NetFront 3.1
from ACCESS Systems America

This review is based on the Pocket PC 2002 OS because at the time of this writing, my device is still running that version. There is a version of NetFronts 3.1 for Windows Mobile 2003 as well, and we plan to supplement this review with that version in the near future.

Now that I have a converged device (Samsung i700), I do a lot more "mobile surfing" than ever before. Pocket Internet Explorer (referred to as P.I.E. in the rest of this review) works okay, but it is obvious that Microsoft did not put a lot of thought into the app. It doesn't have much in the way of features. The more you surf on a Pocket PC, the more you realize what is missing in the app. NetFront 3.1 by Access Systems is a feature-rich alternative. Here is a list of those features:

The File menu

Bookmark

The bookmark feature is considerably enhanced over P.I.E., in that you can create folders. One thing I noticed - the folder must be created on the device, not on your PC (I tried to do it from Internet Explorer on my Desktop, and the folder did not appear on the device). But, once you have created a folder via the device, you can easily add bookmarks (favorites) from Internet Explorer on your Desktop.

Here, I created a folder called 1_test (so it would show near the top of the tree) and added NHL.com via my Desktop. I like this feature! It appeals to the organized surfer!

Page memo

Page Memo allows you to annotate comments about a page. That could prove handy. Sometimes I will bookmark a site, and later when I re-visit that page, it will take me a while to recall why I saved it! You can choose where to save the memos as well...

History

Even though P.I.E. has a History menu, this one is much more robust. I like the expanding tree feature, as well as the dates. It makes finding previously visited sites a lot easier and faster.

Misc

In the Misc tab, you can open a variety of files (.html, .htm, .jpg, .gif, .txt, .png, and .mng), which is useful.

There are other things in the File menu such as Auto-Cruise items, but I will cover those further on...

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