Since the introduction of Wi-Fi on the BlackBerry, and the Bold 9000, RIM's first 3G BlackBerry, surfing the web on our handsets has been faster than ever. Still, BlackBerry users will be getting an extra kick in speed according to a recent patent application by RIM entitled, "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENHANCING NETWORK BROWSING SPEED BY SETTING A PROXY SERVER ON A HANDHELD DEVICE." Who doesn't want faster browsing speeds?
The patent sheds a little light on how data is transferred now, and the solution RIM plans to offer to make that process more efficient. RIM states, "One reason is that the data is sent across the air uncompressed. This increases traffic and lowers browsing speed." Ever the innovative engineers, the folks at RIM have come up with a clever way of enhancing current technologies by creating a proxy server on the handset in order to compress and transcode HTTP requests before it hits the air. A quick glance at the patent summary reveals:
"A system for enhancing network-browsing speed by setting a proxy server on a handheld device comprises a browser for sending a request for requesting a message from a website and receiving a response in response to the request, a proxy server for transcoding and compressing the request, and transcoding and decompressing the response including the requested message in response to the request, a wireless network communicably linked to the proxy server, Mobile Data Service (MDS) gateway for transcoding and decompressing the request, and transcoding and compressing the response including the requested message from the website."
So, instead of having to send data back and forth several times just to get information to load on your browser, a proxy server should be able to handle compressing, transcoding and decompressing much faster. Now we just need to couple this technology with a brand new WebKit-based browser and then maybe we'll finally have that kick-butt web surfing experience all of us BlackBerry users have been waiting for.
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