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BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform

techvibes.com

31–40 of 44 posts

Re: BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform

#31
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In five years, native apps will be much better too. So it would require HTML5 apps to not only be better than native apps from now but also native apps from the future to be considered as cool. I dont think this a very good bet since in the end the browser itself is a native app!

This argument has been made in every generation of thin-client vs. fat-client technology for the past few decades. We still have both, and probably always will: each has its strengths.

[deleted]

Re: BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would buy one, and so would pretty much any company. A vibrant developer community is a big minus for big companies with no need for custom software, because that means there will be people figuring out how to root the devices (and worms, ect). If blackberry fails in the consumer market, the commercial market will save it. As for the consumer market, who doesn't love seeing new ways to do things? Andriod and Iphone…

> If blackberry fails in the consumer market, the commercial market will save it. Why? Blackberry's grip on the corporate market was destroyed by execs coming to work with their iPhones and demanding that IT depts connect them to the corporate infrastructure. Remember, IT works for the business - not the other way around.

True in most cases - but, in some organizations, IT has ludicrous amounts of policy power that surpass what any rational person would think should be allocated to it.

In particular, Yahoo!'s IT organization kept Blackberry's as the Mobile Platform of choice, for a company whose major future growth is going to come from Mobile Consumer usage - far longer than it ever should have.

Eventually, though, somebody gets around to knocking heads, and IT typically falls in line...

Re: BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform

#33
post #27
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're hating because RIM * is claiming they have the best browser. But it's all hot air, or more precisely, vaporware. It's not even on the market. And with RIM's track record, I'm not holding out for hope. * By proxy of Techvibes, which appears to be one of those tech "journalism" outfits that writes articles per what their hiring vendors tell them to.

Well BB10 devices might not be for sale, but the browser has been shown off and it is part of the dev devices that developers got at BBJam in September. If you want to see a little preview of it in action checkout this preview video taken at BBJam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onNTDUncA44 If you follow the link in the article to Matt's post on the RIM developer blog there are more articles on the browser and what it…

Have you guys managed to avoid the sluggishness issues similar to the ones Mozilla team encountered years ago when the decided to also build the chrome via XUL (HTML/JS/CSS)?

Re: BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform

#34
post #26

This is ridiculous. Let's look at the iPhone for example. There are several browsers available, all which are highly compliant. I use Chrome, however, not because of its compliance, but because at the moment, it's the fastest, allows for more tabs, and just feels more fun to use. Blackberry will lose this game because they don't know how to do good UI. And this nonsense about working with Facebook is just laughable.

In case joenathan's comment isn't obvious, all iOS apps use the same core WebKit library to provide for their "browser" experiences. It's an embedded UIWebView I believe. All "browsers" have to use this because Apple. [1]

[1] That's not fair, it's a JIT thing but then again you can have full other engines on Android if you like (see: Chrome for Android).

Re: BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform

#35
post #21
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alas, you are not the average person.

What's a "great" browser for the average person, then? One that can't run good web apps properly?

I would agree on passing standard compliance, but a great browser should allow fluid swipes, many tabs, syncing between phones or devices, and render things accurately and quickly. The look of the chrome is just as important as the look of the page, and the feel of navigation is the most important of all.

Re: BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform

#36
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well BB10 devices might not be for sale, but the browser has been shown off and it is part of the dev devices that developers got at BBJam in September. If you want to see a little preview of it in action checkout this preview video taken at BBJam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onNTDUncA44 If you follow the link in the article to Matt's post on the RIM developer blog there are more articles on the browser and what it…

Have you guys managed to avoid the sluggishness issues similar to the ones Mozilla team encountered years ago when the decided to also build the chrome via XUL (HTML/JS/CSS)?

One thing to remember is that when the Mozilla team originally created XUL browser engines were a different beast. At the top you have JavaScript which is _significantly_ faster on many different levels. Combine that we current html features supported (and or optimized) by some WebKit ports such as hardware accelerated CSS transitions and you get a much a strong base to create applications on top of. Also writing large JavaScript applications were new back then. These days we have several years of lessons about what works and what doesn't. Lastly the tool situation is much better. Simply what you can get if you limit yourself to inspector is pretty crazy. Remember Firebug didn't even come out until 2006 if I recall. And if all that isn't good enough the HTMLRuntime is multi-process so you absolutely wont run into the contention for the JavaScript engine between the chrome and the pages. To see some animations in action checkout the above video links.

Disclaimer: I am part of the WebKit team at RIM these opinions are my own

Re: BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform

#37
post #27
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're hating because RIM * is claiming they have the best browser. But it's all hot air, or more precisely, vaporware. It's not even on the market. And with RIM's track record, I'm not holding out for hope. * By proxy of Techvibes, which appears to be one of those tech "journalism" outfits that writes articles per what their hiring vendors tell them to.

Well BB10 devices might not be for sale, but the browser has been shown off and it is part of the dev devices that developers got at BBJam in September. If you want to see a little preview of it in action checkout this preview video taken at BBJam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onNTDUncA44 If you follow the link in the article to Matt's post on the RIM developer blog there are more articles on the browser and what it…

> As mentioned in the video one of the neatest aspects of the browser is the fact that the chrome itself is written in HTML/JS.

Why, as an end user, would I ever care about this? All this says to me is that the part of the browser which should be fast and get out of the way is written in an abstraction layer with significant overhead (compared to the alternative, native code), which - to me - means using more RAM and CPU, increasing the cost or decreasing the performance of the device.

As a tech demo, I think it's a neat idea. But as a "one of the neatest aspects" of a commercial product, I'm not inclined to be interested in the rest of the app.

Re: BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform

#38

Their idea of the "Best Web Browser" is passing a standards compliance test with top marks?

That's a big part of my idea of a good web browser, as well.

The big problem here is that the browser test was developed by Facebook so it probably only passes the test if all kinds of creepy tracking features are ON.
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