I don't know how anyone couldn't think of this before. Is so simple and needed.
Link Bubble - A new browser for Android
81–90 of 114 posts
Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android
#82Presuming this is closed source? Although it looks like a neat concept, it would be a more attractive option if I knew something that was dealing with my browsing history was open source.
Yes, it's closed source. I can't see a realistic alternative to this given I'm trying to make a living selling the app.
But FWIW, I can promise you I don't transfer your browsing history. My policy on such data is I simply don't want to ever have a copy of it. If that means I can't sync your history between Link Bubble installs, so be it.
Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
It requires Jelly Bean or later.
I'm running 4.1 (API level 16) - it should work I guess. Although, I can't download it. Might be location restricted?
Definitely shouldn't be. DM me on Twitter (@chrismlacy) if you like and I can take a look at what might be going on.
Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android
#84This is a brilliant idea, and I can't wait to use it. Quick question for chris_lacy: Sometimes I open links on my phone to read them on the subway when I'm offline. However, Android Chrome often decides that the 3 tabs I opened yesterday are too much for it to handle and throws them away. I try to open them on the train, it shows me a greyed screenshot of the page and a "loading" bar, then replaces the page with "You…
Link Bubble won't throw out those resources, so the page(s) will still be there.
Does it store the data on disk, then?
Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android
#86The 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…
The old Blackberry OS had something like this. You could "open" a URL even without any network connectivity and it would queue the request and let you know when it completed.
Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
How can this be patented? It doesn't seem functionally no different than "open tab" and "open tab in the background", except that it opens a round notification instead of a tab-shaped one. Is there something else in it that's novel? Maybe the protocol for coordinating apps for opening the link in the background from a different app?
My immediate thought when I saw the video was "this is basically the same functionality as middle-clicking a link in Firefox".
It looks like a very good implementation for Android, and good implementations are valuable and important, but the concept itself isn't original.
Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android
#88Presuming this is closed source? Although it looks like a neat concept, it would be a more attractive option if I knew something that was dealing with my browsing history was open source.
Yes, it's closed source. I can't see a realistic alternative to this given I'm trying to make a living selling the app. But FWIW, I can promise you I don't transfer your browsing history. My policy on such data is I simply don't want to ever have a copy of it. If that means I can't sync your history between Link Bubble installs, so be it.
I think an interesting middle ground would be to connect to existing browser sync storage. Personally, one of the (few) disadvantages of Link Bubble is that my Link Bubble history is separate from my main browser history (I don't really want to remember whether I read something in Link Bubble or elsewhere if I'm trying to find it later). Connecting to existing sync services would be a nice way of dealing with that.
Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android
#89I 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
What is an example of an app you'd rather load in Chrome rather than Link Bubble?
I have a similar situation - domains I'd rather open in my main browser rather than Link Bubble.
I'm trying use Link Bubble in incognito mode, but some sites aggressively check that they can set cookies and fail if they can't (e.g. nytimes.com). I'd like the option to directly kick those links to my main browser, rather than hoping I catch them in Link Bubble before they've redirected to the error page.
Re: Link Bubble - A new browser for Android
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Patenting ideas is also an excellent way to prevent someone else from doing what you suggest; the patent-holder merely needs to grant a royalty-free patent license to everyone once they have the patent.
(See Sections 7 and 8 of GPLv2, for an example.)