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DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS NEW BROWSER, A MUST FOR PDA OWNERS WITH DATA PLAN:
www.SKYFIRE.com
Watch The Intro On The Home Page
It's kinda nice, but it's another of the page through a proxy as an image browsers. The page is reformatted on their servers and then sent to the phone.
This has been around. It is in a Beta right now that you have to sign up for and be invited to. Been waiting months for the invite and basically giving up. Getting mixed reviews.
This is kinda old news. I have the beta of skyfire, it actually works fairly well. I have several wishes/bug fixes that I sent to skyfire, but overall it is fairly fast and pretty much plays any website you can navigate to.
I still use opera for most of my daily browsing, but I hope that skyfire gets better after the beta testing.
Skyfire
i got the skyfire download but everytime i've tried to browse..it keep saying that the network was lost eventhough i have data plan, i can browse internet with opera mobile 8.5
thanx
I didnt like it....will stick with Opera and PIE+
Meh, I just got the beta2 today. I'm not too impressed with it so far. There's lots of great things incorporated into it, but when you try to flow through pages you just can't do it. When a page loads, you have to zoom into it before you can enter text into any field.
I like to get online, do what I need to do, and get off--bam--finished. This new beta makes it very hard to do that. I've looked for ways to fix it this in its menus, but I just can't find anything. If someone knows how to fix it, let me know .
The things I love about it most are you can get on java based sites, watch embedded video, and hear embedded audio.
All in all, I'd have to say this is just a so-so browser. Great for the casual user who is multi-media focused.
I have the beta as well and I'll stick with opera 9.5. Plus I'd rather not do password work through a proxy server.
I use mini more. But sky is nice for some things. Mini is faster for me....beter syncing. rss. better rendering. better ui. sky does flash.
I just downloaded Sky today, I was let into the beta. And I will say that it's a little harder to use then the other browsers, but in making up for that. It actually delivers on what it says. I can't watch youtube on PIE or opera. I can on Sky, once flash is in the other browsers, Sky will have nothing, but until I find a browser that can play flash.. This rocks for all kinds of things, last.fm, and youtube are great, though I hate the zoom, and it needs some kind of volume control built into the browser.
Opera mobile when it is fully released will have flash. Last.fm plays better with pocket scrobbler. Hit me up over IM and I can send u a cab.
I actually like skyfire, but i noticed I can't go to any .Net sites. Whats up with that? Anyone?
Just got the beta this weekend
Good:
Renders pages well
Plays flash movies
Bad:
Stupid long startup time
Retarded "First you need to zoom!" UI concept. Just awful. Really awful
Text doesn't go into textbox, pops up for input.
Pretty much zero configuration
They should just rename this this to what it is: Streaming online pron viewer.
If they cut the start up time in 1/2, eliminated the need to zoom first (Start in desktop view, tap + hold to bring up the zoom box), and let you customize the way the interface works, they could have a winner. As it is now, Im suprised they consider this even a beta. It has nothing more than core funcitonality, which is more alpha to me.
anybody else get the feeling that even though the page load itself is pretty quick the browser on the whole sorta lags
I downloaded it tried it uninstalled it. it was a memory hog, makes you sign in every time (why can't it remember user information?), it's another one of those we reformat the web for you portals.
Crashed on my device almost immediately.
Got my E-mail yesterday and it works great. It uses a lot of memory though. But so far I like it.
another browser that will require money
I don't get these browsers, instead of updating HTML tags via the W3C we get these browsers that reformat pages before delivering them to the PPC.
I installed this, tried it, had it first complain about memory issues, then crashed when I tried to open the crosswords link on the NY Times page, and uninstalled it.
What exactly are the memory requirements for this thing?
Some specs would be nice.
It's not something I'm going to use.
emkorial said:
Just got the beta this weekend
Good:
Renders pages well
Plays flash movies
Bad:
Stupid long startup time
Retarded "First you need to zoom!" UI concept. Just awful. Really awful
Text doesn't go into textbox, pops up for input.
Pretty much zero configuration
They should just rename this this to what it is: Streaming online pron viewer.
If they cut the start up time in 1/2, eliminated the need to zoom first (Start in desktop view, tap + hold to bring up the zoom box), and let you customize the way the interface works, they could have a winner. As it is now, Im suprised they consider this even a beta. It has nothing more than core funcitonality, which is more alpha to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROTFLMAO, streaming online pron viewer. BWAAAWBWAAA
I love this program. It's awesome. It does have some limitations others have noted, but if you're looking to stream media, or view a page as it's shown on a PC it's the way to go.
If you're looking to USE a webpage, read, etc, I'd rather use pIE. But I like having both.
I love that it can play ANY streaming media I've thrown at it and look / sound great.
If you haven't already, check out this streaming media site: http://www.hulu.com
It has full episodes of many online shows, with very limited ads, for free! No signup! it's sponsored by NBC and FOX and it's 100% legit. It works GREAT in Skyfire!
Finally
A browser that does all. Opera+PIE+Skyfire. I can now with all three do everything I need to lol. Lets see if firefox can integrate the three. or someone.
ok. soooo im using the cm6 nightly rom. it all is working wonderfully. no complaints what so ever excepppppt for one thing. the browser, it is the motorola droid browser. i have an incredible and i like the incredible browser for one reason. it has regular view of websites. not the stupid mobile view. now i guess my question is is their a way to get motorola browser to view web pages regularly or do i have to put incredible browser on the cyanogen rom? if so, how do i do it?
thank you very much for any comments back.
I don't know if it's just the Droid browser -- I would imagine it's the stock Android browser. Anyway, most sites give you the option to view the PC version, but if that doesn't work, I think there is a way you can edit your device's ID to appear as a desktop. I'm not sure how to do it, but I remember seeing something about doing it to watch Hulu videos on Nexus Ones so you could give it a search and try it out.
CM4 and CM5 had the option, so I find it odd that they would have taken it completely out.
That said, I thought I'd like "Desktop View" but after a few days, I found that I like certain pages full and certain pages mobile. My workaround for this was to go to the mobile page, switch it to full manually, then bookmark it as such. So anytime I want my pages full, I just bring them up through bookmarks. I know it may be a pain, but you can try this option til you find a better solution you can live with.
it worked!
thank you both so much. each post was very helpful
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.
Hi All
Please bear with me, as this post might get a bit long. But I'd like to provide as much info as possible in order to get the best help (hopefully).
So why'd I get the Nexus 10? Well I was eyeing it out for a few weeks but it was out of stock. Finally we went to John Lewis to buy me a Nexus 7 for my birthday, but while there, we tried the Galaxy Note 10.1. I absolutely loved the Polaris Office and the handwriting recognition. So I foolishly thought this was stock on all Nexus and when I checked online, the Nexus 10 32GB was back in stock. So I bought that instead.
So when I got the tablet I was understandably excited But the more I used it, the more disappointed I got. From trying to setup the email to searching for apps. So I am now on the fence about keeping it or sending it back because just about everything I want to do is just not simple and straight forward and productive. BUT I love the screen and the build and the spec. So I'm here desperately trying to find the tools to get the best out of the tablet so I don't have to send it back
I think now is the time to say, this is not an Android bashing or Android vs iOS/iPad argument. I want to stick to my Nexus 10, but I just need to get the best out of it.
So what do I want to get out of it?
* reading eBooks. I think I've finally found a suitable reader in moon+ reader. I've tried all the other free readers and either they don't zoom images or the options are rubbish.
* browsing the web - I've tried all the popular browsers, Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Dolphin, Puffin, Boat, Ocean, Maxthon. All except Chrome are missing the function I need the most, the ability to have all my tabs still open when I go to launch the browser again. Chrome is the only one that does this, but it has crashed SEVERAL times already in the last few days. To the point of causing 100% CPU (according to cool tool and lack of responsiveness). I'd also like an "almost" or as close to desktop browsing experience as possible. There's no point having the larger screen if I just keep getting redirected to the mobile versions of sites.
* Email - the built in email client is pants and incomplete. I need to have access to my Gmail and to my exchange mailboxes, which I do. But I can't access any of my sub folders in my exchange mailboxes. The other problem is you can't archive gmail emails and for some stupid reason, deleting mail from the gmail mailbox moves the email into an "Imap/deleted" tag, rather than the Gmail bin. Even the stock iOS mail app does this and I'd have expected something on Android to be even better. Using the Gmail app is not an option as it's slow and I'd rather use one app. Oh! My other problem with the default mail app is that when you open an email in landscape, it only uses about 2/3 of the screen for the actual email. What's the point in that? Oh, and when you setup the email account, you get the option to sync tasks, but I can't see a tasks app. It also seems to "wrap" text at 80 characters, but it wraps by cutting part of the words, rather than wrapping an entire word.
* RDP - I need to access my work PC using RDP and without having to install some other "host" software which most/all of the apps I've tried so far require. 2xClient seems ok, but Zooming in causes all the font to be grainy. iTap seems good, but is not free.
* Editing word and excel documents - I've only found Kingsoft Office, as all the others aren't free. But Polaris Office looked SOOOO much better.
* Notes - no built in notes app. Any recommendations?
* SSH, Ping, Traceroute - TBH I haven't searched for these apps as I've spent a load of time searching for the other apps. So suggestions are welcome
I'm sure I could possibly overcome many of the issues with the stock ROM by installing one of the custom ROMs, but the reasons I haven't done this so far are:
1) I don't want to change the ROM and invalidate the warranty
2) I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the info (even though I'm a pretty proficient tech). I used to load custom ROMs on my windows mobile and I've jailbroken my iphone in order to get other useful tools like the activator and bitesms etc.
3) I just haven't looked long enough to find a good custom ROM. Most of the ROMs threads don't have screenshots and "feature lists"
Anyway, I said this post would be long Thanks if you've read this far and thanks in advance for any help/advice.
Version info
Android: 4.2.2 (updated OTA after receiving)
Kernel: 3.4.5-gaf9c307
Build: JDQ39
OK as far as readers I just use Google books. For browser look for chrome beta as it is muuuuch better than chrome. Office wise king soft is the best you're going to get for free. I personally use office2012 text maker. RDP you can search vnc also. There is one app that is decent but I'm blanking on the name works with vnc and rdp. Notes there is ever note or there is a "floating" note that was developed on xda but again blanking on the name. Finally for ssh etc I say terminal ide has from ssh to vim or for a simpler try connectbot . for ROMs I prefer aokp with kt's kernel visit the forum on a browser not the app theyll usually have screenshots etc. Or check just features of aokp/cm as most are based on those. hope any of that helps
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
iamikon said:
For browser look for chrome beta as it is muuuuch better than chrome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It "was" much better than Chrome. They're both on-par for now (Chrome got the engine updates that Beta had recently).
iamikon said:
OK as far as readers I just use Google books.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response. Google books looks great, except it doesn't allow you to add your own books (at least I couldn't find the option).
Also VNC isn't an option for accessing my work computer unfortunately. It's just not as flexible or secure as RDP. I'll have a search for the SSH clients you've mentioned. I've been looking in this forum for the ROMs, maybe I'll just have to go through each of the threads.
espionage724 said:
It "was" much better than Chrome. They're both on-par for now (Chrome got the engine updates that Beta had recently).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah didn't know haven't used it at all as of late.
I only mention vnc because the client I'm thinking does both. I looked it up and is called pocket cloud. It asks you to install host stuff but is not necessary to use either rDP or vnc. I haven't actually tried adding my own hah so not sure on that. I prefer terminal ide since it includes a lot of tools. Most useful for me is vim. As for ROMs I suggest Mr Robinson or bigxies aokp pub or task650 aokp or eos or carbon, lots of people also really like rasbean
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
Try 2X Client/RDP Remote Desktop for your RDP needs...
iamikon said:
I looked it up and is called pocket cloud. It asks you to install host stuff but is not necessary to use either rDP or vnc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had downloaded pocketcloud but then deleted it because I thought it needed the desktop software. I've just tried it and the free version is alright though it doesn't scale too well in the free version. I've tried 2xclient but it makes Outlook 2013 really blurry when zoomed in. I now have to decide if I'm going to spend the money on the pro version of iTap or Pocket Cloud or Jump Desktop or AccessToGo or the free RemoteToGo. Either way I think I have some good choices/options now
iamikon said:
I prefer terminal ide since it includes a lot of tools.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just installed this and had a quick play and it looks almost perfect. I think it will be perfect once I've rooted.
iamikon said:
As for ROMs I suggest Mr Robinson or bigxies aokp pub or task650 aokp or eos or carbon, lots of people also really like rasbean
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I also saw ParaAndroid (hopefully spelt that right) and I am working up the courage to change the ROM
I also discovered UC Browser from one of the other threads in the Apps forum and I must say I am actually liking it so far. It has gestures, is quick and smooth and it remembers all the tabs I had open. It also has a very nifty floating button/toolbar which is customizable and gives me the option to scroll to top (something that iOS provides by clicking on the toolbar in any app - I use mouse gestures in Windows so this is something I personally use).
I also discovered (albeit by mistake) that the stock email app does indeed show/support subfolders in exchange accounts. You simply need to double click the folder and it will expand the sub folders. Joy! It's now good enough to do the job and I can get used to the other differences/quirks.
Thumb keyboard does indeed look good, but it's not free. I don't really want to spend money on something I may not like. I am currently trying FloatNSplit which is similar but doesn't seem to have all the features of Thumb Keyboard.
I think with a custom ROM and a few more tweaks, I may actually start to properly enjoy my Nexus 10.
Thank you for everyone's help so far. I'm still open to more suggestions
As far as keyboard goes I recommend kii keyboard its a split and has lots of features
Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app
If you don't mind paying for it - Touchdown is like Outlook for Android
bigmatty said:
If you don't mind paying for it - Touchdown is like Outlook for Android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'll have a look. Hopefully they have a trial. But I watched a video of the Galaxy Note 10.1 mail client and it seems to have all the features that the stock client in Android is mssing. Is there any way of getting that client for free?
I am still torn between keeping my nexus 10 because of its great screen and specs or to send it back and get a galaxy 10.1 for its awesome S-Pen & productivity features/tools
krash_control said:
Thanks. I'll have a look. Hopefully they have a trial. But I watched a video of the Galaxy Note 10.1 mail client and it seems to have all the features that the stock client in Android is mssing. Is there any way of getting that client for free?
I am still torn between keeping my nexus 10 because of its great screen and specs or to send it back and get a galaxy 10.1 for its awesome S-Pen & productivity features/tools
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, at work, I rely on rules in Exchange to route messages to different folders. Then, I assign different sounds to the different senders/folders. I also need to be sure my message notifications are always being pushed to the phone, no matter what folder they land in. Touchdown allows for all of this. Its expensive at $19, luckily I was able to expense it to my work. But after using Touchdown there is absolutely no way I could go back to the stock versions of email, etc..
Hope you enjoy the device!
Starting online classes I wanted to be able to do my homework without having to invest in a desktop computer. A very knowledgeable cousin suggested the Nexus 7.
I was extremely frustrated to find out this device is not compatible with any of my online courses, do to Adobe Flash no longer being supported by Google. I was not willing to accept that answer with the 300 dollar investment I made. With about 20 hours of trial and error research, I found two apps to work around both issues.
Both of the apps I have listed below are free, though Photon has ads to deal with.
The DOLPHIN browser, is a great work around for the ability to install and use Adobe Flash. Most of the early research I did suggested Firefox or Firefox Beta, with each source saying it was the only browser that worked in fixing the Adobe Flash problems. I was unable to get even Google to load within either of these browsers, and I'm still not sure why.
Dolphin works extremely well with all my courses that use McGraw Hill Connect, with LearnSmart and videos being my main issue. I first needed to go to settings to make sure the flash setting is at "always" enabled, or get the same error as in Chrome.
Grateful that I was able to find a solution to this problem, I was still unable to access the keyboard within MyMathLab. With Dolphin, the keyboard did not pull up when tapping inside the question box.
For the keyboard access issue, I found Photon. This browser has an icon in the lower right of the screen that lets you pull up the keyboard to type in the answer. There is a lightning bolt at the top of the screen that must be clicked to activate flash within the page. Be aware that this browser is VERY slow while in this mode. But be patient, because it works. With Dolphin working well for my other courses, I only plan on using Photon for MyMathLab homework.