Nokia Xpress (also called Xpress Browser) was a
mobile browser
A mobile browser is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile browsers are optimized to display Web content most effectively on small screens on portable devices. Mobile browser software must be smal ...
developed by
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
and supported by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
until the end of 2015. It came loaded by default with
Series 40
Series 40, often shortened as S40, is a software platform and application user interface (UI) software on Nokia's broad range of mid-tier feature phones, as well as on some of the Vertu line of luxury phones. It was one of the world's most wi ...
,
Asha Platform
The Nokia Asha platform is a mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for low-end borderline smartphones, based on software from Smarterphone which was acquired by Nokia. The platform inherits UI similarities mostly from MeeGo ...
and
Nokia X Software Platform
The Nokia X platform was a Linux-based mobile operating system and software platform originally developed by Nokia, and subsequently by Microsoft Mobile. Introduced on 24 February 2014, it was forked from Android and used on all the devices of ...
. It uses the
Gecko rendering engine. On Nokia feature phones it was replaced by Opera browser in early 2015.
About
Nokia Xpress Browser uses intermediate Nokia proxy servers to optimize web pages based on the capabilities and screen size of the device. The
proxy servers
In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource.
Instead of connecting directly to a server that can fulfill a request ...
also compress data to reduce data transmission charges for the mobile user. The browser was released for
Lumia devices in 2012.
Privacy
Like the
Opera Mini
Opera Mini is a mobile web browser made by Opera. It was primarily designed for the Java ME platform, as a low-end sibling for Opera Mobile, but it is now developed exclusively for Android. It was previously developed for iOS, Windows 10 Mobil ...
, the Nokia Xpress
browser decrypts and compresses
HTTPS
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It is used for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the Internet. In HTTPS, the communication protocol is enc ...
traffic, routing it through Nokia's own servers. This practice seeks to provide faster browsing for users of feature phones and smartphones with lower
processing power
In computing, computer performance is the amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system. Outside of specific contexts, computer performance is estimated in terms of accuracy, efficiency and speed of executing computer program instruction ...
(and thus lower bills for less mobile data usage). However, as pointed out by researcher Gaurang K. Pandya, this raises serious privacy concerns, because Nokia is essentially "performing
Man In The Middle Attack
In cryptography and computer security, a man-in-the-middle, monster-in-the-middle, machine-in-the-middle, monkey-in-the-middle, meddler-in-the-middle, manipulator-in-the-middle (MITM), person-in-the-middle (PITM) or adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) ...
for sensitive HTTPS traffic" and temporarily decrypting user data—which could be sensitive financial information, passwords.
The company admitted to the technical details, but stated, "Claims that we would access complete unencrypted information are inaccurate".
''
GigaOm
Gigaom is a technology focused analyst firm and media company. The company evolved from a blog which offered news, analysis, and opinions on startup companies, emerging technologies, and other technology related topics. It was started by Om Malik ...
'' criticized Nokia, which, unlike the Opera Mini, has failed to make it clear that HTTPS traffic will be decrypted during transit. It recommended that Nokia learn from
Amazon's Silk browser, which leaves HTTPS traffic unperturbed.
User agent
The Xpress Browser reports the following user
agents:
User-Agent headers for Nokia devices - Nokia Developer Wiki
Developer.nokia.com. Retrieved on 2013-08-21.
Nokia
Lumia, Nokia 311: Mozilla/5.0 (Series40; Nokia311/03.81;
Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1) Gecko/20100401
S40OviBrowser/2.2.0.0.31
Nokia X3-02: Mozilla/5.0 (Series40; NokiaX3-02/le6.32;
Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1) Gecko/20100401
S40OviBrowser/2.0.2.62.10
Nokia 225: Mozilla/5.0 (Series30Plus; Nokia225/20.10.11;
Profile/Series30Plus Configuration/Series30Plus) Gecko/20100401
S40OviBrowser/3.8.1.2.0612
See also
* Mobile browser
A mobile browser is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile browsers are optimized to display Web content most effectively on small screens on portable devices. Mobile browser software must be smal ...
* List of web browsers
The following is a list of web browsers that are notable.
Historical
Layout engines
* Gecko is developed by the Mozilla Foundation.
** Goanna is a fork of Gecko developed by Moonchild Productions.
* Servo is an experimental web br ...
* Comparison of web browsers
General information
Basic general information about the browsers. Browsers listed on a light purple background are discontinued. Platforms with a yellow background have limited support.
Operating system support
Browsers are compiled to run o ...
* S60 browser
Nokia Browser for Symbian (formerly known as Web Browser for S60) was the default web browser for the S60 and Symbian mobile phone platform. The browser is based on a port of Apple Inc.'s open-source WebCore and JavaScriptCore frameworks which ...
* Internet Explorer Mobile
Internet Explorer Mobile (formerly named Pocket Internet Explorer; later called IE Mobile) is a mobile version of Internet Explorer developed by Microsoft, based on versions of the MSHTML (Trident) layout engine. IE Mobile comes loaded by def ...
References
External links
XpressBrowser for Series 40
Windows Phone page at Beta Labs
Download for Windows Phone
{{Nokia services
Mobile web browsers
Nokia services