I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to be a private beta tester for AT&T’s new Pogo Browser they are in the process of developing. This browser really pushes the status quo for both Microsoft and Mozilla when it comes to usability features. The primary advantage the browser brings to the market is its use of thumbnail images of web pages, which are incorporated into every aspect of traditional browser functions.

First of all let me just disclose that I am not a software tester, I’ve done no performance testing or comparisons of the Pogo browser against Internet Explorer or Firefox. My specific interest in Pogo is its usability features.

As stated, Pogo makes use of image thumbnails of web pages as usability aides that make it easier to manage multiple websites, bookmarks, and history. There are five main sections where the use of thumbnails as a feature is showcased: PogoDock, Collections, Bookmarks, Springboard, and History.

PogoDock. The PogoDock is Pogo’s version of tabbed browsing. Instead of tabs at the top of the browser window with the text-based title page for each tab, Pogo places a dock at the bottom of the browser with thumbnail images of each page you currently have open. This gives you a quick visual reference of all your open websites. The PogoDock has a tack button in the lower right to toggle the auto-hide feature, so you can gain the extra browser window space as desired.

Collections & Bookmarks. Collections is basically Pogo’s version of Favorites or Bookmarking. When you want to bookmark a page, you add it to your Collections. Think of Collections as just a subfolder in your Favorites list. When you launch Collections, they display in the web browser as three dimensional containers that you can scroll through using your mouse wheel. When you are at the Collection that contains the site you wish to open, just click on the Collection, then double click on the site thumbnail.

Springboard. Springboard is a set of webpages you want to be able to access from a single view. A Springboard can be set to display upon startup, as opposed to your default web page. This is Pogo’s alternative of multiple home pages . Whereas IE has a limit of 8 home pages that can be upon on startup, you can add many more pages to your Springboard for startup.

Visual History. Have you ever gone back into your history to look for a page that you viewed yesterday, but you cannot remember the name of the site you were on? Say you were doing a Google search looking for an answer on a quirky Outlook problem, and you viewed several search results. Now you want to go back and re-read one of those pages. You’re looking at the history in Explorer Bar, but it’s not helpful at all. There’s about a 100 entries from yesterday, all in alphabetical order.

Pogo answers that usability issue by taking snapshots of the pages you viewed, and incorporates them into the history. When you launch history, it loads in the browser window, as does Collections and Springboard. It’s history displays the snapshot of each site you visited as a thumbnail, and provides the domain name, and a timestamp of the page visit. In addition, it displays history in chronological order, not alphabetically.

As you can see, the Pogo Browser really does a great job of using visual elements to enhance browser usability. While it is still unclear whether or not Pogo will have enough fortitude in the marketplace to dethrone Internet Explorer or Firefox, it will certainly force both players to take a look at what they are doing, and how to follow suit in looking at browsing as much more of a visually rich experience.

Following up on my Wednesday morning post, I bought a Motorola Q9c. Not on the forefront of cutting edge, but it is still a purchase I’m excited about. I chose not to get a Blackberry right now, mainly because the extra $120 per year charge I would incur with my hosted e-mail provider, AppRiver.

The great thing about the Q is that I’m now participating in the beta for Qik.com. I got my approval notice and set myself up on Thursday, while waiting for Showplace East to fix the movie WarGames. Here is my first broadcast from my Q:

I will be having fun playing with Qik’s service in the upcoming weeks. My wife already hates it!

I also downloaded a .wav reader from CoreCodec for the Q so I can listen to my voicemails on e-mail from my phone.

Well, my Treo just couldn’t hold out another month. For the past 24 hours I’ve been nursing 5% battery life trying to get the thing to charge, and it appears that it is a lost cause. I’m going to have to make a move on a new phone purchase today. However, there is no way I can nurse the Treo for 10-21 business days while I wait for an iPhone to ship to me. So, what is my plan?

First, I will stop by the AT&T store on a whim and a prayer that they just received a shipment of iPhones and I will be lucky enough to get one. If this works, I will also buy a lottery ticket!

If that plan doesn’t pan out, I will go to the Verizon store and renew my contract, which is up in October, and get either a Blackberry Curve, or a Motorola Q. The Blackberry will also cost me an extra $9.95 per month with my hosted e-mail provider, AppRiver. So that may force me the Q route. Not ideal, but Qik.com does support it! And, they are now in open beta!

I spent about 20 minutes at the AT&T Store today contemplating the purchase of an iPhone. I walked away without a purchase. I’ve not decided against a purchase, I’ve just not yet been sold on making a purchase. While I love the fact that so many mobile web apps are part of the iPhone package, such as the App Store, a web browser that is superior, YouTube and iTunes (My iPod has been broken for 4 months now), there are just a few issues I have which are really important. Here they are:

1. The soft “keypad.” Having had a Treo 700w for almost two years, I’ve become accustomed to being able to feel the keys or buttons. I can also rest a finger or two on other keys and not worry about pushing them. This is not the case with the iPhone. I had a tough time with “pressing” the correct letters on the display, usually hitting the key just to the right of the letter I wanted with my right hand, while accidentally pressing keys with my left hand several times, when I was trying to find a place to rest it while my left hand was idle. In this regard, sticking with the Blackberry or Palm line may be a requirement for me.

2. No video. Apparently the new iPhone 3G only does pix, no video. Next phone I buy I want to be able to record video, and this phone (at least at this point in time) does not have that capability. I do not understand why this is, since Qik.com has apparently figured out how to do video from the iPhone. How is it they can figure it out but Apple’s own development team cannot?

3. Still a long wait. I talked to the rep at the AT&T Store in College Mall, and he said that they have not had inventory since July 12th. They are only doing order fulfillment, and the lead time is 10-21 business days. Since I have little patience, I want to be able to make a purchase and take it home that day. I don’t want to make a purchase and go home and wait.

So with that, it does give me a little more time to consider alternatives, such as a Blackberry, and I could possibly hold out on a Google Android phone.
By the way, Paul’s Down-Home Blog wrote up a really great post on the iPhone’s new messaging capabilities.

Another good possibility for me is the new Blackberry Bold. Here’s a great video comparison between the Bold and the iPhone 3G. Since the soft keypad seems to be a sticking point with me for usability, it could be the path I wind up taking.

I suppose I could look also at a Treo 800w , which palm just released for Sprint. I think I’m done with Palm. It was a good intro into Smartphones, but I think I’m just looking for more mobile web features.

ZDNet is reporting that a study by an IT/Security consulting firm found more than 800 vulnerabilities in several Antivirus software products. Among the top 5 worst: Symantec, McAfee, and TrendMicro. Take a look at the results.

Among the top three in terms of least vulnerabilities was AVG. We have been promoting AVG over Symantec since last fall. While the pricing is not as aggressive as it had been prior to the release of version 8, what you get for the price is still comparable to the three major AV brands. AVG’s base AV product is $34.99, compared to Symantec’s $39.99. In light of the results of the study, the choice becomes much more clear.

If you would like ForthPhaze to assess your risk level s and vulnerabilities, you can contact us for a free consultation today.