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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'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).
I love my TF. I hate browsing the web on it. Such a shame that the job it is meant to do, is the job it seems to do most poorly. Perhaps its down to the browsers, since I have yet to find one that doesnt get in the way of my surfing. I would be happy if I could find one with a navigation bar that doesnt disappear every time I scroll down the page. I have plenty screen for it, why can't I at least have the option? Is there any browser with a static navigation bar? I'm not using a phone, so I'd like my navigation buttons to be accessable regardless of where on the page I'm at. I'd love to have my tabs static too! Why is this such a hard request? If firefox would just port it's pc interface over it's android browser(which i find stable but a crappy interface), I would be in love.
Oh, and I hate gestures. I like actual buttons with real text labels.
Please call me a noob and tell me what I'm looking for already exists. I will praise you for it.
Anyone else driven mad by the web browsing experience on honeycomb?
faithblinded said:
I love my TF. I hate browsing the web on it. Such a shame that the job it is meant to do, is the job it seems to do most poorly. Perhaps its down to the browsers, since I have yet to find one that doesnt get in the way of my surfing. I would be happy if I could find one with a navigation bar that doesnt disappear every time I scroll down the page. I have plenty screen for it, why can't I at least have the option? Is there any browser with a static navigation bar? I'm not using a phone, so I'd like my navigation buttons to be accessable regardless of where on the page I'm at. I'd love to have my tabs static too! Why is this such a hard request? If firefox would just port it's pc interface over it's android browser(which i find stable but a crappy interface), I would be in love.
Oh, and I hate gestures. I like actual buttons with real text labels.
Please call me a noob and tell me what I'm looking for already exists. I will praise you for it.
Anyone else driven mad by the web browsing experience on honeycomb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just go to browser settings and go to the labs tab and then unchecked the quick controls box
I already have that unchecked. The problem is that when i scroll down, the back,forward,refresh,and home buttons disappear, along with the address bar. I want it to always be visible. from what i've seen, every browser for android does this, and it makes me batty.
just tap the screen and it comes back/ reappears.
I get that, but it's one tap and wait longer than I want to deal with. 5 browsers on my TF, and they all have this problem. I wonder if the ipad browser is any better...
have you tried dolphin mini? The addess bar stays on the top
faithblinded said:
I already have that unchecked. The problem is that when i scroll down, the back,forward,refresh,and home buttons disappear, along with the address bar. I want it to always be visible. from what i've seen, every browser for android does this, and it makes me batty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you try the new little radial menu that comes when you swipe on the side? i prefer browsing with everything hidden, and just using that radial... it has bookmarks, tabs, close window, etc etc.
opera mobile
faithblinded said:
I already have that unchecked. The problem is that when i scroll down, the back,forward,refresh,and home buttons disappear, along with the address bar. I want it to always be visible. from what i've seen, every browser for android does this, and it makes me batty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey
opera mobile doesn't do that.
address bar along with 5 diff. buttons always stay on top.
try it out, I use it more than stock browser, only downside getting flash to work on it is a
hit or miss affair.
no1
no1_cdn said:
hey
opera mobile doesn't do that.
address bar along with 5 diff. buttons always stay on top.
try it out, I use it more than stock browser, only downside getting flash to work on it is a
hit or miss affair.
no1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, opera mobile is my primary browser for reading only. use stock browser when I need to access site with JavaScript or flash .
Thanks guys. I have Opera HD but hadn't tried the mini version. Will add it to my arsenal of browsers.
xufuchang said:
yeah, opera mobile is my primary browser for reading only. use stock browser when I need to access site with JavaScript or flash .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there, just wondering do you have problem with opera mobile displaying everything website smaller when compared to other browsers example stock browser. Every time opera will load the page with such small fonts it hurts to read. I tried to set the default zoom to 125% it looks better but problem is as soon as I click a link or open a new page, it will zoom out and gimme the small fonts again. Anyway to fix the zoom level?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
miata said:
Hi there, just wondering do you have problem with opera mobile displaying everything website smaller when compared to other browsers example stock browser. Every time opera will load the page with such small fonts it hurts to read. I tried to set the default zoom to 125% it looks better but problem is as soon as I click a link or open a new page, it will zoom out and gimme the small fonts again. Anyway to fix the zoom level?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey
type in the address bar:
opera:config
hit enter, you'll see a page with diff. settings open up.
scroll down to:
"user prefs"
tap it and it'll expand then again scroll down to:
minimum font size
change the value from default 9 to whatever you like then scroll down to the bottom
and hit "save" button then hit 'ok' in the pop up.
also to speed up opera even more try this:
find "performance" section
tap to open
then scroll down and change the following values:
Max Connections Server 6
Max Connections Total 6
Max Persistent Connections 6
after, scroll down and hit save button then hit 'OK' in the pop up.
you can experiment with diff. values for "connections" settings, however I wouldn't go over 8,8,8 or 10,10,10 as some websites might load slower than with default values (4,6,4)
my browser doesn't always keep the saved settings, sometimes it'll revert to default values...
so it's really a hit or miss, at least for me...
also, the 'default zoom', 125% or whatever % you specify, happens when you double tap the text on screen, it'll zoom that amount
and also reflow the text to fit screen.
no1
does opera mobile play flash?cause mine (ver 11) won't play,it shows big question mark,when clicked nothing happened
no1_cdn said:
hey
type in the address bar:
opera:config
hit enter, you'll see a page with diff. settings open up.
scroll down to:
"user prefs"
tap it and it'll expand then again scroll down to:
minimum font size
change the value from default 9 to whatever you like then scroll down to the bottom
and hit "save" button then hit 'ok' in the pop up.
no1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with increasing the Minimu font size from 9 to just 12, is it will cut off the right side of somw sites. Like on xda the search button on the top right get cut off if u increase the size. I don't think opera mobile is made for table.
xufuchang said:
does opera mobile play flash?cause mine (ver 11) won't play,it shows big question mark,when clicked nothing happened
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, not on honeycomb
thanks no1_cdn found out the font tweak last night and it seems to help in readability
will try your performance tweak soon! thanks again
miata said:
thanks no1_cdn found out the font tweak last night and it seems to help in readability
will try your performance tweak soon! thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're welcome miata
try going through this page to customise more, opera:config settings explained:
www.opera.com/support/usingopera/operaini/
although its for desktop version, settings still apply to mobile...
no1
dazz87 said:
The problem with increasing the Minimu font size from 9 to just 12, is it will cut off the right side of somw sites. Like on xda the search button on the top right get cut off if u increase the size. I don't think opera mobile is made for table.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're right.
I find 12 to be maximum size in order to avoid what you described above.
also I have to kill opera using 'task killer' for saved font setting to take effect.
no1
Hello forum,
Not sure where to post this, but since the issue occured on my tf300t, i'll just procede with the post making whhoop whoop xD
In first place I've tried every browser out there, and uc it's definitly the browser that serves my daily needs, but it still as some problems...
When I write on a textbox, comment section on fb for example, the keyboard pops up but the browser doesn't go up or resizes... Well this is a huge problem because the keyboard just covers the text areas and I can't really see what I'm writting.
The second problem is, now with the new update, a damn button (ughhh so annoiyng) appers every time when I go to youtube, the button functionality is to see videos offline... This button in the lower right section of the screen just blocks the youtube options(720p etc) and I cant change this options or resize the damn window because this btn is on front... :'(
Im running the cm 10.1 nightlies with perf kernel, standard keyboard from this rom
Thank u very much for your time and if it's not possible to fix this please sugest alternative browsers
Best regards,
Absinto10