I've got an Evo 4G/Supersonic with Sense, so I'm not sure how widespread this issue is, but I'm sure many people have noticed how when you visit certain websites (say, for example, the Engadget "full experience"/non-mobile version of the site) that the loading bar will periodically appear at the top, reducing the amount of screen real estate for content. This bar will also not go away until it is done loading.. whatever it is that it is loading.
Does anyone have any solutions to this? A different (better) version of the stock android browser? A better browser (that doesn't look horrible, and/or use up more screen real estate inherently)?
I've tried out many different browsers, but have yet to find one I actually prefer to the stock browser - and really, this background loading this is my only major gripe. Opera comes close, but its UI is pretty clunky (IMHO).
Any suggestions?
how about steel or xscope?
steel is very minimalist.. i love it
xscope, u can hide the address bar to view it full screen.. check it out
I actually just tried Steel (and uninstalled it) before making this topic.
One interesting thing is (with Swype at least) you have to press 'cancel' to 'go' when you enter in a URL. Overall it seemed fairly buggy. Nice looking interface though.
I'll check out xscope, thanks
Engadget has it own app, it loads in mobile friendly format but still keep the pictures and comments and without having to jump through the loop of going back and forth with the browser. It saves on battery as well since it doesn't have to load all the extra junk that's usually on the right side of Engadget (like popular posts, most discussed, Facebook integration, etc, which is what I expect was causing the extra loadings).
Related
I love the new Touch flo interface. Perhaps I am asking too much but is there a contacts program with this type of interface? It is the biggest thing I notice when using the phone - most other programs are nice and black/grey but the contacts is plain old WM style. I have the random access installed which helps a little but I would prefer the whole interface. Any suggestons?
Thanks
Allan
Have a look at PocketCM Contact
Its not bad but feels a little buggy in use Any other suggestions?
Contact program
Try vito contact fun. amazing contact program. wery good and colorfull.
Bjørn
Norway
Do you have a link to it?
Thanks
Allan
Allan,
Link is here : http://iwindowsmobile.com/contact-manager.html
Although a little confused about why you say PocketCM feels buggy?
I've used it since it came out, think it's a lovely piece of software (and considering it's free it's a right bonus!!).
I installed it, changed the theme to Touch and my keyboard went down so I couldnt see the bottom menu options, the colours meant I could sometimes see the contacts, sometimes couldnt. I couldnt close it since it also got rid of the top start menu bar - just not nice to use really. I want something that feels familiar.
Get ya. The other link should be fine then, it's really nice, not used it much so don't know how customisable it is, but for about a fiver you can't really go wrong.
Had a look at the FunContact and it is better but 2 things wrong with it (1 Major, 1 Minor).
1) (Major) I do not want to wait a few seconds every time I access my contacts for the program to load - and I do not like the lack of button to close (have to select menu and then exit).
2) (Minor) Still doesnt fit in theme-wise with the HTC theme - customisable colours would be great.
So, I am still on the look for something to replace the boring old outlook-style contacts, anyone?
Thanks
Allan
this is the best, IMHO http://sunnysoft.com/software.php?idarticle=296
I have used both PocketCM and FunContact. I found PCM to run a bit slow on the TC even with the latest .20b version. FunContact is the more polished of the two but I found two annoying issues: 1) splash screen when loading the app, and 2) there's not a quick way to exit the app besides going thru several button presses.
The Sunnysoft app looks interesting but it has the same awful letter bar as the default contacts app. I like the finger-slide type of FC and PCM.
You could minimize it then the next time you open your contacts it will open without going through the prolonged startup.
Hi!
I'm really satisfied with my HD2 except for 2 things:
1. It doesn't play flash as promised right away (luckily I found the fixOperaFlash in this Forum)
2. When you have large dropdown menus, they are a real pain in the ass to use. Especially the large ones, which are bigger than the screen - e.g. if you are trying to select a brand name from a used car search site. It always takes me several tries before I get to move the menu bar after the dropdown menu appeared. It always scrolls around or the context menu appears.
Is there any possibility to get an easy to scroll dropdown menu like on the iPhone or the G2 Google Phone? I think this is somehow an Opera related problem, not exactly one of the HD2. But on the other hand, on other windows mobile phones you have a stylus, which makes it easier to move the scroll bar. With the HD2 you have not stylus, just the real nice capacitive display. Therefore I think there is a strong need to have flick scrolling drop down menu in Opera on the HD2. Can anybody help please? Thanx in advance.
It is excellent in iPhone for true.
However, it is not possible at the moment in HD2
It is because of the limitations in native windows OS I believe.
skr_xd said:
It is excellent in iPhone for true.
However, it is not possible at the moment in HD2
It is because of the limitations in native windows OS I believe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The drop down menus in Skyfire are much better, so it's really an Opera limitation.
Do you tested new version of Opera Mobile 10 beta 2?
Still limited?
.
Toss3 said:
The drop down menus in Skyfire are much better, so it's really an Opera limitation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually he is referring to the dropdown menus within websites in browser.
I donno if you mean the same.
In iphone, the smaller dialog box like selecting language in a website, are different & easy to select as shown below (captured from my iphone 3GS)
It's a limitation of Opera.
Try another browser.
seed_al said:
It's a limitation of Opera.
Try another browser.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which browser you are trying about?
Skyfire?
It still needs to use the scroll bar and NOT scrolling inside data in menu.
Any other browser?
skr_xd said:
Which browser you are trying about?
Skyfire?
It still needs to use the scroll bar and NOT scrolling inside data in menu.
Any other browser?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While the Iphone's method is indeed good it's far from optimal as I like to see all of the options at the same time, which is why I find skyfire's implementation to be the best.
Toss3 said:
While the Iphone's method is indeed good it's far from optimal as I like to see all of the options at the same time, which is why I find skyfire's implementation to be the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BTW, have you browsed with iphone? or are you comparing photos\videos?
It is very easy to scroll with iphone that you don't regret for not showing the more items in the list.
Iam using both and i FEEL the iphone's one is better in this area.
Personal opinions may differ though
Just checked with Opera Mobile 10 Beta2.
The scrolling in drop down menu works well within the popped up list.
Excellent.
I tried out Dolphin Browser for a few days and can't understand how people enjoy that experience more. Obviously I'm not trying to say that their opinion is wrong but I would like to hear how they overcame the issues I had (if it was ever a problem for them).
1. Multitouch - I understand that the stock browser (SB for short) didn't have it for a while, but dolphins was very picky in reformatting text columns after a multitouch zoom and zooming was never very smooth.
2. Bookmarks - I hated the bookmark system. It never arranged as conveniently as the SB and never remembers that I wanted to sort a-z. It also doesn't fit as many on the screen which reults in more scrolling. And why in the world would bookmarks not be an icon option in the popup menu? I do most navigating one-handed, on the bottom half of the phone so when I'm trying to access bookmarks thru dolphins I would have to use my other hand because the lack of multitouch resuts in my palm hitting the screen as I tried to tap this tiny star that is the bookmark opener.
3. Menu layout - simply don't like an intrusive menu taking up the whole screen just because I want to press the back, forward or reload button. I seem to remember a prior version having an option where the menu loadout would only occur after pressing the down arrow, but couldn't find that in this latest version.
4. Ads - nuff said
That said, what I lover is full screen browsing, seeing the subtle green bar at the bottom showing number of open windows, swiping to change windows, removing the on-screen zoom buttons and having the dedicated Google bookmarks tab are all features I will not soon forget as I venture back to the stock browser.
After the multitouch update for the SB(which I seldomly use in browsing, thanks to the awesome double-tap-to-fit feature), what other reasons do you have for continuing to use Dolphin?
Again, not trying to say Dolphin users are wrong, I oust get surprised to hear so many rave reviews when everytime I have tried it has turned out to be an unfulfilling experience.
Edit: hopefully I've posted this in the correct section (maybe General would have been better). I know some out there are very picky about what should go where.
yea i like the stock browser with MT now. Screw dolphin
somehow i feel pity for dolphin's devs..
at one time people rated them as one of the best browser out there, and when our default browser got updated, there's people open up thread just to point out its weaknesses..lol.
it's a free software, so we can choose to use it or not..
btw i myself prefer stock browser as well haha..
agreed.
I don't like how the tabs and buttons are in low resolution. It may look good on other phones but on a nexus OLED screen....it doesn't look good.
To be fair, the only big update to the stock browser since its inception (inception for me being a few months after the G1 came out) is MT, and icon-bookmarks and that wouldn't affect my final opinion of Dolphin either way. I tried out Dolphin back on my G1 and wasn't a huge fan of it then, either.
As far as the devs go, if they read my OP (highly unlikely) I really hope they just look at it as some random donkey with suggestions as opposed to me trying to say their product has no place in Android devices.
Steel in complete junk and always was. Dolphin has its moment but I don't care for MT as it is so that was never really a draw for me. The low-res icons exists on the G1/myTouch. I'm sure that Dolphin has its use and I certainly don't mind competition as that can only be good for us as end users. I prefer the stock browser as it serves its purpose very well. Dolphin needs to get rid of the confusing, unintuitive menu system.
Gestures and the "open windows" pane are excellent.
Prefer default becuase of MT/text formatting/Bookmark Icons.
Now that Stock has Multi-Touch and Double-tap to Fit-to-screen... I haven't touched Dolphin.
Dolphin is great for it's auto-sizing so far as webpages are concerned... But it's really just too much in my opinion. I like the layout of stock, and the menu is just simpler. Gestures were really startin' to irritate me too. Some are easy, but making your own and the phone would get mine about 33-50% of the time.
I started using dolphin on my g1 mainly for the full screen options and the ability to download just about any type of file to the phone. I kind of gave up on the stock browser pretty soon after I started using dolphin. however the ads are annoying & the ui sucks major ass, after reading all your thoughts I'm inclined to give the stock browser another chance.
oh yeah and the ability to hold down back and be presented with a dialogue to clear cache and close from dolphin was another big selling point for me.
loving the stock browser!!
occasionly switch over to Xscope
The bookmark syncing in Dolphin is good though....
Why does the stock not have that? (or am I missing something here)
irenic said:
somehow i feel pity for dolphin's devs..
at one time people rated them as one of the best browser out there, and when our default browser got updated, there's people open up thread just to point out its weaknesses..lol.
it's a free software, so we can choose to use it or not..
btw i myself prefer stock browser as well haha..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how the software world works though...
A void is found and someone/a team steps up and fills that void; in this case it was a broswer to answer the asks of all the users not pleased with this or that in the stock browser.
Once the majority of the asks were met with an update, the need for an additional installed app went away for almost all users.
If firefox comes to android you can bet everyone who is calling dolphin garbage compared to the SB will be doing the same with the SB compared to FF....just the way it works
Personally, I would LOVE FF to hit android; I really miss xmarks and adblock. Yep.
i need to try stock I've been using dolphin ever since........
Right now I Prefer the default because of Text formatting and Bookmark Icons.
Dolphin browser was pretty slick a few updates ago, then they messed it up with the menu navigation.
Gestures...full screen...and to deal with the ads...adfree (if rooted).
Hmmm... I'm not sure if I'm right bout this, but I think loading pages on the dolphin browser is quicker, I tested and compared both browsers against my co worker's Iphone, and SB loaded a few seconds behind the Iphone, then I tried it on the dolphin browser and it loaded up faster, of course I've tried this several times and got the same results. It was a very noticeable difference too, so from that point on I never used SB again.... You guys should try it out and let me know what you think.
i liked the dolphin for a while for enriched functions and the look, but then i somehow found it too overbearing for the simple task that i do every time. i may look into the firefox browser (if it ever really comes), but i am all for native as long as possible to retain native integration.
I've also found Dolphin to be quicker in loading pages than SB, which is the reason I'm using it atm. I use a browser to get around the web as quickly as possible so that the SB is slower makes it a no-brainer for me at least.
The reason I won't be leaving Dolphin Browser for now is definitely the full screen browsing. I've also grown so used to gestures for everything I think it would be hard to go back. I personally don't mind the menu taking up the whole screen because if I hit the menu button that's what I want, the menu, nice not having to do menu>more for basic stuff, long press>page or gesture to select text is also really nice. To each their own I suppose, just be glad we have options unlike some other phones *cough**cough*
Forgive me for not searching but I only have my nexus one right now and when I start typing in the xda search box with my phone the search box disappears immediately each time I type the first letter.
First of all xda seems to be pretty good with scrolling. Yahoo, espn, most other sites however don't. This is about the issue with scrolling where images get kind of fuzzy (almost like the resolution drops) and it makes the scrolling seem jittery because the lines and characters are rapidly switching width with every frame while scrolling. It's most noticeable when you stop scrolling but leave your finger on the screen and then really look at the image before removing your finger, once you remove your finger the screen will become as crisp as before you initially applied your finger to scroll.
I think the only reason this bothers me is because the iPhone screen doesn't change at all when scrolling and so it appears more clear/crisp/smooth. Honestly I wish I never fiddled with the 3gs to begin with because I can't stop comparing it to my truly amazing nexus one.
I'm wondering is this a hardware issue or software? I recall a recent pro-iphone article about poor image quality that was soundly refuted by the incomparable people here at xda with the explanation that it was simply a software issue not a hardware defect and I believe the issue was centered around the gallery app and touching the images?
Are these two issues essentially the same in that they can both be resolved with software updates? I just compared the nexus browser scrolling with that of my g1 and mytouch, and although they both are extremely jumpy/jittery I don't notice the change in image quality when removing/applying my finger like on the nexus so it must be the nexus hardware or else 2.1. I'm basically looking for an explanation about what different things make images/characters/lines change in quality and make scrolling so jerky and what can be done.
Thanks to anyone who can decipher and helpfully reply to this post
Edit: Here's the only thing I found searching Google. It addresses the issue pretty well but I'm still curious to hear what xda folks think.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=79967f44ddd5d178&hl=en
Apparently the g1/mytouch jumpiness is from the weak processors. It seems clear its software related on the nexus, I just hope its important enough to Google to fix...
DMaverick50 said:
Forgive me for not searching but I only have my nexus one right now and when I start typing in the xda search box with my phone the search box disappears immediately each time I type the first letter.
First of all xda seems to be pretty good with scrolling. Yahoo, espn, most other sites however don't. This is about the issue with scrolling where images get kind of fuzzy (almost like the resolution drops) and it makes the scrolling seem jittery because the lines and characters are rapidly switching width with every frame while scrolling. It's most noticeable when you stop scrolling but leave your finger on the screen and then really look at the image before removing your finger, once you remove your finger the screen will become as crisp as before you initially applied your finger to scroll.
I think the only reason this bothers me is because the iPhone screen doesn't change at all when scrolling and so it appears more clear/crisp/smooth. Honestly I wish I never fiddled with the 3gs to begin with because I can't stop comparing it to my truly amazing nexus one.
I'm wandering is this a hardware issue or software? I recall a recent pro-iphone article about poor image quality that was soundly refuted by the incomparable people here at xda with the explanation that it was simply a software issue not a hardware defect and I believe the issue was centered around the gallery app and touching the images?
Are these two issues essentially the same in that they can both be resolved with software updates? I just compared the nexus browser scrolling with that of my g1 and mytouch, and although they both are extremely jumpy/jittery I don't notice the change in image quality when removing/applying my finger like on the nexus so it must be the nexus hardware or else 2.1. I'm basically looking for an explanation about what different things make images/characters/lines change in quality and make scrolling so jerky and what can be done.
Thanks to anyone who can decipher and helpfully reply to this post
Edit: Here's the only thing I found searching Google. It addresses the issue pretty well but I'm still curious to hear what xda folks think.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=79967f44ddd5d178&hl=en
Apparently the g1/mytouch jumpiness is from the weak processors. It seems clear its software related on the nexus, I just hope its important enough to Google to fix...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue you're seeing is due to how each OS renders the webpages.
The iPhone renders webpages as one huge jpeg file. So scrolling will of course be very smooth. However, that's why when you pinch and zoom in, the text doesn't reflow. You have to pan left and right like a madman. EXTREMELY annoying.
The Nexus One renders the webpage.... well, as a TRUE webpage. It actually renders each element separately. The "fuzzyness" you're seeing is that pictures are downsized in quality while scrolling so that the scrolling is smooth. I've never seen it be laggy or choppy as a result of this (maybe because I'm using the Desire ROM/browser), but the fuzzyness is still there.
Either way, I'd rather have webpages rendered in their true nature. Increased functionality (text reflow, flash, etc) > silly eye candy that personally doesn't bother me and only happens for a split second anyway. Like most things, the iPhone OS is built for the eye first (minus the nasty home screen), functionality second.
that was an awesome reply, thank you
i love the being able to pinch to zoom and then tap or press zoom to format it. i guess if it has to be a choice of smoothness or utility im with you, id hate for the page to not reformat when i zoomed.
I notice when viewing images on the internet, that the there is a lot of banding in the images and that the color depth looks pretty low 256 colors?
does anyone know if the HD7 display is even 16, 24, or 32 bit color?
I've noticed the color banding only happens on webpages in IE. If you look at a photo in or any image anywhere else in the platform, it looks just fine and I don't see any banding.
It has something to do with the way that WP7 IE renders pages. My guess is that the turned down image quality a little bit so that it can stay so fast and fluid.
prjkthack said:
I've noticed the color banding only happens on webpages in IE. If you look at a photo in or any image anywhere else in the platform, it looks just fine and I don't see any banding.
It has something to do with the way that WP7 IE renders pages. My guess is that the turned down image quality a little bit so that it can stay so fast and fluid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is true at least for what IE renders. We discovered this at work especially with alpha channels not overlaying as well as it should.
yeah, i guess it is only in IE, which still sucks, browsers i used on my android phones didnt cheap out on the bits... IE also seems to load pages slowly, they start loading fast, but then hang on the last 10% for a while...
adambu1 said:
yeah, i guess it is only in IE, which still sucks, browsers i used on my android phones didnt cheap out on the bits... IE also seems to load pages slowly, they start loading fast, but then hang on the last 10% for a while...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, Android and iOS do not seem to mess with the quality of images much, but, neither of those browsers scroll/pan/zoom and fluidly as Windows Phone 7. So it seems to be a trade-off of sorts.
it will be interesting to see what the quality is like when IE9 mobile comes.