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Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

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Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#21

Post by RyanZAG »

The general idea of creating overlays for actions that take awhile to complete should really be integrated into the system itself. It's a really good idea that the desktop gets around by allowing multiple windows at once. On a phone with only 1 window, it's a really obvious solution that surprisingly hasn't been used much before.

I think the origin of the idea is probably Facebook's Android app where contacts are little icons floating on your screen. That use case was so-so and only really useful if you were messaging one or two people constantly. This takes that idea a step further - but it could be taken even further by making all asynchronous actions use the system by default. Maybe in Android 5? A good first step would be to generalize this into an easy to use library that app devs can include without fuss. Maybe if I get some time next week...

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#23

Post by RyanZAG »

sigvef wrote: post #11

I wish Android had more granular default app settings. I'd love to use Link Bubble for opening links in the twitter app, but I'm not ready to give up Chrome as the default browser for everything else. One option is to not set a default at all, but then I have to click through this[1] all time, which isn't exactly smooth. [1]: http://i.imgur.com/HrGadaj.png

This isn't really a feature that needs to be added to Android - you could create an app that filters Twitter links to X and other links to Y without much fuss. Given how obvious it is, there's probably already an app that does this on the market?

If you can't find anything let me know, it's about 15 minutes work to make something like that.

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#26

Post by oscargrouch »

EddieRingle wrote: post #15
fidotron wrote: post #4

OK, this is completely and absolutely inspired. Brilliant, especially the redirect handling. The design needs a bit of polish, but the core concept is just so damn good it's blatantly going to be copied.

> The design needs a bit of polish, but the core concept is just so damn good it's blatantly going to be copied. Chris Lacy (the author) delayed the release because he was encouraged to patent the idea. Looks to me like that was a good move.

> Looks to me like that was a good move

Yeah until a point that nobody will be able to innovate anymore, even being original and inventive, because of patents into nuclear ideas or generic ideas..

Its the difference of "everybody against everybody" to "everybody working for everybody"

I hope software patents became a thing of the past soon.. the concept of property and the concept of ideas do not belong to each other

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#27

Post by gotninjaskills »

RyanZAG wrote: post #23
sigvef wrote: post #11

I wish Android had more granular default app settings. I'd love to use Link Bubble for opening links in the twitter app, but I'm not ready to give up Chrome as the default browser for everything else. One option is to not set a default at all, but then I have to click through this[1] all time, which isn't exactly smooth. [1]: http://i.imgur.com/HrGadaj.png

This isn't really a feature that needs to be added to Android - you could create an app that filters Twitter links to X and other links to Y without much fuss. Given how obvious it is, there's probably already an app that does this on the market? If you can't find anything let me know, it's about 15 minutes work to make something like that.

Please do. I would like to use Link Bubble for opening links when I'm using Twitter, Reddit or HN app. It's pretty awesome but like what he said, I'm not yet ready to give up Chrome fully.

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#28

Post by 27182818284 »

fidotron wrote: post #4

OK, this is completely and absolutely inspired. Brilliant, especially the redirect handling. The design needs a bit of polish, but the core concept is just so damn good it's blatantly going to be copied.

>Brilliant, especially the redirect handling.

That was what got me to click the install button just now. And he used my least favorite example, Instagram out of Twitter with the t.co redirects and yada yada—I've always felt like that was super awkward.

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#29

Post by 27182818284 »

rakoo wrote: post #3

So, "Open Link in a new tab" ?

Yes, but from everywhere, and more importantly, handles that Android-redirect-through-app nonsense gracefully. If you open something in a new tab, on twitter whose link has been shortened, it will go through a couple of redirects before launching your Instagram app. This is pretty awkward as is, and he made that graceful. (At least in the video, I guess I haven't whipped out my phone to try, yet)

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#30

Post by wmt »

EddieRingle wrote: post #15
fidotron wrote: post #4

OK, this is completely and absolutely inspired. Brilliant, especially the redirect handling. The design needs a bit of polish, but the core concept is just so damn good it's blatantly going to be copied.

> The design needs a bit of polish, but the core concept is just so damn good it's blatantly going to be copied. Chris Lacy (the author) delayed the release because he was encouraged to patent the idea. Looks to me like that was a good move.

Indeed, patenting ideas is an excellent way to prevent free software from usign those ideas while proprietary software can just get the licensing costs from their profits.
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