Related
http://www.access-company.com/products/netfrontmobile/browser/35_wm_tp.html
been trying it out for a few minutes on x51v -- it's pretty darn fast! It loads up Engadget in its entirety in around 10 seconds and is fully surfable after that.
I've goten it too and set it to my default browser. I defineatly like it but it is a memory hog. The only problem about this is if I leave it open in the background it errors saying not enough free memory.
Other than that it loads up in about 3 seconds on my titan andloads most big sites in about 10-15 seconds.
One issue is that sometimes while scrolling it seems the page has to refresh and keep up.
i am really liking this tech preview. i installed it last night and it's really zippy, although one time i got an error saying that it did not support javascript (even though it does elsewhere).
other than that one instance, everything works perfectly, and it renders web pages really quickly with the "Full Browsing" mode. (don't bother with Rapid-Render, it's actually slower than "Full Browsing"). also, for anyone that's used 3.4 tech preview, this 3.5 beta has working visual bookmarks, meaning it makes the thumbnail based on the part of the page you're viewing. it's great
My "Browser View" settings are (in order):
Full Browsing
Normal
75%
640x640
Medium
and with those settings, it is just flying.
A couple questions:
1) Does anyone know how to get the "External Tools" to work? I added .flv to work with TCPMP, and i went to YtPocket.com to test it out, but nothing happen. ytpocket sends flv format to TCPMP, so I don't know what happened. any ideas?
2) What is the difference between "Full Browsing" mode and "Simple Browsing" mode? they both render the pages as we would see on the desktop, and i can't see much speed difference.
this blows skyfire out of the water. i keep getting the memory error.
I tested netfront 3.5 for a few hours. It seems to me that it is faster than opera mini. However, I am waiting for opera mobile 9.5. I heard it will a lot better than skyfire and netfront 3.5
They finally come up with an update after all these years! (alright, well months...) and obviously, it still doesn't do it.
sounds like a lot of WM browsers around here. PIEPlus has been stuck at 2.2 for as long as I've been using WM, but I'm waiting to see what Opera's next attempt will be like.
rzanology said:
this blows skyfire out of the water. i keep getting the memory error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You keep getting the memory error with which program? And could you give us more of an in-depth comparison since you've tried both?
For me it seem to take forever to download a website.
Like cnn.com take a good 3-6 minutes to download when using IE take less a minute.
But once downloaded it scroll the page very fast but I do notice if I use my finger to scroll the page around it keep opening up my battery status setting apps.
I was no where near the battery icon which does that when you touch it.
Bill
its decent, it doesnt support youtube or any other video site... in addition to that, there isnt a dedicated back button lol, which is crucial. ill wait for opera... itll own all the other web browsers, bar none.
Hehe
i wil keep ma fingers crossed and jus wait for the new Opera 9
well...skyfire feel too unpolished. even though its fast...its just not ready yet. there is no mobile few. im a fan of mobile few...meaning...i like the browerser to org everything in on coloumn so there is no need for scrolling to the right or left. how ever.....netfront does a good job of the zooming out and zooming in. so i can live with that. its also faster than skyfire. but i still find myself needed to launch up opera mini....for my myspace and facebook needs...as well as general browsing like gizmodo.com and engadget....opermini offers the best experence. but netfront really isn't bad. im looking foward to trying the new opera...as i didnt really care for 8.5 or 8.6 what ever it is.
Guys, Some questions.
I have never had the need to install 3rd party web browser.. due to the fact that I think the more apps you install, the slower your device will be... so, I always keep my apps to minimum...
Now, is skyfire/opera much faster than PIE? (how much faster?)
What makes you guys think that it is necessary to install 3rd party apps?
What makes you guys "hate" the default PIE?
joseph.sapri said:
Guys, Some questions.
I have never had the need to install 3rd party web browser.. due to the fact that I think the more apps you install, the slower your device will be... so, I always keep my apps to minimum...
Now, is skyfire/opera much faster than PIE? (how much faster?)
What makes you guys think that it is necessary to install 3rd party apps?
What makes you guys "hate" the default PIE?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even though pocket ie has gotton better...it just isnt up to snuff. you should really try opera mini...you're in for a treat.
um...the more you install on your phone doesnt really make it slower. but it is good practice to keep your 3rd party app to a minimum....to the device atlease. i install everything to the storage card.
TechBill said:
For me it seem to take forever to download a website.
Like cnn.com take a good 3-6 minutes to download when using IE take less a minute.
But once downloaded it scroll the page very fast but I do notice if I use my finger to scroll the page around it keep opening up my battery status setting apps.
I was no where near the battery icon which does that when you touch it.
Bill
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It takes me a good 3-6 minutes to load up CNN as well, in fact most sites PIE opens up faster. :/
I just timed cnn.com opening and it only took 44 secs on AT&T 3G connection. In fact, Im replying while on Net Front right now. So far Im really liking this browser, besides the fact that it burns through my battery with incredible speed.
I've been playing with this browser a lot over the weekend, and so I'm here to post sort of an explanation of it.
1) MEMORY HOG, wow that is my biggest issue. In Task Managers, it's only using up about 1.4 mb of RAM, but seriously, if i just open the browser (not even opening a webpage), then go to PointUI, every single animation is slowed down. That's just an example, but everywhere else, the device is slowed. Well, except for the browser itself.
2)I figured out the little differences between the Browser View Settings.
Browsing Mode
Full Browsing: Desktop Mode. As you see the site on your Desktop. My favorite by far.
Text Browsing: All Text. Pretty Straightforward.
Simple Browsing: Basically all text, except for some small images. For example, loading up the "Development and Hacking" here on Xda loads as all text, no formatting, but shows the little thread ratings stars, the little paperclip, the little thumbtack, etc.
Rapid-Render: Pretty annoying, from my tests anyway. Loads up the page as all text, then goes back and loads all the formatting so it ends up as a Desktop View. Seems good in theory (get the speed benefit of "Text Browsing", and you still have the option to wait for the full formatting of "Full Browsing"). HOWEVER, your reading is always interrupted because the screen refreshes itself and goes blank when it goes from Text to Full. I tested, and it takes the same amount of time to get to full formatting of a webpage whether you use Rapid-Render or Full Browsing, so I prefer to avoid that screen refresh.
Display Mode
Normal: Normal. Duh.
Just-Fit: Shoves everything into one screen, messing up all formatting.
Smart-Fit: Resizes web page tables and stuff to fit on the screen. Better than Just-Fit.
Zoom - It's obvious. Kinda annoying how NetFront reloads the page when you change zoom levels, though. I leave mine at 75%.
Virtual Canvas - Changes the screen size. Think of it like the size of your desktop monitor. Best setting for me is 640x640, because anything bigger shows tons of blank spaces on web pages (since NetFront auto resizes text to fit in one screen), and the "Disable" option doesn't allow you to double-tap the screen (or double click the Action Button) for the zoomed out screen.
Text Size - Obvious. I leave mine on Medium. Along with the 75% zoom, I am able to read text comfortably, as well as maximizing the screen area.
Whew.
Azimuth21 said:
I've been playing with this browser a lot over the weekend, and so I'm here to post sort of an explanation of it.
1) MEMORY HOG, wow that is my biggest issue. In Task Managers, it's only using up about 1.4 mb of RAM, but seriously, if i just open the browser (not even opening a webpage), then go to PointUI, every single animation is slowed down. That's just an example, but everywhere else, the device is slowed. Well, except for the browser itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is because it is a CPU hog. This is the best browser on memory I have used so far, especially on Simple Browsing mode. I have to close the browser when I am finished using it because it uses about 80% cpu when minimized. But it is so fast I don't mind.
I think everything else you have said is spot on.
Netfront 3.4 didn't use up any noticable CPU when in the background, 3.5 uses up a huge amount, since it's obviously something they changed/added, hopefully they fix it before release
i already posted this in another thread about netfront, but this thread seems to actually have people viewing it
after putting this browser through multiple speed tests, it continuously produced slow results...especially in comparison with IE
when connected to wifi, i tested multiple times, and heres about the averages i would get with the browsers
IE-1.7 mbps
Opera-800 kbps
Picsel-1.0 mbps
NetFront- 300 kbps
the only reason i wanted to speed test was because netfront felt slow, and according to those tests, it was alot slower than my other browsers...
i LOVE the browser, the wordwrapping to fit on screen works great, i like the scrolling, tabbed browsing, and everything.....featurewise, its better than opera, speedwise its terrible...
EDIT** i have been speed testing at www.mobilespeedtest.com
lupes5 said:
i already posted this in another thread about netfront, but this thread seems to actually have people viewing it
after putting this browser through multiple speed tests, it continuously produced slow results...especially in comparison with IE
when connected to wifi, i tested multiple times, and heres about the averages i would get with the browsers
IE-1.7 mbps
Opera-800 kbps
Picsel-1.0 mbps
NetFront- 300 kbps
the only reason i wanted to speed test was because netfront felt slow, and according to those tests, it was alot slower than my other browsers...
i LOVE the browser, the wordwrapping to fit on screen works great, i like the scrolling, tabbed browsing, and everything.....featurewise, its better than opera, speedwise its terrible...
EDIT** i have been speed testing at www.mobilespeedtest.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this... so basically, PIE is still the best in performance?
works fine on my device and on the htc HD without the need for wvgafix3
enjoy
direct cab download
http://get.skyfire.com/
the graphics looks scaled up from wqvga 400x240. why? maybe to save bandwidth?
i don't think you're allowed to post that, from what I understand skyfire have been complaining about copyright infringement.
Unless of course they've released it already that is..
i removed it i dont want to get into truble.
get it from here .9.0.9151
http://get.skyfire.com/
scrolling not as smooth as in opera. youtube video playback is a little laggy.
I really liked it. Much faster than Opera for me and the flash support is pretty good. Im looking forward to the next release for sure.
I gave it a try on my xperia TouchIT 3.5 RC1, i didn't find it good: no easy zoom, laggy youtube, and blurred text.
for now i'll stick with Oper...
I prefer Opera as well. There was much talk about this and was expecting way more. Unless you zoom in, everything is blurry (so how am i suppose to know whether I want to zoom in or not), it's laggy and just like opera it does not work with certificates. So I am sticking with opera for everyday browsing and internet explorer for certificate use.
Hmm, it really seems to be 400x240... I can't get it started, it says acquiring data connection and check flight mode, or do I only have to wait some time?
Got it, with WLAN it works, maybe I haven't waited long enough... seems to be not very fast...
got the same problem. but since its scaled anyway, i dont care much cause i dont think im going to use this.
text could be better. i have to refresh every now and then to get the text to clear up. playing the web video is good but could be smoother. its a beta and hopefully it gets better.
i found it to be a bit slow but i may attribute that to my wi-fi connection as to i am always past 30ft from my wireless connection and that i have it installed on my storage card.
for now its another web tool to keep in case i want to view a page with video content.
Youtube works, not perfect, but it works, that's nice, a fullscreen mode for the videos would be nice... the resolution is not nice, I think in full WVGA it would look much better...
full resolution will probably make go even slower. i think its geting pages as pictures as i see it supporting text languages that i know are not suppoted by my phone
they should dither the picture to make look less pixely
To me, the older Skyfire version 0.9.0.8294 seems to be better. It still looks blurry when zoomed out, but when you zoom in completely, it renders the page clearly. The .9151 version still looks blurry even if you zoom in completely.
are they caching the sites and we are getting the sites off their server??
this is a big security risk!
I noticed that because our proxy server is being bypassed
mystkai they aren't caching site, they are loading them for you on their fast servers and then sending an image down to your phone. Which is one of the reasons like Opera Mini why I tend not to use them.
I think it's the best flash included browser yet. My only problem with it so far is that it really does work best in wifi. The videos are at times choppy, but better than nothing at all.
is there a way to make it play the video in full screen or close to full screen. the zoom in function cannot be fine tuned
I personally like it alot. Yeah is blurry and laggy but is still a Beta remember. Once they fix those things it will be the best i think.
I think Skyfire has a great potential, and if it works without laggs and in full wvga it will be a great browser, I hope the next beta will work better, than I can watch youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmKyti2XEgY
Wow.....!!!
Results aside, that was a really great video, showing off what these phones can do.
Rematch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unrhua1stOg
Skyfire vs N1
Hmmm.....
I love how ill informed these reviewers are and the peons making comments. Android 2.1 supports multi touch, and there are browsers that take advantage of multi touch, even on 1.5/6 ROMs on my G1.
I do think the HD2 is one heck of a sexy phone! Too bad it is running WM, but maybe it will be nice and snappy with the dragon under the skin! I hope I get to test it for work, at the least.
Back on track, I think this matchup is pretty pointless, in the end, though. Both phones are going to surf at about the same speed, and comparing a proxy based browser to a phone based is flawed, to say the least. As well, Skyfire supports flash, which makes it even more flawed of a comparison. Come back in a month or two when Android has Opera Mobile 10, and flash support, then compare! Until then, it is flawed to make any sort of comparison.
Personally, as someone that was on a WM device before Android, both have pros and cons with their web browsing. Personally, the big thing with flash is youtube, and I think the Android youtube app trumps WM's. As well, I would say the overall browsing experience with the Android browser is better, especially when on a mobile network. But I was able to do a little bit more with WM, but it was a result of having 4 browsers to chose from.
Hehe, I guess we saw it differently. To me, the Nexus One absolutely hands down just slaughtered the HD2: Brighter screen, first to load content, first to finish, faster rotating. Hands down won in every category.
To be objective, plusses for the HD2: bigger screen (obviously) and more screen real estate (100% full screen once wepage fully loads), whereas the notification bar stays on screen permanently for Android. What I don't understand is that in Android 2.0, the address bar disappears once you scroll down the page. I wish there was an option to do the same thing with the Notification Bar. So you scroll down, and both the address bar AND the notification bar go away. Perhaps someone will hack this in?
(The skyfire test was kind of useless, since it "finishes" first, but the Nexus One loads content first, so you can actually, like... read stuff. But to be fair again, Skyfire does do flash, so plus for that.)
I agree that the Android browser was better overall in the side by side. But that doesn't change the fact it wasn't a fair comparison, and that with WM you can do more stuff on the internet(not much, but you can do more).
I don't even know why skyfire is even being used as a browser for comparison, since any web page is loaded server side with flash and all.
They should use Opera, with real load times, since its actually being loaded from the phones own power.
~~Tito~~ said:
I don't even know why skyfire is even being used as a browser for comparison, since any web page is loaded server side with flash and all.
They should use Opera, with real load times, since its actually being loaded from the phones own power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Server-side processing should always always always be faster at the cost of rendering integrity. Also, "winning" in my opinion is how fast content becomes accessible to the user, I can interact with pages while they're loading on the N1 but Skyfire doesn't display until loading is complete.
Nexus one is miles better due to WM on the hd2.. i sold mine
~~Tito~~ said:
They should use Opera, with real load times, since its actually being loaded from the phones own power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first video is using Opera on the HD2. The second (the "rematch") is Skyfire.
On Android you can start reading the page within 2-3secs while on both WinMo browsers you'll have to wait till the page is almost fully loaded. Advantage Android for me
Can the N1 browser play internet videos? I get a message like 'can't play on my handset' when I try to in msn, yahoo, etc. Do I need a plugin or something?
galaxys said:
Can the N1 browser play internet videos? I get a message like 'can't play on my handset' when I try to in msn, yahoo, etc. Do I need a plugin or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does not have flash support at this time.
Hey
Facebook and the new Guardian anywhere app seem to take AGES to download content even when at home on my very fast wifi connection (speed tested at 8500kbps this morning on my phone).
The guardian app took over 2 hours to download 67mb of content this morning and 1/3 of my battery!!!
Is this a problem with the apps themselves or the phone. No one else on the app store is complaining about the guardian app...
Could it be the phone? Anyone else have these problems with app content taking ages?
Most likely the app's dedicated content server. 9 times outta 10 content downlads fast over 3G, super fast over my 12mbps wifi.
Yep, i'm also experiencing the same problem on my UK Galaxy-S. over an hour to download and it eats the battery. Work's fine on the HTC Desire (2.[12]). I've tried to find out where the time is being wasted, from checking my proxy server's logs i can see the desire downloading images one after the other really quick, but the galaxy has pauses between each GET.
We have a few browsers to choose from, stock, Dolphin HD, Skyfire and the upcoming Opera Mobile and Firefox Mobile
Stock browser is not the fastest according to some tests, the champion goes to Skyfire
Dolphin HD beats stock over functionality from my own use, but is the slowest among the three
Opera Mobile is known to consume 80% less data, but user comments are not so positive
Firefox mobile is now available for G2, haven't try yet
So whats your pick?
Almost every site I would go to has an app so there is no need for my browser, so I stick with stock since its not used often...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
o>c said:
Opera Mobile is known to consume 80% less data, but user comments are not so positive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me clarify:
Opera Mini is browser, which compresses data - when I was using Galaxy i7500 it was the fastest browser (not only in downloading pages, but in rendering too).
Opera Mobile is normal browser, not compressing data. I did not test it, but comments aren't very good.
I been using Dolphin HD. I like the side bar bookmarks, and the gestures. Plus it is faster than the default, IMO
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
I am digging dolphin HD too on the g2.
I tried dolphin when I had a slide and it was HORRIBLY slow (even overclocked to 844mhz). It's smooth like butter on my g2 clocked at 1.497 and flash works great.
I have been loving the Firefox, get all my bookmarks synced without any other crap app. The Beta2 release is a bit better than the first, but little things still dont work correctly. For me the only thing not working properly are the shift and alt keys of the physical keyboard. They work but you have to hold them down while pressing the other key. Not a biggie, and the browser runs smooth as glass for me.
i use skyfire in desktop mode for facebook and everything
Love Dolphin HD for the plugins like desktop mode and speed dial. Also I'm digging the gestures and themes. And of course the tabbed browsing with thumbnails available is fantastic! Best over all experience if you have good data speeds.
I did numerous speed tests using a stopwatch with Dolphin versus stock on very large pages. It was basically a tie with flash either enabled or disabled.
Opera Mobile is VERY fast! Great card style thumbnails for window switching (stock neeeeds this). But no flash, desktop mode, and doesn't render the whole page at once. The partial rendering adds speed but if you scroll quickly its annoying. Still has a few kinks. I recommend keeping Opera handy for super slow connections.
I have Firefox, Opera and Stock installed. And honestly I use the stock more often than any other browser. It seems that the other browsers are terrible at compatibility when browsing non-optimized sites. I use forms a lot and they are awful.
In Firefox each time I typed something into a form-box or selected something from a drop-down menu it had to reload the page. Frustrating to say the least. At least in Firefox they work; in Opera, the forms work half of the time. If I can't log in, what's the point?
Stock may be somewhat slower at rendering, but its compatibility saves me a lot of time.
I've been testing the default, Skyfire, and Dolphin HD for 4 weeks and I typically choose Dolphin now as my GoTo browser. Here are the three main reasons:
1. I need the ability to Toggle between Desktop and Mobile on various sites
2. I tweet about a lot of Websites and the Dolphin Tweet plugin actually grabs the Title of a page while simultaneously shrinking the URL, yet still allows me to edit.
3. I also read a lot of pages and if they don't have a mobile version, I use a plugin for Google Mobilizer to strip away formatting and make it easy to read.
Since I have a G2, I use Menu+S to pull up Share options with Dolphin Tweet. I also use Menu+M to use Google Mobilizer. Keyboard shortcuts are handy.
As for speed, they are all pretty comparable. I still use Skyfire on Flash Video sites.
Hope this helps!
Ghostcreamy
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
why are you leaving out xscope? its a perfectly legitimate browser which is the fastest by far.
Firefox is a little late! Dolphin was firefox to me when I had the G1, firfox should just but dolphin and change the name.
ms93 said:
Let me clarify:
Opera Mini is browser, which compresses data - when I was using Galaxy i7500 it was the fastest browser (not only in downloading pages, but in rendering too).
Opera Mobile is normal browser, not compressing data. I did not test it, but comments aren't very good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyone know if the Opera mobile will the same kind of forum posting that mini can do? I HAVE to use opera for posting online for school as no other browser will handle the way it works.