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Now available on the market for free.... its pretty decent, worth having imo....
If this has already been posted I apologize and mods please delete...
i just saw that on cnet. i was wondering if anyone has used it yet, and what the verdict was, in comparison to dolphin
timothydonohue said:
i just saw that on cnet. i was wondering if anyone has used it yet, and what the verdict was, in comparison to dolphin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very, very, very fast server side processing browser... not as rich of an experience as the stock or dolphin, but much faster and does a pretty darn good job. Lots of extra stuff, like good bookmarks and cached browsing.
Great option.
FAST browsing. Great homepage/bookmarks , great tabs.
I always like having a secondary browser. Opera IMO is the best secondary browser and if you can deal with jpg compression and alot of "mobile" looking pages its a fanstastic primary browser.
I just wouldnt use it to show off the beauty of the phone.
Its about the same as the windows version and yes Hella fast... and has the option to upload pics or files unlike the stock or dolphin, and download files that are not supported on the device....
Is there a way to zoom in/out in sites? (maybe it's just too late and I can't figure it out).
Anyway, the hebrew is all messed up unlike the stock / Dolphin / HTC Desire browsers - so I'll have to skip that one.
It is a very nice browser i must admit. For the next few days I will be using it to replace Dolphin. Just as a test drive.
I don't like it.
Reasons:
A) When you scroll down a page (that's already "fully" loaded), the pictures show really nasty puke-colored placeholder boxes.
B) The full-screen mode still shows the notification bar. It's not really "full screen" then is it?... (That is by far my favorite feature about the Desire Rom.)
C) There's no way to fine-grained zoom in to how you want. Double tap is either zoomed FAR out, or zoomed to 1 specific point. Why can't I choose my own zoom level?
Very fast browser & lite on memory. Will be playing more with it next few days...
Not bad for a first release.. I'm impressed.
Looking forward to future updates.. multi touch etc.
Pretty good, especially when you are getting weak signal.
I have tried to like 2.1 (Thanks Damage for the almost perfec ROM). My majoe issue with ti is the non-working Facebook integration but another issue really bugs me:
Whne using the Browser in 2.1 many mobile sites come up zoomed WAY out and completely unusuable unless you double-tap to zoom in. I tried changin te mobile view option in settings with no avail. These are the two sites that I use on a regular basis where it happens (probably more but didn't test):
http://m.facebook.com
http://matrixwireless.mris.com (site I use regularly in the field for my job)
In 1.5 these two sites come up perfectly formatted but in 2.1 they both come out with such small text its unreadable.
Any ideas if this can be fixed or if its an issue that inherent to the HTC browser in Android 2.1. If so looks like I'll be staying on 1.5 or the forseeable future.
Try Dolphin Browser, it's great! ^^(unless you absolutely MUST use HTC's browser, but I fail to see why, unless Dolphin doesn't support flash... I haven't needed flash on my hero at all)
pwc realtor said:
I have tried to like 2.1 (Thanks Damage for the almost perfec ROM). My majoe issue with ti is the non-working Facebook integration but another issue really bugs me:
Whne using the Browser in 2.1 many mobile sites come up zoomed WAY out and completely unusuable unless you double-tap to zoom in. I tried changin te mobile view option in settings with no avail. These are the two sites that I use on a regular basis where it happens (probably more but didn't test):
http://m.facebook.com
http://matrixwireless.mris.com (site I use regularly in the field for my job)
In 1.5 these two sites come up perfectly formatted but in 2.1 they both come out with such small text its unreadable.
Any ideas if this can be fixed or if its an issue that inherent to the HTC browser in Android 2.1. If so looks like I'll be staying on 1.5 or the forseeable future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In settings in the browser uncheck open pages in overview and see if that works.
pwc realtor said:
I have tried to like 2.1 (Thanks Damage for the almost perfec ROM). My majoe issue with ti is the non-working Facebook integration but another issue really bugs me:
Whne using the Browser in 2.1 many mobile sites come up zoomed WAY out and completely unusuable unless you double-tap to zoom in. I tried changin te mobile view option in settings with no avail. These are the two sites that I use on a regular basis where it happens (probably more but didn't test):
http://m.facebook.com
http://matrixwireless.mris.com (site I use regularly in the field for my job)
In 1.5 these two sites come up perfectly formatted but in 2.1 they both come out with such small text its unreadable.
Any ideas if this can be fixed or if its an issue that inherent to the HTC browser in Android 2.1. If so looks like I'll be staying on 1.5 or the forseeable future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uncheck open pages in overview.
Hey folks ... first post, and I did try to search for this but came up with nothing.
Wondering if there's a fix or workaround for this. Some pages, when I load them, are not resized correctly for the browser. I would post a link, but ... you can google search for "best of the web today" and the first match is a page that does this wrong-resize behavior.
While it's loading, it is sized correctly. But once it completes loading, it resizes and it's too wide, so I have to scroll horizontally to read it.
This is just one example, but there are many pages that do this.
If I stop the page load before it's 100%, then it stays sized correctly for the browser (well, the block indents still run off the right side, but this seems to be true for every single thing that has block indents). So something that happens when it completes the loading is the problem. FWIW stopping it at like 95% doesn't seem to affect the content.
Any of you seen this, or know how to get around it? It's becoming quite annoying.
have you tried an alternate browser?
no ... is there an alternate browser that 1. doesn't embed ads and 2. supports flash?
tried it in skyfire, same problem.
flash isn't supported with android except the new 2.2 froyo build. even then, most official froyo builds haven't been released. there is a froyo build for the aria built from cyanogen mod source, but flash hasn't been figured out yet.
a lot of people like dolphin browser. opera mini is pretty popular as well.
@mattbollenbach, I think the OP may have meant "FlashLITE support", one of the nicer HTC features, if you ask me. I don't know if there are other browsers that support HTC's FlashLITE, but it shouldn't take too much to test that out.
Personally, the only thing that annoys me about the browser is when I load it, google is my homepage and it never displays correctly... haha, always way to big for the screen. Obviously, this is nothing more than the tiniest of gripes.
Update:
Some headway is being made on this. See here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=907659&page=8
Ok, here's the damage report.
Serendipity ROM: animated GIF broken AND checkerboards
Phoenix ROM: animated GIF broken AND checkerboards
Firefly ROM: animated GIF broken AND DOES NOT checkerboard (with latest version ONLY)
Cognition 3.0x: animated GIF WORKS AND DOES NOT checkerboard
ROM Kitchen: animated GIF broken AND DOES NOT checkerboard (with XWJS3 w/2.2 browser ONLY)
Perception 10.x: animated GIF broken AND DOES NOT checkerboard
di11igaf ROM: animated GIF broken AND DOES NOT checkerboard
Ultimate ROM: animated GIF broken AND checkerboards
I have tested all ROMs released that were developed based on JPY Froyo 2.2.1. This includes the latest Phoenix, Perception, Serendipity, Doc Gingerborg, and others. I spent 2 entire sleepless nights doing complete flashes from scratch, without any data on the phone, and came up with this out of all of them.
While in general they are good, fast, and stable, there are a number of issues they are having that I believe are inherent to the base firmware. Some are fixable, such as the Wifi battery drain bug; others, I'm not sure. The main one, in my opinion, are general issues with the internet/browser rendering of Froyo.
The problems are as follows:
1. Animated GIFs do not render properly. They are very random and sometimes to not work at all. You should try it and see for yourself.
2. Trying to type into fields are VERY hit and miss. For example, when browsing to a forum, such as this one, when responding to a thread, try clicking in the field where you type the response; what happens is that the cursor goes WAY up the screen, while you are left staring at the bottom of the blank white space. This happens in any forum. Some forums do not have apps developed for mobile, so it renders it useless.
3. Tapping and holding (moving) the page around in general is very iffy. Most of the time you can see a checkered background when this happens, instead of it being seamless, like it is in Froyo 2.2 ROMs. It's easy to see this on the Google homepage when it opens.
We all know that Android OSes use a cut down version of the Dolphin browser. So I installed Dolphin HD. Same problems. Only when I installed mobile Firefox as well as mobile Opera, do the problems disappear. It seems that if you open these browsers, go to a page that has animated GIFs, it sort of "kick starts" the rendering engine, from which point animated GIFs start working in the Dolphin based browser. However, the moment you close mobile Firefox or Opera, the animated GIF problem returns. Also, the issue is that using those browsers are not a solution, since they are not fully featured, underperform, slow, and are in general underdeveloped, and not suitable for daily use. I also tried taking the browser from the older versions and putting it in the new ones, but it didn't help.
That's basically all I came up with for now. That made the experience a break-it deal for me, so I simply moved back, in this case, to Perception 9.5, which works flawlessly. Any of the ROMs based on the older 2.2 Froyo firmware work perfectly.
If anyone has anything to add to this thread, that's great. This is mainly to see whether or not the ROM devs here can actually fix such a thing, or if it's something lower level. Some input from the ROM devs would be great.
If mods do not think this is the proper place for this topic, please feel free to move it.
What site is giving you problems with the gifs...I'll go try it?
Mac
Any site that has animated GIFs. Try this one:
http://www.animatedgif.net/
ajm786 said:
Any site that has animated GIFs. Try this one:
http://www.animatedgif.net/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well..the top banner on that site is working fine for me..as well as clicking on any of the sites that offer animated gifs... All of the animated gifs I see are ...well..animated....?
So...what exactly am I to look for to see if they aren't working properly..and I am using Phoenix 2.0 stock browser..
Mac
OK...I see what you talking about now...it's the embedded re-direct adds that aren't showing up for you...correct ?
Mac
No. If you reload the page, or back out of that one and go to another, it will randomly not work. Not the top GIF one, but all the small GIFs that are supposed to be animated.
Some other people were complaining of this same issue. It's hit/miss and very random.
I have to agree. When scrolling around a large image in the browser, it starts resizing randomly. I also have not been able to get any animated gifs to work in the browser.
i noticed that when scrolling up/down a page with large images, the stock browser reformats the text & breaks up images so part of the text & image looks smaller while the rest is original size. when i finish scrolling, the text & images are reformatted correctly. it's not a big deal to me. animated gifs that don't animate aren't a big loss to me either, i find them annoying
sent from my captivate + di11igaf 3.0.2 + speedmod k12k
sublimaze said:
i noticed that when scrolling up/down a page with large images, the stock browser reformats the text & breaks up images so part of the text & image looks smaller while the rest is original size. when i finish scrolling, the text & images are reformatted correctly. it's not a big deal to me. animated gifs that don't animate aren't a big loss to me either, i find them annoying
sent from my captivate + di11igaf 3.0.2 + speedmod k12k
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, there are some forums that use animated GIFs (like weather), so it renders it useless.
I could possibly live without the animated GIF, but posting in a forum is basically impossible using the ROM. Try it on these forums (NOT using XDA app).
JPY browser has terrible issues for me.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I agree, the JPY browser is almost un-usable for me. Dolphin Mini has been my replacement so far.
ajm786 said:
Well, there are some forums that use animated GIFs (like weather), so it renders it useless.
I could possibly live without the animated GIF, but posting in a forum is basically impossible using the ROM. Try it on these forums (NOT using XDA app).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not its not as i just posted this from my phone using dolphin hd mate
may want to try an older browser along with an older, non-2.2.1 libwebcore.so found in /system/lib.
this is one of the main reasons i didnt want to even make a 2.2.1 rom, its decent, the browser loads pages faster generally i think, but it checkerboards like an iphone 3g, along with the other problems you mentioned. theres other things i dont like about it but thats not what this thread is for, but changing those files may help with those problems.
di11igaf said:
may want to try an older browser along with an older, non-2.2.1 libwebcore.so found in /system/lib.
this is one of the main reasons i didnt want to even make a 2.2.1 rom, its decent, the browser loads pages faster generally i think, but it checkerboards like an iphone 3g, along with the other problems you mentioned. theres other things i dont like about it but thats not what this thread is for, but changing those files may help with those problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm intrigued. Is the libwebcore.so responsible for "rendering" webpages? I might load up Phoenix again to give it a shot.
shaolin95 said:
Not its not as i just posted this from my phone using dolphin hd mate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm confused. As soon as I load up a reply page and click in the area to type, the "cursor" goes way up the page and is basically impossible for me to type. I have to scroll up and as soon as I enter one letter, the screen goes way back down the blank area, and I have to rinse/repeat. For each letter.
ajm786 said:
I'm intrigued. Is the libwebcore.so responsible for "rendering" webpages? I might load up Phoenix again to give it a shot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im not saying im 100% sure it will work as i havent tried it, but it should. im gonna try it tonight before i release a 2.2.1 build, and if it works, ill include and post back here and let you know.
worst case senario browser FC's, but its worth a shot if it does work.
di11igaf said:
im not saying im 100% sure it will work as i havent tried it, but it should. im gonna try it tonight before i release a 2.2.1 build, and if it works, ill include and post back here and let you know.
worst case senario browser FC's, but its worth a shot if it does work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, just tried it, and it didn't work. Loaded up a 2.2.1 based ROM (Doc ROM), replaced the libwebcore.so with a one from Perception 9.5, and it just FCs the browser when trying to type in a blank field.
ajm786 said:
Yeah, just tried it, and it didn't work. Loaded up a 2.2.1 based ROM (Doc ROM), replaced the libwebcore.so with a one from Perception 9.5, and it just FCs the browser when trying to type in a blank field.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you replace the browser as well, i was saying replace both, even then it may not work, but if you didnt youll have a better shot of it working with a browser from the same build you got the libwebcore from
di11igaf said:
did you replace the browser as well, i was saying replace both, even then it may not work, but if you didnt youll have a better shot of it working with a browser from the same build you got the libwebcore from
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. When I got the FC, the next thing I did was replace the browser with one from Perception 9.5, and then, as a final resort, rebooted. Same ordeal; FC when typing into a field (in landscape mode).
Go to any page that plays audio from the flash player.
Is it playing ok?
Audio plays at half speed for me. but video plays fine.
I used stock for a little while and was really liking chrome on my N7. I just went through a few ROMs and settled on one (see sig) which has the original android browser on it just like Galaxy Nexus has. My question is why would anyone use that over chrome? What are the pros and cons of each browser?
Thanks in advance.
Some use browser due to it supporting flash, personally I stick with browser because I'm used to it, like the quick settings function, and have all my bookmarks saved with it so all I have to do is sync.
I do keep chrome installed as I do have occasional use for it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
well i havent played with the new chrome version(s) but back then when most of us tried chrome it was hella 1) buggy 2) slow 3) didnt support flash. and i believe it had that annoying feature of constantly refreshing pages (again not sure if newer versions have smoothed everything out)
and the fact that it's the stock browser was quick, snappy and that it was able to synce my google bookmarks too, it was a winner winner
Chrome is trash. It's slow, no flash, text is blurry. The only redeeming quality is that it syncs with chrome desktop.. But even that isn't enough to save it from being a horrible mobile browser
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
---------- Post added at 02:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:17 AM ----------
The constant refreshing pages is annoying as heck. Hate that! Safari on my iPad Mini does the same thing. Pisses me off. It's not even a memory issue either, cause I'll leave the tab and come back and it still refreshes smh
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
thevuman said:
Chrome is trash. It's slow, no flash, text is blurry. The only redeeming quality is that it syncs with chrome desktop.. But even that isn't enough to save it from being a horrible mobile browser
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
---------- Post added at 02:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:17 AM ----------
The constant refreshing pages is annoying as heck. Hate that! Safari on my iPad Mini does the same thing. Pisses me off. It's not even a memory issue either, cause I'll leave the tab and come back and it still refreshes smh
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So true !
I was a die hard Chrome fan on my laptops etc, so when it came to Android I never looked back.
Until literally a couple of months ago, I though I'd give a different browser a go.
I'm afraid to say, EVERY other browser I tried, was better than Chrome.
Being rooted, I replaced the default N7 browser with the AOSP browser and side-loaded flash. It works great. Fast browser and excellent flash videos.
AOSP browser is just smoother than Chrome... a light feather gossamer touch is all that is needed to scroll up or down - and apart from frighteningly fast page download speeds, it's also Adobe Flash compliant.
The one feature missing, that would make the AOSP browser a 10 marks out of 10 browser is 'text-flow' (pinch zoom, and text 'flows' and automatically reformats into the space created, instead of going off the edge of the screen). But even Chrome doesn't have this feature.
Dolphin Browser Beta - (http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dolphin.browser.lab.en&hl=en) has 'text-flow' , but unfortunately isn't entirely stable... and doesn't support Flash.
An interesting new contender is the (relatively) new WebKit version of Opera...
Opera Browser Beta - (http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.opera.browser.beta).
Smooth scrolling and a nice 'clean' interface... supports 'text-flow'... but not particularly fast... and doesn't support Flash. Like Dolphin Browser Beta, it's also a bit flaky.
--------
So for me, it's going to be the AOSP browser everytime... it's fast, smooth and supports Flash. It's not perfect, but it's the best Android browser available... IMHO, of course.
Now... what was that question about Chrome again?.
Rgrds.
Ged.
I can live with Chrome pretty much, it's slowly getting better with each update. But it would be follish to reject the fact that AOSP Browser is faster and simply more appealing in terms of UI. Though the address/search/control bar in the upper part of the screen takes too much space, while Chrome's panel is minimalistic (though nowhere as close as Opera Beta one - the smallest bar evar)
Lack of Flash support in Chrome is again not a big trouble, since it's not OFFICIALLY supported in 4.1.x and above => Browser tends to crash from time to time forcing me to completely close it and reopen with opening all the tabs again or wait until it opens the same cached tab again until it hangs dead once more. HTML5 is more than enough (at least for the sites I visit from my tablet)
I'm thinking of changing browsers from Chrome soon, lately EVERY click gets that popup balloon and I have to click it again, even if there is no other buttons around what I pressed, it's getting kinda annoying. And what they do with the text, instead of just displaying everything nicely, browsing the forum looks awful. These two 'features' should be disabled somehow, other than that I don't mind chrome. It's not the best, but not the worst either.
GedBlake said:
The one feature missing, that would make the AOSP browser a 10 marks out of 10 browser is 'text-flow' (pinch zoom, and text 'flows' and automatically reformats into the space created, instead of going off the edge of the screen). But even Chrome doesn't have this feature.
Rgrds.
Ged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you zoom to where the text goes off the page, double-tap the screen to make the text flow reformat back to fit the screen.
Groid said:
If you zoom to where the text goes off the page, double-tap the screen to make the text flow reformat back to fit the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I know about the 'double-tap'... it just enlarges/zooms... but doesn't reflow - or at least on my version of AOSP browser it doesn't.
If you have (or know of) a version of the AOSP browser that does that... then I would be most interested in it.
So any download links, CWM/TWRP flashable's... or even something I can 'push' to /system... or maybe flashable ROMs... that would be most appreciated.
Such a browser - (AOSP, Adobe Flash Compliant... and Text-flow capable) would be the sine qua non of browsers... IMHO.
Rgrds,
Ged.
Yes, if I just double-tap it zooms or zooms back. But if I have zoomed the text too much to fit the screen, a double-tap will re-flow the text to fit the screen. The ASOP browser I'm using shows in All apps as Version 4.1.1-eng.sparkyman216.20120801.074324. I think I got it from an XDA thread but I'm not sure which one. It is dated 8/5/12 and is about 1.6 Mb. I have the .apk available if you want it.
Groid said:
Yes, if I just double-tap it zooms or zooms back. But if I have zoomed the text too much to fit the screen, a double-tap will re-flow the text to fit the screen. The ASOP browser I'm using shows in All apps as Version 4.1.1-eng.sparkyman216.20120801.074324. I think I got it from an XDA thread but I'm not sure which one. It is dated 8/5/12 and is about 1.6 Mb. I have the .apk available if you want it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds ideal!
And it also sounds like 'not all AOSP browsers' are born equal!
I would definitely be interested in a copy of your .apk... probably going to have to too screw around with some ODEX stuff to make it work.
But if I can get text-flow working in an AOSP browser... with Flash Support... that would be great.
Rgrds,
Ged
OK, the process once you get the browser.apk file: you must be rooted and have a root file explorer like 'Root Explorer' or 'ES File Explorer'. Navigate to /system/app, mount as R/W, and rename BrowserProviderProxy.apk and BrowserProviderProxy.odex by adding a .bak extention (i.e. browserproviderproxy.apk.bak). Copy browser.apk into /system/app. Verify the permissions are set as owner=Read Write, Group and Others as Read. Restart the N7. Place a shortcut for Browser from the app drawer on your dock or home screen. Try it out. (Sideload Flash from the Adobe website if not already installed.)
I just noticed you have a custom rom and kernel. I don't know if this works with that combination. I'm stock rom, and kernel and rooted. You might want to check some cyanogenmod forums. If you want to pm me with your email, I'll attach the browser.apk file.
Dolphin. <<<<<<emphasis on the period.
Sent from my cell phone telephone....