Database Users

My biggest annoyance with Android's web browser

Android comes with a seriously awesome web browser. It can easily browse regular desktop versions of web pages even over EDGE with no major problems. I'm so glad to leave crippled mobile versions of web pages behind me forever.
EXCEPT
Google, of all places, seems to have some kind of lock preventing the Android browser from gaining access to the desktop versions of their websites. They come up with the mobile versions by default, and even if you click the button to switch it to the desktop version, it doesn't. It takes you to yet another mobile version that is just styled a little closer to the desktop version, but it's by no means identical.
Google built this browser, they know that it can handle desktop webpages, why won't they let us do that with their own sites? I find it really annoying to deal with crippled versions of Google's web pages. In Gmail I can't edit my contacts, in YouTube... I don't know what the hell's going on... all I see is large ugly text, in Google Search I don't have the convenient switch to image search while viewing web results. It's FRUSTRATING.

chefgon said:
Android comes with a seriously awesome web browser. It can easily browse regular desktop versions of web pages even over EDGE with no major problems. I'm so glad to leave crippled mobile versions of web pages behind me forever.
EXCEPT
Google, of all places, seems to have some kind of lock preventing the Android browser from gaining access to the desktop versions of their websites. They come up with the mobile versions by default, and even if you click the button to switch it to the desktop version, it doesn't. It takes you to yet another mobile version that is just styled a little closer to the desktop version, but it's by no means identical.
Google built this browser, they know that it can handle desktop webpages, why won't they let us do that with their own sites? I find it really annoying to deal with crippled versions of Google's web pages. In Gmail I can't edit my contacts, in YouTube... I don't know what the hell's going on... all I see is large ugly text, in Google Search I don't have the convenient switch to image search while viewing web results. It's FRUSTRATING.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really dont know why your browser does that, but I have access to the regular google.com classic view page. I can pic between web, images, local, news.. etc.. I can also log to igoogle.com

I can aswell

Most mobile sites have a link to view the regular site. Google has this.
go to www.google.com then you see on the bottom Mobile is default choice, click on CLASSIC to view the regular website version

Anyone else having an issue with the browser where after a while it no longer renders the pages?
It shows the progress bar filling up and done, but just a blank page.

quedijo said:
Anyone else having an issue with the browser where after a while it no longer renders the pages?
It shows the progress bar filling up and done, but just a blank page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I've had that problem as well as not being able to get into market have no clue why. Frustrating!!!

I keep having this problem too. The only thing that seems to solve the problem is a restart. I dont know if it has anything to do with me clearing the cache but it IS verry annoying.

Yeah, even killing the browser process doesn't do it either.

quedijo said:
Anyone else having an issue with the browser where after a while it no longer renders the pages?
It shows the progress bar filling up and done, but just a blank page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats network issues with thew the 3g when i disable 3g it worked but sometimes it wont

i think it has to do with your cache i wish they come out with a new firmware that lets you save programs to sdcard or cache to sd card

I'm having the same issues. It was working when I first got the phone, but now it only gives me the option for mobile view.

I found a solution to the most annoying, biggest mistake from Google. For those who loved iGoogle and cant find it, here it is:
www.google.com/ig/i?source=mofe
And here is an alternate BETA site from Yahoo as backup:
http://beta.m.yahoo.com/

brooklynite said:
I found a solution to the most annoying, biggest mistake from Google. For those who loved iGoogle and cant find it, here it is:
www.google.com/ig/i?source=mofe
And here is an alternate BETA site from Yahoo as backup:
http://beta.m.yahoo.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess Google found out the shut down the site.
Yahoo's Beta sucks.

Browser sync and differences

Hi,
one of the most important features for me (which makes me want to buy Honeycmob tablet) is browser.
As far as I know browser in Xoom is sort of a mobile version of Chrome.
So, my questions are:
- how close are they in reality?
- what can be synced?
- what can not be synced?
- what about extensions I use in my desktop chrome (one of them is freshstart to save open tabs! excellent)
- can I have my bookmarks bar in Honeycomb (I use it a lot)
I use three different PC's every single day and I work with browser a lot. All this makes Chrome so much pleasure to use... because I can finish work at one machine and easily continue (exactly where I was) on another machine few minutes later. I was hoping that tablet with Honecomb will fit right in
Will it?

Currently it only syncs bookmarks. All of your bookmarks sync just fine, folder structure is preserved. The only difference is that Bookmarks Bar shows up as the root folder with Other Folders as a subfolder in that. There is not a bookmarks bar, per se, but you can set your homepage to a Chrome-inspired "Most Visited" page which holds 12 pages (unfortunately you can't customize them, they are always your 12 most visited pages).
Chrome-to-phone still works on the Xoom, so you can always send pages from Chrome to the tablet, but you don't get any sort of tab syncing or extensions.

Is there any way to make web sites think it is chrome browser? Once the Flash is on the system it should be able to play all free videos as any other "desktop" browser.
I thought I read somewhere that phones with Android and Flash can do it.
Playon is not a solution. At home I can watch hulu on my desktop/netbook - the whole idea was to access it when I am not at home

galtom said:
Is there any way to make web sites think it is chrome browser? Once the Flash is on the system it should be able to play all free videos as any other "desktop" browser.
I thought I read somewhere that phones with Android and Flash can do it.
Playon is not a solution. At home I can watch hulu on my desktop/netbook - the whole idea was to access it when I am not at home
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just like on phones, you can set it to use a desktop user agent. But for sites that check the flash version, you'll need to hex edit the plugin (there are other threads about that here if you look around)

At this stage I just need to know if it is doable - there is other thread about it... and I have been told -NO WAY (to do it) -either Hulu Plus or nothing :-(

[Q] how to watch megavideo videos on tablet?

i'm used to streaming shows on my laptop: go to a website, select a show then a link takes you to a megavideo. when i try this on my tablet, i somehow end up on some ad website.
any way around this?
(could someone address Hulu as well)

1. Type about:debug in stock browser
2. UAString options, select DESKTOP
3. Restart browser n u r good to go.
Should work for both Hulu, and Mega

megavideos always pop up a ad, hit back once, and it should take you to the video

i did exactly that: about debug > the menu on the top right > settings > debug > UAString > desktop
absolutely no change. still getting sent to ad site.
for a fraction of a second the link shows the megavideo site i'm being directed to, but then it takes me to the ad.
i've even tried emailing myself the megavideo link and opening it on my A500 and same friggin result.
i could stab one of those ad makers right now.

no one else has this problem?
buuuump!

Trie to finde site to which you can paste video link from megavideo and stream. It took me a while to finde one. If you cant finde I ll PM you.

I'm having the same problem. There's no way I can fix it and it's driving me crazy.
The app for pasting the link and streaming there doesn't work for me, not in the Iconia nor in the Galaxy SII.
Cheers

Depending on your configuring, on my desktop, I just x out of the add window and I am left at the download thing. Took a few times to see what was going on.

Always had issues playing megavideo on the stock browser, even with desktop setting, I personally use Opera Mobile now and it has no such issues.,

My Kindle Fire Review (after 12 hours usage)

My experience: I have an iPad1, iPad2, HP Touchpad, and three Archos 5" Android tablets... So not too much of a n00b.
Keyboard: The keyboard doesn’t always work for me.. When I first got it, every time I hit the spacebar, it would automatically go down two lines.. And when I hit the delete button, it would go back one space, then it would stop deleting and just repeat the same letter over and over.. While testing this, the Fire crashed.. and when it reset, the keyboard worked better without these issues.. but I still had a lot of typing mistakes as it would be too sensitive.. (kinda crazy that the Fire crashed in the first hour I opened it while typing up an email)
Video: Playing videos from Amazon Prime was fast and sweet! Amazon made it very easy to watch their videos on the Fire. I have not tested MP4 videos I have made for my iPad yet.. Because of size restrictions, I may not do this.
Home screen: Why can you not change the "last viewed" stuff on the top of the Fire.. this is horrible.. I came to work today and of course everyone wants to play with my new Fire.. so they could all see every single website, book, PDF, movie, etc I had viewed last night.. and now because they played with it, I have all the stuff they viewed there as well now.. There should be some sort of incognito mode.. I know this is a personal tablet, but whether someone is behind me when I am in the home screen or someone picks up my tablet at my apartment.. I don't need them seeing what I have been looking at.
Apps: There are a nice amount of apps available already for the Fire.. BUT.. why can’t I remove the apps that the Fire came with? Also, the PDF viewer that comes with the tablet is no good. I side loaded some PDF magazines into the Fire, and they were unreadable on the screen (all jaggy). I then installed the Adobe PDF viewer from the Amazon Market, and the text is much better.. but zooming in and out on a 7” tablet does not make for smooth reading. And why don’t the PDF thumbnail the first page images? The iPad does this right away… all you see on the Fire is the text name of the PDF written over a white sheet. Lastly, I installed Touchdown for the Fire (as the built in email does not include MS Exchange support).. and it works well..except that the client does NOT sync while it is not open.. What the heck is that??
Web: Loading pages like Gizmodo.com was quick.. but it was another issue reading the site.. scrolling down was very jerky and slow.. I know the page is long, but most tech blogs are.. and that is what I would like to read in the back of a cab.
Misc: I wish there were hardware sound control… It would make playing videos/music easier to control, as well as offering page up/page down control for reading. The Fire is a bit heavy and thick.. but for $200, u can’t complain.. I will probably keep using my iPad for reading websites and PDFs… and using the Fire for books and Amazon prime videos.
If anyone knows how to fix the issues above, please let me know.. I know that there is a root out now for the Fire, but I am hoping that there are faster/smoother solutions.

I was able to side load a .m4v file on the Fire, but it wouldn't play until I renamed it .mp4.
The videos were HQ rips for my iPad so that worked great.
I agree on the last item viewed being on the shelf. Wish there was a way clearing that.

EvanWasHere said:
I wish there were hardware sound control… It would make playing videos/music easier to control
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my Nexus I use Mobiplayer and I can control volume by swiping on the screen. I wonder if you load (or sideload) Mobi or a similar video player if you can get this. Anyone know or can anyone check?

Thanks for the review!

the source code will save us!!!

esoh said:
On my Nexus I use Mobiplayer and I can control volume by swiping on the screen. I wonder if you load (or sideload) Mobi or a similar video player if you can get this. Anyone know or can anyone check?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I sideloaded Mobiplayer and the soft volume swiping does work for the Fire. So at least for video playback I can live without a hardware key. Btw I need to enable software decoding by default or some files won't play... maybe I needed to install a Mobi codec but I don't know which one works. Maybe someone can point me to the right direction...
Cheers,
W.

Agree with you. I'm facing same problem.

I installed Swiftkey and feel it is much better than the Amazon default keyboard.
You can remove the items from the Carosel. Refer to instructions at http://mazurk.net/KindleFire.htm

It's a fun toy and I'm glad I didn't pay anything for it (won it at an office raffle) but I'm still kind of lost as to what I'm gonna use it for as I have an iPad 2. Still, I'm having a blast trying to mess with it and hopefully gonna get TWRP installed here soon.

Big Browser Test Plan

I want to make a (more recent) comparison of web browsers available to us on the ASUS TF101 and TF201 tablets, something that is useful. In my experience we don't have all that many threads that are Really Good on this subject, that don't get bogged down with noise and opinion drowning out the signal after a while.
The browsers, web sites, and procedures I will use for testing are being collected HERE as they are written.
I am open to suggestions of things to test as long as they don't cost me $$$, are legit, and hopefully widely used by communities of people in general. If it has issues with the stock browser in HC/ICS/GB/Froyo in fast/simple usage, like crashy crashy! Then I am more likely to test a suggestion.
Note for mods: this is cross posted in the forum for both tablets.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk

One test i would like to see is which browsers you can put into desktop mode and fool HULU with.

Neither. Hulu knows it's an android because you're running an android version of flash.

Joey563 said:
One test i would like to see is which browsers you can put into desktop mode and fool HULU with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, its the Flash version that matters.
In the Apps forum there's a hacked Flash plugin that works with Hulu.
@topic
Great idea. Looking forward for the results.
The things that i'd like to see reviewed are the rendering speed and image quality while browsing.

Speed will be noted somehow but I really don't know how to scientifically do image quality, past "Looks ...." to me, lol.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk

Lifehacker is a good website to test. See if any browser can reproduce the two different scrollable objects properly, like it would be on a browser in Windows or Mac. A lot of browsers will simply choose to lock the two scrollable columns into the page, such that if you try to scroll one, the other follows.
I'd suggest testing a website like Verizonwireless.com, specifically the Explore, Shop, My Verizon, and Support buttons. On a computer, a mouse-over shows a drop-down menu, and a click takes you to the next page. The iPad does this very smart where tapping once on "Shop" for instance will bring down the dropdown menu, tapping it once more will take you to the webpage it links to. So far, the Android browsers I've tried have an awkward execution for this mouse-over effect where you have to hold the button like "Shop" for around half a second and then swipe away your finger to avoid going to the link it points to. See if you can find a browser that works mouse-over in a similar fashion to Safari.

+1 for lifehacker/deadspin/gizmodo sometimes (usually) first load is a blank screen and I have to hit reload. After reload its marginally functional, but not 100%
Also try facebook in desktop or iPad mode... Some stuff works well... Other stuff is total fail, like inviting people to events.
I'll post more as I remember them. I've actually been thinking of making a list like this, but you beat me to it.
Edit: thought of one more: google docs... Word processor, spreadsheets, the whole lot of them...

Spidey,
One thing I find very helpful in web browsing on my Transformer is the ability of a browser to scroll using the scroll wheel on a bluetooth mouse. I've noticed some browsers will scroll with the mouse, and some will not.
If possible, during your testing, you might want to add that as a yes/no feature, it would only take moments to test and include in your results.
Thanks for taking this on, I'm looking forward to your results/conclusions, and the inevitable "discussions" that will follow, either agreeing or disagreeing with your results.

Hi!
Can you test logmein.com as well? In stock and Dolphin it is not working.
I know there is .apk for Android, but it's costly.

@ERamseth gdocs is on my list and whenever possible I'll be testing desktop versions of sites. Can't say that I use Facebook very deeply though so a grain of salt may be needed..
@dm36415 Sorry, don't have any bluetooth mice to test with but great suggestion!] If the Windows box doesn't get pissy maybe I can try yanking my wired one off the desktop, but I can only test that on the TF101 as my Prime won't be getting a dock for a while :-(.
@stenc55 my word that site pissed off the stock browser, just trying to scroll the front page. Not sure how much I can test it but I'll try. Out side of Opera/Firefox, everything will probably barf at it though, and those two might as well lol.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk

Are you just planning on testing rendering quality/performance, or are you going to sum up some of the other UI features that get mentioned (how tabs work, gesture support, how fluid/laggy scrolling down the page is, is there an incognito mode, etc)

How easy/difficult to import bookmarks from a PC browser, with or without folders.

Most browsers use the same back end as the stock browser, i.e. they do about as much work as Maxthon used to do. So the most use on quality/performance I can give versus the stock, I'm sure will usually be load times and usability. Opera & Firefox are the only two that I know of who bring their own magic for the back end. Unless I get something like native libs in the app data to suggest they included their own rendering engine, I'm marking it as "Stock".
I've been testing the Prime's stock browser, Angel, and Boat for part of the day in between taking care of my mother. Current data that I've recorded:
App name (in launcher, usually), market page, version tested, demographic (mobile, tablet, ...), rendering engine, approximate start time and page load times, exit method (menu, closing last tab, etc), available user agent settings, bookmark storage, sync, and folder support, gesture support, quick control support, plugin support, password remembered, speed dial support, max # of tabs, and "Editorial Remarks" like what I've written for Angel Browser:
My remarks on Angel Browser said:
Has a handy sidebar on the left, similar to what you can do in Opera Desktop; quick controls interfere with sidebar.
You can configure what toolbars are visible.
You can configure by pattern, what app handles what URL.
You can configure by pattern, what UA is given for what URL
You can configure the heck out of what clicking stuff does.
You can configure where most data is stored.
You can configure quick controls, UI, and most everything.
Bookmarks UI can have ads unless you purchase the Angel Browser License app.
Handy scroll down button (by default).
Has "Notes" and "Read Later" features.
Good alternative to the stock browsers UX.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For websites tested, App/Site/Load Time/Rendering/Date and Editorial remarks are also being made for websites, like this one for the stock ICS browser on the Prime:
Prone to crashing and input lag
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For rendering, it's mostly focused on does it look/work like the desktop site and is it usable? For example, mail.google.com is gitchy in Boat browser and may give you a seizure.

Try editing a document in Google Docs (right now in every browser I tested it's almost impossible and does really strange things).

Note well: I no longer have a TF101 available so tests off TF201 by me are scrapped. People seem to have settled down post Chrome on ICS enough that I may just scrap it totally. If someone would like to pick up on TF101, PM me with your Google Docs address.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk

Zooming, text reflowing and hardware acceleration.
The most important aspects of a browser, and the only browser that does these properly on mobile, is Opera.