14 DAY TRIAL // As we already reported yesterday, the team behind the popular UC Browser announced it would release the next version of its mobile browser for Java phones today.
True to its promise, UC Web has just unveiled the availability of UC Browser 8.0 for Java. The latest version of the application can now be downloaded from Softpedia or directly from the developer’s site.
UC Browser user interface has been redesigned to prove more appealing and show users that a basic application doesn’t necessarily have basic features.
Lots of new features have been added with the latest version, mostly based on users’ feedback. The first thing one will notice is the new polished design and layout of the application’s user interface.
Certain features are now much easier to access thanks to the new optimization and layout of the interface. It will take around 10-15 seconds until the application loads, but only the first time you open it.
The first window comprises an Opera-like speed dialer with four panels. Two of them are pre-defined, but the other two can be configured with your favorite website.
UC Browser 8.0 features deep social networking integration, so users can be updated with the latest notifications from Facebook. You can switch to Facebook with the dedicated “Switch” button on the bottom right corner of the menu.
The same button can be used to browse between various tabs of the application, including Downloads, Navigation and Favorites.
There’s also a cool new features called “Magical action function,” which is better described by the developer: “When you operate on Windows via PC, it's convenient to choose what you want with the right mouse button by opening a quick menu. In the same philosophy, UC Browser knows what you want when you stop at a place and gives the most convenient options to choose.”
According to which elements you are accessing, you will be presented with a different set of options. You have different actions when moving to a picture, shortcut, empty place or homepage element.
There are also lots of options that you can set to make your Internet browsing experience much smoother. You can pre-define the block size of each page that loads (by default 300K). You can also choose how to operate UC Browser 8.0, using the Normal or Mouse mode.
More importantly, you can now save downloads on the memory card, but make sure it’s not in the root folder. There are some limits to this, but that depends on the phone used and language. Certain phones set length limits to filenames, while others don’t support Chinese characters, so make sure you rename these files so they are compatible with the phone.
You can also use the browser in Full screen mode and select the Page Segmentation for faster loading. The application also embeds an integrated File Manager, which is very easy to use.
In addition, users will be able to choose one of the four search engines that are included with the UC Browser 8.0: Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.
I was unable to install the application on Android or BlackBerry devices, so I tested it using a Nokia C3 with S40 UI.
