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Best Browser for the Ally

Zoandroid

Android Expert
May 28, 2010
1,753
210
Ohio - USA
What is your favorite browser for the Ally? The stock one is way to S L O W and trying to use this Forum in it is nearly impossible, because it takes each character I type forever to appear.

Opera Mini is fast, but I can't do posts with it either, especially replies. Due to the way it caches pages and auto-zooms in and out for some reason it deletes what I have typed when I press the preview or post message keys while it is zooming back out from the keypress. I'm looking for a 3rd alternative.

All comments welcome!
 
Give the Phandroid app a try if you wanna use the forums on your Ally. x)

I use the Opera Mini for browser downloads only. Other than that i use stock

Thanks Dots. I had not realized that the "grayed out looking" text across the top of the main Phandroid window is actually functional tabs (what with the rest of Phandroid being so colorful) so thought there was no way to quickly find replies in threads I had used. I was relying on email links and then using them to open a browser. But now that I see how to do it in Phandroid it is very nice and quite responsive!

Now if I could just find a way to fix my most major peeves on this keyboard...... :-( Is there ANY way to "disable" a key on the slide out qwerty board?? My large thumbs wander onto the Home key when using backspace, and it drives me batty! I do not need that key at all. Actually my thumb reaches the other Home key at the bottom of the phone even when using the keyboard. I would like to 'disable' it if there is any way to do that, or else re-assign it something innocuous like maybe 'space' or something. When it happens here in Phandroid I can come back to it fairly easy. When it happens in email it saves as draft, CLOSES the email app, and moves to home, making getting back to where I left off a multi-step PITA.

Any ideas how I could do it?

Zoandroid
 
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OK, I'll give that one a try. Thanks. :)

OK, giving Dolphin Mini a go this time. It still lags behind my typing a little, but less than its big brother or Miren had lagged Well, at first anyway. Now it is REALLY lagging at over 2 full words behind what I am typing. And the backspace only moves at one character per second. No way would I use this every day. But thanks guys for the suggestions!

:)
 
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I hope you find something that suits your needs.

Thanks! I am trying the full version of Opera. I realized the only reason I was using mini was that I got it back before I rooted and moved apps to the SD card. I chose mini because I didn't have room for the full version in system memory. No longer a problem.

Opera keeps up fine with typing. It loads only a bit slower than its mini version but is certainly acceptable there as well. It also has an auto-wrap setting for text when zooming.

The final test for me will be whether it has the same issue I get with Opera mini, which likes to completely delete my typing when I zoom out, so the forum says I didn't create a 'long enough message'. Here goes testing that.

Aha! The full version doesn't do that to me. So I'll use Opera Mobile (full version).

Thanks again for all your suggestions! I enjoyed trying each one out.

Cheers!
 
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I'll suggest SkyFire. I use it for downloads and some web (i mostly use stock). But it's better than Dolphin, I think.

Actually I had tried Skyfire before I rooted the Ally. I can't remember now what it was I didn't like about it, unless if it was a really large program I may not have had the room.

I'll look at it again. Thanks!
 
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Trying Skyfire on the Ally here. It seems to load reasonably fast enough, but cannot keep up with typing on the keyboard. I wonder what the reason is behind this typing lag issue, and how come Phandroid and Opera don't have the same problem?

:thinking:

When I type in either of them there is no lag at all.

Skyfire claims to play Flash videos. Have you actually seen that work on the Ally?
 
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I'll suggest SkyFire. I use it for downloads and some web (i mostly use stock). But it's better than Dolphin, I think.

I just noticed your moniker. Have you seen this? :
 

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When I first made the move from Graffiti to a hard keyboard I selected a phone capable of both, because I never dreamed I would be able to thumb type as well as I do. I wear 2X gloves as I size reference. So as you can imagine, my thumb tip obscures 4-9 keys for each press. I found it amazing that I could even do this as accurately as I can. But I make frequent mistakes, usually due to pressing 2 keys at once since I can't actually see which key I am pressing.

So, the backspace key is my friend. But having "home" next to it causes this problem. If they had even swapped home for menu keys in that spot it would have been better for me. But I have to guess there aren't a lot of Chinese engineers with 2X hands. :)

Question - Can you insert a smiley from the group to the right when using Miren? I just discovered Opera Mobile won't allow me to tap or click on one of them while in the process of typing this.
 
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