Spyglass Inc has developed the first version of its Device Mosaic browser for Microsoft Corp’s Windows CE operating system. Spyglass says Microsoft Corp began sending some prospective customers its way that wanted a browser to run on CE, but not necessarily on handheld machines. The two companies have known each other more or less since Spyglass’ commercial launch in 1994 – Internet Explorer was based on Spyglass’ technology, which it licensed from the University of Illinois, but there is no formal tie-in these days, just a well-cultivated relationship, says Paul Chapple, market development manager for the Naperville, Illinois-based company. We’re not treading on their toes, he says. Apparently Microsoft was not interested in writing browsers for every type of device itself, and so recommended Spyglass for the job. There are other browsers on the market for CE, including Microsoft’s own, but Chapple says none of them have the customization features offered in Device Mosaic 3.0. Central to this is the browser’s architecture, he says. The user interface has been separated from the guts of the browser and thus can be more easily modified. For instance, in an industrial control environment, users may not want a Windows look and feel, especially with users unfamiliar with personal computers. The browser is HTML 3.2 compliant and supports frame, tables, JPEG and animated GIF files. It can be extended to support such things as SSL security and streaming media. All of the dozen or so potential licensees that approached Spyglass wanted to move away from the standard interface in some way or another, says Chapple. He adds that Spyglass, which he says is very close to signing deals with some of them, will either license the source code, enabling the licensees to do the customization themselves, or do it in house and license them a binary. Spyglass has already ported its Mobile Forms database to CE and its professional services arm is part of Microsoft’s CE systems integrator program. Spyglass’ shares closed up a healthy $1.75, or 16.5% at $12.375, as technology stocks bounced back yesterday.
