MAJOR Browser shortcoming? really?

[loribinca]

so I posted an issue on the lumia 900 forum about not being able to render this particular website -

http://forums.windowscentral.com/lumia-900-ace/191151.htm

I emailed lytro about it who told me that on non-flash devices it uses HTML-5 to render the page

so after a little digging I find this statement that says that the browser on the windows phone does not support HTML5 .. are they serious? WTF !!

HTML 5 support in IE on WP7?

...
The browser for Windows Phone 7.0 is based on IE 7.0, which does not support HTML 5 (in desktop terms HTML 5 support is part of IE9, which is currently under development).
...

OK so now I now have to make do with a phone that does not support flash, and does not supposedly support what is touted to be it's replacement

Nice Job Microsoft .. Nice Job ..


has anyone written a PROPER browser for this phone?

 

[theefman]

That was for version 7.0. With Mango 7.5 IE was upgraded and is based on IE9 and now supports HTML 5. Try going to youtube and you will be presented with the HTML 5 version with full functionality. The site you are having problems with probably doesnt recognise IE on WP and doesnt present the HTML 5 content.

 

[pjs37]

That was for version 7.0. With Mango 7.5 IE was upgraded and is based on IE9 and now supports HTML 5. Try going to youtube and you will be presented with the HTML 5 version with full functionality. The site you are having problems with probably doesnt recognise IE on WP and doesnt present the HTML 5 content.

^^ This. I have noticed this has been an issue a lot and it is more it seems like something the website creators need to fix on their end regarding the browser flags than anything else.

 

[loribinca]

^^ This. I have noticed this has been an issue a lot and it is more it seems like something the website creators need to fix on their end regarding the browser flags than anything else.

In lieu of that (I will email lytro back) is there a way to set a user agent to "force" it to render html5 ?

What is the string wp7 is returning as the agent? Thanks

 

[rbrunner]

Agent string

User agent string from a Lumia 800:

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 9.0; Windows Phone OS 7.5; Trident/5.0; IEMobile/9.0; NOKIA; Lumia 800)

 

[socialcarpet]

MAJOR botching and complaining.... before you know the facts and realize it's probably the fault of the webmaster not Microsoft. :straight:

Really?

 

[eric12341]

In lieu of that (I will email lytro back) is there a way to set a user agent to "force" it to render html5 ?

What is the string wp7 is returning as the agent? Thanks

you can change the user agent in the settings, under website preference change to desktop version instead of mobile version. With this setting you'll be identified as a desktop IE9 and will be presented with the full functionality of the site. This setting displays all websites properly as long as they aren't formatted for IE6.

 

[ninjaap]

you can change the user agent in the settings, under website preference change to desktop version instead of mobile version. With this setting you'll be identified as a desktop IE9 and will be presented with the full functionality of the site. This setting displays all websites properly as long as they aren't formatted for IE6.

That's not going to work. The desktop version of the site she is trying to view uses flash. Mobile version uses HTML, which our phones are capable of. The problem, it seems, is the site does not recognize mobile IE9.

 

[eric12341]

That's not going to work. The desktop version of the site she is trying to view uses flash. Mobile version uses HTML, which our phones are capable of. The problem, it seems, is the site does not recognize mobile IE9.

Now that's a problem , I wish web devs would use html5 instead of flash for their desktop sites too.

 

[loribinca]

so I get the same result if I open up IE9 on my desktop and put in those nokia agent strings and visit the site - so whatever they're doing in HTML5/Javascript looks like it's not working with IE9 wouldn't you say?

I am not sure how you go about trying to figure out where in the page its failing, as i am not a web developer.

 

[pjs37]

Here is an interesting article that may or may not be relevant to the topic at hand: It froms the Windows Blog and it talks about websites and rendering on Windows Phone 7.5

Delivering Rich Mobile Web Experiences in Windows Phone 7.5 (ESPN.com Case Study)

Specifically it examines ESPN's site and before and after effect and what ti took to get there.

 

[eric12341]

so I get the same result if I open up IE9 on my desktop and put in those nokia agent strings and visit the site - so whatever they're doing in HTML5/Javascript looks like it's not working with IE9 wouldn't you say?

I am not sure how you go about trying to figure out where in the page its failing, as i am not a web developer.

what's going on is the developers of that site are either using webkit code strings which IE9 can't recognize since it doesn't use webkit or they haven't added the lumia 900 as an exception. Either case it's the fault of the web developers and not Microsoft.

 

[Jrexxx]

I've been in a similar situation: I wanted to open livescore.com to check football (yes football, not soccer ) scores since they don't have an app for WP, it loaded for a second, then displayed an error. Another exmaple is remote.utorrent.com which doesn't load at all... I don't know who to blame, the site developers or MS. Both sites used to work on my iphone and still work on my ipad.

 

[pjs37]

I've been in a similar situation: I wanted to open livescore.com to check football (yes football, not soccer ) scores since they don't have an app for WP, it loaded for a second, then displayed an error. Another exmaple is remote.utorrent.com which doesn't load at all... I don't know who to blame, the site developers or MS. Both sites used to work on my iphone and still work on my ipad.

As others have said its likely the web site coders fault. IE9 is very HTML 5 compliant but some have developed things to work specifically with Webkit (What Safari uses) and in turn that makes them work with Chrome based browsers. Its actually a lot like how IE used to be where IE had very special codes that only worked in IE

 

[Jrexxx]

As others have said its likely the web site coders fault. IE9 is very HTML 5 compliant but some have developed things to work specifically with Webkit (What Safari uses) and in turn that makes them work with Chrome based browsers. Its actually a lot like how IE used to be where IE had very special codes that only worked in IE

Then why doesnt MS make IE webkit compatible?

 

[thed]

Lots of people making assumptions in this thread. I am pretty sure this is not the web developer's fault.

The site appears to use html5 canvas touch events for its functionality. Now I can't find any official documentation, but from what I've read, IE on WP does NOT support html5 canvas touch events. That's why it works on iPhone and Android but not WP.

It's ok to blame MS for this. They clearly have more work to do on the browser.

Edit: I should add that this is consistent with what I've seen on other websites. Ever try to play Words with Friends on your phone browser via Facebook? It uses HTML5. The game will load but you can't do anything. Lack of touch events is probably to blame there too.

 

[eric12341]

Lots of people making assumptions in this thread. I am pretty sure this is not the web developer's fault.

The site appears to use html5 canvas touch events for its functionality. Now I can't find any official documentation, but from what I've read, IE on WP does NOT support html5 canvas touch events. That's why it works on iPhone and Android but not WP.

It's ok to blame MS for this. They clearly have more work to do on the browser.

Edit: I should add that this is consistent with what I've seen on other websites. Ever try to play Words with Friends on your phone browser via Facebook? It uses HTML5. The game will load but you can't do anything. Lack of touch events is probably to blame there too.

nah this is incorrect, cut the rope works just fine in IE as do many other things with touch events, especially on the test drive site. So there's probably webkit based coding there too.

 

[eric12341]

Then why doesnt MS make IE webkit compatible?

why should MS have to rework the entire browser framework just because some idiotic web devs are putting </webkit> in their coding instead of basic html5 tags? It involves much less work if they slightly revise their code as what's been proven in the ESPN article.

 

[ninjaap]

Don't forget the mobile twitter site fiasco last month. Everyone was blaming MS and IE, because it wasn't rendering like it used to. But a week later, Twitter announced they fixed the problem.

 

[selfcreation]

Wait a min.......

is this a Discussion about a OUT DATED Flash sites not supporting the new and better HTML5 browsers?

cause if it is....