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Mobile Browser Field Gets Another Player

TeaShark is the latest to offer a Web browser for mobile phones. It has a beta version of the browser ready for general use and it can be downloaded straight to Java-enabled phones. What does it offer? Tabbed browsing, auto-completion, speedy browsing and integrated media capabilities.

The number of Web browsers available for mobile phones seems to be increasing at a dizzying pace. How is anyone to choose among them? Not all browsers work with all phones, but TeaShark is promising better browsing for Java MIDP 2.0-capable phones.

TeaShark was built from the same core used by the S60 and Safari browsers (WebKit3), both of which are very capable. TeaShark's developers are bringing their own ideas to the core, however, and have offered up some improvements. For starters, TeaShark offers tabbed browsing. This means you can have multiple pages open and quickly tab between them without having to reload or use a "back" or "forward" key to find them. Instead, you use thumbnail views of the pages to see each page before you go to it. And it has a more advanced history capability built in, so each time you launch your browser, it automatically resumes your previous session complete with all the same tabs open.

TeaShark brings color to your bookmarks. You can assign multiple color tags to a bookmark and share the same bookmark among several bookmark groups.

One feature I really like about the browser is its ability to make calls directly from Web pages. If you see a phone number on the page, all you need to do is just click to call. TeaShark also allows you to select text right out of the page and perform a search for it with your favorite search engine, saving you tedious and painful typing on mobile.

Lastly, TeaShark will team up with whatever native applications reside on your phone to accomplish tasks beyond its capability. You can click a download link in any page and the browser will launch your phone's built in browser to download the file for you. Or, if your phone supports streaming video, you can use TeaShark to point at the video's link and play it in your phone's media player.

So there you have it. Yet another mobile browser cluttering up the playing field. Feel free to download the beta here and check it out.

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