Ok, I haven't used a tablet in a long time and I can't be the only one annoyed by being served up the desktop version of websites too a 10" screen especially since I use it in portrait most of the time.
I haven't been able top find a browser that will properly spoof the correct user agent, or I'm doing it wrong, like I would on a pc.
Nor haven I found any non root options.
So, I thought I would ask here.
Anyone else prefer the mobile web site and found a way to get it to work on this tablet?
Thanks.
Update:
Finally figured out how to do this.
Setting> developer options> smallest width
Set to 761
Anything higher will get you the desktop version from most web sites. Some sites are smart enough to realize you're on a tablet and give you their mobile version or one for a tablet. Most just serve up the full desktop web page to tablets of this size.
Of course you'll want to go back to the display settings and set the font size and zoom to adjust for this change.
IMO this makes web browsing in portrait better and much less cramped with all the usual sidebar junk gone, but it's a preference nonetheless.
Your browser should already be in mobile mode, if not uncheck the setting in the browser to request the desktop site.
ashyx said:
Your browser should already be in mobile mode, if not uncheck the setting in the browser to request the desktop site.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you miss understand.
Yes, the browser is in mobile view, but a 10" tablet receives the desktop layout, from most sites. I do not want the desktop layout served up to me.
It doesn't matter what user agent I try, I'll get what the website wants to give which is, generally, the desktop version of their site. Only a few sites will serve up their mobile pages to a 10" tablet. Most all send the desktop, regardless of user agent -- usually because they're dynamically serving up the pages based on screen size and somewhere along the lines people deemed 10" screens as big and should get the cluttered up desktop layout.
Charles7 said:
I think you miss understand.
Yes, the browser is in mobile view, but a 10" tablet receives the desktop layout, from most sites. I do not want the desktop layout served up to me.
It doesn't matter what user agent I try, I'll get what the website wants to give which is, generally, the desktop version of their site. Only a few sites will serve up their mobile pages to a 10" tablet. Most all send the desktop, regardless of user agent -- usually because they're dynamically serving up the pages based on screen size and somewhere along the lines people deemed 10" screens as big and should get the cluttered up desktop layout.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does your browser have the option to request the desktop version of Web sites or is it missing?
I'm guessing if desktop pages are being forced regardless there is a hack to prevent it.
However I have a 10.5" tablet and I get mobile pages just fine, so don't see why your device is any different?
ashyx said:
Does your browser have the option to request the desktop version of Web sites or is it missing?
I'm guessing if desktop pages are being forced regardless there is a hack to prevent it.
However I have a 10.5" tablet and I get mobile pages just fine, so don't see why your device is any different?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes all browsers I use had user agent setting for mobile vs desktop.
On your tablet if you go to androidpolice.com they serve you up the single column page, the same you would get on your phone?
Charles7 said:
Yes all browsers I use had user agent setting for mobile vs desktop.
On your tablet if you go to androidpolice.com they serve you up the single column page, the same you would get on your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it's not a phone. The pages will be served up depending on the device
In mobile mode all pages are served up differently depending on device size
Between my 7, 9.7, 10.5 tablet and 5" phone all pages are different in mobile mode.
In desktop mode they are the same and just scaled.
ashyx said:
But it's not a phone. The pages will be served up depending on the device
In mobile mode all pages are served up differently depending on device size
Between my 7, 9.7, 10.5 tablet and 5" phone all pages are different in mobile mode.
In desktop mode they are the same and just scaled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's my whole point in my op. "Mobile view" isn't the same for phone and tablet. Tablet essentially gets the same as the desktop, regardless of user agent setting.
I want the same page my phone would get. I don't like multiple columns on a 10" screen. It looks like hell and I have to zoom every page to read or set text so large it looks worse. An 8" tablet gets the mobile phone view....but that extra two inches, wow, now the whole world should be crammed into the screen for each page LOL.
So, no your tablet isn't getting the mobile page either, then.
You get what the web master deems fit to shove on your screen.
On a PC we can easily switch user agents and it works. Can't do that on android, afaik, without root and changing display size = ridiculous.
Was hoping someone knew of some secret.
Charles7 said:
That's my whole point in my op. "Mobile view" isn't the same for phone and tablet. Tablet essentially gets the same as the desktop, regardless of user agent setting.
I want the same page my phone would get. I don't like multiple columns on a 10" screen. It looks like hell and I have to zoom every page to read or set text so large it looks worse. An 8" tablet gets the mobile phone view....but that extra two inches, wow, now the whole world should be crammed into the screen for each page LOL.
So, no your tablet isn't getting the mobile page either, then.
You get what the web master deems fit to shove on your screen.
On a PC we can easily switch user agents and it works. Can't do that on android, afaik, without root and changing display size = ridiculous.
Was hoping someone knew of some secret.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tbh I don't see the issue.
The Web page served is appropriate for the device screen size. In fact I'd be annoyed if it wasn't as it'd be a bit silly having a Web page intended for a phone displayed on device with a bigger screen and wasting real estate.
There is certainly a difference in the formatting between my devices unless it's desktop mode, but it's not something I personally have an issue with.
I'm sure with root you could use an xposed module to spoof your device as a phone, but to me that defeats the object of having a tablet.
ashyx said:
Tbh I don't see the issue.
The Web page served is appropriate for the device screen size. In fact I'd be annoyed if it wasn't as it'd be a bit silly having a Web page intended for a phone displayed on device with a bigger screen and wasting real estate.
There is certainly a difference in the formatting between my devices unless it's desktop mode, but it's not something I personally have an issue with.
I'm sure with root you could use an xposed module to spoof your device as a phone, but to me that defeats the object of having a tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL
The web page served up is someone's idea of what is appropriate....not mine.
I always like it when people tell others how they should use their device. It's like using an apple device and when you want to do something they always say, why would you want to do that?
A single column web page doesn't waste space on a tablet. It's just a preference that I'd prefer to be able to use.
In other words, I would like the option but it doesn't seem possible without root and that's just ridiculous IMO.
Thanks
Figured it out! Updated op.
Related
The Deepfish Technology Preview enhances existing mobile browsing technologies by displaying content in a view that is closer to the desktop experience. Our zoom-able interface and cue map allow you to quickly access the information you care about over the web without ever losing track of where you are.
Note : Deepfish is currently only available by invite only to a small number of beta users. Please visit http://labs.live.com/deepfish page to keep informed of future updates and availability.
Deepfish has been MIA for some time now. They released a limited quantity for beta testing a while back. Id also like to try it.
Dont bother looking for it online. Even if u find it with a key, it wont work. because once u log onto the internet it does a key validation check, and wont let u go any further.
Another good browser is picsel 1.0.5. But it has its limitations.
I managed luckily to get an invite for the deepfish beta a while back. While i was impressed with it initially, I believe it has too many flaws in it's current state. Opera Mobile 4 is way, way better and does everything that deepfish is trying to do and more. So much so that I have removed deepfish from my device!
The flaws that I have noticed with it are that while it allows you to browse a full web page and zoom in, it does this by rendering the page as an image file on a central server, then you download the image. When you then zoom in to a part of the page you want to read, it is like zooming in on a (low quality) image. the images and text especially are blurred and difficult to read on a pda's screen. Opera mini doe snot have this problem as it renders text as actual text. This alone made me switch to Opera.
As you are browsing an image, it is difficult or most time impossible to enter text into boxes, such as entering a login or password. For the few times that you can enter your information, you cannot click the login button!!! (facebook is an example).
With your web page being an image, there is no flash support whatsoever.
The last frustrating thing is that most times it does not download the entire page of a website. So imagine browsing your favorite web blog, you read the first page of info, but the last 3 inches of the page is missing, meaning you cannot click "next" to go to the next page!. This happens on MOST of the pages you browse, sometimes even more than a few inches are missing from the bottom.
So while deepfish is a good idea in theory , it has so many issues i reckon Microsoft labs team have given up as it probably will require way more resources than they have available to turn it into a viable application.
If you are looking for a similar browser that works, get Opera Mini4. If you are already using that, you are not missing anything by not having deepfish.
Tired of the about:debug hopefully a fix is coming soon....
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
TheWh0leTruth said:
Tired of the about:debug hopefully a fix is coming soon....
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I understand its up to the developers of websites to differentiate between "Android" which is tablets, and "Android Mobile" which is phones.
Dolphin is the bees knees on my xoom I love the side to side features... all ready uninstalled the stock browser
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
martonikaj said:
From what I understand its up to the developers of websites to differentiate between "Android" which is tablets, and "Android Mobile" which is phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct, but isn't that a little ridiculous? I mean the other browsers deliver us a desktop experience with no problem. I guess I understand the desire for the browser to be recognized as Android-specific, but relying on websites to change their code ultimately results in a less-than-ideal experience for the user. I don't know what a website's motivation would be to change their code. From their standpoint, I think it would seem like we are expecting them to make changes so that our substandard app will work. The websites will probably catch up, but meanwhile, shouldn't the stock browser be able to bring us as satisfying an experience as a third party app does?
nbowes said:
The websites will probably catch up, but meanwhile, shouldn't the stock browser be able to bring us as satisfying an experience as a third party app does?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The websites would never catch up if that was the case. Right now the best way to deal with it is write to page owner that have this problem and complain.
Why not just change the user agent? Am I missing something?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Magnesus said:
The websites would never catch up if that was the case. Right now the best way to deal with it is write to page owner that have this problem and complain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You make a very good point here. And I guess the sites in question are actually the better sites that redirect a user to alternative content (low-res video or non-Flash pages) based on the browser's signature. Since they already consider that, they may be more likely to respond to user requests and feedback and change their code. Our browser type should begin to show up in their web traffic reports, too. But I think it'll be a slow-going change because in the whole lineup of browsers, we're a minority. Personally, I'll be more apt to open Dolphin to view a page that isn't displaying in desktop mode, long before I would hunt down a webmaster email address and send a note. I'm not even sure exactly what to ask for in the note. If anybody would care to provide a post with some proper terminology, that might help the cause.
ChongoDroid said:
Why not just change the user agent? Am I missing something?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I understand it, we can select "desktop" as our user agent, but that identifies our browser as "android" which a lot of sites interpret as "android mobile" and redirect us to mobile content anyway. I have also read where some folks can't get the setting to stick through a reboot.
nbowes said:
You make a very good point here. And I guess the sites in question are actually the better sites that redirect a user to alternative content (low-res video or non-Flash pages) based on the browser's signature. Since they already consider that, they may be more likely to respond to user requests and feedback and change their code. Our browser type should begin to show up in their web traffic reports, too. But I think it'll be a slow-going change because in the whole lineup of browsers, we're a minority. Personally, I'll be more apt to open Dolphin to view a page that isn't displaying in desktop mode, long before I would hunt down a webmaster email address and send a note. I'm not even sure exactly what to ask for in the note. If anybody would care to provide a post with some proper terminology, that might help the cause.
As I understand it, we can select "desktop" as our user agent, but that identifies our browser as "android" which a lot of sites interpret as "android mobile" and redirect us to mobile content anyway. I have also read where some folks can't get the setting to stick through a reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Desktop is not android. Android is android just like iPhone emulates an iPhone... about:debug or dolphin browser? Cmon
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
ChongoDroid said:
Desktop is not android. Android is android just like iPhone emulates an iPhone... about:debug or dolphin browser? Cmon
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I select "desktop" in the stock browser, it gives me a very different experience than when I select it in another browser, such as Dolphin. I am under the impression that selecting "android" would tell a website that I am on an android phone, and it would render the mobile version of the site. I don't want that, so I selected "desktop" but still often get directed to mobile versions of sites. I thought I read that the reason for this is that selecting "desktop" identifies the browser as "android"...as opposed to "android mobile." I guess sites aren't coded to recognize "android" as being different than "android mobile" and render the mobile version.
The suggestion has been to notify site owners of the problem and ask them to update their code. I think to do that effectively, I need to fully understand the issue, and I'm sorry but your reply didn't help me with that.
Android user agent is for tablets. Desktop is for desktop. Not many sites are setup to render pages for a tablet that's why you get the mobile version when set to android.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
But...I'm getting mobile versions when I'm set to desktop.
Thank you for your replies. I think Chongo has made a pretty solid case for the Dolphin browser.
Dolphin is one of the best alternative.
I am using the Dolphin Mini on my Nexus S just because of this user-agent issue, plus tabbed browsing, quick bookmarks, etc.
It is not as fast as the stock one, but the speed is still fast enough to enjoy the experience.
I read that Dolphin is still not good enough on Honeycomb. They have updated it, but still choppy.
We can hope that the developers are hard work to bring it up to speed with Honeycomb, better stability, faster with hardware acceleration. Certainly, this will be realized quickly as I read Google developer posted detailed information about hardware acceleration on Honeycomb:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/03/android-30-hardware-acceleration.html
nbowes said:
But...I'm getting mobile versions when I'm set to desktop.
Thank you for your replies. I think Chongo has made a pretty solid case for the Dolphin browser.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Btw, anyone can really catch the stock browser user agent string?
I am interested to know "exactly", the exact string text, what is the user agent string of the stock browser, default setting and when set to desktop via about:debug.
And also from the Dolphin set to "desktop".
Thanks if you can do this for us.
nbowes said:
But...I'm getting mobile versions when I'm set to desktop.
Thank you for your replies. I think Chongo has made a pretty solid case for the Dolphin browser.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to type ' about:debug' every time you reboot and in some cases after clearing your browsing history or after the browser stops. In other words, 'about:debug' does not stick. But your settings are remembered, so you won't have to keep changing your user agent, you'll just need to keep typing 'about:debug' in your address bar. The easier way to tell if you're still in debug mode is by clicking the menu icon and seeing if you have expanded options or not.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
gogol said:
Btw, anyone can really catch the stock browser user agent string?
I am interested to know "exactly", the exact string text, what is the user agent string of the stock browser, default setting and when set to desktop via about:debug.
And also from the Dolphin set to "desktop".
Thanks if you can do this for us.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://my-addr.com/ua
For me, Safari is listed when in both desktop and android mode. When in android mode, platform shows as unknown.
With Dolphin in desktop mode, the agent is Chrome and the platform is Win7.
I don't have Xoom, so I cannot test that
But, I tested using my Nexus S, and here is the result:
Dolphin in Android mode:
Browser name: Default Browser
Platform: unknown
Operating System: Linux, Smart Move!!!
User Agent: Safari
Dolphin in desktop mode:
Browser branch name: Safari 3.1
Browser name: Safari
Browser version: 3.1
Platform: MacOSX
Operating System: Mac OS X
User Agent: Safari
Stock browser in Android (default) mode:
Browser name: Default Browser
Platform: unknown
Operating System: Linux, Smart Move!!!
User Agent: Safari
Stock browser in desktop mode:
Browser branch name: Safari 5.0
Browser name: Safari
Browser version: 5.0
Platform: MacOSX
Operating System: Mac OS X
User Agent: Safari
They are all using "Safari", no word "Android" mentioned.
nbowes said:
http://my-addr.com/ua
For me, Safari is listed when in both desktop and android mode. When in android mode, platform shows as unknown.
With Dolphin in desktop mode, the agent is Chrome and the platform is Win7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One good thing about being automatically sent to the mobile version of a site?
Gizmodo.com
The mobile site is vanilla and plain but DAMN it's better to look at than that new mess of a website they've put up the last couple of months.
/rant
I think the issue here is why can't the Stock browser settings stick when you change the user agent. Dolphin seems to work perfectly fine after rebooting or after a browser crash. If the Stock browser did the same thing, after changing it to desktop, I don't think anyone would have an issue.
FYI Google addressed why this happens in their Android Blog:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/12/android-browser-user-agent-issues.html
Basically, the browser reports itself as Android, but not Android Mobile (as someone else suggested).
Websites currently sense if you are using Android and assume its a phone (because it always used to be), but now they should key of the word "Mobile" instead.
This does have drawbacks, but from an engineering perspective, it is the "correct" way to do it. Hacking the user agent is bad practice - its important for web admins to know if a lot of tablets are accessing their website, for example, so they can make sure the site works well for them. If Google set it to spoof a windows desktop, web admins would never know how many tablets were being used, and may be serving their users with a less than optimal page for tablets without realizing it.
So it will take some time for web admins to fix their sites, but unfortunately, this is the right way to do it. It would be great though if the about:debug settings were sticky. It might be bad practice for Google to design the tablet to spoof the user agent, but its fine if an individual user decides to.
-Taylor
It seems like the best option is to complain to webmasters who do not allow the option of leaving mobile mode on their sites.
If the option to view either mobile or full site is given then there is no need to spoof the user agent and the device would be properly tracked by whatever software the host is using. We need to complain more to the web admins if we will ever see the compatability that the ipad users currently have when browsing the web. At the same time the web admins need to know that enough of our devices are out there before they will see a need to create an alternative browsing experience. This is why I am against changing the user agent.
Edit: Perhaps Google had the same thought in mind and this is the reason the user agent setting does not hold after a reboot.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA Premium App
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.
I've always wondered why some websites insist on delivering desktop versions to Opera Mobile when I have the UA set as "tablet". I don't do a lot of browsing with my NST, but my local newspaper has a website and a mobile version that is much easier to navigate with a small touch screen. It loads up fine on my NT running CM 10.2 with the UA on the stock browser set to "Android", but with Opera Mobile on the NST I get the desktop site with all kinds of tiny print and tiny links.
Until today!
I've been looking at the UAString issue for awhile but today I found a website that would tell you what your UAString was. I remembered that the stock browser on the NST--with all its problems--was served the mobile version of my local newspaper's site. You couldn't do much with it, of course, but it was recognized correctly. So I brought it out of mothballs again and went to the site where I could read the UAString. After laboriously and carefully copying that out on paper, I fired up Opera Mobile 12.10
Typing opera:config in the address bar takes you to a LOT of things you can customize (some work, others don't). There is a place near the bottom of the list to select the UAString by mystery number but although you can do that and hit "save", it will not actually save the information. Thanks, guys.....
A few lines below that option is "User Prefs". Under that is "Custom User Agent" with a blank line just waiting for you to put something in there. When you have done that, you need to scroll way down to the bottom where there is a "save" button. Then restart Opera.
Now the fun part. Below is the UAString for the stock browser. It is painful in the extreme to type in, largely owing to the fact that the period is under the question mark, away from all the other punctuation and numbers. But...
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1; en-us; NOOK BNRV300 Build/ERD79) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17
Whew! I'm not sure how important spaces and/or caps are, I just gave what I got from whatsmyuseragent.com using the stock browser and I tried to type it in carefully.
I realize that some people struggle to force mobile browsers to show desktop versions of sites, just the opposite of what I am doing. I just feel that with the functionality of the NST what it is, for sites that are reading-based (like a newspaper) the mobile version of the site is often much easier to deal with. And if you find it's not working for you, just go back to the settings and hit the "default" button next to where you entered the custom UAString.
There are, of course, all kinds of other UAStrings out there. I actually like the stock browser--except that it doesn't really work. So I thought it might be a place to start. You get the much better functionality of Opera Mobile but with a (perhaps) better-suited display.
Of course, it could just be my stupid local rag's website......
While looking for something completely different, I stumbled across this and thought some people might find it interesting:
Turn an old eReader into an Information Screen (Nook STR) – Terence Eden’s Blog
shkspr.mobi
I wouldn't fixed NST to a wall and think that I have read here about app used here to do that job. Either someone is gonna fix TLS issue or maybe if we assume using NST as display it could be possible to use home Wi-Fi router or mobile phone as secure server or part of VPN that will negotiate TLS issue for NST. I always doubted slightly that NST can offer full internet browser experience but something in line of htttp web grab in reader mode might be good enough for some application. News (RSS), weather and I believe that maybe EPG TV guide are not impossible to accomplish. Only question about this remains will NST embedded HTML browser will be good for the job of showing the grab from web pages or is Opera in reader mode better for such job. Time to look up for a good web grabber...
SJT75 said:
I wouldn't fixed NST to a wall and think that I have read here about app used here to do that job. Either someone is gonna fix TLS issue or maybe if we assume using NST as display it could be possible to use home Wi-Fi router or mobile phone as secure server or part of VPN that will negotiate TLS issue for NST. I always doubted slightly that NST can offer full internet browser experience but something in line of htttp web grab in reader mode might be good enough for some application. News (RSS), weather and I believe that maybe EPG TV guide are not impossible to accomplish. Only question about this remains will NST embedded HTML browser will be good for the job of showing the grab from web pages or is Opera in reader mode better for such job. Time to look up for a good web grabber...
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Curl can often bypass SSL checks and grab web content. It runs on the NST. I've used it in a few of my apps. Whether the data it gets can be used by the app the blogger mentions is something else.
@nmyshkin that is nice idea! And seems exactly in line of what I wrote. I do not know is curl accessible from Android layer. I pondered the same thought more in line of trying to use port of Lynx to Android I have seen someone did although who knows is that possible to do on this version of Android?
I've written a status app (that I never use).
It polls two different servers for JSON info and displays it using regular Android graphics stuff.
It uses Retrofit for polling.
And one more! (although this one uses a Sony PRS-T1)
Reusing my ebook reader – Fluffyelephant
Hmm, you got me thinking about this stuff.
There's the whole let the Nook poll some data service and display it on a web browser sort of thing.
I don't really need or want that.
I was thinking more of like as a status output device for a headless Raspberry Pi.
No, not as a terminal, more like status for a solar/home/whatever system.
The Nook doesn't poll anything, it just sits there waiting for text or graphics.
But here's the part I like, you don't use any WiFi.
You just plug your Nook into the Raspberry Pi.
Of course it has adb.
You can get adb for Raspberry Pi: sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb
Now you can set up port forwarding:
Code:
[email protected]:~ $ adb forward tcp:6666 tcp:6666
Then all you need is something on the RPi to connect to port 6666 and spit out stuff.
On the Nook you need an app to serve port 6666 and do display stuff.
I've already made a clock as proof of concept and it works fine.
You could just use text fields or compose a whole graphic frame on the RPi and send that over.
Heck, if you send whole frames you wouldn't even need to run the Android subsytem.
I could probably get that working on a Kobo.
A very sophisticated example follows.
It allows you to individually update separate fields.
These could be in tables with borders or labels or whatever.
Edit: Okay, a better screenshot.
You know, the thing I like about this is that the NST is the server.
It's a bit like running X11, but much more lightweight.
And if you want you can still run this over WiFi instead of ADB forwarding.
This electric sign app is really close to something I'm looking for. What I'd like to do is, instead of a screenshot of a URI, to take a screenshot of what I've got open in the device.
I'd like to use this with Google Calendar, and Opera Mini surprisingly seems to work with the HTML version. I think Opera Mini keeps the calendar updating with AJAX or something, so all I'd need an app like this to do would be to, when it's running, take a screenshot of what's on the screen right before sleeping and set that as wallpaper, then wake every X minutes, screencap what's there and go back to sleep with that as the new wallpaper. The end result should be an always-on, low power Google Calendar.
EDIT: For anyone looking later, I was wrong. Opera Mini does not keep updating Google Calendar, you have to refresh it manually, which makes this slightly more complicated...
jptiger said:
This electric sign app is really close to something I'm looking for. What I'd like to do is, instead of a screenshot of a URI, to take a screenshot of what I've got open in the device.
I'd like to use this with Google Calendar, and Opera Mini surprisingly seems to work with the HTML version. I think Opera Mini keeps the calendar updating with AJAX or something, so all I'd need an app like this to do would be to, when it's running, take a screenshot of what's on the screen right before sleeping and set that as wallpaper, then wake every X minutes, screencap what's there and go back to sleep with that as the new wallpaper. The end result should be an always-on, low power Google Calendar.
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Somewhere on the site there is a discussion of a setup that copies the current screen into a screensaver folder so that, for example, a map remains visible when the device sleeps. Search for it.
Edit: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/q-fridge-calendar.3057759/#post-59527882
Edit: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...uestion-o-noob-friendly.2941262/post-57216860
Eh, I'm not fond of browser-based anything,
For plain HTML stuff you could throw something together with Webkit instead.
For the adventurous you could use the Google Calendar API
Renate said:
Eh, I'm not fond of browser-based anything,
For plain HTML stuff you could throw something together with Webkit instead.
For the adventurous you could use the Google Calendar API
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I tend to agree with you. As I already wrote above something akin to Pocket/ReadItLater and similar might be accomplished using simple web grab I presume and offline HTML browser. I have thought that it looks odd that beside "hidden" (and sadly for us practically unusable) browser NST have another HTML viewer. Reason for that might be it was intended to be used for B&N "browsing" through their shop that they periodically download to NST or maybe for presentation of e-book material of older type that was for all intents and purposes just web archived HTML page or perhaps for viewing magazines purchased through B&N.
In essence even epub use elements of CSS/HTML but that is another story. Maybe it could be possible to make some poor man Pocket like offline browser if we somehow find the way to cobble together parts of some RSS, bookmarks syncing, e-mail listing, forum/blog viewer and approach that me or nmyshkin proposed here. In my opinion hardest part if some web grab is possible would be to render it in usable form for this device. That mean turning of ads, flash/video, loading pictures only on demand (or better in on/off way) and show only text information. Now what "browser" is suitable for this is yet to determine. I know that very old Opera could turn off animation an pictures but as I remember it did that in such way that it didn't download them at all to save bandwidth. Maybe it could be somehow set to load web archives in such manner? Think about it as giving an command that some web page be "printed as epub". It might be to large task to accomplish. Pocket worked if I remember right in such way that selected page was sent to dedicated server which did the trimming part for user and allowing him/her to download that content on other device to be read later on. Here I think that if we could sync for example one of bookmark folders from a computer with NST and achieve web grab of those links in usable form we might have something. It is a matter for the debate isn't Opera mobile and style management already wrote on here in forum same or even better. Problem would be that page reformat/rendering would be tasked to NST itself and I am not sure if it is up to the task or am I capable to cobble such thing alone for that matter. Something flashed in my mind didn't Calibre had some news reader? If it does then I am inventing the wheel here. Still it would be nice to be able to have some even limited ability to open a link to a news story from RSS feed or a forum/blog we follow or e-mail listing etc.
For Calendar I hope that some kind of dedicated app combining Calendar, planner and to do list can be found to already exist for this device.
Did anyone inspected this option? https://greycoder.com/a-list-of-text-only-new-sites/ It might be interesting
SJT75 said:
Did anyone inspected this option? https://greycoder.com/a-list-of-text-only-new-sites/ It might be interesting
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Thanks for these! The ersatz Google News is amazing in that even the external links are text-only! It makes my Google News app obsolete! Great with Opera Mini. Many, many things to look at there
nmyshkin said:
Thanks for these! The ersatz Google News is amazing in that even the external links are text-only! It makes my Google News app obsolete! Great with Opera Mini. Many, many things to look at there
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I am glad that I have contributed with something useful. As have already guessed from mine posts in this thread I have contemplated heavily about what could be more useful for NST some text-only browser akin to old trusty Lynx or some rewrite/redefinition of working Opera. One thing lead to another and at first I thought to maybe open and disclosed source for firefox readability extension/addon ported for working version of Opera somehow is a way to go but as I always check all aspects of mine quirky ideas I stumbled upon this. It is poor man solution but as I remembered that you follow NPR and they have text mode only site felt obliged to mention it here.
In line with nmyshkin's idea of using curl if some information display akin to the one linked in the first post is needed does something like cron from Linux can be run on NST?
"Print as epub" exist as web form. Here is the result of that one. https://dotepub.com/ I tried to use online form there and results were mediocre but as I understand they also offer their API to developers etc. That I presume might draw attention from someone on xda.
In defense of the intended idea for using NST as info screen arguably touch technology it uses is best for those screens. Mine guess is that its deemed as such because it is most easily scalable from the currently available techniques. This also raise the question why B&N did not already made readers of much larger format like A4 paper size screen. Is the display cost really that high and prohibitive? On the other news rumors have spread that they have partnered with Lenovo not only for the new generation of tablets but also for new e-readers. Has anyone find some leek about possible specifications?
SJT75 said:
... rumors have spread ...
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Say, what? After my buying a Poke3?
Edit: See https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/no...ovo-barnes-noble/1139012795?ean=9780594080503
1200 x 800 for a 10" = 144 DPI, not drop dead impressive.
I agree. Cheap bastards! I can't say is that 149DPI good for LCD screen but is sub par for e-reader. They obviously targeted minimum resolution comparable to low resolution printing and hope to get away with it. Considered that I expressed criticism to level of development of current color e-ink technology being bellow resolution of NST by about 60% you can bet I find this to little question is does it comes to late for B&N. Still I am more interested about e-ink display device that rumor say is also planned but nothing is revealed so far.
Renate said:
Say, what? After my buying a Poke3?
Edit: See https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/no...ovo-barnes-noble/1139012795?ean=9780594080503
1200 x 800 for a 10" = 144 DPI, not drop dead impressive
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Nothing to report that is mine work now still in the spirit of this thread I want to post few links with things people did with e-ink screens that might be done with NST also.
1. Raspberry Pi powered news scrapper - something Renate might like as she as I understood work on something similar
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/ksgomp
2. Weather display that I believe was made using software already mentioned somewhere on forum
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/lcyos9
3. Something completely different! Device made as platform to enable development many things e-ink made. Link shows RSS implementation.
4. In the old days when e-readers were unobtainable on my location I was in desperation contemplating the idea to convert available photo frames to a e-reader. This is as you guess the other way around.
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/liadda
5. Someone developed site for games for e-ink screen as I understood browser only
https://e-ink.club/index.php There is in my opinion plenty of room for some sort of games on e-ink and this is not comprehensive list but it is nice someone started a dedicated page/project for that.