xScope - now with awesomely improved text selection

[Deleted User]

I know this is more a generic thread but a lot of us don't venture out of the Droid X forum.

I wanted to call attention to this because I think xScope is just an awesome browser - quick, compact, with a full set of features and the developer just keeps adding them. Now, he has added iPhone-style text selection to webpages, meaning that selecting text is no longer a guessing game where you swipe your finger and hope you started and ended in the right place.

Selecting text in xScope now brings up positionable start/end bars, and a small popup menu to copy, copy + google, and share. Also, the start/end bars are bigger and easier to position than the text box bars that are stock with the DX.

Frankly, I think this is a killer feature and even if it wasn't my primary browser, it would be now. This is what copy/paste should have always been in the browser.

xScope Browser - Web & File - Android app on AppBrain

Enjoy!

 

[nycebo]

I guess I could give it a shot over the stock browser but I've already read that these browsers aren't any faster than stock.

 

[Deleted User]

I guess I could give it a shot over the stock browser but I've already read that these browsers aren't any faster than stock.

The stock browser is very fast. It is also, however, very stripped of features and customization.

There are also browsers like Dolphin that are very feature-laden and customizable. However, it is at the expense of speed and size - Dolphin is very high-overhead and is much slower than stock.

xScope has a great balance between being as fast as the stock browser, but having a lot of options and features tucked in there. I think it is significantly better than the stock browser but without being as bloated as Dolphin.

 

[eraursls1984]

The stock browser is very fast. It is also, however, very stripped of features and customization.

There are also browsers like Dolphin that are very feature-laden and customizable. However, it is at the expense of speed and size - Dolphin is very high-overhead and is much slower than stock.

xScope has a great balance between being as fast as the stock browser, but having a lot of options and features tucked in there. I think it is significantly better than the stock browser but without being as bloated as Dolphin.

I like Dolphin because of the features, and even though the "speed tests" show the stock browser is fast it hasn't been when I tested the two browsers with pages with lots of high res pics. I also tried opera which is supposed to be the fasted but I didn't notice much difference, I haven't tested xscope for speed yet simply because its not a viable option for a browser for me because a lot of sites I tried to pull up wouldn't load in xscope. This new feature sounds nice, I might have to give it a try if I can set up xscope to my style of browsing, opera isn't very customizable at all.

 

[nycebo]

Alright, I have been using xScope all day and just now finally decided to upgrade to the paid version. It really is pretty terrific and very speedy. In fact, it was noticeably faster than stock on loading the WSJ and NY Times web sites (I cleared cache and timed both a couple times back to back). Go figure. Meanwhile, the cut and copy/paste is simply awesome. Really dig it. So, thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Deleted User]

I like Dolphin because of the features, and even though the "speed tests" show the stock browser is fast it hasn't been when I tested the two browsers with pages with lots of high res pics. I also tried opera which is supposed to be the fasted but I didn't notice much difference, I haven't tested xscope for speed yet simply because its not a viable option for a browser for me because a lot of sites I tried to pull up wouldn't load in xscope. This new feature sounds nice, I might have to give it a try if I can set up xscope to my style of browsing, opera isn't very customizable at all.

I have never found a website that wouldn't load in xScope. At least, not one that refused to load in xScope and also didn't refuse to load in other mobile browsers.

Incidentally, large image downloads are not the way to test browser speed. Complex pages with lots of small elements tend to be far faster on the lightweight browsers.

Battle of the Android Browsers - PCWorld

Another great feature of xScope: you can set your browser user agent identifier per-domain. Some domains, for instance, will respond to an iPhone browser with a mobile site but not an Android browser (my work webmail does this), or some sites like ESPN have limited mobile sites, so I set that one to always identify as desktop.

 

[escalade6103]

Iv been having problems downloading pics from xscope. Thy show up in the downloads on xscope but thy don't show up in my photo gallery. Got any suggestions?

 

[Deleted User]

Are they on your SD card? I think the default downloads path for xScope is sdcard\xscope\downloads.

 

[Napalm]

I'll give it a shot I used Dolphin HD for a while and it was cumburesome but looked awesome. The gesture search was a great feature at the expense of speed.

I went back to stock after 2 different rom flashes and updates.

Sounds interesting especially the agent setting per website.

 

[kramerica]

I have yet to find a browser I liked and have tried xscope in the past a couple of times and was sorely disappointed. Tried Dolphin a couple times as well and hated it even more. Opera and stock were the standards for me, but I have been converted

Flash forward to today and after using the lite for a day, I bought the paid version and LOVE it. I loved the browsing, the downloading, the loading speed, the tabs, text selection, options, notification hiding/unhiding, period. The only knock I have against it is the lack of "immediate user friendly UI". Don't get me wrong, it doesn't take long, but is a little cumbersome at first. This in no way diminishes the product, just a little minor gripe.

I've seen some people get flamed for recommending browsers in the past as they sound like commercials from developer or their little brother. Anywho, whatever they have done is working for me and I'm glad they have taken the time to continue development.

Sincerely,
Xscope's Little Brother (or sister)

 

[escalade6103]

Are they on your SD card? I think the default downloads path for xScope is sdcard\xscope\downloads.

i checked that and yeah thats where it said they were going but when i check on the sd card they didnt show up. it has been doing this since the last update of xscope

 

[nycebo]

Well, I have had my first few flaws with xScope since installing it a few days ago. First, it was hogging memory. Watchdog flagged it pretty regularly the past couple days. I would even kill the process and clear the cache and it just kept coming back. Also, YouTube worked pretty sketchy on it. I'm pretty bummed because I love the browser but as of last night, xScope was uninstalled and I'm back to stock. :-(

 

[Deleted User]

Just out of curiosity, were you actually experiencing problems (besides YouTube, which I don't visit much)?

Only asking because I've been using the various iterations of xScope since I've had my phone, through three different versions of Android, and have never had memory problems with it... but I don't have anything telling me it's a problem. I just use the browser and shut it down when I'm not using it.

Sometimes I think too much information can be a bad thing and can show "problems" where there are none. Not trying to say that was necessarily the case, but you didn't provide any indication it was an issue besides "watchdog flagged it."

Also, if you were experiencing problems, I highly recommend contacting the developer. He was super active in the Applications section for a while and is very responsive to problems, including fixing an animated GIF issue within a very short period of time after some people in the Applications section found it.

 

[nycebo]

Hey bv,

Yeah, I guess I should have written in a bit more detail about the issues that I was having. Let me first state that out of the box, the xScope browser was FAR AND AWAY faster than stock in loading detailed and complicated web pages. Not only was it noticeable with a timer, but it was very noticeable while browsing. Pages just rip onto the screen faster. However, there seems to be some sort of caching issue. I can't figure it out specifically, but after about a day of use, it just starts to get bogged down. Those same pages that loaded so quick, no load slower on refreshes. Moreover, some pages just never loaded at all (even though the stock browser could load them fine...thereby indicating that it wasn't a connection issue). The final straw was that it appeared to slow down the OS a bit. Clearing the cache would momentarily fix the problem, but it always recurred. Admittedly, I'm using LP as my homescreen but hadn't had those issues before xScope...and now don't have them anymore now that xScope is gone. Lastly, I never really liked the way that it handled zoom so I felt like I was making too many concessions for what I had originally deemed to be the best out there. Maybe the solution is to leave it installed and hope that future updates resolve my problems?

 

[nycebo]

BTW, I just reinstalled it. Will see how it goes. Gotta admit, much nice layout than stock. I hope second time is a charm.

 

[Deleted User]

Good luck with it. Really, contact the dev if you have problems. He seems to be a good guy and will accept both bug reports and recommendations/suggestions.

I don't know how your usage is but I tend to actually exit the browser when I'm not using it. Of course, it shouldn't be slowing things down in the background, just offering a potential solution if you like it and want to use it.

Not sure what you mean by disliking the zoom. You can pinch-to-zoom, or pin zoom (double tap and slide finger). You can also disable the pin zoom if you want (I don't like it, and was forever accidentally activating it, so I disabled it).

Hope this doesn't come across as pushing the browser on you, I have no vested interest in it whatsoever, just like it and use it a lot. Also, I'm using LP as well, so that shouldn't be the variance that's causing you problems.

 

[nycebo]

Not at all, BV...appreciate the advice and the assistance. Like you, I definitely didn't think that it was LP (the newest version of which I ABSOLUTELY love!)...just wanted to lay out a few more details.

To clarify, the pinch to zoom works great in operation (like you, I've disable pin-zoom) but in practice it doesn't properly align text in columns upon completion. One needs to double tap 'twice' in order to get that zoom level of text properly laid out in columns (else, it just spills across the screen and one needs to scroll left and right). Also, the double tap zoom doesn't really zoom at all....it just magnifies a negligible amount. However, to his credit, the dev appears to be aware of this issue and has mentioned in his forum that a fix is on the way shortly.

It's been one day so far and no issue with the browser. I'm wondering if one page that I visit regularly was creating issues upon loading in particular. I'll keep my eye on it and report back. Thanks again.

 

[Airmaxx23]

Does pinch to zoom work with xscope? I can't seem to figure it out. I've left the tick in pin-zoom but it still doesn't work.

 

[Deleted User]

Does pinch to zoom work with xscope? I can't seem to figure it out. I've left the tick in pin-zoom but it still doesn't work.

Pinch zoom works fine. Actually, xScope had pinch-zoom back when Android didn't have pinch-zoom.

 

[Airmaxx23]

Pinch zoom works fine. Actually, xScope had pinch-zoom back when Android didn't have pinch-zoom.

Any suggestions on how to get it working?

 

[Deleted User]

I have no idea why it wouldn't work for you. There is nothing to do to turn it on or off. Try uninstalling and reinstalling the app.