beast with their own unique considerations.

Developers create Java Applet code that can get embedded into any web page. Whether you’re running Ubuntu, Mac or Windows, when you launch that applet with your particular browser version, the Applet attempts to run within it’s “sandbox” known as the Java Runtime Environment or Java Machine. I found some cool, simple examples of how Java applets work, created by Joseph Bergin of Pace University in 1996.

As you can see, this simple application accepts user input, and responds to that input by sorting random points in the manner chosen. This application accepts the Java Code and converts it into machine readable code that’s appropriate for that particular operating system so that the mouse, display and other system functions work correctly with that application.

As you can see from his background code, Java is an object oriented language, with classes and objects that are common for all Java developers. This is the beauty of Java development – the platform you’re writing for doesn’t matter, because everyone speaks the same language.

Java is now an application runtime platform that is becoming more accepted and “standard” throughout the world, and it is one of the most popular programming languages chosen for online application development. You can install the latest JRE for your operating system anytime.

Security Concerns & Why You Should Feel Safe

The entire Java layout was developed with user security in mind. Sun developers wanted to structure the JRE and the language in a way that, while not impossible to hack, would be much more difficult. In recent years we’ve all heard some nightmare accounts of ActiveX viruses and the like, but Java remains at the top of the list for most businesses and corporate environments as one of the safest methods to run web apps within a browser. Most corporations leave Java enabled in their browsers, and most client machines are installed with the latest JRE.

When you run a Java Applet, or just install the JRE, you’ll notice the Java icon show up in your taskbar. When you see this, you know that you have Java installed. To check the version, just right click, open the Control Panel and select “About…”

This runtime environment, or “sandbox” protects your computer from malicious code, simply by the way the functionality was developed and the language was structured. Some of the safety considerations you can count on when you’re allowing Java in your browser, and installing the JRE on your system are as follows.

• Java has public methods which developers can utilize, but these common methods have security checks that ensure they are not being used improperly by the application. This means that access to many objects (such as the File object) have a certain “security checkpoint” process before any application can access that public method within the Java library.
• Java is considered “type safe,” meaning that the compile and runtime variable types are compatible – verified at compile or runtime. This blocks malicious code that attempts to get around access control safeguards by “casting” objects. All this means is that Java has removed the ability of another entire class of Malware and Virus software to cause problems.
• Developers declare methods as “final,” which means that outside applications (such as malicious softare) can’t override methods – only the actual declared method is invoked for the object. Another security crack sealed up by Java.
• Finally, while it’s a thorn in the side of many developers, Java does not allow pointers as a data type. While this means developers need to develop other ways to accomplish tasks where they would use pointers, it also means that array pointers can not be manipulated – nor can programmers accidentally overrun an array length with faulty code. Malicious apps can not take advantage of pointer arithmetic to get access to system object pointers, because there is no pointer to manipulate.
• Java has its own “garbage collection” to recover memory, thereby blocking the ability for malicious code to allocate memory for one purpose, de-allocate it and then use it (with a new pointer) for malicious purposes. Again – an entire class of malicious code is blocked because of this.

If you’re not a programmer, then all of the above information should simply reassure you that the Java approach to running web applications is one of the safest available. You can feel fairly confident running the JRE on your system and launching Java applets.

One more thing to understand when you run Java Applets is when you’re asked whether you want to provide a “trusted certificate.” Accept these requests carefully, because once you do, the Java Code can run somewhat outside its normal Applet “sandbox.” You can access what certificates you have as trusted by going in the Java Control Panel and clicking on the security tab, and then clicking on “Certificates…”

Unsigned Applets can only make network connections back to their host, display web documents, invoke only public methods (see the security benefit listed above) and they can read system properties. Signed Applets, on the other hand, can access the local filesystem, files, clipboard and printers and they can access other remote servers, and much more. Even so, the fact that the user (you) has to explicitly grant such permission is a nice safeguard. I recognized every app on my list – nothing gets added automatically.

Are you a Java developer? What’s your opinion of the functionality and security of Java applets? If you’re just a regular Internet user, and not a developer, do you consider the process of running Java applets easy enough to understand? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

There is not much information out there on how to do this. But I have found JavaFX that can be installed on your Windows Mobile device. It also comes bundled with The Sun Java Wireless Client and several test applications.

To begin the installation of Java for Windows Mobile, visit the above URL and download the last option entitled:

JavaFX Mobile 1.2 For Windows Mobile

Click the check box next to JavaFX Mobile 1.2 for Windows Mobile and then check the box that says I agree below it. Then click the download button. That will download the 5.2MB zip file.

Inside the zip file you will find a directory called DIST and below that BIN. In the BIN directory there will be a CAB file that you can install on your device. If you are downloading the zip directly to your phone, skip to the next step. If you are extracting on your PC, drag the SUN_JAVAFX.CAB out of the archive and copy it to your device.

If you copied the zip directly to your device, find the zip file and open it with Zip Mobile by clicking on it.

Then select the CAB file and double click on it to execute the installer.

I strongly recommend you use your device’s memory for installing Java unless you have a fast memory card. It uses about 8 MB of space.

Next you will see a progress bar as JavaFX installs. It took about 3 minutes on my HTC Tilt 2 running Windows Mobile 6.5

JavaFX will let you know when it is completely installed. You will see the message below when you are ready to launch JavaFX.

Now you will need to locate the program file. I found mine in my start menu. If yours is not there (depending on your version of Windows Mobile) then you will need to navigate to your Program Files directory and find JavaFX. Click on JavaFX to start it up.

You will see a file menu inside JavaFX. There are a few bundled Java applications such as a calculator, DisplayShelfMode, Fish Simulator and Twitter Mobile. These applications are here to show you the power of Mobile Java as well as allowing you to test your Windows Mobile ability to run Java applications.

Go ahead and attempt to run one of them by clicking on it. You will see a JavaFX splash screen like you see below. When that disappears you will see your application.

I chose the Fishing Simulator. It allows you to click on the water or fish and create ripples in the water. This is not like any fishing I know. Creating ripples would frighten the fish off ““ wouldn’t it? But anyway you get the idea that Java is functioning on your Windows Mobile device.

You can load other Java applications from the programs main menu as you can see below:

You can also create folders, manage network options and certificates. Enjoy fellow Windows Mobile users!

For more Windows Mobile tips and tricks, check out my Windows Mobile manual that I wrote.

To really take advantage of the opportunity to learn the Java Programming Language, I came to the conclusion that the internet was my best friend. Over a period of weeks as I continued to learn. There were about 5 major websites that I referred to on a constant basis for Java application examples–and I’d like to share them with you.

First, let me recommend that no matter what, you should pick up a book or two on Java. Books allow someone to focus almost completely, whereas the internet is oftentimes shrouded by distraction or multitasking. I personally find that owning the book is best, since it gives me the capability to highlight important pages or mark specific sections with a sticky note. This works best for me, but of course your mileage may vary.

Next, I would turn to a variety of online sources to give you relevant java application examples and different explanations for the concepts presented in a book. Below I’ve outlined several websites where you can do just that–and even a bit more.

Planet Source Code

A valuable database full of Java programs, Planet Source Code boasts one of the largest Java code databases I’ve seen on the internet. Within the website, you’ll find the source code for thousands of Java applications, games, and utilities. Some of the categories on Planet Source Code even include programs dealing with security, data structure, and applets–to name a few.

While you’re there, I would highly recommend viewing PSC’s java program Hall of Fame, where the most impressive or well written code submissions from the past few years are displayed. I personally found that the programs in the Hall of Fame were useful and professional. Oh, and of course–the source for all of the programs is free for you to use, monkey with, and recompile on your computer.

Freeware Java

Hands down one of my favorite sites as a Java Resource, Freeware Java provides source code for hundreds and hundreds of games and applications. This is by far one of the most valuable websites I’ve had access to over the past year for learning Java. My suggestion for using this as a resource is to look at a game or application similar to an area of interest you have, or even a program you want to write. If I want to write an air hockey game, it would be very beneficial to get coding ideas from another programmer’s “Classic Pong” source code, and improve on his or her methods and ideas.

If nothing else, Freeware Java gives you source code access to quite a few well written Java applets and Java application examples. I’d recommend you go straight to the applets page to check out the source for chat rooms, games, website scripts and more.

Java Galaxy

Java Galaxy is another internet database with hundreds of applications and games complete with free source codes for your learning pleasure. The difference between Java Galaxy and some of the other source code databases in this article is that Java Galaxy source codes are smaller and simpler–the programs aren’t as complex. I would recommend that if you’re a new Java programmer looking for simple examples, you check this site out before the others.

If you’re only about the source code itself, then just go straight to that page. However, feel free to take a look at some of the other interesting features that Java Galaxy has to offer, such as sample interview questions for java developers, or a practice test for the SCJP exam.

Java2s

Java2s is a relatively popular resource for Java developers because it contains a useful database of example code for different aspects of the Java language. An aspiring coder would be hard pressed to find something java related that isn’t contained somewhere in the Java2s website. One valuable resource that the site offers is a very structured Java Tutorial section which especially centers on file I/O and Swing, but has a section on almost everything.

Caution; this site doesn’t have any eye candy or pretty flashing lights that many websites today thrive off of–you can expect a practical, organized java resource and nothing else. While the site is not 100% dedicated to program source codes, I decided to include it because it still offers a large amount of code, but in a structured and ordered manner that I found extremely helpful.

Java DB

Java DB provides access to a database of Java programming tips and example Java code for certain problems. The site’s layout is relatively simple and convenient as far as content management goes. Code examples and tutorials are separated into small box-categories on the home page, and there is a Google site search box for accessing quicker, more targeted results. Also on this site is an excellent free Java Language Tutorial. Although a work in progress, the tutorial is comprehensive, informative, and clear.

Learning Java can be an extremely daunting process, especially if you’re preparing for the SCJP exam or something to that effect (if you are, I feel your pain). I often find that one of the best ways you can gain an understanding of something is by jumping headlong into it. Learn from other people, get your hands dirty, ask questions and make mistakes (I certainly do). Hopefully this article gave you a few resources to use in learning Java or getting a feel for its practical uses.

If you have a site to add to this list, let me know in the comments section and I might add it to the article.