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The BOLT Browser was a web browsing system for mobile phones including feature phones and smartphones able to run Java ME applications. The BOLT browser was installed on the phone, and BOLT servers accessed Web pages, processed and compressed them, and delivered them to phones running the browser. The BOLT Browser was offered free of charge to consumers, and by license to mobile network operators and handset manufacturers. BOLT was produced by Bitstream Inc., the company which previously produced ThunderHawk for mobile network operators and handset manufacturers. BOLT was originally introduced into private beta on January 15, 2009[3] and was made available to the public on February 16, 2009[4] when the public beta was announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. BOLT supported Java-based handsets with Java MIDP 2 and CLDC 1.0 or higher.[5] BOLT also has specially optimized version for BlackBerry smartphones[6] and worked with Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices that employ a MIDlet manager or Java emulator. BOLT was built using the WebKit rendering engine to display a full Web page layout as found on desktop web browsers.
Screenshot of BOLT Browser v1.04 Beta3 | |
| Developer(s) | Bitstream Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | February 16, 2009 |
| Final release | 2.52 [±] |
| Engine | WebKit |
| Platform | Java ME[1] |
| Available in | English, Spanish, and Russian; can display web pages in languages with Latin or Cyrillic-based alphabets[2] |
| Type | Mobile browser |
| License | Proprietary |
In December 2011, the BOLT proxy server was discontinued, disabling the service, and browser development stopped.
On 12 December 2011, Bolt's website changed to display the following message:
Dear BOLT User, The free BOLT mobile browsing service has been discontinued. Unfortunately, the economic circumstances prevent us from running a free service going forward. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your loyalty and support. The BOLT Team
The browser displayed a banner indicating that the service would be discontinued on 14 December. From that date the browser no longer functioned.
The distinguishing features[19] of the BOLT browser included split screen rendering, a patented BOLT technology in which a compressed view of the desktop style page layout was visible in the upper two thirds of the screen. A magnification rectangle was available for scrolling over this area. A magnified view of the selected area was displayed in the lower third of the screen. This technology enabled the user to view desktop style layouts of web pages without compromising readability on small screens.
Bolt had several additional features. Tabbed browsing enabled the user to browse more than one site simultaneously. BOLT used cloud-based servers that could compress the data reaching the device (sometimes as much as 24-fold), providing faster page loads and reducing the amount of data transferred; many users paid per megabyte. The proxy servers used by BOLT were located in the United States.[citation needed] BOLT provided a special mode for easing the view of web pages.[20] A split-screen mode featured a rectangular magnifier floating over a zoomed out mini-map of the entire Web page on the top 2/3 of the screen and a magnified view of the content under the magnifier on the bottom 1/3 of the screen. The magnifier floating over the mini-map enabled the user to quickly find information and navigate Web sites with ease.
BOLT enabled the user to back up favorites to the device's memory and restore them back through BOLT directly. Favorites to the user account could be backed up at BOLT Space and restored back regardless of device, its platform, BOLT type (BOLT or BOLT Lite) and location. BOLT supported HTML media based audio and video streaming, and also supported expanded streaming flash video support.
BOLT offered Facebook integration, an ability to post messages, links or URLs from any page displayed in BOLT directly to the Facebook account without navigating away from the currently viewed page. BOLT offered support for Facebook chat and other web-based chat apps. It also provided support for YouTube web apps, enabling the searching and viewing of videos directly in BOLT.
The BOLT mobile browser was compatible with the majority of mobile phones. It offered desktop-style web browsing including the ability to stream video.
A patented split-screen viewing feature and intuitive keystroke shortcuts made navigating web pages simple. BOLT was built using Bitstream's ThunderHawk mobile browsing technology.
BOLT was built using the WebKit rendering engine to deliver the same web page layout as found on desktop browsers and included high standards compliance such as AJAX and flash video support. Bitstream's client/server technology, mobile fonts and font rendering technologies speed content delivery enabled mass market deployments, improved readability and allowing BOLT to fit more information into smaller screens. BOLT's underlying ThunderHawk mobile browsing technology supported both J2ME platforms, as well as non-J2ME environments though a C++ SDK.[21]
The BOLT browser passed the Acid3 test with a perfect 100% score.[22] Acid3 is a test page from the Web Standards Project that tests how well a web browser supports certain web standards.
BOLT was signed with third-party certificates from VeriSign and Thawte.[24] These "signatures" enabled the device OS to confirm BOLT's authenticity, provide access to secure device APIs, and help ensure that BOLT was free from malware and/or viruses. Signed applications enable users to use BOLT with fewer permission dialogs for file and network access from their device's OS.
However, a few platforms including Motorola P2K did not allow installation of signed builds. To enable installation on these devices, an unsigned version of BOLT, with no certificate, was also offered.
BOLT proxied all requests via BOLT cloud servers to compress traffic and maintain site-specific information about users, such as browser cookies and site preferences and the contents of shopping carts. This solution had major security implications: BOLT could trivially track user activity and even arbitrarily tamper with content displayed by the browser.
BOLT used an encrypted protocol called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to access secure Web pages. The connection between the device and the BOLT server was also encrypted.[25]
A certificate is an electronic document that can help identify a Web site's owner and can help you make decisions about trusting the site with personal or financial information. BOLT warned about certificate error when there was a problem with a certificate or the server's use of the certificate.
BOLT was available in English, Spanish, Russian, and Indic.[26]
BOLT supported viewing Web sites in all Latin-based languages including English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Flemish, Swedish, and many others that are fundamentally Latin-based. Using the "Install Fonts" utility, you could also view Web sites in Cyrillic-based languages including Bulgarian, Russian, Belarusian, Serbian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Moldovan, Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Tuvan and Mongolian.[27]
BOLT was also available in the Indic languages.[28]
The BOLT browser received numerous awards and mentions in the media. Some of the important awards for the BOLT browser are:
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