EPUB reader recommendation? - General Questions and Answers

I'm kind of tired of trying app after app to just be unhappy with all of them. I'm hoping you guys can recommend me a good epub reader.
I want something with a straight-forward interface. I don't need shelves and stores and all that. I need something that'll let me browse my books via a file explorer (and lets me set the default directory for browsing), and display them neatly, and render them fast with little battery usage.
I've tried Aldiko. I know it's popular, but it runs like crap TBH. Scrolling through my shelf is slow and annoying. And I'd rather just browse my own folder layout than a fancy shelf. I tried a few other random ones I found on Google, but they were mostly slow or didn't do what I needed.

FBreader perhaps, from my default folder it's just two clicks away.
Sent from my Defy using Tapatalk

you can try the epubReader , look for it in android markrt....

I'd suggest either aldiko or moon reader. Both are beautiful, highly functional apps, though moon seems a little more customizeable currently.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

voyteck.reg said:
FBreader perhaps, from my default folder it's just two clicks away.
Sent from my Defy using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for FBReader, simple to use and quick and uses a file explorer with a configureable default folder

anzoshi said:
+1 for FBReader, simple to use and quick and uses a file explorer with a configureable default folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will also suggest FBreader.

+1 for FBreader, have tried Aldiko, Moon Reader, but come back to FBreader

FBReader +1
Sent from somewhere far away

i recommend aldiko using it for almost a year now, but when it comes to minimalistic interface without all this shiny stuff then FBreader - it is a highly customizable fast ebook reader.
so in your case FBreader +1
also just found cool reader quite interesting

jmwils3 said:
I'd suggest either aldiko or moon reader. Both are beautiful, highly functional apps, though moon seems a little more customizeable currently.
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Click to collapse
+1 for moon reader. Used Aldiko before that and found it buggy. Used fbreader after moon reader but returned because of some features. No FCs on moon reader for me.

mood reader ftw

FBReader has really worked well for my needs...

Tried most of the more popular reader apps on the market, found FBReader to be the best for my purposes. It's highly customizable with minimalistic design. Other readers have far too many useless features with not enough customizability, like 10 different page turn animations but no way to change line spacing (moonreader iirc).

Related

[Q] Aldiko book reader

Has anybody used Aldiko Pro? I want to buy one, but I want to know if it works with transformer. I have read Aldiko is not compatible with HC
It sort of work if you don't try to change orientation. If you go from landscape to portrait or vice versa...it FC.
Try Moon+ Reader, Agree that Aldiko FC books on change orentation. Moon+ works well for me with as yet no FC + more features than Aldiko.
rikkia said:
Try Moon+ Reader, Agree that Aldiko FC books on change orentation. Moon+ works well for me with as yet no FC + more features than Aldiko.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on Moon+ Reader. I use this on my TF and EVO with no problems.
vicci said:
Has anybody used Aldiko Pro? I want to buy one, but I want to know if it works with transformer. I have read Aldiko is not compatible with HC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aldiko Premium working great for me...no FC
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
Same here, no FC
lifeisfun said:
Same here, no FC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it does NOT FC if you open a book and then rotate the screen?
I have the free version and it FC every time you rotate the screen. I'd drop a couple bucks on the pro version if it doesn't do this.
Does moon reader hide the navigation buttons like kindle app does?
I hate seeing the home and back and menu button while reading especially in the dark.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
I had the force close problem as well, but you can go into settings and lock it into portrait mode. I can't imagine reading in landscape mode, anyway. Problems only arise when I launch Aldiko with the dock attached (dock forced landscape + Aldiko forced portrait = Android force close), but when I'm reading, I'm holding it portrait without the dock.
FrayAdjacent said:
So it does NOT FC if you open a book and then rotate the screen?
I have the free version and it FC every time you rotate the screen. I'd drop a couple bucks on the pro version if it doesn't do this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, not yet anyways.
Canadoc said:
Does moon reader hide the navigation buttons like kindle app does?
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Click to collapse
No but its hardly noticeable I read with 1% brightness in night mode and never see the buttons lit up.
Also I had FC with Aldiko Pro on rotate.
If I import the books on my microSD card, can I then delete the original files? It seems to make a copy of everything, but I'm not sure.
Why would anybody pay for a bookreader in the first place with all the great free options? Not trolling, just curious what the reasons are
javroch said:
Why would anybody pay for a bookreader in the first place with all the great free options? Not trolling, just curious what the reasons are
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because we like to support people who make products we love?
you guys should check out coolreader, its only 1 dollar and has many options and support lots of formats. i compared aldiko, fbreader and a few others but i think coolreader is better. i just discovered the free reader that comes with the transformer is pretty good too. i really like the dual page display.
Latest Aldiko update removes the crash-on-rotate bug. This was the only item that kept me from giving them a few small coins for their product. Now running Aldiko Premium and enjoying it
Long time user of Aldiko and love it on my TF.
No force close issues but I prefer portrait mode so have it locked into that orientation. No FC issues.
Lag in Aldiko?
How is the lag under Honeycomb? I love Aldiko for all its features, but on my HTC Hero and Desire HD it has ridiculous amounts of lag when updating the book cover thumbnails when you are in any of the views.
On those devices, you scroll down just a few books and you see a default Aldiko cover which after a second or so updates to show the actual cover. If you scroll down more, again the same lag. But what is really annoying is that if you scroll up again to the books you just viewed, which had already shown the cover, they have reset to show the default Aldiko, so you have to wait again for it to update. Just looks so tacky, when the rest of the software is so polished.
I really don't understand why they can't update the thumbnails more smoothly.
Is it the same behaviour on the Transformer or other Honeycomb devices?
That is the only thing really stopping be from gettin Honeycomb over the HTC Flyer, because the Flyers Reader UI like on all their latest phones is simply beautiful, I think it uses OpenGL so it so fluid.
Thanks for any advice!
I'm looking for a ebook reader as well, and I was primarily looking at kindle and nook. I like both for a few reasons ...
nook seems to have a much better selection of magazines ... car and driver for example, is 99c per month with nook, but unavailable on kindle.
I like kindle because its ebooks are often cheaper (kindle version of the same book is quite often 50% cheaper than nook) and it also syncs between different devices. I read from my Desire and my Transformer so this feature is a must.
What other ebook readers do you guys recommend?
I looked into moon+ reader but it looks iffy when it requires access to a lot of personal info ... why does an ebook reader need to know about state of my phone for example???
FBReader also looks good.

Your absolute fave app

What is your absolute favorite application/game? The one you just cannot live without. I am excepting to see a lot of mainstream apps being called out, so to go along with that question, what is your favorite non mainstream app/game?
My fave mainstream app would have to be Facebook (lots of friends from england)
My fave non mainstream app would have to be SwingGame
I am hoping that we will all be able to find some apps that we have never heard of before through this thread.
Netflix and before that came I would say YouTube app impressed me.
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda premium
Reddita. I don't think I've ever wasted more time in my life than the period of AR (after reddita).
gReader. Looks, feels and works great
Pulse. Never have I wasted so much time during work cause of this app. Best RSS reader!
Sent from my T959 using Tapatalk
fliparsenal said:
Pulse. Never have I wasted so much time during work cause of this app. Best RSS reader!
Sent from my T959 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. Pulse is really quite amazing. The UI is beautiful
Pulse. Great app.
I would have to agree with Pulse as well. Was recently introduced to this app and absolutely love it.
+ on pulse. Save sooo much time with it.
Multipicture live wallpaper.
1- because I was going out of my mind when honeycomb cropped my pics
2- runs great with adw ex
Feedly :
Love it the away it allows me the add the feeds, read the same feeds on my phone and on the tablet , and also on my desktop (Firefox addon).
Beautiful interface on both android and desktop. Another nice feature is the suggestions of other feeds that I would like. Stopped using pulse once I found Feedly
The browser is my fav. Its the one app I couldn't live without.
Sent from my Samsung Epic
I'm greedy, I have two ~ Evernote & Dropbox
Both serve me exceptionally well on all my devices; allowing data to be shared simple and easy.
Evernote: Totally useful - not a timewaster - your information available transparently on every device you own, simply awesome.
It used to be Pulse, until I found News360.
Honestly though, the browser gets 99% of the usage on my tablet. I use the default browser cause I;m a chrome user on PC and having synced bookmarks is a necessity. Opera Mobile would be great if I could add more than 9 speed dial buttons
If I may ask my own question about "Your absolute favorite app"
What is your favorite sports app?
I'm trying to find a good one for tablet. All the amazing sports apps, Score Mobile, Fox etc suck for the tablet... they wont even go into landscape mode!
For those who use Pulse, try out Taptu, its very similar but somehow cleaner and faster in my opinion. (news 360 is awesome though.)
But my favorite app is... either Dropbox or Youtube
I love Pulse.
Can't help but think that if you could hide the window which slides out from the left when you click a story by sliding it back, instead of hitting the back button it would be so much better.
Going to d/l Taptu & check it out as well. Cheers for the suggestion
fliparsenal said:
Pulse. Never have I wasted so much time during work cause of this app. Best RSS reader!
Sent from my T959 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried d9 reader? XDA creation, very good.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
For all of the folks that like Pulse - Check out News Republic - it's a really nice (and free) news app (I like it better than Pulse)!
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Besides the browser and Facebook (Friendcaster for tablets) the app I keep coming back and spending lots of time in is Age of Zombies. The Survival mode is addicting. It's the only game I've found on the Android Market that I keep coming back to play. Everything else I get bored of after 5-10 minutes.
Still can't replace console gaming though.
Have to agree with Pulse. Its just so clean and epic...and epic.

Best e-book reader app for Kindle Fire?

Hello, might be a strange question, as Kindle Fire is electronic ebook reader itself
But as we all know, we play it, we root it, we have this beauty called ICS CM9 and Kernel 3 with master Hashcode.
But now I have strange problem. I DO NO KNOW a good ebook reader app on the market. I'm missing the reading experience which I got from original Kindle Fire rom/software.
I tried Mantano reader - UI is just horrible. The text is stoo small to read(UI), it works slow and so on..
I tried google books - same crap, cannot use dictionary, what about highliting??.
I tried Kindle App - which I think is the best for reading books, and I found out that it is not scaled properly.
Any solution for scaling problem?
Or maybe some suggestions of nice ebook apps or advices how and what you guys use/do ?
Thank you very much
Check out Cool Reader and Moon Reader.
cluendo said:
Hello, might be a strange question, as Kindle Fire is electronic ebook reader itself
But as we all know, we play it, we root it, we have this beauty called ICS CM9 and Kernel 3 with master Hashcode.
But now I have strange problem. I DO NO KNOW a good ebook reader app on the market. I'm missing the reading experience which I got from original Kindle Fire rom/software.
I tried Mantano reader - UI is just horrible. The text is stoo small to read(UI), it works slow and so on..
I tried google books - same crap, cannot use dictionary, what about highliting??.
I tried Kindle App - which I think is the best for reading books, and I found out that it is not scaled properly.
Any solution for scaling problem?
Or maybe some suggestions of nice ebook apps or advices how and what you guys use/do ?
Thank you very much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try fbreader. People say it's good.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Thank you guys for suggestions, I will try it!
But do all of you have scaling problems with Kindle App ? Because it fells like it is not a full screen.
Also I tried Aldiko ( I heard it is the best ). For me it i the worst. The most laggy app I've ever experienced. Unusable on Kindle unfortunately
Don't think I'm picky or smth. I just hate an idea that there are no simple apps as ebook reader..or at least it's hard to find.
cluendo said:
Thank you guys for suggestions, I will try it!
But do all of you have scaling problems with Kindle App ? Because it fells like it is not a full screen.
Also I tried Aldiko ( I heard it is the best ). For me it i the worst. The most laggy app I've ever experienced. Unusable on Kindle unfortunately
Don't think I'm picky or smth. I just hate an idea that there are no simple apps as ebook reader..or at least it's hard to find.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree with you. I almost went back to the stock ROM. I now just use Mantano reader because it's the smoothest.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
veeman said:
I now just use Mantano reader because it's the smoothest.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip, handles pdfs very well.
Aldiko is great, but for some strange reason it identifices a 7" tablet as our KF as a phone instead of a tablet. If they could get that fixed they would be kings of tablets again as well as they are of phones.
Lotek said:
Thanks for the tip, handles pdfs very well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My only gripe is that the UI text is a bit small.
I use Aldiko and have never had any issues with it like those that are being described here. Its very smooth on my device. Mine is overclocked, though.
Majin Kaioh said:
I use Aldiko and have never had any issues with it like those that are being described here. Its very smooth on my device. Mine is overclocked, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OP is on CM9 with the 3.0 kernel so that means he is (99% sure) overclocked too.
Ironically, I like the B&N Nook reader the best - IMHO the best legibility of fonts, spacing and scaling controls, and better/more intuitive/easier to use highlighting and commenting tools.
Have you tried Kobo Reader? It's my favorite!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
gandoe , I never actually see the NOOK app! I did a research and found that it is somehow restricted in my country - I can't download it via market.
Can someone upload this app please! link here http://www.appbrain.com/app/nook-for-android-by-b-n/bn.ereader
Here is what I found:
*Kobo app is working pretty flawless and smooth ! Best app so far I've used ( I dunno about the NOOK one though..) big thanx to milanche
*Kindle App is smooth as well, but it just doesn't completely full screen on my Kindle Fire.
*Aldiko for me is annoyingly laggy app, especially when zooming, scrolling pages etc..
*Mantano Reader is nice a well BUT UI text is way too small and it just doesn't feel nice as an app ( just my opinion)
So can someone upload NOOK for android apk ?
THANK YOU!
P.S. Yes I tried to use Market Enabler to fake my country, but it do not allow me to install.....
You have the app brain link there. Why can't you download it?
Edit :
Here is a link for download.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1294967&page=2
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
I don't know, even using AppBrain app I cannot download. It doesn't allow me.
But I found it here http://www.mediafire.com/?wr4w53d735rb0w4
Its an older version but I managed to update it via market once installed
It is pretty the best app now, even comparing with Kobo.
Aldiko is pretty good
Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk
I use Aldiko and I love it. I have my background as tan and letters as brown and its quite easy on the eyes. Night setting is just the reverse brown/tan.
People talking about font being too small on some readers, isn't that customizable? I've only tried aldiko and kindle, an I was very unsatisfied with the kindle app. Alot of my book covers in the row were very small while some big and I couldn't find a fix so that killed it for me.
I do wish tho that the bookshelf in aldiko was resizeable. I like big book thumbnails.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using xda premium
bivouac said:
I use Aldiko and I love it. I have my background as tan and letters as brown and its quite easy on the eyes. Night setting is just the reverse brown/tan.
People talking about font being too small on some readers, isn't that customizable? I've only tried aldiko and kindle, an I was very unsatisfied with the kindle app. Alot of my book covers in the row were very small while some big and I couldn't find a fix so that killed it for me.
I do wish tho that the bookshelf in aldiko was resizeable. I like big book thumbnails.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, but I use Aldiko only for free books, because I have 2 kindle devices so I need to use the stock kindle app to sync everything. But Aldiko does have small book covers and very basic page turn animation, but it still is pretty good
Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk
I don't know why but Aldiko when you turn pages of the ebook it delays for 1 sec or so. I particularly don't like that, and the book shelf has small thumbnails as mentioned. I'm playing with Kobo and NOOK apps now. I think NOOK is the best right now. Big thumbnails of books, quickly loads the books, nice animations on turning pages, and it's smooth when you turn pages. Easy highlight, notes selection tools. And you can adjust everything from font size to margins to font itself. So it's pretty cool app now for reading I think.
Kobo would be great as well, as I like the design of the app more. But it loads books slowly somehow. Even between chapter it takes some time to load book up. Selecting text and highliting is annoying though...
So I stick with NOOK now and probably Kindle app sometimes.
Aldiko would be great if they would fix small thumbnails of bookshelf, and if they would remove that scrolling the page delays...
Cool Reader is by far the best non stock kindle reading app. Because I was on stock for months before I switched to ICS, my entire library was MOBI format. SO I didn't have to convert them to another format. Cool Reader also has a ton of features, a lot more than the stock reader app or any of the other ones.

Inverted Google Drive.. or evernote?

Hi, just a quicky...
Ive been wanting to start mwking some notes, and usually id use evernote... but preferably id like to be able to use white text on a black background (which evernote cant do).
In fact no apps seem capable of this. However I did wonder if it was possible to get an "inverted" version of google drive? I only ask as im on redemption rom, which includes a couple other inverted google apps.. or an inverted evernote maybe, if such a thing is possible.
I have seen on other forums links to old versions of google drive, couldnt find anything current though unfortunately... thought id ask around on here for help
Ps. I did try and use the "negative colours" option... which works on the background and text but also makes the keyboard unbearable and other parts of the UI annoyingly-coloured...
Thanks for any help
Sent from my GT-N8010 using XDA Premium HD app
Sv: Inverted Google Drive.. or evernote?
There's two way of solving this. The first is to use SNote with a black background, no problems really (to make a black background, search the web or creating a picture that's all black and use that as background). The second way is to get a decent note app like LectureNotes where you can select "enable blackboard mode") under handling to get exactly what you want. You can also use black background and create white custom pens, that might be easier if you like to have some regular notes as well.
The third way is to check among the widgets after "negative colors" (stock widget), this widget does just what it says and you can use any program since everything white turns black and the other way around.
Hope this helped!
Sent from my GT-N8010 using xda app-developers app
Axel_ said:
There's two way of solving this. The first is to use SNote with a black background, no problems really (to make a black background, search the web or creating a picture that's all black and use that as background). The second way is to get a decent note app like LectureNotes where you can select "enable blackboard mode") under handling to get exactly what you want. You can also use black background and create white custom pens, that might be easier if you like to have some regular notes as well.
The third way is to check among the widgets after "negative colors" (stock widget), this widget does just what it says and you can use any program since everything white turns black and the other way around.
Hope this helped!
Sent from my GT-N8010 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already tried the "negative colours" stock widget... but the negative colours doesnt just turn black-white and white-black... it also converts all the other colours on the screen, which makes the keyboard a wierd bright yellow colour and the menus ... well, just annoying. more distracting than leaving things default!
I didn't consider trying SNote and making a black background, it would be a good idea in theory as I already have SNote... but I needed the ability to save my notes in the cloud, so that I can access them from the laptop easily (hence my usual program being evernote, I have a lot of notes on there. Just a shame the evernote android app doesnt support theming or blackboard).
.....
Ok well I just doeble checked this, and it turns out SNote has the ability to sync to evernote directly.... Im not sure how I managed to miss that, it was certainly kept pretty quiet lol. Seems it will synch to google docs as well, which is less surprising.
Seeing as I already have lots of evernote notes, I may try that first and see what happens.
Sv: Inverted Google Drive.. or evernote?
nirurin said:
I already tried the "negative colours" stock widget... but the negative colours doesnt just turn black-white and white-black... it also converts all the other colours on the screen, which makes the keyboard a wierd bright yellow colour and the menus ... well, just annoying. more distracting than leaving things default!
I didn't consider trying SNote and making a black background, it would be a good idea in theory as I already have SNote... but I needed the ability to save my notes in the cloud, so that I can access them from the laptop easily (hence my usual program being evernote, I have a lot of notes on there. Just a shame the evernote android app doesnt support theming or blackboard).
.....
Ok well I just doeble checked this, and it turns out SNote has the ability to sync to evernote directly.... Im not sure how I managed to miss that, it was certainly kept pretty quiet lol. Seems it will synch to google docs as well, which is less surprising.
Seeing as I already have lots of evernote notes, I may try that first and see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In LectureNotes you have the ability to select where to save the notebooks, I'm not sure if Dropbox for Android is working like the PC version where Dropbox is keeping track of everything stored in a specific folder though. You can also backup to Dropbox, however I'm not sure if that's a one time backup or some continuous operation. I think you can select how often it should do this backup, but it's not that "everything, everywhere" experience I assume you're looking for.
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Axel_ said:
In LectureNotes you have the ability to select where to save the notebooks, I'm not sure if Dropbox for Android is working like the PC version where Dropbox is keeping track of everything stored in a specific folder though. You can also backup to Dropbox, however I'm not sure if that's a one time backup or some continuous operation. I think you can select how often it should do this backup, but it's not that "everything, everywhere" experience I assume you're looking for.
Sent from my GT-N8010 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeh, both lecturenotes and SNote allow for exporting to evernote or dropbox...
but lecturenotes only does it as non-editable .png images. Which is just useless, makes me wonder why people like this app so much :/
SNote does allow for exporting as text, which is at least a start. BUT you cant then import them back.
Seems like I'm stuck with using evernote. Its a good program, just a shame about the lack of customisation.

One of the BEST Android Browsers: Habit Browser

Not my app, just found in a Reddit post--tried it, it's amazing. Basically, whatever you're using right now is probably inferior. I used Boat Browser, then Chrome extensively. Dabbled in Dolphin, Firefox, Maxthon, and a few others. Habit Browser beats them all handily. Amazingly, it's free!!!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.ddo.pigsty.HabitBrowser
Best mostly unique features of HB (Habit Browser):
Set URL re-directs: don't you hate when XDA forum links from a Google search don't open Tapatalk? HB allows you to add new URL re-directs to apps (as many as you want)
Customize EVERY toolbar: customize the address bar, tab toolbar, and browsing toolbar (back, forward, refresh, home) to 1) go away 2) place exactly where you want them (top, bottom, this toolbar on top of that, etc.), 3) change the buttons (with swiping and long-press functionality), 4) themes, and lots more
Set a real home-page, meaning it will open when you open a new tab.
Pie control.
Gestures for flicking that DO NOT require another "interface" (like Dolphin's odd implementation).
A bajiillion more. Not even kidding; easily over 100 options.
The first three sold it to me instantly ("sold"...it's ACTUALLY FREE). I implore you to try it, not because I like it, but because it will change your Android browsing experience for the better.
Oops! Google Chrome could not find habit browser - play store link
Caebron said:
Oops! Google Chrome could not find habit browser - play store link
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, ugh. Not sure why that happened. Updated. Thanks for the tip,
I have to say this is a really feature rich browser and highly customizable.Besides the ui which is not so polished I am really impressed.
Sent using Tapatalk HD
Wow, great browser, thanks!
I'll definitely give it a try. Thanks!
Thanks for the link. Gonna give it a try.
i will also try it
Sent from my ZTE U788 using Tapatalk 2
I'm trying too, thanks!
How are you guys liking it?!
Awsome..its lightning fast..thnx
Sent from my Raven A110 using xda app-developers app
grigoris_a said:
I have to say this is a really feature rich browser and highly customizable.Besides the ui which is not so polished I am really impressed.
Sent using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im going to have to try it!
i will also try it
Been giving it a try.
First impressions nice and fast, highly customizable and like others have stated the UI could do with a bit of work but overall I'm impressed.
Autocorrected from my EVO 3D running CM 10.1 / Fleksy Beta
i will try it
as title thanks
Thanks, will most definitely look into it!
ill try it
try it after 5 minutes that's pretty and fast i think
THAT'S the browser I was looking for years!
opera is the best
Sent from my GT-S5670 using xda premium

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