It reminds me of the truth that speed is the best user experience.
Introducing Chrome for Android
171–180 of 240 posts
Re: Introducing Chrome for Android
#172Decoupling the browser from the OS is one of the best things that could happen for android security going forward. While it won't help people who can't get upgrades to ICS, at least it will solve the future problems of people who get stuck on 4.x while their OS browser slowly becomes more and more exploitable. I have one phone that is still on 2.2 - it is trivially easy to own the phone with a little bit of javascrip…
The real problem here is Android's inability to update what are considered 'OS components' independently of updating the OS. Ideally, the built-in browser (which should really just be Chrome) can be updated just like other apps can. Having a built-in browser and also Chrome for Android seems like it would confuse users, and not have the desired security impact you describe because it needs users to search for, install the browser and use it instead of the built-in version.
Re: Introducing Chrome for Android
#173Earlier 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."…
Then their algorithm isn't consistent, as shown by screenshot. Some comments on HN are "boosted", while others remain tiny. This also makes it impossible to reliably hit any of the other page controls, like voting, without having to manually zoom way in and then back out.
Of course, the voting arrows are hard to hit even on a normal browser!
I actually really like the idea of adjusting text size like this, but the particular implementations of this idea may be less than ideal. I'll have to play around with it when I get the chance and see what it's like.
Re: Introducing Chrome for Android
#174Since I use Phonegap for my Android apps, I've filed an issue requesting that the Chrome browser be usable in WebView somehow: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=113088 Click the star if that's something you'd like too. :)
Since it doesn't replace the base WebKit, you'd either have to require everyone install Chrome to use your app (not guaranteed), or bundle the entire runtime (adding ~10MB to your app). It's possible, but doesn't seem very practical unless there's a serious leap in performance or capabilities in Chrome vs the baked in WebKit.
Far more likely we'll see Chromium replace Android's engine in a version or two.
Re: Introducing Chrome for Android
#175Earlier 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."…
Then their algorithm isn't consistent, as shown by screenshot. Some comments on HN are "boosted", while others remain tiny. This also makes it impossible to reliably hit any of the other page controls, like voting, without having to manually zoom way in and then back out.
On the other hand you cant read the text on Browser without zooming. So it is arguably an improvement. Suspect if HN was designed for mobile the result would seem less odd. Generally seems to make more stuff readable that otherwise isn't with less zooming, so an improvement. The voting controls on HN just need to be bigger!
Re: Introducing Chrome for Android
#176Chrome is now available in Beta from Android Market, in select countries and languages for phones and tablets with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. What tablets have official ICS on them? Is ICS even fully tabletized? I thought they had said they were putting that off until Jelly Bean.
Other way around. ICS is effectively a re-merging of Honeycomb (which was tablet only) back to mainline Android.
Re: Introducing Chrome for Android
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never seen any chart or graph where Firefox Mobile even shows up. Usually when something has http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-ww-monthly-201101-... http://www.netmarketshare.com/mobile-market-share
It's still not nobody. And having Firefox playing a significant role will prevent situation which existed in the past where many sites were "IE only". We don't need "WebKit only" sites.
[deleted]
Re: Introducing Chrome for Android
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
This false equivalence is tiresome. The inability to run a handful of hardware dependent features on iOS is not even in the same ballpark as the complete lack of timely updates for over 95% of Android users.
Hardware dependant? Siri was shown running on pre-4s devices (3g if I recall correctly) before apple bought them.
Not to Apple's standards apparently.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57371624-264/why-apples-a5...
Re: Introducing Chrome for Android
#179Decoupling the browser from the OS is one of the best things that could happen for android security going forward. While it won't help people who can't get upgrades to ICS, at least it will solve the future problems of people who get stuck on 4.x while their OS browser slowly becomes more and more exploitable. I have one phone that is still on 2.2 - it is trivially easy to own the phone with a little bit of javascrip…
You could always download an alternative browser, such as Opera.
Re: Introducing Chrome for Android
#180Decoupling the browser from the OS is one of the best things that could happen for android security going forward. While it won't help people who can't get upgrades to ICS, at least it will solve the future problems of people who get stuck on 4.x while their OS browser slowly becomes more and more exploitable. I have one phone that is still on 2.2 - it is trivially easy to own the phone with a little bit of javascrip…
The real problem here is Android's inability to update what are considered 'OS components' independently of updating the OS. Ideally, the built-in browser (which should really just be Chrome) can be updated just like other apps can. Having a built-in browser and also Chrome for Android seems like it would confuse users, and not have the desired security impact you describe because it needs users to search for, instal…
Google can update apps independently of the OS. Youtube, Gmail, Maps, Market - are all updated independently of the OS ever since Froyo.
They will eventually replace the stock browser with Chrome, but they're waiting until it's not beta anymore, and until ICS has bigger marketshare, or maybe they'll just make it the default browser starting with Android 5.0.