Saturday, December 28, 2002
Pocket Internet Explorer and Downloads
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 01:18 PM
Just when I think I can't possibly dislike Pocket Internet Explorer any more, some new fault crops up that makes me think "What on earth were they thinking when they designed this?" :evil:. Case in point: I created a Microsoft Reader-formatted eBook of Ed's long column, because I thought it would make for good reading on a Pocket PC (and hey, you can keep it on your device and show it to people when they say Palm is "simpler" than a Pocket PC). I then hit the mobile site on my XDA to download the book - because what can be cooler than downloading an eBook over the air onto your device, right? Well, apparently someone at Microsoft doesn't agree with me - go ahead, hit the mobile site and tap on the link. What happens? It downloads the file all right, but as raw code, not a LIT file. The same thing happens with Today themes - raw code, no download.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is because Pocket Internet Explorer doesn't have LIT and TSK as supported MIME file types - and since it doesn't know what to do with them as a file type, it downloads the files as raw code. Complete lack of intelligence, and we're not talking about some esoteric file format here - LIT and TSK are Pocket PC native file formats with applications that use them.
So, Microsoft, what are you thinking?
UPDATE: Uh, it would seem that this issue is tied to the MIME types setting on my server, which just might make my entire point moot. :oops: Still, I have to wonder why Pocket Internet Explorer doesn't deal with unknown MIME types like Internet Explorer does. If it's an unknown MIME type, it simply downloads the file. That makes more sense doesn't it?
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is because Pocket Internet Explorer doesn't have LIT and TSK as supported MIME file types - and since it doesn't know what to do with them as a file type, it downloads the files as raw code. Complete lack of intelligence, and we're not talking about some esoteric file format here - LIT and TSK are Pocket PC native file formats with applications that use them.
So, Microsoft, what are you thinking?
UPDATE: Uh, it would seem that this issue is tied to the MIME types setting on my server, which just might make my entire point moot. :oops: Still, I have to wonder why Pocket Internet Explorer doesn't deal with unknown MIME types like Internet Explorer does. If it's an unknown MIME type, it simply downloads the file. That makes more sense doesn't it?
