Nokia Browser 8 Alpha for Maemo/N900 Release Notes

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+ Release Notes for
+ Nokia Browser 8 Alpha for Maemo/N900 +
Update Version 805-1 +
25-Aug-2010
+ +
NOTE: These release notes were current as of the time the software was packaged for release. For up-to-date release notes, visit the Browser Team's Wiki pages. +
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Overview of the Release:

The Nokia Browser 8 is Nokia's latest web browser based on the latest open-source WebKit engine and built using the Qt application framework.

The Nokia ASF Browser project's mission is to provide a fast, easy to use, web-standards based browser that can compete alongside the best of the mobile browsers.

This is an Alpha Release of the Nokia Browser for the Maemo platform. It is for internal Nokia evaluation ONLY. Do not distribute this application outside of Nokia!

About this Update

This version (805-1) is being released to address a number of issues that our users found in the first Alpha release.

We very much appreciate the quantity and quality of feedback we have received over these few short weeks since we posted the first Alpha. There where five change that we made for this release based on your feedback: +

Volume Buttons (hardware) controls zoom in/out You can now use the volume control buttons on the top of the phone to control the zoom level!
Thanks to the user who posted the code snippet for this!
Full screen mode w/ improved scrolling The browser will now enter "full-screen-mode" and remove the top status bar. This has the benefit of providing more space for the web page and also improves our scrolling performance.
New Most Visited Icon/Button A visual change only, but an item we got a lot of feedback on.
Updated theme in bookmarks, history, and settings views Another visual change, we updated the look and feel of the "sub-views" of the browser to better align with the N900's themes.
Zooming works even if a Viewport is set You will now be able to zoom in or out on a page that is "fit-to-width" (think small pages like Google's homepage) or that use the Viewport meta tag to constrain zooming.

Target Platforms/Devices:

This version of the Nokia Browser is released for Maemo 5 / N900 only. We highly recommend updating your Maemo base software to the latest firmware release before installation!

Prerequisites:

Nokia N900 device, consumer version (CE) required.
Latest platform software loaded/updated onto the device. This release has been tested with: N900 Software Version 10.2010.19-1.002.

Known Issues:

Flash Content is not supported: Flash (and indeed all) plug-ins have been disabled for this release for performance reasons.
"X" button in sub-views: You will notice that in the browser "sub-views" (History, Bookmarks, Settings), the "X" button in the upper-right hand corner is still visible / available. Pressing this WILL exit the browser (as in the main content view).
Default Text Size: Due to the increated resolution of the display (compared to some previously supported devices), text size may appear too small on some pages.
Feedback Button in Settings View: The feedback button in setting view will attempt to compose an email message using the device's messaging application. If you have not yet defined an email account, you may be prompted to at that time.
Feedback Button in Settings View: Feedback is provided via email "in-the-clear". Therefore, do NOT use any references to or comment on any Nokia Company Confidential information! If you wish to discuss confidential topics, use the Backstage forums.
Default Browser: Once installed, this Alpha release of Browser 8 will NOT become the device's default browser. There are utilities available that CAN change the default browser and you are welcome to try using them. But please not that this is NOT a tested configuration.
Zooming: During our testing we have noticed cases where the zoom buttons on the toolbar do not have the correct "state". Sometimes the buttons may be grayed-out (diabled) even though the page may appear to be "zoomable". Also note that in some case, having the buttons disabled is normal. This will be the case for pages (like the Welcome Page) where a viewport is defined.
Most Visited (after clearing History): The Most Visited feature uses your browsing history to display the 6 most visited pages. If you clear your history, the 6 "slots" for most visited pages will revert to 6 default URLs. However, the image thumbnails for those pages will be gone (they are deleted when you clear your history...). You should be able to access them, however.
Windows view & page thumbnails: On the N900 you can view all open windows (browser and others) by using the button in the upper-left of the screen. There are cases when we have seen the page thumbnails in the browser windows sized incorrectly.
Lost URL Bar: In some cases, when creating a new window, the new window may be created without a URL / Search Entry bar at the top. If this occurs, close that window, load a "simple" page, and try again.
Panning/Scrolling "jerky": Depending on the size of the loaded page and the zoom level, the panning/scrolling may be a bit "jerky". We are working to improve this.

Features to Evaluate: