New Dolphin Browser: Better or Worse

[rking]

using xscope now until dolphin 'fixes' the back button/stop issue, the scroll bar indicator and takes off ads on the bottom of the screen. i'm down to pay for it rather than having the browser slow down because it has to load stupid ads.

 

[Psychokitty]

Of course aware is unnecessary for the user, unless that ad enables you to use the app without paying a license fee. These guys spend a lot of time developing the apps. Nothing in life is free. If they can subsidize their development with aware and keep the software available without expense to you, you should be happy. If you like the app, but not the adware, buy it.

I still haven't found an app that I feel is worth more than a couple bucks. A well done popular app at even $ 2 should easily generate enough income to support the effort. I used to program in a previous life for a fixed salary. What they paid me could not have kept me programming. It was the adventure, man versus machine. When it worked right, it was a beatiful thing.

Give these guys some props.

Ok. I've already stated (several times) that I would buy this app. I've said that about many apps, and I've bought many apps, too. (So get off yer high horse!)
But this app is clearly not finished, and so does not warrant (quite yet) the rather large $5 price tag to get rid of the adware! It just doesn't. I may still buy it anyway, but let's face it, most people writing up these complex apps that they charge for did it for the money to begin with, not out of some "Open Source Free The World" BS ideology. I'm more apt to donate to someone who didn't ask for it, and certainly I feel better donating to someone who didn't hold the app hostage with adware until I did so. I do understand that most are not like me, and so this presents the need to make money using adware. I do, really. But don't chastise me for not liking that fact by treating me like I'm one of them.

 

[AVP]

Fast. Pinch and zoom has consistently gotten better with each update.

 

[PetiePal]

However I agree $5 is a little steep. I may pay $4 at the most (3.99 whatever) but Dolphin should realize that unless they're really bringing a ton extra to the table when the Droid DOES get multitouch apps esp the browser they're going to sacrifice a lot of revenue

 

[MKeditor]

I tried the dolphin. Interesting. .....but not for me. I may revisit it in the future.

 

[flammenwurfer]

I tried Dolphin before the update and while it wasn't bad, there just were too many drawbacks keeping me from actually using it over the Stock Hero browser.

The update is mostly a step in the right direction, but there's still things keeping me from actually using it.

I think they've already been mentioned but here's what I don't like about it.

Pinch zoom too slow
No scroll bar indicator on side to tell me where I am on a page
Google Bookmarks Sync doesn't seem to actually sync my bookmarks
I wish pushing menu would bring up the little menu that it currently brings up, but instead of the gesture area on top, I would rather have the home-page thing with the Most Visited, Bookmarks, Google Services...etc. I find it annoying to have to push menu, then home Home icon, then Bookmarks, then the bookmark I want to go to. If that page would come up when menu is pressed and I could set the Bookmarks tab of that page to be shown first, it would be much better. I could click menu, then immediately be able to find and click on the bookmark I wanted.

Things I like

The tabs, while not pretty, work well. I like the double-tap to hide/unhide
Pages render quickly
The Home-page area is a good idea, I just want quicker access to it and my bookmarks
Google Bookmark sync is a great feature, it just doesn't seem to be working for me

 

[Stolz25]

However I agree $5 is a little steep. I may pay $4 at the most (3.99 whatever) but Dolphin should realize that unless they're really bringing a ton extra to the table when the Droid DOES get multitouch apps esp the browser they're going to sacrifice a lot of revenue

I don't get this obsession with multi-touch. While it would be nice occasionally to resize quickly I really don't get that problem very often. Generally the double tap on the stock browser makes it a good size to read. For the few times it doesn't, pushing the zoom buttons is not a lot of work.

Using the Iphone I was constantly zooming in too far (which causes extreme lag for some reason). I'm sure this is a matter of practice, but I was used to the droid browser in half an hour and I've spent much more time on Iphone. When the droid gets multitouch I'll use it of course, but this is hardly a reason to pay money for a different browser.

 

[mashton]

There is a stop button, although it is two clicks not onee: whilst a page is loading, pressing the menu button shows a stop button where the refresh button usually is, to the right of the forward and back arrows. It has a symbol something like a British 'no entry' sign.

I wonder if someone can help me with my main dolphin problem. It always loads the homepage, when I open dolphin. So, if I am on a page and then switch to another app, such as the homescreen to turn on wifi or to email to check something, qwhen I return to dolphin it loads the homepage, navigating away from the page I was on. Very irritating.

Does anyone know how to turn this off?

 

[mashton]

edited due to double post caused by problem above!

 

[dougwilson2000]

It depends on how you leave Dolphin. If you use the back key (hook bottom left) to exit, then it will go to homepage but if you leave by using the HOME key it will retain your last page.

 

[mashton]

It depends on how you leave Dolphin. If you use the back key (hook bottom left) to exit, then it will go to homepage but if you leave by using the HOME key it will retain your last page.

This doesn't work for me, unfortunately. I am on a Motorola Milestone, android version 2.0.1. Dolphin version: 42.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Kill Dolphin browser to start from scratch.
2. Open Dolphin, navigate to any web page, away from the home page.
3. Click Home button (or the back hook) to revert to homescreen.
4. Open Dolphin, either by clicking the icon on homescreen or by pressing and holding Home to slect dolphin from the recently opened icons.
5. Dolphin will load the home page, navigating away from the page that was proviously displayed.

How can I stop it from doing the last step?

I have tried setting the home page to nothing, but that just gives me a blank page. :-(

 

[Chillout]

I used to use Dolphin but the lag page loads was horrific so I bagged it in favor of xScope which worked great for awhile but then started FCing all over the place on me so I went back to the stock browser which was working just fine for me. I did miss the pinch zoom though big time. I don't care for Opera at all, never have.

In the interest of seeing how they might have improved Dolphin though after reading this thread I decided to give it a shot and so far it's been working well. The only gripe right now that I have is that I went to import my bookmarks but the "this isn't stable yet" yet message you get from the Dev made me think twice. The last thing I want is a bunch of FC's now so I decided to wait on that.

I'll run it for awhile and see how it goes but so far so good.

 

[dougwilson2000]

I am using a Droid and if I hit the home key, I will go to homescreen and the next time I open Dophin browser it will be on the site I left it in.
Guess you need to get the mighty Motorola Droid. Thought this was the Motorola Droid section anyways. Try asking in the Milestone section.
By hitting the Back button you are exiting/closing the browser but by hitting Home button you are leaving the app open in the backround. Should be the same on your phone too.

 

[johninbigd]

Open Dolphin > menu > "more" arrow > settings > system settings > set home page

I had this same problem just now. There are some basic things that are not intuitive in Dolphin. It's frustrating.

 

[JohnDa]

After further review...it is faster than the native browser, but the bookmarking is horrible compared to the stock browser. Why can't there just be a single button to bring up bookmarks? Isn't this the most used menu item in a browser?

 

[johninbigd]

After further review...it is faster than the native browser, but the bookmarking is horrible compared to the stock browser. Why can't there just be a single button to bring up bookmarks? Isn't this the most used menu item in a browser?

Agreed. I was just trying it and thought it was a pain in the rear to change my home page and to get the bookmarks to come up.

 

[usayit]

I like it... I had to make changes to fit me. Works great and definitely faster than the previous version.

1) Auto Fit (uncheck). Slows down zooming as it keeps trying to reorganize the webpage to fit each time you zoom in or out
2) Auto Hide Tab bar (check). More realestate on a small screen
3) Keep Notification bar (uncheck). More real estate on a small screen
4) Delete all default gestures and set the following:
- Back ">"
- Forward "<"
- New Tab "^"
- Windows "W"
- Close "X"
- Stop "S"
5) Gestures activation lower right hand. I am right handed.

I prefer to open new links in tabs... I do that by holding down the selection and select "link"-> new tab or gesturing "new tab". Switching between tabs is done by either big swipe to the left/right or by gesturing "windows".

For those of you that complain that zooming is too slow should really uncheck Autofit. It makes a difference (at least for me).

 

[illiniguy73]

My two annoyances with the latest version:
1. A double tap brings up the tabs (if set to hide; which is good). However, if you double tap over a hyperlink, it will both bring up the tab (good) and navigate to the link (bad). On some web pages and on a small screen, it can be difficult to avoid double taping on a link.
2. Adding a bookmark is extremely cumbersome. I want an add bookmark option when I hit the menu button.

Other than that, the pinch-zoom is much more functional.

 

[hagbardceline]

My principal annoyance:

whenever I switch out of Dolphin to do something else, e.g., different app, home screen and then return to dolphin by clicking my home screen icon, it loads the homepage in the currently open tab instead of just redisplaying the tab I was on and doing nothing

this is infuriating in a multitasking phone

am I doing something wrong or is there a way to disable this?

HC

ps I am on ERIS

 

[kratos]

The only real issue that I have with my this browser is that the system never remembers my default settings. I'm not sure if this is a Dolphin issue or an Android issue.

Almost every time I open Dolphin, I am asked if I want to set it as the default browser. I say OK every time. However, when opening the browser from within another app, It almost always opens the stock browser. There have been a few times where it actually was the default browser, but this only lasted for a day or two.

Otherwise, I love this browser. Much faster and more feature rich than the stock browser. I do agree, however, that it is quite difficult trying to add bookmarks.

Kratos