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Google Releases Chrome For Android Beta
An anonymous reader writes "Today Google announced the availability of a beta version of its Chrome browser for Android. Unfortunately, it's limited to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) devices. Google is trying to keep Chrome fast and easy to use, and part of that involved redesigning tabs so they work more naturally with touchscreens. 'You can flip or swipe between an unlimited number of tabs using intuitive gestures, as if you're holding a deck of cards in the palm of your hands, each one a new window to the web.' They've also including synchronization functionality that allows you to move from desktop browsing to phone or tablet browsing and pick up right where you left off."
No, the stock Android browser has never been Chrome. It has a completely different WebKit port, developed independently by a different group, with far worse support for newer web standards; is single-process; has a completely different UI stack (e.g. no omnibox); and doesn't have the same level of data syncing support.
The stock Android browser could be called "Chrome" only to the same degree that Safari could be called Chrome.
Religious fanaticism. All the browsers have it.
When the websites I routinely visit stop posting content in Flash, I won't want it on my mobile devices anymore.
Until then, I either put flash on my android phone, or email myself a link to check out the site when I'm near a desktop computer.
Gingerbread's Web Browser also gets 100 on the Acid3 test.
That 100 isn't the whole story, if the rendering isn't also correct.
Acid3 is also a cherry-picked group of tests, some of which are still drafts, some of which have no real use in standard practice.
AND... most importantly, here - it doesn't test HTML 5. That's one of the big things Google is pushing with Chrome for Android, hardware-accelerated HTML 5 rendering and support.
(This could be related to the ICS requirement - GPU acceleration of UI elements)
Chrome for Android also is single-process.
Do you have a source? TFA says otherwise, official docs say otherwise.
Yes, this seems to be the only *real* distinction between Chrome and Android's Web Browser.
Clearly you're ignorant on the subject, so please don't take offense if I continue to ignore your claims.
Now, I don't have an exhaustive list... But there are the things mentioned above, addition of the Omnibox, better developer tools, Incognito Mode, pre-loading and rendering pages as an option for don't/wifi only/always, no limit for number of tabs to have open, hardware accelerated rendering, redesigned UI that seems to be both better and more consistent with the desktop platform... Sandboxing isn't there yet, though they claim to be working on it.
Chrome and Android's web browser are both WebKit + V8, in which there was a fork from Chromium at Version 4, as outlined in the Google Android Commit Logs. Seems more as though Android's web browser has always been Chrome, with modifications to support mobile devices, from what was at the time a Current Chromium version (read: Chrome). Seems as though Google has simply made a more up-to-date build of their web browser available.
Chrome 4 was ages ago. At the time, sure, maybe the Android browser was Chrome 4 + enhancements for mobile devices - really don't care to go research the state of Chrome 4 and what Android Browser had then and what has been added since. But how well has the Android stock browser kept up with Chrome development?
There's some obvious, fundamental differences to how the two versions worked. They apparently was a fair amount of neutering done to make it work on the phone quickly and easily, or it was from such an early Chrome build that a lot of the features associated with Chrome weren't present yet.
That's a big part of this. They're working to keep both versions working off the same codebase. This will keep the Android browser more current going forward.
I vote based on politicians' actions, unless contrary to my preconceptions. Often wrong, never uncertain. #iamthe99%