SimpleBrowser's official CB thread
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) -