Mobile Internet Explorer's New User Agent | Hacker News Reader

Mobile Internet Explorer's New User Agent

googlesystem.blogspot.com

16 pointsGarbage8 comments

This article doesn't add anything that the original MS blog didn't already cover.

tl;dr: Nobody should be using browser detection anymore. That's why feature detection libraries such as Modernizr exist.

My guess is that it's server side UA detection, which should pretty much be obsolete as wel..

Yeah, except I can't check for bugs presence with Modernizr. SVG implementation is broken in Firefox, how am I supposed to detect it in wonderful world of HTML5 and user agents containing name of every browser in existence?

Huh, interesting. I just checked on my phone. I have a recently-updated Lumia 520, but one bought from a telco instead of directly from Nokia.

My useragent starts the same as the one in the screenshot, but in the end, it has "like Gecko" instead of "like iPhone OS 7_0_3 ...", and, as if it was important, I have my telco name in the useragent (!) - the result is, gmail renders for me like in the latter screenshot.

Seems it's the last time I bought a phone from a telco company.

Are you sure you're running Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 (that was released yesterday)? My 930 is still running 8.1 without update 1 and it still ends with "like Gecko." My friend's 920 with update 1, on the other hand, is now using the same user agent as in the blog post.

For a reference (settings → about), the version on the second line is the one with the new UA:

    Windows Phone 8.1 (OS version 8.10.12397.895)
    Windows Phone 8.1 Update (OS version 8.10.14147.180)

Ah I misunderstood. I've just had WP 8.1 installed like a week ago (vendor version hence the delay probably), I'd have to wait next couple of weeeks for the update. Thanks for the info.

Windows Phone 8.1 Update is final yet. It is in developer preview. You can get the preview right now by registering as a developer and downloading the Windows Phone for Developers preview app. See https://dev.windows.com/en-us/develop/phone-updates

Warning: you may void your warranty.

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