Microsoft announces Deepfish!

When a couple of days ago Microsoft announced that two of the biggest announcements since CES would break over the next forty eight hours, speculation threatened to overload the Internet. The unveiling of the Xbox 360 Elite was expected, but there was another? Halo fanboys began to uncontrollably shake in anticipation.

Unfortunately, those hoping for a buyout of Grand Theft Auto developer Take Two or a brand new games enabled Zune will be disappointed. Microsoft's second big thing comes in the form of a new mobile phone browser named Deepfish, and despite it not being the second coming of whatever religious icon you choose to believe in, it still looks pretty neat.

Whilst not an entirely new concept, the approach to mobile web browsing Deepfish takes is a distinct departure from other mobile browsers. Currently, web designers have to implement completely different layouts for mobile viewers, which turn their wonderfully designed sites into boring lists of text that have more in common with the web of the 1990's, rather than our elegant twenty-first century designs.

Thankfully Deepfish throws this approach out the window. Instead, it displays a miniature version of the web site, with the same layout, graphics and styling of what you'd get from looking at the same site on your home computer. Of course, this makes it quite hard to read, but at a touch of a button you can zoom in on any part of the page for crystal clear clarity. Those who’ve been marvelling at Opera’s Wii web browser should know instantly what to expect.

Best of all, Deepfish is currently free and instantly downloadable from Live Labs. So if you've got a Windows Mobile 5.0 compatible phone, go take a look! It's limited availability, so get in as soon as you can.

Quick links:

Deepfish on Live Labs

Deepfish video on Channel 10