

Introducing Chrome for Android - cleverjake
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/introducing-chrome-for-android.html

======
trotsky
Decoupling the browser from the OS is one of the best things that could happen
for android security going forward. While it won't help people who can't get
upgrades to ICS, at least it will solve the future problems of people who get
stuck on 4.x while their OS browser slowly becomes more and more exploitable.
I have one phone that is still on 2.2 - it is trivially easy to own the phone
with a little bit of javascript on any web page.

~~~
nextparadigms
I'm hoping this means it will get updates every 6 weeks, too.

~~~
Achshar
yes it will..

> There will be the same 6-week release cycle for new versions, Pinchai says.

[http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-
th...](http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-the-browser-
for-the-1)

but i would ask will they be automatic or manual?

~~~
nextparadigms
Probably automatic, like all their other apps on Android. But you should be
able to easily turn that off just like with all the other apps in the Market.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
I think only the market is automatically updated, everything else is opt-in
like 3rd party apps, but you can now set your default to be auto-update,
unless permissions change.

------
nickpresta
Direct Market Link: <https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome>
The download is a hefty 16MB.

Features:

* Chrome-to-mobile, Sync bookmarks, history, settings, Auto sign-in

* Bandwidth management (preload webpages)

* Privacy settings

* Developer tools: Tilt Scrolling, USB Web Debugging (debug web pages from Chrome Desktop via USB??)

* Incognito mode

* About screen: <http://i.imgur.com/Ahr6t.jpg>

The homepage has a "sync" icon with all the tabs open on your desktop:
<http://i.imgur.com/6eadl.jpg>

It can be a little slow to sync pages between devices, but works much better
than Chrome to Phone.

Overall, Chrome Beta is a welcomed improvement.

~~~
bvdbijl
Instructions on how to use web debugging via USB:
<http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/debugging.html>

You can then access <http://localhost:9222/> which shows a list of all pages
currently open on your device, which link to a page on <http://chrome-
devtools-frontend.appspot.com/> for example [http://chrome-devtools-
frontend.appspot.com/static/16.0.912....](http://chrome-devtools-
frontend.appspot.com/static/16.0.912.75/devtools.html?host=localhost:9222&page=2)
which in turn connects to a websocket on localhost like
ws://localhost:9222/devtools/page/2 to debug your mobile browser!

~~~
borismus
To get a feel for USB web debugging, check out this remote debugging video:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4zpL4VBbuU>

~~~
rplnt
Similar video of remote debugging for Opera. Might be a bit outdated as it is
from 2009 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZt-k93qLbg>

------
lucaspiller
I'm guessing this shares code with Chromium, so will it be open source too?

EDIT: Looks potential: [http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-
chrome-for-a...](http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-for-
android.html)

"With hardware-accelerated canvas, overflow scroll support, strong HTML5 video
support, and new capabilities such as Indexed DB, WebWorkers and Web Sockets,
Chrome for Android is a solid platform for developing web content on mobile
devices."

~~~
lucaspiller
Woops, I pasted the wrong thing there:

"Much of the code for Chrome for Android is already shared with Chromium and
over the coming weeks, the Chromium team will be upstreaming many new
components developed for Chrome for Android to Chromium, WebKit and other
projects."

------
dangrossman
With Android 4.0 at 1% market share, it'll be a long time before most people
can even try this.

[http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-
ve...](http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-
versions.html)

~~~
cryptoz
This is common Google strategy. They are trying to build the future and pre-
ICS devices are not the future. So they get shafted. Google may make unhappy
customers this way, but they can move a lot faster than companies like
Microsoft, who support everything back two decades or so sometimes.

~~~
schraeds
Apple seems to be able to innovate iOS while providing robust and timely
updates for older devices.

~~~
cryptoz
I would not call iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G "robust": it was more of a disaster
than anything. There are obviously strengths to all sides here, and I don't
mean to champion that Google's is best or the only way. But I think it's clear
what they're doing, and I'd bet they've weighed all possible options and found
this to be the most economically sensible one.

~~~
AlisdairO
I honestly thought Apple's behaviour with the 3G was shameful. I wouldn't have
minded if they hadn't released the update for the 3G, but instead what they
effectively did was brick a load of people's phones and then offer poor
options for downgrading. It's really not what I expect from a premium brand.

------
klausa
It appears to be significantly faster on JS front than stock Browser.

Sunspider results:

    
    
        Stock - 3852.2ms
        Chrome - 3131.8ms
    

(tested on HP Touchpad with CM9 A.06)

edit:

I was curious and redid it after rebooting:

    
    
        Stock - 2816.1ms
        Chrome  - 2928.1ms (!)
    

So it turns out it's faster on systems under load, but actually slightly
slower on freshly booted one. Weird.

In case anyone is interested in full benchmarks:

Stock: <http://u.42.pl/2HRq>

Chrome: <http://u.42.pl/2HRp>

~~~
curveship
On my Xoom with stock ICS 4.0.3, Chrome is on the whole dead even with the
stock browser:

    
    
        Chrome - 2276.2ms +/- 1.0%
        Stock - 2288.9ms +/- 2.0%
    

Here's a screenshot of the detailed breakdown: <http://i.imgur.com/WA37A.png>
. The "FROM" column is Chrome, the "TO" column is stock. Some tests Chrome
wins, some stock.

~~~
Steko
Anandtech did a Sunspider comparison with Chrome slightly trailing stock and
both somewhat behind Firefox 10. Not really gamebreaking differences though.

<http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5517/43983.png>

I use Firefox Home on iOS for the sync even though the JS is gimped in non-
Safari webkit views. Sync is that killer.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
He updated with a test on a Galaxy Nexus (which is a TI OMAP chipset rather
than a Tegra2) and Chrome did better than stock, but still behind Firefox.

Though to be honest I'm not sure why Anandtech continue to use Sunspider as a
benchmark.

------
nuclear_eclipse
My initial perception is that all the Chrome features are great, primarily the
data syncing with my desktop browsers. But the rendering is flawed; it doesn't
render like the standard Android browser, doesn't render like desktop Chrome,
and doesn't seem to even render consistent to itself.

For example, a few screenshots comparing the standard Browser view of this
comment page and the way Chrome beta views it:

Browser: <http://db.tt/kv3xP1Mk>

Browser: <http://db.tt/s7S6lCBN>

Chrome beta: <http://db.tt/p9YXoWJU>

~~~
necubi
It's apparently a feature:

"An issue that often pops up for mobile browsers is that text on the website
may be too small to read properly. Where the Android Browser employs a text
reflow algorithm to clarify the situation, Chrome for Android features a
technique which we’ve called Font Boosting. It uses an algorithm to increase
font sizes when necessary, aiming to make the text readable regardless of the
zoom level."

(from <http://peter.sh/2012/02/bringing-google-chrome-to-android>)

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
Then their algorithm isn't consistent, as shown by screenshot. Some comments
on HN are "boosted", while others remain tiny. This also makes it impossible
to reliably hit any of the other page controls, like voting, without having to
manually zoom way in and then back out.

~~~
tikhonj
Of course, the voting arrows are hard to hit even on a normal browser!

I actually really like the idea of adjusting text size like this, but the
particular implementations of this idea may be less than ideal. I'll have to
play around with it when I get the chance and see what it's like.

~~~
zobzu
they're ok on a normal browser.. arrows are many pixels wide and the cursors
are 1 or 2 pixels wide.

on mobile.. your finger takes like 50 pixels; so yeah.

------
Kevin_Marks
According to MG Siegler, Chrome is in the bizdev-required proprietary 'with
Google' part of Android, not the Open Source part.
[http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-
th...](http://parislemon.com/post/17215781807/chrome-for-android-the-browser-
for-the-1) That means we're stuck with legacy browsers in existing Androids
and in the non-Google-blessed world (Amazon Fire and the billion Chinese
phones and tablets).

~~~
magicalist
Interesting. The chromium blog post linked above mentions upstreaming a bunch
of new components, so maybe it will be like the Chrome/Chromium situation?
Here's hoping...

[http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-
for-a...](http://blog.chromium.org/2012/02/deeper-look-at-chrome-for-
android.html)

------
enoughalready
This is exciting news. I just got the Galaxy Nexus, so the timing couldn't be
any more perfect.

It doesn't look like they allow extensions yet. :(

Big win: You can remotely debug your web application via usb and adb.
(Preferences -> Developer Tools -> Enable USB Web debugging.

------
dave1010uk
For those wondering what the differences between the stock Android ICS browser
and Chrome 16 (which this is based on), Chrome has extra features such as:

    
    
        * WOFF fonts 
        * Web workers
        * drag and drop (not sure if this would work in mobile)
        * file API
        * IndexedDB
        * form validation 
        * CSS border images 
        * SVG filters 
    

Desktop Chrome currently doesn't support touch events. I wonder if the Android
port's touch events implementation will make it to the desktop.

Source:
[http://caniuse.com/#compare=y&b1=chrome+16&b2=androi...](http://caniuse.com/#compare=y&b1=chrome+16&b2=android+4)

------
eco
Trying it now. It's very slick. Neat little animations and effects all over.
Pulling up tabs from my Desktop Chrome works great. All of my bookmarks show
up. No extension support (yet?).

------
bad_user
"This item cannot be installed in your device's country"

~~~
paulirish
It's currently available in: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France,
Germany, Spain, Australia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil

Sundar, SVP of Chrome just said "We are working hard to bring this to more
countries and should greatly expand within the next three months."

~~~
dochtman
Why in the world is this restricted? I live in the Netherlands, and I really
don't get what's so hard about releasing here. Sure, we're a small market, so
not as important, but still... Software is global, man!

~~~
dpifke
Software may be global, but patent licenses for things like codecs aren't.

~~~
nextparadigms
Why are they even bothering with h.264 anymore? Didn't they want to remove it
from Chrome since like version 10? It's about time they start to aggressively
push for WebM, if it's ready.

~~~
fpgeek
It would be odd, at the very least, if the problem was H.264 licensing. "All"
Android devices (dating back to the G1, I believe) ship with H.264. That
doesn't mean there isn't some other licensing (or other legal) sticking point,
though.

------
pamelafox
Since I use Phonegap for my Android apps, I've filed an issue requesting that
the Chrome browser be usable in WebView somehow:
<http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=113088>

Click the star if that's something you'd like too. :)

~~~
ConstantineXVI
Since it doesn't replace the base WebKit, you'd either have to require
everyone install Chrome to use your app (not guaranteed), or bundle the entire
runtime (adding ~10MB to your app). It's possible, but doesn't seem very
practical unless there's a serious leap in performance or capabilities in
Chrome vs the baked in WebKit.

Far more likely we'll see Chromium replace Android's engine in a version or
two.

------
loudmax
I had been wondering whether Google would port Chrome to Android, or they
would port Dalvik to Chrome. I'm still not ruling out the latter option.

~~~
khuey
What does "porting Dalvik to Chrome" even mean?

Assuming that means "be able to run Dalvik bytecode in the browser", that
doesn't help with all the Android APIs and such, so it's hard to see how it
would be useful.

~~~
nl
_What does "porting Dalvik to Chrome" even mean?_

Perhaps it means porting the Dalvik VM to ChromeOS. I've wondered the same
thing, since putting an Android layer on ChromeOS seems to be technically
viable (if non-trivial).

------
danielwarna
It doesn't seem to be available in Finland, found a apk at XDA tho:
<http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1485420>

Too bad, it instacrashes om my ICS GalaxyS

~~~
sjs382
It insta-crashed for me too on my Samsung Fascinate with CM9. I cleared the
app's data, its cache, uninstalled it and reinstalled it. It works like a
dream now.

------
voidfiles
Wow, if they include extensions. This could be huge.

~~~
wslh
Yes, having extensions in a mobile browser is the next step to quick
personalization beyond native applications.

I bet that web augmentation on mobiles can be really huge.

~~~
bzbarsky
You may want to try out Firefox Mobile!

------
bvdbijl
Just a note: the rendering in this app does not use Android's webkit! For
example the rounded borders on ihackersnews.com are square! It seems that it
doesn't use the namespaced -webkit-border-radius but only the normal border-
radius Interesting

------
SandB0x
So what have we been using up till now on Android? Is this just a re-branding
and overhaul of the Android WebKit browser?

~~~
pvarangot
We've been user "Browser", I hope one advantage of using Chrome would be
bookmark sync with my desktop browser. "Browser" doesn't even have folders for
it's bookmarks.

Anyway, my phone only runs Android 2.3 so it seems I'll have to wait till my
next upgrade to avoid using hacked up apps to sync my bookmarks.

~~~
ditoa
"Browser" on Android 4 syncs with Chrome already (and has folder support).

~~~
fpgeek
IIRC, Browser's sync is just bookmarks. Chrome for Android also syncs open
tabs and autocomplete suggestions from the desktop, bringing closer to Firefox
Sync.

------
revorad
Can anyone please confirm if this includes access to the Chrome Web Store?
That could be huge for web apps.

~~~
eco
If you visit the web store it says it isn't supported by this operating
system.

~~~
revorad
Oh no! I hope they will open it up. Thanks anyway; I asked because I don't
have an Android device but I do make web apps.

------
SlimHop
Can anyone speak to whether or not Chrome for Android supports WebGL?

~~~
paulirish
It doesn't support WebGL right now. Some more answers to questions like this
at <http://code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/faq.html>

~~~
jentulman
Just thought I'd try it. Nothing I've tried on chromeexperiments.com has
worked using a galaxy nexus.

------
lwhi
It's a shame that this has only been released for Android 4.0. My hope is that
use of Chrome for Android becomes commonplace. SVG support has been lacking in
the Android stock browser in all releases up to Gingerbread - Android 4.0 (and
3.0) already have SVG support, earlier release could really benefit.

------
trotsky
_Chrome is now available in Beta from Android Market, in select countries and
languages for phones and tablets with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich._

What tablets have official ICS on them? Is ICS even fully tabletized? I
thought they had said they were putting that off until Jelly Bean.

~~~
angryasian
Running CM9 / ICS on touchpad. ICS is fully tabletized, better than my ipad,
on an alpha build full of bugs.

~~~
lostsock
I was hardly using my Touchpad before I put CM9 on it. Now it really is quite
delightful to use. Really looking forward to hardware accelerated video
though.

------
dave1010uk
Does anyone know if this is Open Source?

------
angryasian
Finally. If this can actually live up to the desktop experience, I hope we can
finally bring an end to the app.

Only available for ICS
<https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome>

------
emehrkay
I've been hearing that the browser in Android is kinda bad from a lot of
web/js developers. I hope that this makes the situation more palatable. Even
better is when they'll ship a version for Windows Phone and ios.

~~~
fpgeek
I wouldn't hold my breath for Chrome on iOS or Windows Phone. In both cases,
the app store rules ban key features of Chrome (like the V8 JavaScript
engine).

Google may well do something to address Windows Phone and/or iOS users, but it
will probably be much closer to Firefox Home for iOS (which lets you explore
your bookmarks, open tabs and history and then follow links in Mobile Safari)
than it will be to Chrome for Android.

------
condiment
The blog post doesn't go into it, but I'm curious to know what the long-term
implications of this release are for the built-in android browser and the
android SDK's WebView and WebChromeClient.

If this is indeed the first step towards decoupling the browser from the
Android platform itself, I would expect to see continuing development of those
aspects of the SDK to dwindle and die completely, leaving them in the dust
feature-wise when compared to native apps, and putting the people who work on
web-wrapper-apps at an even more serious disadvantage.

~~~
nextparadigms
That's a very good question indeed, especially since some seem to suggest that
Google will eventually replace the stock browser with Chrome, and Chrome is
proprietary.

------
dochtman
Too bad it's only available in "select countries", which certainly don't
include the Netherlands... Probably just the US and Canada? Kind of old-
fashioned.

~~~
dasmoth
Just installed it in the UK.

I'm guessing it's a localization issue. Although for a Beta, I don't see why
they can't just offer everyone who's keen to try it the en-us version.

------
adamrights
Firefox for android unfortunately started out real slow...might be a good move
for Google. Time to go to xda-developers and see if it'll be on your phone.

~~~
shmerl
Firefox moved to native UI on Android, which made it faster. The minus is
obviously need for add-on developers to work with native UI too.

------
karl_nerd
"Swipe from the edge to switch tab" is beautiful :)

~~~
nextparadigms
It's something I've been asking from Google for a while. They need to
implement swipes and gestures like that throughout the OS, and get rid of the
bottom buttons which I think are wasting space.

------
ashamedlion
I wonder if it would be feasible for them to put Chrome on the iPhone.
Technically, Apple wouldn't be against it since it's using WebKit.

~~~
davux
I don't believe the iOS sandboxing would allow for V8, though. Isn't this the
same problem as "my third party app WebView is slow because it doesn't support
Javascript JIT"?

~~~
pvarangot
You are right, it wont allow V8. The only app allowed to JIT on iOS 4.3+ is
Safari (before 4.3 not even Safari was allowed to modify it's own code).

It is technically part of the Mandatory Code Signing trusted computing
implementation of iOS more than of the Sandbox. They use the dirty bit
normally used to do Copy on Write to re-verify signatures when dirty
executable memory is paged in.

------
sunsu
All I want to know is how long till it replaces the current implementation of
WebView in the Android SDK.

------
TwoBit
The problem with FireFox on my (512 mb) phone is that the OS usually kills it
when I switch to another app (even tiny apps like messaging), and it's a slow
FireFox restart if I want to use it again. The OS doesn't do this with the
stock browser.

------
jyunderwood
I wonder if/when the "Browser" app will get the hardware-accelerated canvas
support.

Currently, some of the canvas apps I've tried on ICS run worse than on
Gingerbread. However, those same apps run acceptable in this Chrome beta.

~~~
justincormack
Never by the sound of it. It will be discontinued in favour of Chrome now.

------
rplnt
Would this have any benefit if I don't use chrome on my computer (and even if
I was I probably wouldn't want all my tabs syncing to phone)? Because the ad
left me with impression that syncing is its only feature.

------
dahlia
It reminds me of the truth that speed is the best user experience.

------
mikeytown2
I wonder how chrome does speed wise when compared to opera mini. I'm currently
using opera mini as its one of the fastest browsers for my phone; G1 running
the superE rom.

------
gavanwoolery
EEeaagh...getting tired of the upbeat-catchy-music-with-stop-motion-video-and-
smarmy-narrator product demos. Who started these? I think it was Apple, not
sure though...

------
darklajid
While I understand the appeal (and - being stuck on pre 4.0 anyway, not
utterly relevant for me at this time): I really hope that this will stay an
optional offer, with a simple browser being the default.

Things like "When searching, your top search results are loaded in the
background as you type so pages appear instantly." make me shudder in disgust.
The 'inspired by WebOS' card stuff looks nice, but I won't be having more than
2-3 tabs open on my phone at any given time (tablets might be different here).

A browser is a very central part of the user experience. I prefer it simple
and stupid.

------
nextparadigms
Does anyone know if it comes with the same tab sandboxing it has on the PC?
They say it has the same security as Chrome for PC, but they don't specify
this.

------
potomak
A x-post by Google: <http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=3562814>

------
sathishmanohar
This app is incompatible with your Nexus S. :(

------
ARolek
Will this replace the browser that ships with Android in ICS, or will the user
have to download Chrome?

~~~
bryanlarsen
If I read what MG Siegler wrote correctly, it will eventually replace
"Browser" on Google Android builds. People like Amazon who aren't paying
Google for Android won't get it.

------
Shank
Crashes on start on my HTC Incredible (4.0.3 via Evervolv), and on my Nook
Color it can't load pages.

------
ssn
Why only "in selected countries"?

~~~
afsina
missing i18n?

------
jgnatch
It was about time!

------
rkon
This is unusable on the Galaxy Nexus due to its mysterious tendency to make
fonts microscopic for random sections of the page. Guess it never occured to
anyone to test their flagship browser on their flagship phone? It doesn't even
resize the page to fit the screen when you pinch zoom (which the stock browser
does)

Also, it has a persistent address/menu bar that takes up the top 10% of the
screen, no doubt thanks to ICS' lack of a dedicated menu button. Once again,
proof that removing said button was a pure stroke of idiocy.

~~~
cma
Put the stock browser into fullscreen mode and you see the button was totally
useless. You just scroll up a bit for the address/menu/tab buttons to show.

------
gcb
A browser with that many permissions? what good is sandboxing and everything
if the browser can access 100% of my device, including microphone?

i'm thankful this is not available for my ancient, 11mo old, nexus one.

~~~
Shank
Can we please stop with the hyper-generalization that is that each permission
is being used for the app 100% of the time for everything? In almost every
instance, one permission or another is required for some trivial task, and
they add up quickly.

~~~
gcb
and for something like a browser, a silly bug will make my personal data ...
heck even my mic vulnerable.

android permission is only good if you make specialized apps and make them
talk togheter. like it was the original intent with actions and intents. but i
guess it didn't worked out ok.

------
its_so_on
I never thought I would see the day that a BlackBerry can run Chrome. I still
never think so, but I never thought so, too.

------
wavephorm
I think is the death knell for ChromeOS. Android browser has always sucked, it
was the primary reason I haven't bought an Android device. Google had the
resources to make Chrome on Android a long time ago, so I presume they were
dragging their feet in a "wait and see" approach for whether ChromeOS had any
chance on its own.

~~~
adamrmcd
I don't believe so, for both your statements :)

First off, this took so long because Chrome was built using a "normal" devel
framework (gcc, make, etc) with a few added tools (repo, gyp). The UX for
Chrome is provided via OS-specific graphical APIs, like X.org, Cocoa, and
Win32.

Android uses a Java framework, which in turn contains the code that manages
all rendering and UX, so not only did Chrome UX needed to be ported to
Android's graphical API, but the entire build environment needed to be JDK
compatible.

I agree the Android browser is laughable compared to Chrome, and Chrome on
Android is the future, but there were so many developmental problems that
needed to be solved first before one could stick to the other.

Regarding your ChromeOS comment, this has nothing to do with that as ChromeOS
is designed to solve an entirely different problem. Many power-users
(developers, technology bloggers, etc) seem to have a hate-on for ChromeOS
because they're afraid it'll kill their venerable laptop. That will never
happen. :)

ChromeOS is designed to kill those netbooks and laptops where common-users (my
wife, for example) only use them for browsing gmail, facebook, and a few
forums. 95% of what these users do are web based, barring a few native apps,
of which NaCL and other HTML5 technologies are aiming to solve.

~~~
fluidcruft
That's exactly the same market android tablets target. The market for ChromeOS
is rapidly evaporating.

------
TechNewb
Chrome for iOS please.

~~~
fullmoon
Apple doesn't allow applications to provide their own runtimes:

“3.3.2 An Application may not download or install executable code. Interpreted
code may only be used in an Application if all scripts, code and interpreters
are packaged in the Application and not downloaded. The only exception to the
foregoing is scripts and code downloaded and run by Apple’s built-in WebKit
framework.”

~~~
shmerl
That's not very precise. Legally, Apple doesn't allow _to use iOS SDK_ , i.e.
_to build_ such applications. If you manage somehow to build it any other way
(not using Apple's SDK), this restriction has no meaning, and while Apple
could reject such kind of software from their app store, you could deploy it
to alternatives, like Cydia, and still be legal, since you didn't violate any
licenses.

I.e. for browsers makers the concern is not that they'll be rejected from the
app store, but that they can't even legally build them with the Apple's SDK.

~~~
ceejayoz
"The App Store guidelines only apply to the App Store", while a true
statement, is a pretty useless one.

~~~
shmerl
The rule above is not from the App Store guidelines, but from the SDK license.
I.e. even if you use alternative app store without restrictions (Cydia), but
build a browser with Apple iOS SDK - it's still illegal, and that's why major
browsers like Firefox wouldn't do it.

------
nod
I'm rather confused that Google seems to be aiming to fragment the browser
market for its own platform. I already wasn't looking forward to
supporting/testing both Browser and Firefox on Android... Is Google just this
disorganized internally?

~~~
loudmax
Chrome and the old Android browser are both based on WebKit. Google will
almost certainly make Chrome the default browser for new editions of Android,
and will likely push for it on IOS and Windows phone.

~~~
gcp
Given that IOS is already on WebKit, there's no fragmentation here. WebKit has
a monopoly on mobile.

~~~
shmerl
And that's bad, since it promotes bad coding practices. Also, WebKit is far
from being uniform, and differs from one flavor to another.

------
porterhaney
Much like Facebook's S-1, Google is seeing a huge increase in mobile traffic
but not strong way to monetize it via advertising. I'd wager the preview pane
(and maybe even the browser itself) is a play to increase the interaction they
get on mobile advertisements.

------
benologist
Douche move making it require Ice Cream Sandwich while they don't require
telcos to ship any of us upgrades.

~~~
steve-howard
If Samsung didn't lock down the bootloader so fucking tight on my $500 phone I
wouldn't have to care what the telco does.

~~~
jsight
Which Samsung Android device has a locked bootloader?

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
Most of the non-Nexus phones technically have a locked bootloader, so that
people can only run firmware signed by the carrier. In practice, there are
ways of jailbreaking the vast majority of locked phones, but there are some
people who don't want to void their warranty or don't want to use community
ROMs.

~~~
jsight
AFAIK (and some google searching seems to confirm) the Galaxy SII does not
have a locked bootloader. I believe that the original Galaxy S was also
unlocked.

So which Samsung Android devices have locked bootloaders?

Motorola and HTC tend to lock their bootloaders more often (though this
situation is improving).

------
sern
And in typical Google fashion, they have assumed that devices have an infinite
amount of memory: <https://imgur.com/zkh7C> (this is with the app in the
background!)

~~~
zobzu
this might be because: \- its loading its own webkit/js lib \- it might be
multiprocecss (is it?)

I'm wondering how much firefox nightly uses on your phone

~~~
sern
Look - as I said in my other comment, the issue isn't that it uses a tonne of
memory. The stock browser does so too. The issue is that it is _using that
memory in such a way that it is evicted too late_. The app is multi-process,
but they're putting background services _in the wrong process_ \- they run in
the main process that you'd expect to be heavy on memory usage. So instead of
the memory-heavy UI stuff being evicted shortly after the UI goes away, it is
evicted _after all other background (multitasking) processes - including the
launcher - have also gone away_.

Note that my screenshot shows the _active_ (i.e., not background processes
that can be thrown away at any time) section of the running processes screen.

