[lockedtight]

First off, what does everyone think of the new browser? IMO it looks pretty smooth. I love the way you can flow over to see the tabs and certain options. Since this browser is built completely on web technology, it is completely different code from the playbooks current browser, which brings me to my second question. Will this new browser contain adobe flash? My hope is yes, but its not a deal breaker with HTML 5 gaining such traction. What do you guys think?

[tfp]

Ask an iPad user how "little" flash means lol my girlfriend has an iPad that I bought her for Christmas last year and she hates it because there are several sites that she can't visit because of a lack of flash lol and before everyone jumps on the "porn" bandwagon, they're actually work related websites and gossip sites, so yeah, flash is still relevant and important in today's browser world.

[Alex_Hong]

If i'm not mistaken the BB jam webcast was using Flash? which makes it really useful. It's on the Dev Alpha too, so i assume it would be on the final revision too. Also if it is on the Dev Alpha 2, i think that would definitely mean it will be there.

[shingi_70]

It probably won't seeing as how mobile flash isn't a thing anymore all of the other major OSs are moving toward html5 instead.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

[A7omic]

I tried a couple sites and it does not seem to be working.

[samab]

There is flash support in the bb10 browser in the dev alpha --- but it is disabled by default (at least in the current beta OS). You have to enable it manually.

Also even though the dev alpha has higher resolution than the Playbook --- the browser user agent for the dev alpha is "mobile" so you are directed to the mobile website vs. the lower resolution Playbook has a "desktop" user agent so you are directed to desktop websites.

[big bb]

They have it disabled by default to save some battery, since flash uses more then HTML5

[samab]

They have it disabled by default to save some battery, since flash uses more then HTML5

HTML5 actually uses more CPU and more battery in laptops for things like youtube videos --- because WebM is not hardware accelerated by GPU, while the normal youtube h.264 flash videos are.

Flash websites use more battery, not because of the goodness of HTML5, but because the simplicity of HTML5 websites. Flash websites are going to have more ads (and more complex ads) which uses your data plan more and uses your power sucking LTE radio more.

[peter9477]

Note that it's mistaken to think that because the BB10 browser is "built completely on web technology" that it is significantly different from the PlayBook browser in this respect. Both of them use the same native WebKit control for all the actual HTML rendering, and that control is written in C++ on both platforms. The one is just an improved version of the other.

The part that's now built on web technology is all the "chrome" and features that aren't part of the web control that displays the actual HTML page.

In the Playbook, when you pop open the settings or bookmarks, you're looking at UI generated by AIR (Flash).

On BB10 those pages are now done using the same webkit control which is used for the pages themselves, with the logic written in JavaScript.

[altrax]

I'm loving the new browser... It is so fast and smooth! I actually use my Dev Alpha instead of my PlayBook for web browsing around my apartment when I don't feel like getting my laptop out..

[greatwiseone]

Been using the bb10 dev alpha browser and it's very good, especially when it is a beta. Web pages loading up pretty quick and very little checkerboarding. Wonder if rim incorporated v8...

[altrax]

Been using the bb10 dev alpha browser and it's very good, especially when it is a beta. Web pages loading up pretty quick and very little checkerboarding. Wonder if rim incorporated v8...

Have you actually seen checkerboarding? Because I have not... rarely if i try to scroll down a page to far before it is fully loaded i just see empty white space, but no checkerboard.

I was thinking RIM changed the "still loading checkerboard" to "still loading blank white" possibly so they could say "OUR BROWSER NEVER CHECKERBOARDS!!!" and never be proven wrong lol...

[samab]

Been using the bb10 dev alpha browser and it's very good, especially when it is a beta. Web pages loading up pretty quick and very little checkerboarding. Wonder if rim incorporated v8...

RIM uses webkit's javascriptcore, not google's v8.

The vast speed improvements are done by RIM successfully merging their private branch of webkit project into the main development tree --- so RIM is using the very latest webkit source code.

[Jtaylor1986]

Has anyone done browsermark with the dev alpha b?

[samab]

Not on the dev alpha b, but I have seen 2 people posting 1650-1700 sunspider scores for the dev alpha a.

If we interpolate that score from a 1 GHz dev alpha a (dual core Cortex A9) to a 1.5 GHz dual core Cortex A9, we are talking about sunspider score of 1100. When engadget reviewed the LTE Playbook with the faster 1.5 GHz CPU and older Playbook OS 2.0.1 (not the current 2.1) , they got a sunspider score of about 1300. So BB10 has a browser than is 15-20% faster than Playbook OS.

However if RIM uses dual Krait core MSM8960 --- which on the same frequency is 20-30% faster than dual core Cortex A9 --- then we are talking about a sunspider score that goes into 800-900.

iPhone 5 has a sunspider score of about 920 with iOS 6.0 --- but remember that by the time BB10 arrives in Q1 next calender year, Apple will have released iOS 6.1 which will achieve faster sunspider score.