- This is the official thread for Simple Browser and Simple Browser Plus! I appreciated all the traffic in the user started thread, however a title of "Is it safe to use" isn't one I wanted to carry questions and support long term in.
So ask your questions and add your comments here!
Currently Simple Browser is at version 1.0.8 and Simple Browser Plus is at version 1.0.29.4 in App World. 1.0.29.4 is basically a lot of bug fixes and cleanup on previous versions. This version was really issued to nail down the tab sizing issues people had, as well as some serious problems 7111 users ran into. For now those issues are being worked around via some different routines for 7111, and hopefully RIM will resolve them in future builds. (Bug reports have been filed) Look below for features that have been added in italics.
Simple Browser's Feature List:
Full screen browsing with NO UI on the screen. (Menu bar can be completely hidden)
Keep PlayBook awake while SimpleBrowser is on the screen or you are browsing.
Adjust default font size from 1 point to 120 point font.
Select your own homepage with the ability to resume from the last page you were on when you closed the app.
Enable / Disable Cookies, Flash, JavaScript, and Geo-location(GPS) features.
Clear Cookies & Cache on demand in the options menu.
Integrated Google search in URL bar. (Just type what you want to search for and hit go in the address bar)
Text Reflow makes it easy to zoom in on a page and just read the content. Many people will prefer this to making the font size bigger manually.
Private Browsing keeps sites from accessing and storing cookies on your device. Additionally no information is cached when in private mode.
Simple Browser Plus has all of the above features and adds:
Tabbed browsing! You will have 4 tabs that are displayed in a window pane format and they will stay active until you decide to close them. There are only 4 as any more active at once and you would run into memory usage issues. (This is why the stock browser deactivates tabs that you don't currently have open) Tabs can be opened manually in the tab view window or you can open a link in an available tab with a long press on the link and selecting open in new tab. Settings and options are saved on a per-tab basis, so you can setup a particular tab with a specific user agent and homepage. Tabs will also be animated as they are minimized and restored, this also enabled me to keep the webpages from resizing when they were minimized, reducing the need to refresh the page after going full screen with it. Tab animations can be enabled and disabled in the options menu. Additionally you now have the option of making background tabs inactive to conserve memory use or to be able to switch between different media across tabs and not have them play over each other.
Bookmarks! Bookmarks are shared across all tabs and can be completely edited, name, URL, and position can all be changed with ease. The bookmarks list will also now store favorite icons with the sites as they are added, make sure the site is fully loaded before saving to make sure the icon is captured! Bookmarks can also be backed up and restored easily to your Downloads folder, this will allow you to swap bookmarks between devices and keep a backup of your bookmarks in the event you need to reinstall the application.
Ad-Blocking! Ad-Blocking defaults to weekly updates from an actively maintained list.Currently supports "Hosts" formatted and plain URL only lists in a text file format. It will be cached locally and updated weekly. You can use a stored file on your PlayBook as a block list source. Place your block list in the shared folder "misc" and name it "adblocklist.txt". Then use a custom URL of "file:///accounts/1000/shared/misc/adblocklist.txt" This file will be loaded every time the browser is started vs a weekly update.
Coming in future releases
Download Manager - Currently downloads work, but there is no way to manage or view them, they will be saved in your "Downloads" folder and you will receive notifications when they start and complete. This will be changed with a manager interface that will allow you to track and manage your active and complete downloads.
History Manager - Browse through your recently visited sites for each tab session easily and quickly.
If you would like to download and sideload the latest version of SimpleBrowser, you can download the latest version here: SimpleBrowser-LatestRelease (Currently 1.0.8 which is also in App World)
You can find SimpleBrowser & SimpleBrowserPlus in App World here: Forward Thinking Apps - BlackBerry App World
All questions and comments welcome!
Screenshots (From both versions) -
Last edited by HaTaX; 01-25-12 at 11:15 PM.
12-27-11 03:50 PMLike 23 - Sure can! The interface isn't what I wanted ideally for moving the position of tabs, but it works well enough. You just edit them as before, and there is a new button that says change position. That will bring up the list of bookmarks and you choose which one you want it to be placed BEFORE. Ideally I'd have a long press and drag type of interface, but that was a bit much to get wrapped into this release and I wanted to get the functionality out there to people. In the SDK I can't do a long press event on list items as easily as I can with buttons and such.
I think tabs will be one of those things that you will REALLY like once you have a chance to play with it. My wife was my main beta tester and she thought that was very cool and she actually sat and did a few hours of browsing while switching between tabs and all. Said it was much quicker and easier then she expected.
It's pretty cool to get 2 or 3 youtube videos playing with Pandora open in a different tab. Not practical at all as the audio is mixed from all tabs, but still pretty cool to see the PB running a few different videos at once in a little window-pane view.
It's not light years ahead of the stock browser, but I think it IS faster. The UI and framework around it is considerably more lightweight then the stock browser. Also the default settings for the web browser window have been tweaked a bit for speed, not sure how the settings are on the stock browser, but I came up with settings that worked well and quickly in SimpleBrowser. I'll say this, load up engadget.com in the stock browser, and SimpleBrowser and see if there's a difference in scrolling or checker boarding, that should show you a difference. (Remember not to have them open at the same time if comparing speed!)
Here's a screenshot of the bookmark order window -Last edited by HaTaX; 12-27-11 at 04:19 PM.
12-27-11 04:11 PMLike 0 - Yes it does, I kind thought about if it was better to have it at the top or bottom, and if its on the top, you will see it right away when you add it, vs it appearing at the bottom of the list. I haven't given the placement much thought after I added re-ordering in, but if you all think it would be better at the bottom of the list......12-27-11 04:53 PMLike 0
- Yes it does, I kind thought about if it was better to have it at the top or bottom, and if its on the top, you will see it right away when you add it, vs it appearing at the bottom of the list. I haven't given the placement much thought after I added re-ordering in, but if you all think it would be better at the bottom of the list......12-27-11 05:00 PMLike 0
- The rendering engine is using the same OS engine the stock browser does, however beyond that, the entire framework around that "window" is completely different. Basically they provide an API to the web rendering engine and both SimpleBrowser and the stock browser use that same API.gailsher likes this.12-27-11 07:07 PMLike 1
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- using the free version. How do i create bookmarks with it? oops just saw i need the plus version. Want to test run it before i buy plus version.
galaxysurfer12-27-11 10:23 PMLike 0 - You might also want to wait for the new version to become available before judging it too heavily as well. The free versions codebase is 5 months old due to the delay in RIM approving it.
And yes you will be able to change the useragent string in the free version when the update is approved. Currently only the paid version has it.12-27-11 10:48 PMLike 0 -
- Absolutely, I have no intentions of charging people for upgrades. I would expect App World to allow a price adjustment without affecting current owners, if not, then I wouldn't raise it at all.
Hopefully you'll feel a bit better about the $$ spent in the next day or so as well. RIM's "approvers" must still be on vacation.12-28-11 12:10 AMLike 0 - I actually made it that way.... There is a font issue where it's either the "r" or the +, and some people keep both installed, so its easier to discern the difference that way on the title bar... Maybe I'll fix that in a future release again.
Also, the description and screenshots were just recently approved so I'd guess they're looking at the apps now! Should be soon that you'll see the update, hopefully tomorrow morning.12-28-11 12:35 AMLike 0 - I actually made it that way.... There is a font issue where it's either the "r" or the +, and some people keep both installed, so its easier to discern the difference that way on the title bar... Maybe I'll fix that in a future release again.
Also, the description and screenshots were just recently approved so I'd guess they're looking at the apps now! Should be soon that you'll see the update, hopefully tomorrow morning.12-28-11 12:41 AMLike 0 - This is an awesome endeavor and I thank you for it. I do need this approved by this weekend though or I'm going to lose a lot of money gifting apps.12-28-11 07:46 AMLike 0
- Absolutely, I have no intentions of charging people for upgrades. I would expect App World to allow a price adjustment without affecting current owners, if not, then I wouldn't raise it at all.
Hopefully you'll feel a bit better about the $$ spent in the next day or so as well. RIM's "approvers" must still be on vacation.12-28-11 09:00 AMLike 0
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