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Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

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Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#71

Post by acchow »

shurcooL wrote: post #59
RyanZAG wrote: post #21

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 lit…

I do this (indirectly) on Chrome Mobile by opening links as background tabs. But I can see this being a more accessible UI for more people to achieve the same goal.

You can't open a background tab when you're not already in Chrome tho...

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#73

Post by chris_lacy »

gotninjaskills wrote: post #27
RyanZAG wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I already have the code to allow you to specify this via Link Bubble's settings, but I've opted not to enable it so far.

I tend to subscribe to Apple's philosophy of trying to avoid adding configurable options unless absolutely necessary, but frankly, that position can be a tough sell to early adopting Android users.

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#75

Post by jlogsdon »

andrewmunsell wrote: post #34
dannyr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is like saying the IPhone is a copied "concept" from other touchscreen devices.

Well, to be fair, Facebook was the company that created the always open "floating bubble" concept, to my knowledge. Link Bubble behaves very similarly to Facebook Messenger in this way (the way the bubbles move, how you interact with them, close them, etc), and I can't help but think that Facebook was inspiration for the project. This is actually a good thing because I always thought that the Chat Heads were a novel…

According to the developer, Chris Lacy[1], Link Bubble was in development before Facebook's Messenger was released.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7454918

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#77

Post by jggonz »

I really like the idea of apps that overlay data and interact with the currently focused apps. Over at blekko we have incorporated a similar technique within two of our Android apps. We wanted to add functionality to the Android system that we felt was missing, so I developed an overlay search box that can be used from any app in the system. It takes some coding tricks, but the results are very useful.

The apps are :

izik - our tablet/mobile friendly search engine

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.izik.izik

rockzi - a discovery app that lets you browser or search within topics.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rockzi.roc...

Video explaining Rockzi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpq6G1o7pmM

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#78

Post by stormbrew »

EddieRingle wrote: post #36
[deleted] wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

For what it's worth, he explains his reasoning here: https://plus.google.com/104649936579980037256/posts/GAWL1HpQ...

So he hates patents and the lawsuits they bring, but he feels it'll be a great asset to have in the future?

It really doesn't sound like he hates them to me.

Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android

#79

Post by hyp0 »

On the stock android browser (4.2.2), holding a link opens a context menu, within which you can choose to open it in a background tab. There's a settings options to not switch to that tab yet (under Advanced).

Also, a setting to preload links in the background (very appropriately under Bandwidth Management).

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