New Version of Free, Great Bandwidth Saver, Toonel, is Out – With Even More Features And Better Compatibility!

http://www.toonel.net/downloads.html

EDIT (Jan-28-2006): the tutorial below is only meant for pre-WM5 devices. As far as WM5 is concerned, please read this. Readers actively following this blog and/or having read my article on configuring/using the previous, 0.0.50.45 version, certainly know what Toonel is – the best bandwidth usage saver utility for the Pocket PC. It is not only free, but also offers even more advanced features (mail compression) than the (currently) only other, commercial bandwidth saving service for the Pocket PC, OnSpeed. For example, during my last, 3-week vacation, Toonel has saved me some 20-30 euros because of the heavily reduced GPRS traffic. (Even the cheapest Finnish pre-paid – I don't like non-prepaid constructions because of the risks involved – GPRS operator, Go Mobile, asks for 1.7e for every Megabyte of traffic. Fortunately, this is done in 10k units.) Indeed, Toonel is a very useful service to use. What's new in the new version?

• GIF compression support
• The ability to use a chained (note that Toonel uses the expression 'parent proxy' when referring to chained proxies) proxy server (please read my not just Toonel-specific bandwidth usage reduction tutorial on what this means). Note that version .50 still lets you to surf the net really anonymously, as can be seen in the following screenshot: click for screenshot As can be seen, the X-Forwarded-For HTTP header still has the value of 'unknown'. That is, you won't need to use an external proxy server to hide your identity – you can still trust the Toonel service.
• configurable memory usage (explained later)
• compatibility with the latest Mysaifu JVM, as opposed to version .45. Please note that as you can't pass command-line parameters to Mysaifu JVM, you must start Mysaifu by hand and fill in the screen that comes up as follows (this is pretty awkward, but if you really need to use a free JVM, you can get used to it): click for screenshot

As far as the first three bullet points are concerned, there is a completely new page (accessible via the 'web' link) in the Web-based interface, which allows for setting the image (GIF/JPEG) compression rate and the chaines proxy address. It also has a drop-down list to set the memory usage of Toonel; on Pocket PC devices with plenty of RAM you can safely keep it on the default, High value because it will result in the best compression available. On severely memory-constrained devices like the iPAQ 195x (see this blog entry) or Treo 700w (see this thread), you will most probably want to play with this setting in order to minimize the RAM usage. click for screenshot The only drawback in the new version is that the main page no longer displays the amount of data traffic since the last refresh. This is a big, unwelcome step back because this feature helps a lot in finding out how much traffic loading a particular Web page/mail body generates or if Toonel is working at all or needs a complete restart (shutting down via the Web interface and restarting it; fortunately, the Internet connection doesn't need to be interrupted for this): click for screenshot Downloading & Installation Download the new version from here. Transfer it to your PDA (you can simply overwrite the previous toonel.jar file to make your life easier) and edit the .lnk file that starts Toonel. You will need to modify the class name; you will need to change the client.WebUI/gui.ClientForm string to gui.ClientForm -t. Note the trailing "-t"! Do not leave it out and make sure you put a space in front of it! After this, the new version will work OK. To make your life easier, I've also provided the new link files here. Use them as described in the .45 tutorial. There is no Mysaifu-related link file in the ZIP file; the reason for this will be explained later. Finally, I must point out again that you should read my article on configuring Toonel version .45 first to see where to get a JVM from, how to configure the proxies etc. This blog entry is just an add-on to that article. Please note that if you use CrEme and clean up to get rid of the unnecessary files as described in the 'EDIT on 17-Dec-2005' section of the original article, Toonel won't work, not even in the recommended GUI-less mode (using the -t parameter). That is, you must keep either the original, 730k AWTclasses.zip file, or, to reduce its storage needs, delete every classes from it, except for the following ones: java.awt.Component java.awt.Container java.awt.Frame java.awt.MenuContainer java.awt.Window java.awt.image.ImageObserver To make your life easier, I've uploaded the edited file here. EDIT (9/Jan/2006): Here're some memory usage/timing/compression rate benchmarks, comparing the new (.50) version to the older (.45). As with all in my Web content transfer compression/benchmark tests, I used the test page here. The results are as follows:

Version/memory model	.45	.50; High memory	.50; Medium memory	.50; Low memory
Memory usage with CrEme 4.00	2.75M after start	3.07M after start; 4.74M after loading page	3.01M after start; 4.27M after loading page	2.94M after start
Time needed for transfer & render	0:39	0:40	0:40	0:46
Traffic transfer through Toonel	83-85k	68-78k	105-113k	269k

As can clearly be seen, the new version indeed offers some 15% better compression in the default high memory usage mode than the previous one. The two other (medium/low memory usage) modes, however, result in a, especially with the low memory version, unacceptable tradeoff, as far as the compression rate is concerned. That is, try to stick to the "High" mode all the time if... yes, here comes the if. I had to spend the Sunday in bed so I had a lot of free time to browse reviews of current digital cameras* on my Pocket Loox 720 via Toonel + GPRS, I had a lot of time to stress-test the new Toonel version, stability-wise. I have the following to report: When used the latest, 0.50 version, I've sometimes (not always! For some 2-3 hours, I had no such problems) run into the need to periodically (about every 30-40 minutes) shut down (by clicking the "shutdown" link in the Web-based control panel of Toonel available at http://127.0.0.1:7999/ ) and then restart the entire application, using the default "Hight" (sic! not "High") memory usage mode. (See the new "Web" page on the local PDA at http://127.0.0.1:7999/ after starting the client.) There're several ways to fix this problem:

1. stick to version .45. This is probably the best solution if the approximately (see the test above) 15% worse compression is not as big a problem as periodically shuting down Toonel manually from inside your browser and restarting it
2. if you still prefer using .50, can put up with the slighly worse compression rate than with version .45 and don't want to manually shut down anything, set the memory usage to "medium", as can be seen on the following screenshot: click for screenshot

Please note that this problem has nothing to do (Toonel remains running - this is why it's still accessible via its Web interface at http://127.0.0.1:7999/ ) with the operating system's shutting down the process, which can't be controlled but some internal bug. Also note that I've only had the chance to test the long-time usability of the new version with CrEme 4.00 (my favourite JVM because of its speed) but not with other JVM's. The problem may not be present with other JVM's. Finally, some offtopic (but still technical) stuff. *: it's really hard to choose a decent camera model. All of them have something really nasty. (And, unfortunately, HP's models after the excellent R707 are as bad as most of their other cameras. I don't understand why they couldn't produce something as good as the R707.) I've even made a small chart of what's bad/good (in my opinion) in current digicams. Note that I haven't listed things common with all the listed cameras (for example, very good optical resolution - they have all very good lens in this respect). I haven't considered no-SD/no-CF and AA-battery-based cameras either because of the price and PPC incompatibility of the alternative memory formats and the hurles involved in using AA batteries, respectively.

Models	The bad	The good
Canon Ixus SD550	no optical image stabilizer (as opposed to all Pana models) low-res 2.5" LCD high purple fringing somewhat more expensive than FX9 starts at ~35mm, meaning no real wide angle (as opposed to LX1 or, even better, Sony R1)	considerably lower noise at 200/400 ISO than with any Pana models compact still much cheaper than the Sony R1 SD
Pana FX9	NOISE, even at "low" sensibility starts at ~35mm, meaning no real wide angle almost no manual setting capabilities "only" 6 Mpixel	optical image stabilizer SD compact (comparatively) high-res LCD
Pana LX1	NOISE	good starting wide angle (28mm), as opposed to the Canon, the FX9 and the LZ30 overall, good manual setting capabilities SD
Pana LZ30	NOISE pricy if you take the price of Sony R1 into account size no real wide angle (starts at 35mm)	no purple fringing (especially as opposed to the Canon model) SD
Sony R1	price (but not compared to DSLR's!) size/weight comparatively slow at writing to CF (I won't use Memory Sticks) its JPEG encoder isn't the best if compared to other high-end compacts (for example, the FX30) or low(er)-end (but, I admit, much more pricey) DSLR's its RAW mode isn't the best either comparatively (as opposed to Pana models) low-res LCD no SD. CF is tolerable, but some forthcoming high-end WM5 PPC's (for example, the F-S N560 - the one I'll get, I think) have no CF slots (and neither does my image tank, as opposed to SD) no video no orientation sensor no image stabilization not as noise-free as Canon's DSLR's at 1600/3200 ISO; still, much better than any compact	great optics! Really good wide lens (24mm!) - this is what I like the best in the R1! no noise up to 800 ISO: great compared to all Pana models (incl. the FX30) and the Canon 550 10 Mpixel

It seems I have to wait for new cameras to be released at CES and/or in the next few weeks. Other camera manufacturers are rumoured to come up with high-end "compact" cameras like the Sony R1. If you look at the Sony 828, the first 8 Mp camera to be manufactured, you can see that subsequent hi-end 8Mp models were considerably better. I think the case will be the same with "almost-DSLR", "cheap" models. What are your thoughts? Which one would you buy, knowing, based on the above chart, my preferences?