PUBLIC MARKS from decembre with tags lifehacker & navigateur

The universal, high-speed-everywhere web isn't quite a reality yet, as anyone who's used a relative's dial-up or a seriously weak airport connection can testify to. Web page re-formatting tool Finch gives you just the text, ma'am, from any site you plug into its address box, stripping Flash, JavaScript, stylesheets, and even images from the layout. Tools like this often crop up for mobile phones, such as Google's Mobilizer, but Finch is made for the desktop browser. Some sites will work better with their graphical navigators removed than others, of course, but for anyone stuck with a fist-poundingly slow connection, or paying for every megabyte, Finch is a great bookmarket to keep handy.

Mozilla's Firefox-like browser for mobile phones, code-named Fennec, has been released as a free alpha preview for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems (and Nokia N810 Internet Tablets). As you would expect with an alpha preview, it's a bit buggy, and not all the features are in place, but it's intriguing to see how Mozilla plans to smoosh Firefox 3's features onto the tiniest screens. If you want to know what Firefox on your phone might look like, read on for detailed screenshots and a rundown of Fennec's features.