Web Browsers on PDAs | Vale.Rocks

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From the moment the technology arrived to allow personal digital assistants (PDAs)1 a connection to the internet, people started connecting them to the internet, as is the natural order of things. Initially their connections were just for the most fledgeling of information fetching, but as the ’90s progressed and the World Wide Web became a feature of the digital landscape, PDAs received browsers.

Existent from when technology permitted to when society moved on and the smartphone took reign, browsers on PDAs were some of the first and most popular entries to the mobile web but held out only briefly while the incoming technology got settled.

There can be two main ‘types’ of browsers on PDAs considered: Those which could only access i-mode (iモード), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and Wireless Markup Language (WML) pages and those which comply with larger web standards and interface with sites written in HTML. This article covers the latter, full web browsers.

Note

Even with web browsers as a subject, the web was in such an infancy during early years of PDA availability that much information either never reached it or has been lost since. I'm sure a wealth of information exists hidden away in archives, but it is isolated such that discovering it is difficult.

Corrections and leads are welcome.

Unfortunately, to cover every PDA released and the browsers available to each is unrealistic, so instead PDA browsers are presented here by operating system. Through the ’90s, PDAs had to make use of computer syncing systems, external modems, and dial-up to facilitate internet access. Towards the very end of the ‘90s, infrared (IR) connections became reasonably popular, where by lining up the IR port on a PDA with the one on a mobile phone, a very slow and unreliable connection could be established. Around the turn of the millennium, some devices started to receive inbuilt antennas, and expansion systems became popular – often bulky additions with Wi-Fi cards or cellular modems. By 2003, high-end PDAs began to release, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built-in.

EPOC

Also called SIBO or EPOC16 (in reference to being 16-bit), EPOC was developed by Psion and first released in 1989. Unlike later PDA operating systems, EPOC never developed a broad browser ecosystem.

The earliest browser available for EPOC was PsiMail Internet, which had a web browser simply titled ‘Web’. It roughly complies with HTML2, though shows tables improperly, cell by cell. It supports the display of forms and GIFs, though not JPEGs, and images default to being disabled.

They also bundled STNC HitchHiker, which was built by British start-up STNC. However, in 1999 STNC was acquired by Microsoft, who were launching their own Windows Mobile operating system for PDAs, and subsequent releases of HitchHiker on EPOC ceased.

Following this, Psion made a deal with Opera, who began supporting the EPOC in 2000 with the release of Opera 3.62 touting:

Opera 3.62 for EPOC features Web browser functionality, full colour (256 colours) support, full zooming key mapped to a range of zoom levels, 128-bit encryption, SSL 2 and 3, TLS 1.0, HTML 3.2, Support for Java Applets using EPOC native Java implementation, JavaScript 1.1, and CSS1.

Opera became the default browser on EPOC devices.

Apple Newton

The device for which the name ‘PDA’ was coined,2 the Apple Newton, released in 1993. With help from the 1996 Newton Internet Enabler, which included an application titled Internet Setup, a TCP/IP stack, and a NewtonScript API, the Newton could get online.

First announced as NewtonWWW before later changing its name, PocketWeb released in late 1994 and received several updates throughout the Newton’s life. Developed by TecO, it could make use of an external proxy in some cases to bypass the Newton’s limitations. Version 2.4 brought the ability to display GIFs, though other images could be loaded via the proxy.

NetHopper, which was developed by AllPen Software and released in late 1996. It has image support (defaulting to disabled), with ability to scale images to fix the screen, as well as the ability to create, edit, and delete bookmarks. A button exists to list the current webpages’ headings so they can be jumped to easily, and the browser has plug-in functionality, though it requires plug-ins for even basic functionality like support for HTTP.

NetHopper versions 3.0 and 3.2 were bundled on some Newton devices and on November 17, 1997, AllPen was acquired by Spyglass. Spyglass later dropped support for NetHopper with the announcement that Apple would be discontinuing the Newton, and were then acquired themselves by OpenTV.

Newt’s Cape, also going by Newtscape, was released by solo developer Steve Weyer in 1999. It supported HTML 2.0 (with some HTML 3.2 features), basic forms, text formatting, and image loading. The browser could also create Newton books from webpages. It was released as freeware in 2018. A tool designed...