Hi,
Just got me a G Pad 8.3 and I'm very pleased with it so far (two days... ).
I have however noticed something strange while browing the web on this device, and it happened on every browser app I tried: on some web sites, I seem to get the desktop version instead of the mobile one, even though the browser's agent is set to android/mobile. The same sites on the same browser apps go straight to mobile when I use other devices, like my g2 phone.
Searching the web I found that many people want to force the desktop version of web sites, I want the oposite. I find mobile sites more readable on smaller screens, even if they don't look as good as the desktop versions.
Any ideas? Is this a settings issue somewhere outside the browser itself or is this because of the screen size? My older tablet was 7"" and I didn't have that issue there.
Thanks,
Yossi
Related
I was messing with my browser settings and I came across an option titled User Agent or something like that, then it a list showed up with options like Froyo, Eclair, Linux, iPhone, etc... I also noticed that somewhere else but it had to do with I think MMS or SMS I forget which, anyone have a clue what you can use that for and what are benifets?
Sent From My T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
The user agent is how websites identify the device you're browsing from. For example, if you choose desktop, going to a website like amazon.com will always show the full, desktop version. If you change it to Android or iPhone, it will load a "mobile" version of amazon.com that is optimized for small screens and minimizing data usage. No idea what the SMS/MMS context is.
c00ller said:
The user agent is how websites identify the device you're browsing from. For example, if you choose desktop, going to a website like amazon.com will always show the full, desktop version. If you change it to Android or iPhone, it will load a "mobile" version of amazon.com that is optimized for small screens and minimizing data usage. No idea what the SMS/MMS context is.
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It has no context to SMS or MMS. It simply defines what the phone tells the website it is like you said.
For many up-to-date websites, 'Android' will offer a slightly different page than 'iPhone', because the iPhone site is optimized for HTML5, whereas many pages will show flash for Android.
You are thinking about the sms user agent, where cyanogenmod lets you change what phone the network thinks is sending the message. I believe changing it to Nexus One fixes the heavily compressed mms issue, but don't quote me on that.
Sent from my T-mobile G2 using Tapatalk
Maybe its just me, but using this takes me back to the early 00's with WAP connections, Take the mobile twitter site, its a text based affair with no graphics unlike iOS and android who display it like there mobile apps, same with various websites I load, the look like they did on my old Nokia 7210 I had back in 2002 where as Safari on iOS and the Android web browser look basically the same as they would on a computer. What the reason for this?
The short version is, web developers (at least, the ones for those companies) suck. They're testing for expecific browsers, rather than testing for browser capabilities. IE9 Mobile is actually better than the browser on most of the older Android phones (a lot of phones still ship with 2.3 brand new, and many older ones never even *got* 2.3). However, because the user-agent string it sends doesn't identify itself as a WebKit browser, or some such piss-poor shortcut test, the site send incredibly dumbed-down web code as its fall-back to "I don't even know what this is" mode.
Note that many other sites *do* correctly identify the WP7 browser... just not all of them. Also, some will give different experiences depending on the site; for example, m.facebook.com has a very different UI from touch.facebook.com.
As for sites looking like they do in the desktop, if you want that, put the browser in Desktop mode (it's under Settings, which apparently people never bother to check...) That will cause the browser to send a user-agent string that closely approximates the one used by desktop IE. Websites which use that to identify the browser will therefore send the desktop site code.
The problem is many sites are not recognising it as a smart phone and are displaying a barebone mobile website designed for feature phones rather than smart phones.
It's the fault of the web site developers and not the browser itself. The iOS and android browsers are actually rubbish because of the latest webkit exploit and the fact that within them you still can't easily change the user agent settings.
GoodDayToDie said:
The short version is, web developers (at least, the ones for those companies) suck. They're testing for expecific browsers, rather than testing for browser capabilities. IE9 Mobile is actually better than the browser on most of the older Android phones (a lot of phones still ship with 2.3 brand new, and many older ones never even *got* 2.3). However, because the user-agent string it sends doesn't identify itself as a WebKit browser, or some such piss-poor shortcut test, the site send incredibly dumbed-down web code as its fall-back to "I don't even know what this is" mode.
Note that many other sites *do* correctly identify the WP7 browser... just not all of them. Also, some will give different experiences depending on the site; for example, m.facebook.com has a very different UI from touch.facebook.com.
As for sites looking like they do in the desktop, if you want that, put the browser in Desktop mode (it's under Settings, which apparently people never bother to check...) That will cause the browser to send a user-agent string that closely approximates the one used by desktop IE. Websites which use that to identify the browser will therefore send the desktop site code.
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Totally agree here too. I was speaking with Yelp about being able to view their mobile site through IE9 and WP and for their site to just recognize that it's IE9 and they said they have no plans to make changes to their website to accommodate WP.
This basically means, not until they see it worth their time/effort. Which is lame, cause, really, how hard is it to test for it and then display the mobile site if it's IE9? Why alienate customers, even if it's a small (yet growing) segment?
For me, its not working.
yesterday i had to visit Utorrent's remote control (remote.utorrent.com) to do some changes to my torrents, But unforunately i couldn't pass the "Touch to fill the proggress bar" antispam feature. "Move mouse" for PC.
I tried it with both desktop view and mobile view. no good.
I think developers need to pay some love for WP7 and make a good browser for it
I'd like to see firefox but they didn't make it. Yet ..
The problem is many sites are not recognising it as a smart phone and are displaying a barebone mobile website designed for feature phones rather than smart phones.
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Happened to me alot, Sometimes i get "Your browser is too old/unsupported" error and guess what? They refuse to show the website for me
Why don't we have an opera browser? I would definitely use that.
I find IE9 to be good. Yes, its not the best and its not comparable to others but it does a decent job.
The problem is with developers. Dev's try a lot to customize their apps for specific browsers and in turn make it difficult for non-popular browsers.
That is one reason HTML5 is being so looked upon. Everybody needs a common non-plugin solution to have a consistent web experience, which is already supported by IE9 of WP7
Have you guys checked out the HTML 5 Browser Speed Tests:
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/
There are some really good HTML 5 tests there that shows the speed of the IE9 browser running those HTML 5 pages. Sure, they are pages created by Microsoft but it still makes me wonder why the android browser and iPhone browser are really poor at loading up these pages.
slugger09 said:
Take the mobile twitter site, its a text based affair with no graphics unlike iOS and android who display it like there mobile apps
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Twitter have fixed it.
Tone_ said:
Twitter have fixed it.
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Yeah, it was temporary.
Took them long enough, some tech writers jumped right into the IE9/WP7 bashing, even though it was on Twitter end
That also pretty much sums up and ends this thread.
Has anyone else noticed that since the ICS update, none of the web browsers display in true "desktop" mode on certain sites? With Dolphin HD browser running under HC, ESPN and Engadget displayed the full, unmodified versions of the websites. Since the ICS upgrade, ESPN displays the default as the "Tablet Version" and Engadget is the mobile version. I've checked the settings in Dolphon and everything appears to be normal. I've even tried this with Skyfire, Chrome and Browser+, and none of them display every site in true desktop mode.
Can someone check out ESPN or Engadget and let me know if they are experiencing the same thing? I've done several Google searchs for similar problems with other devices, and found nothing.
Thanks in advance!
chrome has to choose "view mode in computer"
I've just checked Engadget here are my results:
Opera - User Agent Desktop. Loading Desktop version
ICS Browser+ - User Agent Desktop. Loading mobile version (it has option to switch to desktop view on the bottom of page, but then has big blue button on top "Back to mobile version")
Stock Browser - No option for user agent.Same as ICS Browser+
I have noticed a few od things with Dolphin HD and the Chrome Beta, but that was on the .012 leak. I have not tried the 014 release yet. I'm charging my tablet and will be flashing it today. I'll try some of the browsers and see what I get. The best way to check this would probably be to hit your own home page and run a CGI that reads http refers and see what it reports for user agent and OS.
I only really notice this on chrome, dolphin browser and stock browser work fine for me
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA
Dolphin had some issues with flash videos in full screen. That's the only issue I ran into with it. The tablet beta wouldn't even run though
Browser rendering problems
Both the default ICS browser and Dolphin have difficulty rendering some Web sites. Sometimes objects like check boxes overwrite text so it is hard to select the check box or enter a password. I assume this is due to trying to cram the page into a small screen.
I also have noticed a few sites that seem to want to go to the mobile view, even when I select desktop view. But I don't see it as often as I did in HC.
Anyone who uses Chrome on their PC will know what I mean when I say is there any Android browser that allows you to search different websites from the navigation bar? For instance in desktop Chrome if you want to search youtube for Lady Gaga you just type in "youtube.com Lady Gaga". Is there any Android web browser with that kind of functionality? Android Chrome doesn't seem to do it.
Thanks for any help.
liquidmetalrob said:
Anyone who uses Chrome on their PC will know what I mean when I say is there any Android browser that allows you to search different websites from the navigation bar? For instance in desktop Chrome if you want to search youtube for Lady Gaga you just type in "youtube.com Lady Gaga". Is there any Android web browser with that kind of functionality? Android Chrome doesn't seem to do it.
Thanks for any help.
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I use the stock browser and Chrome in that way with no problems. I think, there is something wrong with your settings.
I just reinstalled Chrome on my phone and typed in "youtube.com Lady Gaga" and it didn't work, it just searched on Google. Is there a setting you have to turn on?
As far as I know, the mobile version is fairly new and didn't see any options to enable it. Desktop chrome came with it already functional. The only mobile variation I found was using Firefox w/ the youtube add-on. Which sucks because I hate Firefox.
I love the dolphin browser you should try that one not sure what you are trying to do.
Sent from my SGH-I927 using xda app-developers app
liquidmetalrob said:
I just reinstalled Chrome on my phone and typed in "youtube.com Lady Gaga" and it didn't work, it just searched on Google. Is there a setting you have to turn on?
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In Chrome on desktop, you can / have to go to options / search settings and set up these shortcuts (if not already present). I've only just started with new Android device - I assume there is a similar place to set such on handheld. e.g. On my desktop, type 'w' 'p' '<space>' auto-changes the address line to 'search wikipedia' (or like wording). I assume you see the same on your desktop when you type 'youtube.com', as per your message.
If nothing else, you can do '"lady gaga" site:youtube.com", in the mean time.
I found this app in the windows store
apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/mimic-browser/929fa9a0-a9ac-45c2-911e-4d54c744a46c/m/ROW
seems to work with some site that don't work in I.E. the only problem is I can not find and settings as in bookmark, cookies, history and so on
So has anyone else used this app and I thought i.e. was the only browser that was allowed but I see this company has 2 browser apps the other one is for kids and cost money
apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/chrome-yum/a4f0da31-eb4e-4817-91d4-89dbd9f94c68
Thanks
Sorry I found a site that told me this mimic browser is I.E.11 so it some type of skin or front end over I.E.11 I don't understand how it works better just with no options as far bookmarks.
Possibly just changing the user agent.