Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 10th Feb 2013 21:07 UTC
"No, there's only one area where Android falls really, horribly, undeniably short when it comes to the tablet form factor: The web browser. It's the most fundamental tablet app, IMHO, and yet the web experience on Android could not possibly be worse." This, right here, is it. On my Nexus 7 - there's not a single decent web browser. Not one. The stock browser? Crashes a lot. Chrome? Slow, touch-unfriendly UI, laggy, and locks up all the time. Everything else uses non-standard UIs are, are plain buggy, are also slow, or any combination of the three - and yes, this includes your favourite browser. I've been through them all. Just yesterday I loaded up my iPhone 3GS, and Safari was like a dream. Internet Explorer 10 on Windows Phone 8? Buttery smooth and excellent UI. How Google - a web company - can let this situation persist is beyond me.
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Member since:2005-09-08
iOS does not use WebKit2, they have an old fork of webkit tree and uses a heavily modified WebKit1 layer.
On top of that. It is not quite straightforward to do a new WebKit port. To get something stable and good, it is at least a year worth of work for a team of 10 very good developers.
If you do want WebKit2 on an android device though, you can checkout the Snowshoe browser, which uses the QtWebKit's WebKit2 API QQuickWebView. It is still a under development, but looks very nice.
Edited 2013-02-10 21:31 UTC
Member since:2008-12-26
Turns out you are right; I got misled by the initial quick googling:
http://9to5mac.com/2011/03/06/a5-processor-and-webkit-2-engine-comb...
Member since:2006-03-03
Opera Mini and Mobile ain't good either, they don't use the desktop 'Presto' engine, which is more and more crash prone while being somewhat pretty decent IMHO. However since Opera decided to ditch out their internal web and javascript engine for webkit, I don't know what gonna make a difference in the long run.
Kochise
Member since:2006-02-15
Opera Mini and Mobile ain't good either, they don't use the desktop 'Presto' engine, which is more and more crash prone while being somewhat pretty decent IMHO.
I have absolutely no complaints about Opera on either my tablet or my phone -- it's fast, stable and certainly more suitable than many (any?) other browser. I have not had a single crash with it, either, yet I've been using it on a daily basis for, well, whenever the hell I got my tablet. Must be around 2 years by now.
As for the article: Opera Mobile looks out-of-place, that is true, as it does not follow the UI-conventions set out by Google. But well, does it have to follow them, anyways, if the way it behaves and looks now works better? This in mind I just cannot agree with Thom's assessment that any and every browser other than Safari or IE is a horror to use.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.More Features »
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Member since:
2008-12-26
At least in theory, it should be possible to do straightforward port of webkit2 rendering engine to Android, giving similar performance to iOS. I don't understand why this is not happening.