Yesterday was the big unveiling of iPhone 2.0. Even with its lowered price, many customers are still locked into contracts they can't break yet, and others still - believe it or not - are happy to continue using their mobile devices of choice, be them Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Nokia, Samsung, or something else altogether. Unfortunately though, no matter what device you use, browsing the mobile web can be somewhat of a challenge. However, now there are new applications that allow you to browse the mobile web in completely new ways: with tiles.]]>
Zumobi
There's an application for Windows Mobile users called Zumobi. Finally out of beta, this app offers a unique way to browse the mobile web - it loads up a widgetized interface displaying tiles that represent your favorite web sites. You "browse" the sites by zooming in and out - a process that's much easier than typing in a URL using the small buttons of your mobile device. You can pick and choose which tiles you want on your page from the Zumobi gallery or you can create your own from any RSS feed. The only drawback to Zumobi, of course, is that it's currently limited to Windows Mobile. A Blackberry version is in the works, but it hasn't arrived yet.
Goojet
For everyone else, there is a new application called Goojet which brings the concept behind Zumobi to anyone with a mobile phone. With this app, the tiles are called by the rather silly name of "goojet," and there are also many to choose from in their online gallery. There are goojets for Gmail, YouTube, Twitter, News, Shopping, Weather, and more. And as with Zumobi, you can create your own personal goojet from any web site that has an RSS feed. You can even create a personalized goojet with one click to make a mobilized version of your favorite web site. With Goojet, there's a social element, too - any goojet you create can be shared with yours friends via the mobile app.
The Goojet web site was annoyingly difficult to use - requesting plugins in Firefox and not displaying at all in IE - a pop-up appeared saying "operation aborted". (This could be some misconfiguration on my part, but I did not delve into it to determine what that may be. I have no other issues with IE.)
Despite these problems, it may be worth it to put up with Googjet's site since the end result is a mobile app that lets you browse the web in a way that's very similar to Zumobi, but without needing a Windows Mobile device to do so.
For the iPhone-less, widgetized browsing such as that provided by these two applications makes the mobile web more personal and usable...which should at least tide us over until we can all afford to get our iPhones, too.
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