Resolution independent display of internet content

An apparatus comprising a hand-held mobile device, including:

• a processor,
• a communications device operatively coupled to the processor, to enable the apparatus to be wirelessly linked to a network to access Web content;
• a display;
• and
• storage means, operatively coupled to the processor, in which a plurality of instructions, including instructions corresponding to a browser having a rendering engine and instructions corresponding to an operating system, are stored that when executed by the processor enable the apparatus to perform operations including,
• in response to a request to access a Web page made via a user of the apparatus,
• retrieving markup language-based Web content associated with the Web page having an original format defining an original page layout, functionality and design of content on the Web page, the content including text content, a plurality of hyperlinks, and a plurality of images;
• processing the markup language-based Web content with the rendering engine to generate page layout information corresponding to the original page layout as interpreted by the rendering engine including a width of the Web page;
• and
• employing scaled page layout information and/or data derived therefrom to generate views of the Web page on a display, including,
• a view under which the width of the Web page is fit across the display;
• and
• views of the Web page generated in response to associated user inputs to enable a user to iteratively zoom in on a portion of the Web page while preserving the original page layout, functionality, and design of the content on the Web page defined by the markup language-based Web content,
• wherein preservation of the functionality defined by the markup language-based content includes preservation of hyperlink functionality.

A tangible non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions comprising a browser including a rendering engine configured to be executed by a wireless hand-held device having a display and an operating system and configured to access Web content via a network, wherein execution of the instructions in conjunction with execution of the operating system enables the machine to perform operations comprising:

• in response to a request to access a Web page made via a user of the machine,
• retrieving markup language-based Web content associated with the Web page having an original format defining an original page layout, functionality and design of content on the Web page, the content including text content, a plurality of hyperlinks, and a plurality of images;
• processing the markup language-based Web content with the rendering engine to generate page layout information corresponding to the original page layout as interpreted by the rendering engine including a width of the Web page;
• employing the page layout information to generate scalable page layout information;
• and
• employing the scalable page layout information and/or data derived therefrom to generate views of the Web page on the display, including,
• a view under which the width of the Web page is fully displayed;
• and
• views of the Web page generated in response to associated user inputs to enable a user to iteratively zoom in on a portion of the Web page while preserving the original page layout, functionality, and design of the content on the Web page defined by the markup language-based Web content,
• wherein preservation of the functionality defined by the markup language-based content includes preservation of hyperlink functionality.

A method comprising:

• in response to a request to access a Web page made via a mobile hand-held device,
• retrieving HTML-based Web content associated with the Web page having an original format defining an original page layout, functionality, and design of content on the Web page, the content including text content, a plurality of hyperlinks, and a plurality of images;
• processing the HTML-based Web content with a rendering engine to generate page layout information corresponding to the original page layout as interpreted by the rendering engine;
• employing scaled page layout information and/or data derived therefrom to generate scaled Web page content at multiple scale factors;
• and
• employing the scaled Web page content to enable a user to browse the Web page at multiple zoom levels on the mobile hand-held device while preserving the original page layout, functionality, and design of the content on the Web page defined by the HTML-based Web content as interpreted by the rendering engine,
• wherein preservation of the functionality includes preservation of hyperlink functionality, and wherein the user is enabled to iterative zoom in on a portion of the Web page.