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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RE[3]: No love for Firefox?
by crystall on Mon 11th Feb 2013 10:57
in reply to "RE[2]: No love for Firefox?"
Member since:2007-02-06
There's an add-on available for full-screen browsing:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/mobile/addon/full-screen-252573/
Unfortunately it doesn't give you any sort of other functionality so to access the other controls you need to quit the full-screen mode.
RE[3]: No love for Firefox?
by WereCatf on Mon 11th Feb 2013 15:28
in reply to "RE[2]: No love for Firefox?"
Member since:2006-02-15
Well, I decided the Firefox Beta ain't useable, it screws up font rendering all the way to hell. The following screenshot should be self-explanatory: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11811685/FF%20screenshot.png
RE[4]: No love for Firefox?
by dnebdal on Wed 13th Feb 2013 18:00
in reply to "RE[3]: No love for Firefox?"
Member since:2008-08-27
Well, I decided the Firefox Beta ain't useable, it screws up font rendering all the way to hell. The following screenshot should be self-explanatory: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11811685/FF%20screenshot.png
It's a known issue - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=707195 .
The workaround is to set the font size to the smallest possible, which makes it consistent, and then zooming in. I'd suggest also enabling Pinch to reflow text, so it wraps to fit - but be aware that this makes it a bit confusing to navigate on pages, since zooming will leave you in a different place than you started. (I do hope they get around to centering the view on the location you zoomed into/out from eventually. It works if you don't reflow the page on zoom.)
In Aurora (FF nightly) on a galaxy S2, it looks like this for me: http://nebdal.net/images/firefox_mobile.png
Edited 2013-02-13 18:11 UTC
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:
2006-02-15
Syncing, sharing, desktop mode and source viewers work perfectly.
I just decided to try the Firefox Beta on my tablet and phone and, well, it sure seems to have improved quite a bit from the last time I tried it -- it's fast and lean, and doesn't seem to stutter or anything. It also allows me to sync my bookmarks between my laptop, desktop and the two Android-devices and grants me access to Firefox plugins, so it's all good.
One minor nit-pick, though: I don't need to be able to see the URL-bar at all times. I know perfectly well what website I am on, thank you very much, but I would like to have a toolbar there instead with quick access to things like e.g. reload, zoom back out et. al.