HTC Flash Lite Slowing Down Evo's Browser

[pingpongboss]

So the HTC Evo 4G comes with HTC Flash Lite, which actually works surprisingly well. But the downside is, on non-mobile optimized sites that serve Flash ads, the phone is wasting resources downloading and rendering those ads as well!

Here you can see the horizontal banner is animated flash.

The entire page finishes rendering, but the browser is still sitting there for 5 seconds downloading/rendering the flash banner ads. During that time, scrolling is laggy and the URL bar won't go away, so it's a real issue.

I haven't been able to find a way to selectively disable HTC Flash Lite. I know Froyo can load Flash "On Demand"...

 

[Android 17]

Perhaps using another browser would be best? Or does the EVO detect most other browser settings and apply Flash to it?

 

[pingpongboss]

Perhaps using another browser would be best? Or does the EVO detect most other browser settings and apply Flash to it?

Both "Internet" (stock browser) and "Dolphin Browser HD" played Flash, so I'm assuming all browsers would have flash.

you can disable flash lite on the evo, i believe menu>applications then similarly to disabling sense you disable flash

Disabling flash is not what I'm looking for lol.

 

[htc.EVOlution]

Dunno why, but I haven't experienced any of this problem just yet.

 

[pingpongboss]

Dunno why, but I haven't experienced any of this problem just yet.

Try going on Phoronix.com and see if the ads load for you.

 

[PyroSporker]

App Brain - SkyFire 2.0 Beta

I have heard good things about SkyFire Browser. I don't know that it will help the situation though. Like You said, FroYo should have full/better Flash integration, So I think we should just cross our fingers that it comes, and soon.

 

[tmaxey1]

Both "Internet" (stock browser) and "Dolphin Browser HD" played Flash, so I'm assuming all browsers would have flash.



Disabling flash is not what I'm looking for lol.

You are complaining about your browser hanging for 5 seconds while flash lite loads the banners. You mention that you have not found a way to disable flash. Then you say disabling flash isnt what you are looking for? Well what are you looking for? You dont like something that can be turned off and you are not looking to turn it off? Sorry if i am missing something here. Are you just wanting to complain about your browser not being fast enough?

 

[beoti]

You are complaining about your browser hanging for 5 seconds while flash lite loads the banners. You mention that you have not found a way to disable flash. Then you say disabling flash isnt what you are looking for? Well what are you looking for? You dont like something that can be turned off and you are not looking to turn it off? Sorry if i am missing something here. Are you just wanting to complain about your browser not being fast enough?

I believe he is looking for way to selectively disable flash. Disable on pages that are only loading ads versus sites that have flash content he wants to view.

 

[aliveon2legs]

Aren't there banner killer apps out there?

 

[SprintFun]

I believe he is looking for way to selectively disable flash. Disable on pages that are only loading ads versus sites that have flash content he wants to view.

I also wish the internet automatically knew what I wanted to see and only showed me that.

 

[Bek]

For what it's worth, I pulled up [Phoronix] Linux Hardware Reviews, Benchmarking, & Gaming on both Firefox and my Evo.

It did indeed take "a few extra seconds" to load on the Evo.

But it also did on Firefox, sort of. Ever use Firebug? It allows you to break down and analyze individual elements of a web page. And in this case, also allows you to break down and see what took how long, in the process of requesting and retrieving a page element... in this case, the flash objects in question.

This particular page downloads about 500k worth of Flash objects. I see via Firebug (on a high speed corporate network) that the Flash objects took a proportionally longer time period to appear, NOT because Flash was loading and rendering, but because it was waiting on the server to actually send it first. That was your delay - not in Flash Lite attempting to load and run the swf object.

I'll try and find some time to make some other comparisons. It'll be interesting to further analyze this and try and identify whether other "Flash" issues like this are truly Flash issues or not.

 

[evotitans]

App Brain - SkyFire 2.0 Beta

I have heard good things about SkyFire Browser. I don't know that it will help the situation though. Like You said, FroYo should have full/better Flash integration, So I think we should just cross our fingers that it comes, and soon.

This is one of the huge reason I want to get the EVO and get off the PRE.

I have missed using Skyfire for the last year......cant wait to see how well Skyfire can run on the EVO q/ 4G.

 

[THEFORCE]

download the app "add free" in the market and it will block the banner adds

 

[aliveon2legs]

download the app "add free" in the market and it will block the banner adds

"add free" doesn't return any results on appbrain. I searched for "ad free" and "ad free", but they just returned a bunch of links to applications that you pay for the full version so that they're not supported by ads. Is there any way you can link the app you're using?

 

[THEFORCE]

"add free" doesn't return any results on appbrain. I searched for "ad free" and "ad free", but they just returned a bunch of links to applications that you pay for the full version so that they're not supported by ads. Is there any way you can link the app you're using?

when you get the phone, check in the market

 

[pingpongboss]

I also wish the internet automatically knew what I wanted to see and only showed me that.

I used the phrases "selectively load" and "on demand" in hopes that they would get the point across. Sorry if you didn't get it. lol.

For what it's worth, I pulled up [Phoronix] Linux Hardware Reviews, Benchmarking, & Gaming on both Firefox and my Evo.

It did indeed take "a few extra seconds" to load on the Evo.

But it also did on Firefox, sort of. Ever use Firebug? It allows you to break down and analyze individual elements of a web page. And in this case, also allows you to break down and see what took how long, in the process of requesting and retrieving a page element... in this case, the flash objects in question.

This particular page downloads about 500k worth of Flash objects. I see via Firebug (on a high speed corporate network) that the Flash objects took a proportionally longer time period to appear, NOT because Flash was loading and rendering, but because it was waiting on the server to actually send it first. That was your delay - not in Flash Lite attempting to load and run the swf object.

I'll try and find some time to make some other comparisons. It'll be interesting to further analyze this and try and identify whether other "Flash" issues like this are truly Flash issues or not.

Hmm interesting.. I'd also like to know if the fault lies in Flash or a slow web server.

download the app "add free" in the market and it will block the banner adds

Yes I have that for my rooted phones, but Evo has not been rooted yet. It is called "AdFree Android" in the market

 

[random255]

Sounds like the phone could really do with some sort of ad-blocking app. I know my Blackberry and Instinct both get plagued with banner ads, which not only slow things down but take up valuable screen-real estate.

 

[Bek]

So I just ran the following test.

I saved a flash file & html page to my SDCard, and then invoked it directly via the Evo's browser.

1. Pulled up scary squirrel world - Foamy the Squirrel via Firefox
2. Save As to the Evo's SD card (mounted of course). This saved the HTML page and all underlying objects, including the 1.5 meg SWF Flash cartoon.
3. Via the Evo browser, pulled up file:////sdcard/media/tech2.html

The page & flash object loaded almost instantly.

From this test, plus the other FireBug evidence I found earlier, I would conclude that the OP's slow experience was NOT due to Flash Lite inability to render a Flash object.

 

[ekt8750]

Yes I have that for my rooted phones, but Evo has not been rooted yet. It is called "AdFree Android" in the market

EVO has been rooted. The process hasn't been released as of yet.

 

[neodorian]

Anything like a hosts file on Android? That would be a simple way to block most ads.

 

[rushmore]

I believe he is looking for way to selectively disable flash. Disable on pages that are only loading ads versus sites that have flash content he wants to view.

That would be with something like ad-blocker on Firefox. My guess is we will see an add-on for Dolphin that provides this help. I hope so, at least.

 

[Aridon]

Its there in the market but requires root. So deal with it for another week or disable flash until you hit a video you want to view and re enable it. Thankfully you have that option on this device unlike the iphone

 

[pingpongboss]

So I just ran the following test.

I saved a flash file & html page to my SDCard, and then invoked it directly via the Evo's browser.

1. Pulled up scary squirrel world - Foamy the Squirrel via Firefox
2. Save As to the Evo's SD card (mounted of course). This saved the HTML page and all underlying objects, including the 1.5 meg SWF Flash cartoon.
3. Via the Evo browser, pulled up file:////sdcard/media/tech2.html

The page & flash object loaded almost instantly.

From this test, plus the other FireBug evidence I found earlier, I would conclude that the OP's slow experience was NOT due to Flash Lite inability to render a Flash object.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to do a test. Appreciate the input. But no matter if the fault lies in Flash, or in the slow webservers that deliver those flash objects, I think it would be great if we had selective loading of Flash.

EVO has been rooted. The process hasn't been released as of yet.

Yes, that's what I meant.

Anything like a hosts file on Android? That would be a simple way to block most ads.

I believe there is, but it needs root access to write to the file. That might be how AdFree does adblocking.

 

[Bek]

I think it would be great if we had selective loading of Flash.

Technically you CAN do this now, WITHOUT ROOT.

AdBlock - andblock - Project Hosting on Google Code

This gets around the root issue by setting up a proxy server running directly on your phone. You then set up filters on that proxy. So you're essentially tunneling all of your HTTP traffic through this second application (the local proxy) which does the filtering for you.

So if you want to filter out flash, just filter out all .SWF files.

Done.

 

[drksilenc]

I used the phrases "selectively load" and "on demand" in hopes that they would get the point across. Sorry if you didn't get it. lol.



Hmm interesting.. I'd also like to know if the fault lies in Flash or a slow web server.



Yes I have that for my rooted phones, but Evo has not been rooted yet. It is called "AdFree Android" in the market

the evo has been rooted...