Upgraded to Surface2, but now websites showing up in "mobile" versions

[oion]

I am quite sure I saw this UC Browser in the App Store, though I have not used it.

Oh, it's in the app store. I mean on the official UC Browser website itself, they don't list Windows 8/RT as a supported OS/platform at all, so by all rights it shouldn't be in the app store. It's either a hack job or the official UC Browser folks decided to keep mum about it.

It seems that Microsoft's addition of a "touch" token to the IE11 user agent string is what's different between IE10 in Win8 and IE11 in Win8.1, so the website authors do need to catch up with the fact that there are full-OS (or at least full web browsers) on touchscreen devices these days. Until then, everyone will blame Internet Explorer, what with its rather tarnished history.

 

[kristalsoldier]

But I thought browsers were not allowed in the Store!!!

 

[oion]

But I thought browsers were not allowed in the Store!!!

It must be some kind of proxy service or... I don't know what tech they're using, which is exactly why I'm doubtful.

 

[Dave T.]

It seems that Microsoft's addition of a "touch" token to the IE11 user agent string is what's different between IE10 in Win8 and IE11 in Win8.1, so the website authors do need to catch up with the fact that there are full-OS (or at least full web browsers) on touchscreen devices these days. Until then, everyone will blame Internet Explorer, what with its rather tarnished history.

Exactly. If MS changed the user agent string, it will take developers a while to catch up. Unfortunately, many won't even try unless a lot of complaints are registered, and even then some developers, or the folks that pay those developers won't bother. It might be a lot better if MS would add an option to IE 11 to identify as IE 10.

I'm watching this thread with great interest, as one of the reasons I wanted the Surface 2 was it's ability to display web pages as a desktop. I simple hate most websites in "mobile mode".

 

[ctitanic]

It must be some kind of proxy service or... I don't know what tech they're using, which is exactly why I'm doubtful.

As far as I know, the App in the Windows store is the real deal. The makers of that "browser" are... Chinese.

About the use of proxy services. It's not something new. Few years ago during the Golding era of the PocketPCs, Opera released a version of it browser that rendered webpages at an incredible speed. The trick was simple, the web page request was being sent to an Opera Server which compressed the images and resized them accordingly to the screen resolution of the pocketpc. The result, less traffic so a faster browsing experience. Only one problem... During the beta testing it was found that pages like Google all the suddenly were showing ads in German or some other European language. What happened was that the Server were in Europe so instead of taking the client or requester location Google was mistakenly taking the servers location to localize their Ads.