Database Users

[Q] Opera (Android) Settings: Full site vs. mobile site?

I've recently received my DHD and noticed that the internet browsing experience is slightly different than what I used to with Opera on Windows Mobile (HD2).
One of the specific annoyances I had was trying to force the full site to load rather than mobile versions of sites (eg. Engadget vs. Engadget Mobile).
Even choosing to view the "Full Version" of certain websites I am still redirected to view mobile versions - not presented with the versions that would appear on a Desktop browser.
I have done some searching in XDA (and the web) and the only thing I was able to find were references to WindowsMobile to change the Custom User-Agent under User Prefs (In Opera Browser type, "Opera:Config" -> User Prefs -> Custom User-Agent). I have changed this but it does not appear to work.
I came across http://www.zytrax.com/tech/web/browser_ids.htm but am not sure which Browser string I should try to use.
(Have tried IE settings as well as identifying my current desktop browser setting - Chrome - and inserting that) Additionally, I have also attempted to change the User Agent ("Opera:Config" -> User Agent) by incrementing the number and that does not appear to work either.
Attempting to connect to "About:debug" (in hopes of seeing some other settings somewhere) tells me that it failed to connect to the debugger at the default address/port.
I'm a little stuck as to where to go from here.
Has anyone else experienced this or managed to amend successfully?

Well, after further searching I still haven't been able to have the Opera Browser default to show me a Desktop view of web pages that seem to aggressively divert you to mobile versions of their sites.
However, I did download Dolphin Browser HD from the market and the settings page listed this as an option that works very well.
Based on my short experience with it, I actually think DolphinHD is actually a much better choice of browser for Android.

[Q] How's the WP7 web browser compared to the Android one?

I'm on WM6.5 right now with Android on SD card. I mostly use Android because of the Flash support in the web browser. How does the WP7 browser stack up against the Android browser?
Brgds... /Tubgirl

no flash, but scrolling and pinch to zoom is better.

Depends on the sites you are using
I use to bet a lot with austrian bookie Bet-at-home. The stock Andtroid browser is unusable with them as it overlaps the odds and you can't really place a bet at all. IE dispays it just fine.
I also use electronic invoice services from efaktura.bg. IE is the only mobile browser I know so far that allows me to login to my account there. Every other browser out there including Opera 10 can not display the login button Same goes for some other sites I need to use for business and fun.
For me personnaly IE Mobile (WP7 edition) is currently the most compatible browser for the sites I use, closely followed by Opera 10 (probs with efaktura.bg). Other browsers may have fancy stuff like flash, but I don't watch YouTube, so basically I don't need it that much.
That said I absolutely know that most users will be perfectly happy with the Android browser and will enjoy the extras they get there. So at the end of the day it really depends on the sites you visit and if they work correctly.

I neither like the IE mobile (no customization possible) nor the stock android browser(compatibility, few customization and not that fast)
I prefer Dolphin HD mini as the normal Dolphin HD is just too heavy and became too slow. (Android)
WP7:
- no flash (you can it use for other stuff than pr0n, youtube and ads)
- no real settings
- no fullscreen
- no copy & paste (i know not the browser's fault)
Android:
- slightly slower than IE
- pinch to zoom also a tiny bit worse than on wp7

IE on WP7 is based on IE7 with bits of IE8 in there. Pocketnow reported last week that M$ are working on bring IE9 to both desktop and WP7 soon. The Mango update, which will follow the NoDo update, looks set to bring IE9 to WP7. This will have copy/paste (NoDo update) as well as rumoured flash support.
http://pocketnow.com/windows-phone/ie9-coming-to-windows-phones-mango-update

Long Story short : It sucks
The text looks really blurry in ie, in Android its really sharp.
And the flashplugin is really useful e.g. you can watch southpark episodes on southpark.com or watch videos on the full youtube site who are not available in mobile version yet

WP7 browser is faster (I am dual booting CM7 and WP7)

Browser Desktop Mode questions.

Ok, I have read literally hundreds of posts concerning desktop vs mobile mode in the browser. I have tried several browsers, and have switched them all into desktop mode via the settings. But, none, including the stock browser and Dolphin seem to work as promised. So, I have several questions:
1. What is it that allows a website to recognize an android phone or tablet and an
ipod touch as a mobile device?
2. Is there any way to permanently change "whatever" so that all websites
recognize my tablet and ipod touch as a desktop?

I'm using opera mobile and all pages works fine on desktop mode

xamilek555 said:
I'm using opera mobile and all pages works fine on desktop mode
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I tried one version of Opera last week and had no luck. Today, I downloaded Opera Mobile as you suggested and it worked just fine. Thanks for the suggestion.
But, the still should be a permanent fix for all Browsers. And, I would still like to know how a website recognizes a mobile device.

I believe they check the OS, not the browser, then redirect accordingly.

Running Honney Vil and stock browser and not seeing that problem, so probably does check the os, don't really know.

This is all based on what your browser "broadcasts" to the web server. I remember way back in the day, some custom ROMs had an option in the settings menu, even on the native browser, to set your browser type to one of many options, including "Android OS", "BlackBerry", "IE", "FireFox" etc... Most web sites are the ones in control of which page to display to you based on what browser it detects hitting the page. Below is an example of one of my web site's access log
Code:
[IP Masked} - - [24/Aug/2011:14:55:57 -0400] "GET /forums/viewtopic.php?p=28441 HTTP/1.1" 200 11347 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Baiduspider/2.0; +http://www.baidu.com/search/spider.html)"
[IP Masked] - - [24/Aug/2011:14:56:09 -0400] "POST /forums/posting.php?mode=reply&f=11&t=2900 HTTP/1.1" 200 3144 "http://[URL Masked]/forums/posting.php?mode=reply&f=11&t=2900" "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.3; en-us; DROID X2 Build/4.5.1A-DTN-117-15) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1"
It's from those logs where it says things like "Android 2.3.3" that tells a server which site to load. Unfortunately, most developers have hard coded anything as "Android" to be shown the mobile browser. Other browsers, like Dolphin and Opera, are either broadcasting a different type of browser, or give the option to.

I have the settings in the stock browser set to viewing mode:desktop (under the advanced tab of the browser settings) and have not come accross any pages that get redirected to mobile. I'm running stock 3.1

Right, you send USER_AGENT info when you connect to a site and based on that - typically what the OS is - the site can redirect.

With 3.0.1 you had to type about:debug in the browser to get the debug menu in settings and there you could change the user agent string. In 3.1 we have that in the advanced menu but I still prefer the old way;-). Don't forget to clear the cache after you do that because the browser might have cached the redirect to the mobile site.

Thanks for all the info. I have the stock browser, Dolphin and Opera Mobile. I have the user agent configured to Desktop in all 3 browsers. All 3 work on most, but not all sites. Only Opera works on all sites that I have tried. It is very disconcerting for sure as I really prefer the stock browser.

jostarr said:
Thanks for all the info. I have the stock browser, Dolphin and Opera Mobile. I have the user agent configured to Desktop in all 3 browsers. All 3 work on most, but not all sites. Only Opera works on all sites that I have tried. It is very disconcerting for sure as I really prefer the stock browser.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, then it goes back to what I posted about the web sites themselves properly delivering the right site based on the user agent (thanks for reminding me of the name user agent gammaRascal!). The web designer has to write code to account for all the various user agents.

There are some other differences too. Try this website in the stock browser,
dolphin and Opera: http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=nyy
With the stock browser, the standings right below the picture on the left, is not complete.
with Dolphin, all looks like as on my PC.
with Opera, the page does not fit the screen.

Acer 510 seen as mobile device regardless of agent selection- update (Opera works)

UPDATE: Opera does work as desktop agent. Why not any other? I tried all usual suspects, including the ICS browsers.
I have tried every main browser app and same result. I have tried different agents in different apps (desktop, IE 10, Firefox 9) with same result. The tablet is always seen as a mobile device and not a desktop. I had the same problem with the Droid X 2. Of all the devices had: Gtablet, G1, Incredible, Droid 3, Razr, Thrive, Flyer, View, A500 and Prime, the A510 and the Droid X 2 are the only devices to have the problem.
I already have an iPad that is seen as a mobile device by design, but expect better from Android. I may return the A510 if I can not resolve the issue.

Is this every site you go to or just a few select ones? I have seen a few sites regardless of sitting it to desktop view it stays on mobile with that device. Not sure the full reason why.
I am assuming Chrome beta does it as well?
On a few sites, I have to generally click on the View Full site link of the page to pull it even if the Show Desktop Version is checked in the browser.

I've noticed this with stock Acer ICS ROM's (both official and modded versions) on the A500 too. Opera Mobile will set the UA correctly in this case. Also, CM-based ROM's work perfectly for setting the UA on any browser, including stock (or ICS Browser+ available on the Play Store). I'm assuming the A510 will be the same.

All sites see the A510 as a mobile device, regardless of agent string used. It may seem that some sites are not, but some sites are more generic rather than mobile specific site options. If there is a mobile version, the A510 goes to it, unless the web page has an option of which to go to (this is rare).
This is very annoying. I have no desire to root and use another rom, so might go back to my Thrive and wait for another option.

Bloodflame said:
I've noticed this with stock Acer ICS ROM's (both official and modded versions) on the A500 too. Opera Mobile will set the UA correctly in this case. Also, CM-based ROM's work perfectly for setting the UA on any browser, including stock (or ICS Browser+ available on the Play Store). I'm assuming the A510 will be the same.
Click to expand...
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Good one on Opera, since it does work I never tried it, since figured it was 100% mobile centric. Tried the other eight most common browsers (including stoock). More irony. I saw no thanks button, but THANKS none the less

rushless said:
Good one on Opera, since it does work I never tried it, since figured it was 100% mobile centric. Tried the other eight most common browsers (including stoock). More irony. I saw no thanks button, but THANKS none the less
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thanks button should be at the bottom of my post, right before the quote button And you're welcome. I'm almost 100% certain that if you flash CM9, all other browsers will set the UA just fine. There must be something screwy going on in the Acer framework...

Will download opera now! Good find.
Sent from my A510 using xda premium

Something must be real silly for only Opera to work. I prefer Dolphin, so kind of a bummer, but better than nothing.
As far as flashing roms, I just want the device to work and not get into the root and rom cycle. Did that with the G1, GTablet and Incredible because I "had" to, since the stock roms were inadequate.
Besides rooting to freeze some bloat, I have not seen a need on the Razr or Acer 510, since they work fine (sans the desktop issue on the 510). All the major check points appear covered with the 510.
Performance/Speed: Check
Display quality: Check
Sound quality: Check
File management: Check
Full desktop level USB host: Check
Build: Check
Battery life: Check
Stability: Check
Wifi performance/range: Check
Ergonomics: Check (one * due to the usb location)
No other current tablet checks every box, but the A510 does.

[Q] No Internet Browser for advanced websites...

I tried Dolphin mode desktop & mobile & other
I tried Chrome
I tried Firefox
I tried the default browser
...
Why when I try to download a small file from my "Owncloud 4.0.7" it doesn't work...
Other websites too, got the same problem and somes difficulties to show flash gallery...
Pad like Transformer are enough powerful to support load of heavy websites.
So the problem come from the app to load correctly websites.
There is a solution ?
Best regards
Bankaiii

Hi,
I use Chrome, Firefox and the stock ICS browser and in general i find browsing on the TF101 to be quite good. I am using Stock ICS.
Apart from ownCloud.org, do you have any other examples of websites you have trouble browsing from the transformer? I can test these out on mine.

To me it seem, that you can't download files from some sites, like sharehosters etc., because they prevent you from using a download manager. When you start a download on your device the download app kick in an is falsely detected as some kind of download manager.

Asolutely not.
I manage my own connection Internet
tell me if you can load the game : www.thesettlersonline.com
But Owncloud that I setup work perfectly on PC but not on my Pad
( Im still use Stock Rom )

I just tried thesettlers and it work with latest firefox nightly. played it for a minute but have no clue how to scroll...
google for firefox nightly android