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By David Rothman

Universe 3Universe 3, a Palm OS-based Web browser, has just come out in beta form for such devices as the Palm TX and Treo phones.

Features, as summed up by the Palm Information Center, include:

  • A Tabbed interface (supporting up to 3 tabs)
  • Advanced 5-Way scrolling (based off of the Nokia S60 Browser)
  • Integrated RSS reader
  • Private browsing (mask the history, cache and cookies)
  • Support for JPEG, GIF, BMP and PNG (with alpha channels) images
  • Support for HTML/XHTML/WML/RSS 1.0/2.0
  • Support for WAP 1.0/2.0
  • Support for Hires and Hires+ screen sizes

I’ll try Universe 3 this weekend, but will welcome TeleBlog readers scooping me in the comments area. Based on what I know, “snazzy” would in fact be the word.

On top of everything else, my TX‘s built-in browser is choking on the long list of RSS feeds that I’ve assembled within Bloglines. So if Universe can do the job, the timing might be impeccable.

Need GIFLibrary

Please note that you’ll need the GIFLibrary to display many images on the Web, and that the library beta will expire March 24.

Also, there are glitches on certain machines. What’s more, you’d do well to make a backup on your Palm before trying the beta. Also see related blog.

Obvious detail: The tab feature could be great for mobile phone sites offering e-books. You might well be able to search a site with one tab while doing a download within another. Alas, however, the download feature is among those not enabled yet.

Related: Daylight Savings Time updater for Palm owners.

 
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