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Kellen

It’s not often that you get to merge personal passions into a professional life, but that’s what Kellen did when he launched Droid Life in 2009. After working years of unsatisfying jobs in the medical and property management fields, he took a risk to try and create an online community while playing with the coolest gadgets on the planet each day, a risk that has turned out to be incredibly rewarding. Outside of Droid Life, Kellen is your typical Portlander who drinks way too much good beer, complains often about the Trail Blazers, and can be found out on the streets for a run, rain or shine.

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  • I got a free Mercedes Benz and it’s great, fast and safe, but it cannot drive on bridges or tunnels that were built before 2012, which is too big a problem for me so I uninstalled the Mercedes and now drive the Ford as I kind of need the bridges. but what a drive!!! (bridges=flash)

  • They just need to get the Sync service to not be so big, i’m sure that will be fixed when out of Beta.  a 72mb service is pretty darn huge to be running all the time….   I’ll turn off the sync features for now…

  • I can survive without flash.  But after getting used to the quick controls in ICS Browser +, I can’t survive without them.

  • I can’t live without the quick controls and my Chrome bookmarks have synced in real time with ICS Browser + and the stock browser from Day 1.  I find it too “difficult” to reach the bookmarks and manage them in Chrome Beta, and the fact that there is no back or forward button or gesture outside of the action bar is KILLING me.  Those are the reasons I switched from Dolphin Browser Mini in the first place.

  • The tab view alone makes this my default browser.  If you absolutely need Flash, then the stock browser is still available; nobody is taking it away from you.  I love this!

  • Fellow readers, keep in mind that this is very much still beta, and just came out today. If it’s as smooth as this in beta, well… I can’t wait for the updates 🙂

  • Everyone keeps saying this browser is smoother/faster than the stock one but it does not seem like it on my Galaxy Nexus. It’s definitely not as smooth scrolling or zooming or even loading. Also, it does not have fullscreen mode like the stock browser has. So for the time being I’m going to stick with the stock browser but I’ll mess with it some more later.

  • Quick controls are not necessary as
    1. the address/search bar is permanent
    2. the menu button is permanent
    3. the tabs button is permanent

    On top of that quick controls would interfere with off screen tab swiping. Can’t have both.

  • Spell check for text input is awesome. The more I use, the more I like. Typically Beta browsers are horrid, but this one seems to be around 85 to 90%. Maybe even better. It doesn’t hang up as much as the stock browser can and maybe thats because it’s lack of Flash.

  • Kellex, you are aware that nuisance ≠ nuance, right?

    “…there are some bugs and nuances that Google needs to work out…”
    nu·ance
    1. a subtle difference or distinction in expression, meaning, response, etc. 2. a very slight difference or variation in color or tone.

    • Nuance could be what he is going at here, especially in the fact that he thinks it does not match the feel and look of ICS. Which is a good example of a nuance, however its his words so maybe he ment nuisance

  • Is this the mystery app that was blurred out of an article a week ago. I think it fits alphabetically. Anyone remember the article

  • Only a matter of time until we can use Chrome’s advanced settings…

    Type in chrome://chrome-urls and see the full list of ones available for this version

  • umm question guys… so i finally got it to sync the bookmarks and everything but i have 35 tabs open… 🙂 yea.. but it only opened 4…? it can have unlimited too but it only opened 4 out of 35…ideas?

  • not using chrome because it has no flash. primary reason lots of people didnt buy iphone.. i thought android always keeps progressing, lets not go backward.

    • Progress is getting people away from flash and to use HTML5.

      No I am not an iPhone fan boy. All android all the time. I am however a web designer and may come from a different perspective. Flash is inaccessible and a pain in the arse.

      •  Agreed as a web devolper as well, but flash is here and going to be here for at least 2-5 years so it should be supported at least legacy support. It is a big part of the internet still

        • This may be true in some cases but I can not remember the last time I saw flash on a website except for right column ads.

          Sites I visit have HTML alternatives and the faster people realize they don’t need it and can reach thousands of more people without it the beter off we will all be.

          • and the faster then that devs stuck in the past will switch and learn HTML5, when I offered to do the website for a local church recently I basically told them that I did not want any flash on the website and that it should be based all on HTML5. Thankfully because of the anti-flash movement and strong HTML5 support on anything modern etc. I was easily able to convince them. This is what web devs have  to do.

          • and more faster with less CPU yay, I never did like flash I wish adobe never inherited it and it just died off. Would have made HTML5 come faster and with more support.

            Or I guess something worse could have happened

    • It doesn’t support Flash because Adobe announced months ago that they would not be supporting Flash for any new mobile browsers. HTML5 is going to be the way forward, and I encounter a lot less Flash on the internet (besides ads, which I’d rather skip anyway) than I did two years ago when I first got an Android phone. It’s just becoming irrelevant.

    • I thought I felt that way and was excited to get a phone that could actually run flash (the OG Droid couldn’t really handle it), but since getting my Nexus I haven’t even installed flash and never once felt the need to. I guess the late Steve Jobs was right about one thing and that’s that all flash is really good for anymore is displaying ads.

      • It was not I think when he said it (But mobile power was not there to support it) but he knew we would be beyond it soon

    • Chrome is just an available browser, not the stock android browser, so your point is not so valid.

  • Mine synced the first time I tried…I guess it’s hit or miss. So far, I really like the browser, but yes, the lack of quick controls is a bit of a bummer.

  • I like flash way too much. Love that I can play videos in the browser without leaving to another app. However, the font on Chrome beta is freaking amazing. I like it. I’m sure I’ll use both for a while.

  • Being a browser geek, I ran Chrome through several performance benchmarks… Man is it fast!
    However… lack of Flash is disappointing, as is lack of quick controls. Did anyone else notice that this is 50 Mb when installed and doesn’t have as much functionality as the stock ICS browser or most of the 3rd-party browsers manage with 3 – 8 Mb? Also, is it just me, or is a home button, exit button (with auto cache/hist/data/cookie clear option), user agent control, and desktop version preference too much to ask for?

  • No Quick Controls like my stock Asus Prime browser means… no thanks. I NEED that feature.

  • Has anyone mastered the flipping of the Tab Previews? There’s a way to make em flip in a circle.

  • One thing it doesn’t do is reformat text when you use pinch to zoom then tap on the screen. The pics browser does that.

    • Every single designer out there has been begging for the ridiculous text reformat (reflow) “feature” to go away. It breaks web designs. If you want to zoom, just zoom, dont break the entire website. Google did what Apple has done since 2007: ensure websites are disayed as closely to what the author intended as possible.

  • It’s very nice… for sure. It’s fast… it works well. My only complaint is the scrolling can get choppy. I can deal without the advanced controls and overall polish the stock browser has, I’m sure those will come soon enough.

  • Really really needs the option to add the “home” button to the browser there is no easy way to do this on any browser and would be a welcome add on.

    •  My Bionic has an always-handy home button ; )

      (I REALLY hope that “ICS Phones” keep the dedicated function buttons – GNex is bleh)

      • ICS always has dedicated Back, Home, and the Apps key on screen unless you are viewing video content. The ‘overflow’ (old menu) key appears when necessary. 

        With video they fade out and the 4.65in screen is used fully. Any interaction with the screen immediately brings back the buttons. The buttons come back even if the app froze. If the whole phone freezes up then buttons don’t matter if there are buttons because they won’t work anyways.

  • Anybody figure out a way to browse your history? I’ve been looking for the last half hour and can’t find it anywhere.

  • I disagree that it doesn’t reflect ICS whatsoever. Its use of the action bar is consistent with the ICS guidelines, as are the settings views. In addition to that it uses the left to right swipe gesture to switch between tabs, which is also a common trait in ICS apps. So I’m not with you there. Other than that, I agree, its my new browser on my galaxy nexus and xoom tablet…the near real time syc is definitely the killer feature.

    • I agree.  

      Kellex is off here.  This is the ICS light holo theme isn’t it?   With action bars and appropriately designed icons.    No menu button.    It’s straight out of the ICS design guide.  But I’d like to hear how one might say that’s not true.  

      For a first day release beta, this browser is amazing.   Loved that it came out of nowhere.  

  • We should petition Adobe to open source flash for mobile if they aren’t going to support further.

  • I read a lot of websites, but I mainly access those pages through a twitter feed (NFL news, android and tech news, etc), so I am normally not “browsing” the web on my phone. So for me, the flash/bookmark syncing doesn’t matter to me. Either I don’t use my phone nearly as much as the next guy (my battery suffers as if I do though), kellex is a bit neurotic lol. I do miss quick controls and full page browsing though.

  • Doesn’t come up on device market search. Upon visiting market.android.com I learned it’s not compatible w/ my device (Droid3) What a crock. Is this a tablet-only alpha release, or is fragmentation really getting that bad?  

  • Love it. Couple features I wish it had – 
    Bookmarks widget (love the stock widget) 
    Quick Controls 
    Gotta have Flash… 

    Although I probably still will be using this as a daily driver. 

  • The one thing that has bothered me the most is whaen i type, the virate for the keys is extremely laggy. Easy fix to turn off vibrate but its something i have had on all my Android devices. Hard to break away. Just food for thought.

  • Kellex update this with 3 things

    #1) you can swipe between tabs by motioning your finger in a horizontal motion off the screen towards on it on both sides (most everyone doesn’t know this) and that makes the lack of quick controls slightly less killer and the animations are awesome

    #2 text preview… easily the most innovative feature of the year and after seeing it in action once you’ll never live without it… on a page with a lot of links very close together when you tap one it brings up a magnifying glass that zooms the area so you can tap again but with 100% accuracy

    #3 finally spell check in text input boxes such as this one!

    Update this article these are easily the best features of chrome!

    • The first time it did the small link/text preview, I nearly pissed myself with delight. On one website I visit, I always, always clicked the wrong sidebar link unless I did pinch to zoom, which isn’t nearly as handy and convenient as the double-tap zoom. I dislike the lack of flash, but yeah, it’s already impossible to live without this preview feature.

    • Agree on the tab switching! But I can’t seem to get the text preview magnifying glass to come up anywhere.

    • Wasn’t going to mention every feature, but now that brought it up, I can certainly do that. 🙂

    • my roomate’s mom ṁakes $67/hr on the interneŧ. She has been out of worḱ for 6 months but last month her income was $7949 just working on the internet for a few hourś. Go to this web site and read more… LazyCash5.Çom

      • Wow… that’s pretty amazing stuff.  Why just your roommates mom though??  Why don’t you and your roommate get in on the action and make some cash.  Do that for a while and then come back and let us all know how well it worked out.

  • “Send pages from desktop Chrome to your smartphone or tablet with one click and read them on the go, even if you’re offline”

    Anybody figure out how to do this yet?  They are NOT talking about syncing, thats the previous bullet point in the desciption.

    • I believe they are talking about syncing actually.  For a single link that needs to be sent from the computer to your phone, there is chrome to phone.

  • The thing I miss most is a dedicated Exit option. No way to truely close the app; just each tab. A step back from the ICS browser and very disappointing!

  • What bugs me most is the lack of Quick Control. Others are no full screen mode and no Flash. I’ll play around with it some more but Browser+ will be my main choice for now.

    •  Very good point.  There are many of us that use real adult grown up websites like this that still need Flash support, and until then agreed, its Dolphin, stock browser, or bust.  Chrome sucks.

  • Dont care it doesn’t have flash, i can jump to stock browser for that in a matter of seconds.

  • The lack of Flash support is very disappointing; but until HTML5 becomes a stronger standard for embedded video, flash support is a must for me. 

    Looks like Skyfire is going to be the browser to use moving forward.

  • I really really love this browser. For those who can’t figure out how to sync it, Android central posted an article of how to do this. Just go in to your Chrome on your desktop > Wrench > Options > Personal Stuff > Sign in to Chrome > Click Advanced… > Check the box Open taps

    One this that stops me from using this though. Dolphin Broswer gestures + Chrome to Phone app. They put gestures in this baby, you got a powerhouse browser!

  • It’s too clunky to get from Web bookmarks and Mobile Bookmarks and moving them on the phone moves them from their positions on the desktop browser. Without the ability to have them exist in both places on the phone (or just have one darn bookmarks page) it’s tough to navigate, since *all the functions are in the wrong spot – the top* – out of reach of thumbs. I’ll keep it on my phone and Prime because of the neat ability to recall past pages/sessions, but I miss the quick controls too much. Stock is my daily driver.

  • I have played with it for a little while on my Transformer Prime and so far I like it.  I agree that the sync is pretty good.  All the bookmarks came over and setting them up in tabs works well.  Will be playing this it more tonight.  So far, so good.

  • is ti not working for anyone else running encounterics for droidx? i was so excited thn ive spent the day so far trying to get it to work. no luck so far.

    • I’m getting the same issue. I load up a page and only a background color will load and nothing else. Hopefully this gets fixed

        • its encounterICS based off ics on rootzwiki someone said it worked fine for them i just dont know why mine wont.

          @chris yea i thought the page never showed up but i was able to copy paste stuff off the blank page and both that and the tab screen are white.

    • You don’t need flash to stream, just look at the iPhone, they never had flash and they’ve been ok, to me all Flash does is slow down the browser, at least in a mobile device.

  • Flash is a non-issue. Those fruit phones and pads have never had it, and I think they’ve sold relatively well. 😛

    • That’s really beyond the point. 

      Flash is really the video standard.  Blip and YouTube…. and almost any porn tube site use flash video.  HTML5 doesn’t cut it… yet.

      For those who want to rely on apps for everything, then fine.  For those of us who want the other 25% of the web, we need flash.

      Also, it’s nice being able to load the desktop version of CNN.com and see everything.

      • For those “special”moments, we still have plenty of Flash capable browsers. At any rate, my point was that lack of Flash doesn’t mean Chrome for Android is DOA.

        • I’ll agree to that… but with Launcher Pro, I’m either going to have Dolphin or Chrome on my dock.  Whether I need flash or not, I’m not going to jump to the app drawer for a special browser. 

          I have Opera and Skyfire installed… but I rarely use them.  I’ve had Android for about 1.5 years and still haven’t gotten around to playing with Skyfire… (it was the only flash capable browser for WinMo 6.5, so I’ve been meaning to play with it).

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