
Puffin Browser - dutchbrit
http://www.puffinbrowser.com/
======
lclemente
I'm wondering how the Snowden revelations affect companies like them. Having
all your mobile browsing pass though a single point in the US probably doesn't
sound like a good idea anymore to many of their potential users.

Also, I'd like to know whether they have the same kinds of speed improvement
when loading resources over SSL connections.

------
st3fan
Has anyone pulled this thing apart? I am curious how they can claim 5x speed
improvement for JavaScript compared to Safari.

AFAIK third party apps still cannot use a JIT because they cannot execute
dynamically generated code. Wonder what is behind those claims.

~~~
0xdripdrop
Yes, we reverse engineered Puffin 2.x and implemented a partially featured
client in python. We used this client to run map reduce on puffin's servers.
You can read about some of the benchmarks we measured here:

[http://ix.cs.uoregon.edu/~butler/pubs/acsac12.pdf](http://ix.cs.uoregon.edu/~butler/pubs/acsac12.pdf)

The short answer to your question is they run and render all the js/html/css
in a server farm (rackspace when we benchmarked it) and send the client a
rendered stream of the contents. The paper above gives the benchmarks we
measured.

Note: all the above is only relevant to Puffin 2.x. Im not sure how much has
been redesigned for 3.x None of the above may be correct for current versions.

~~~
kintamanimatt
That's one hell of a serious privacy problem!

------
hahla
Does anyone else find that the Puffin (bird) has a sort of natural worried
look to it, making it a poor choice for a logo?

~~~
dylangs1030
I would characterize it as a sad, kitten-lost-in-the-rain kind of look.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=puffin&source=lnms&tbm=isch&...](https://www.google.com/search?q=puffin&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=9ToIUqmyNZal4AOvmoHgAw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=675)

But yeah, I agree, not exactly a cool, edgy logo like a "firefox" or "atom"...

------
dylangs1030
So it essentially has a server that pre-processes javascript going through it
to increase speed...cool. Not foolproof, but cool.

Digging around online, a bunch of users have submitted their own speed test
results[1][2]. There are some concerns that the way it does this is unreliable
for large multimedia websites and is potentially insecure/buggy. And, of
course, a lot of people _hate_ how it looks, claiming in particular that it
sacrifices stability for the speed increases.

Personally, I don't want everything I'm doing being streamlined through a
secondary server just for a speed boost, but I can see why this is attractive.

[1]:[http://wi.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/17rwg1/insanely_fast...](http://wi.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/17rwg1/insanely_fast_android_browser_puffin/)

[2]:[http://www.techjamaica.com/forums/showthread.php?110199-Is-P...](http://www.techjamaica.com/forums/showthread.php?110199-Is-
Puffin-Browser-really-the-best-for-Android)

------
sspiff
Call me paranoid, but outsourcing my browser engine to the cloud is not
something I'd consider in the current privacy climate.

------
tommaxwell
It does feel _relatively_ fast from basic usage, but as long as Apple doesn't
let me change my default browser I'll have to pass. Clicking links anywhere
else just opens Safari, which is a bummer.

As for the fact that they send my web activity to their own servers for pre-
processing, I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'd feel a little more
comfortable if their servers were outside of the US (are they? I don't know).

~~~
kintamanimatt
They're inside the US, but then again I would be hesitant to trust any such
third party cloud service no matter where it's located.

------
uniclaude
I've been using this for a while as a secondary browser on my Nexus 4, very
convenient in places where 3g coverage is bad.

This said, in my everyday use, it's far less convenient than Chrome, mostly
because of its tab design/experience, and a few text selection bugs I had.

So, all in all, I'd recommend anyone to have this browser installed, "just in
case".

------
shellehs
I just noticed that both puffin's web site and the browser itself, are blocked
in my area. Some place in Beijing, China. I am not sure if it is the same to
other ISP or company in Beijing.

After connected using vpn( this is able to watch youtube HD videos ), It works
but speed is terribly slow at beginning. But then, it runs FAST.

~~~
shellehs
here the screenshot
[pic.twitter.com/IneqTYhyc2]([http://t.co/IneqTYhyc2](http://t.co/IneqTYhyc2))

------
by_Seeing
Graphics nazi here to help.

The puffin icon looks sad. The speed graphic at the bottom should run left to
right. Put a download button after the speed graphic.

~~~
anigbrowl
_The speed graphic at the bottom should run left to right._

It already does. the puffins are going towards the left because the goal is
zero, whereas if they were pointing to the right it would look like they were
chasing slower browsers.

------
drill_sarge
So this is basically the same as Opera Turbo (edit: or now called Opera
Offroad)?

