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Introducing Chrome for Android

googleblog.blogspot.com

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Re: Introducing Chrome for Android

#231

Post by fpgeek »

sern wrote: post #214
sern wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should have qualified my statement by mentioning that the Chrome app process runs a couple of background services - this causes it to be killed for low memory after normal background processes (the actual behaviour is a little more complex than that, but that's the gist of it), which could potentially impact the performance of multitasking. The proper thing to do is to run background services in a separate process…

The comment I was referring to is under this G+ post: https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/intiB73F...

Given the context and the joking tone (complete with smiley), I think you're reading way too much into the comment. Given the devices ICS had been shipped on at the time, she could have just as easily said it was the first time in a year that they'd shipped Android on:

- a single-core device

- a device with a screen smaller than 4.5"

- a device with less than 720p resolution

- ...

Re: Introducing Chrome for Android

#232

Post by pbhjpbhj »

klausa wrote: post #153
mikemaccana wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Html5test.com scores? I've got a new android phone but it won't run chrome.

256+3 bonus on stock, 343+10 bonus on Chrome. I don't know how to paste which tests pass and which fail, is there any?

Opera Mobile 11.5 is 286 + 8 fwiw. Dolphin Mini 216 + 0.

Re: Introducing Chrome for Android

#233

Post by fpgeek »

apress wrote: post #128
benologist wrote: post #3

Douche move making it require Ice Cream Sandwich while they don't require telcos to ship any of us upgrades.

It's using 4.0 APIs, according to Matt Seigler's story and interview with Google SVP of Chrome Sundar Pichai: "Back to the bad news: some of the more advanced features of Chrome for Android require APIs found only in Ice Cream Sandwich, so the team made the call to make it only available for Android 4.0 and beyond. Again, this means only 1% of current Android users out there can actually get and use the browser right…

1% of Android users is still at least a couple million. That's more than enough to get a reasonable pool of beta testers. By the time it gets out of beta, the Android release distribution will probably look quite different.

Re: Introducing Chrome for Android

#234

Post by fpgeek »

loudmax wrote: post #45
nod wrote: post #26

I'm rather confused that Google seems to be aiming to fragment the browser market for its own platform. I already wasn't looking forward to supporting/testing both Browser and Firefox on Android... Is Google just this disorganized internally?

Chrome and the old Android browser are both based on WebKit. Google will almost certainly make Chrome the default browser for new editions of Android, and will likely push for it on IOS and Windows phone.

Unless you think Google can negotiate exceptions to Apple's and Microsoft's respective store rules (or, more impressively, convince them to change the rules), we're not going to see Chrome for iOS or Windows Phone anytime soon (if ever).

Re: Introducing Chrome for Android

#235

Post by ZeroGravitas »

Steko wrote: post #160
curveship wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On my Xoom with stock ICS 4.0.3, Chrome is on the whole dead even with the stock browser: Chrome - 2276.2ms +/- 1.0% Stock - 2288.9ms +/- 2.0% Here's a screenshot of the detailed breakdown: http://i.imgur.com/WA37A.png . The "FROM" column is Chrome, the "TO" column is stock. Some tests Chrome wins, some stock.

Anandtech did a Sunspider comparison with Chrome slightly trailing stock and both somewhat behind Firefox 10. Not really gamebreaking differences though. http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5517/43983.png I use Firefox Home on iOS for the sync even though the JS is gimped in non-Safari webkit views. Sync is that killer.

He updated with a test on a Galaxy Nexus (which is a TI OMAP chipset rather than a Tegra2) and Chrome did better than stock, but still behind Firefox.

Though to be honest I'm not sure why Anandtech continue to use Sunspider as a benchmark.

Re: Introducing Chrome for Android

#236

Post by jonknee »

rsynnott wrote: post #190
jonknee wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> USB Web Debugging That will be great. Even better if iOS gains something similar--it's maddening to not have a real debugger.

See this thing: http://www.iwebinspector.com/

I have it and it's handy, but the iOS simulator is not an emulator. It behaves differently, especially Mobile Safari. When it runs fine on the simulator and not on the device, iWebInspector doesn't help.

Re: Introducing Chrome for Android

#237

Post by jamesgeck0 »

mikeryan wrote: post #155
necubi wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's apparently a feature: "An issue that often pops up for mobile browsers is that text on the website may be too small to read properly. Where the Android Browser employs a text reflow algorithm to clarify the situation, Chrome for Android features a technique which we’ve called Font Boosting. It uses an algorithm to increase font sizes when necessary, aiming to make the text readable regardless of the zoom level."…

Wow - I honestly can't decide if thats a horrible idea or not. But I can guarantee there's a ton of UX/UI folks who are going to get pissed that that.

It makes unreadable text readable for the user without requiring action on their part. Why would UX people get pissed? Seems more likely that web developers are the ones who will be uset.

Re: Introducing Chrome for Android

#238

Post by rplnt »

borismus wrote: post #127
bvdbijl wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instructions on how to use web debugging via USB: http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/debugging.html You can then access http://localhost:9222/ which shows a list of all pages currently open on your device, which link to a page on http://chrome-devtools-frontend.appspot.com/ for example http://chrome-devtools-frontend.appspot.com/static/16.0.912.... which in turn connects to a websocket on localhost like ws://l…

To get a feel for USB web debugging, check out this remote debugging video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4zpL4VBbuU

Similar video of remote debugging for Opera. Might be a bit outdated as it is from 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZt-k93qLbg

Re: Introducing Chrome for Android

#239

Post by schraeds »

nl wrote: post #170
schraeds wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it HTC or Google's responsibility to provide future-proof reference designs and specs?

HTC "Future Proofing" a phone is difficult, because a manufacture needs to overspec the phone whilst still keeping it at a reasonable price. HTC is notorious for underspecing storage on their phones. Other manufactures do not have the same problem.

Considering only 1% of android phones are capable of running ICS, I gotta blame it on the OS designer, not a reference hardware manufacturer.

Re: Introducing Chrome for Android

#240

Post by gcb »

Shank wrote: post #217
gcb wrote: post #126

A browser with that many permissions? what good is sandboxing and everything if the browser can access 100% of my device, including microphone? i'm thankful this is not available for my ancient, 11mo old, nexus one.

Can we please stop with the hyper-generalization that is that each permission is being used for the app 100% of the time for everything? In almost every instance, one permission or another is required for some trivial task, and they add up quickly.

and for something like a browser, a silly bug will make my personal data ... heck even my mic vulnerable.

android permission is only good if you make specialized apps and make them talk togheter. like it was the original intent with actions and intents. but i guess it didn't worked out ok.

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