As I posted earlier, I was able to update my phone from Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). One of the fringe benefits of the update is being able to try some apps that can only be used in Android 4.0 or later. One of those is the mobile version of Google's Chrome web browser.
Overall I like it. It is fast and simple (much like the desktop Chrome). It also has some capabilities that the standard Android browser does not possess. One such ability is a little checkbox called "request desktop site". Yes, we finally can override the tendency of mobile browsers to serve up the mobile versions of sites. It also supports tabs in a more intuitive manner than the stock Android browser and supports all of the server side features Chrome on the desktop does (like sharing sites, backup of favorites and such).
It does however still have a couple of places it could use some work. One is that it's visual style is a touch jarring in the context of Ice Cream Sandwich and it does not have controls for the user to customize the appearance of the browser. The other is that the ability to automatically cause the font size to change with a finger motion on the screen is not operating - you need to do it in the "settings" menu. I figure these will be corrected in subsequent releases, and indeed when looking at previews of Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) where Chrome replace the stock Android browser as the default it seems it has been reskinned to fit the OS theme better.
Overall if you're running Ice Cream Sandwich or higher this is well worth the download.
Overall I like it. It is fast and simple (much like the desktop Chrome). It also has some capabilities that the standard Android browser does not possess. One such ability is a little checkbox called "request desktop site". Yes, we finally can override the tendency of mobile browsers to serve up the mobile versions of sites. It also supports tabs in a more intuitive manner than the stock Android browser and supports all of the server side features Chrome on the desktop does (like sharing sites, backup of favorites and such).
It does however still have a couple of places it could use some work. One is that it's visual style is a touch jarring in the context of Ice Cream Sandwich and it does not have controls for the user to customize the appearance of the browser. The other is that the ability to automatically cause the font size to change with a finger motion on the screen is not operating - you need to do it in the "settings" menu. I figure these will be corrected in subsequent releases, and indeed when looking at previews of Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) where Chrome replace the stock Android browser as the default it seems it has been reskinned to fit the OS theme better.
Overall if you're running Ice Cream Sandwich or higher this is well worth the download.
It also makes it cool for Cloud Print because it is integrated better. Printing pages is a snap. Im going to install/default it on my phone right now. :icon_e_biggrin:
Just got told...