[APP][2.1+] Naked Browser 1.0 - A full featured yet tiny web browser

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aminaked

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2011
387
1,264
Redwood City, California
flowingwoo.com
Hey now,

I was fed up with the privacy violations, bloat, instability, and general stupid functionality of Android browsers. I decided to make my own. Introducing...

Naked Browser

TRUST: Right permissions with no spying.
SPEED: No bloat, including minimal GUI candy.
FEATURES: Crash restore, undo close tab, one finger zoom, infinite tabs, and more.
FREE: As in no cost. Not even any ads.

Here's the web site: http://nakedbrowser.com/android/

I've been working on this for the past few months. I've been quite meticulous when trying to focus on speed and avoiding bloat. As a result, it isn't the prettiest app in the world. However, please know that most of my effort went under the hood. Stability and a rich feature set mean more to me than eye candy.
 
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aminaked

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2011
387
1,264
Redwood City, California
flowingwoo.com
Thanks guys. I'm really happy to read that it's real fast and it would be the perfect browser.

I focused as close to 0% on the UI as possible. Honestly, that was a goal. My top priorities were speed, stability, and functionality/features. In fact, unless I forget something, other than the blue color I added the entire UI is based on function alone. I even resisted adding the button icons but it actually took time to read the labels to figure out what to do so I added them.

I even wanted to go with the generic default "andy the android" application icon but instead opted to draw my own globe from memory in about 3 minutes in GIMP. So, it's not an old icon! It's new!!! ;-P And obviously I'm no illustrator.

The UI shows my dedication to making it function properly rather than look beautiful. It's like Apache or something. The interface isn't beautiful--just a config file in Apache's case--but it works like a champ. Sometimes when you focus first on the way it looks (Microsoft?), you end up with a pile of doo doo. I prefer it to look crappy but run great. Later it can look and run great.

Anyway, thanks for checking it out. I'm still improving it so keep it installed if you like. You might find yourself using it, you might end up thinking it's beautiful, but either way it will improve.
 

Teio

Senior Member
Sep 27, 2009
406
101
36
London
Thanks guys. I'm really happy to read that it's real fast and it would be the perfect browser.

I focused as close to 0% on the UI as possible. Honestly, that was a goal. My top priorities were speed, stability, and functionality/features. In fact, unless I forget something, other than the blue color I added the entire UI is based on function alone. I even resisted adding the button icons but it actually took time to read the labels to figure out what to do so I added them.

I even wanted to go with the generic default "andy the android" application icon but instead opted to draw my own globe from memory in about 3 minutes in GIMP. So, it's not an old icon! It's new!!! ;-P And obviously I'm no illustrator.

The UI shows my dedication to making it function properly rather than look beautiful. It's like Apache or something. The interface isn't beautiful--just a config file in Apache's case--but it works like a champ. Sometimes when you focus first on the way it looks (Microsoft?), you end up with a pile of doo doo. I prefer it to look crappy but run great. Later it can look and run great.

Anyway, thanks for checking it out. I'm still improving it so keep it installed if you like. You might find yourself using it, you might end up thinking it's beautiful, but either way it will improve.

And hell yeah, you did manage to get a fast browser... guess I will be using it when the interface gets a little better...

I know the speed and functionality comes first, but I hate to admit that I'm attracted to good looks rather than functionality... I know, I'm ashamed... but I can't help it

Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
 
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Mchasard

Senior Member
Dec 12, 2010
1,851
169
I just discover your interesting browser. Regarding to the size but bar tools should be display at buttom like zoom icons and only icons (no txt) cause it take too much space.
Hope to see next version if possible maybe with modern icon
Keep the good job
thanks
 
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proudfoot

Senior Member
Oct 10, 2012
101
16
Thanks for the app, it loads fast and i actually like the UI, it's kinda cute :angel: . Any plan for urlfilter like in opera mobile, so I can block ad locally?
 

h3110

Senior Member
Sep 21, 2012
85
16
Taiwan
Really fast browser! The UI is sooooo sick!!!
But I found that the bookmarks and history on the start page are not support unicode languages, such as Chinese...
And is there a history page? Seems not. I can only access to history on the start page...
If there's a history menu or it can show the history inside bookmark page would be nice.
The rest is fantastic!

Thanks!!
 

Abel669

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2012
267
94
32
Chesterfield
www.facebook.com
Great browser man, but please for the lpve of my eyesight...put atleast a little bit into the UI, i dunno.. like 5% :). ill use the browser but with my eyes closed lol.

good work :)






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CRIME INC.

Senior Member
Jan 18, 2011
3,238
1,939
HENDERSONVILLE
Great job on this browser man. Its fast and smooth. And as far as the icon, I for one like it:D

When my kids ask, what does this word mean? I tell them to bring me a dictionary........Then I smack them with it, and tell them to Google that sh¡t.
 
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aminaked

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2011
387
1,264
Redwood City, California
flowingwoo.com
Thank you all for the feedback! The next version will be out in a day or two.

size but bar tools should be display at buttom like zoom icons and only icons (no txt) cause it take too much space.

Next version has smaller buttons. I want text on them otherwise people might not know their functions. Could be an option, though...pro version.

Thanks for the app, it loads fast and i actually like the UI, it's kinda cute :angel: . Any plan for urlfilter like in opera mobile, so I can block ad locally?

Yeah, right? It’s cute! Sure. Anyway, I would love adblock but it isn’t easy. I do not access transferred data so I can’t tell what’s an ad. I can imagine a few ways to access the data and filter it, so I’m keeping it in mind. Pro version.

Really fast browser! The UI is sooooo sick!!!
But I found that the bookmarks and history on the start page are not support unicode languages, such as Chinese...
And is there a history page? Seems not. I can only access to history on the start page...

Bad “soooo sick” or good “soooo sick”?

Unicode/Chinese: I had no idea. I’ll try to figure out the problem. Are the bookmarks/history not showing up or do the links just not work?

History viewer: next version has it. Update coming in 24 hours or so.

Please add option to create bookmark shortcut on home screen...

It has bookmarks on the start page if you have the option checked. Are you using Chinese or another Unicode language? If so, I’m looking into the problem. If not, let me know.

Great browser man, but please for the lpve of my eyesight...put atleast a little bit into the UI, i dunno.. like 5% :). ill use the browser but with my eyes closed lol.

I made some small tweaks so the next version might look a teensy bit better. If there’s anything really odd like labels that aren’t on buttons then let me know. Otherwise, I’m focusing on my goals for the app and “make shiny” is not at the top of the list right now.

Many people say that it looks horrible, and I agree. However, they need to know that I’m focusing all of my time on features, speed, and stability. Adding some graphics or making a more complicated UI are just going to take me away from working on stuff under the hood AND slow the browser down/eat up RAM. I have a little background with cars. First let’s get it running, then we can paint the thing. That being said, any feedback is encouraged so just keep it coming!

selecting words, copy/paste working well?

I think so. Why do you ask?

Thanks again for trying out Naked Browser!
 
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h3110

Senior Member
Sep 21, 2012
85
16
Taiwan
Bad “soooo sick” or good “soooo sick”?

Unicode/Chinese: I had no idea. I’ll try to figure out the problem. Are the bookmarks/history not showing up or do the links just not work?

History viewer: next version has it. Update coming in 24 hours or so.



It has bookmarks on the start page if you have the option checked. Are you using Chinese or another Unicode language? If so, I’m looking into the problem. If not, let me know.

New version shows correct Unicode characters! Thanks for the update!

About the home screen shortcut suggestion, actually I mean to create bookmark shortcut on launcher's home screen, not the browser's start page. For example, a Facebook shortcut on home screen...

And one more thing: A private browsing toggle would be even nice!

Thanks again for your hard work!


Sent from my HTC Desire using xda app-developers app
 

exadeci

Senior Member
Jul 21, 2010
855
316
Sydney
It's using the mobile version of internet like for phones others than smartphones please let us select if we want the touch ready websites
 

Spl4tt

Senior Member
just found it via the news.
awesome!! that's exactly what i searched for.
there is almost no UI, and you can navigate so amazingly fast!
i'll use this one for now, let's see i can use it for my daily surfing x)

only one thing: the +/- buttons on the bottom right are really annoying. the option to remove them doesn't work :3
 
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tFrost

Senior Member
Nov 3, 2010
580
348
Love it! as a programmer myself I understand your priorities, design pff. ;)
 

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  • 492
    Hey now,

    I was fed up with the privacy violations, bloat, instability, and general stupid functionality of Android browsers. I decided to make my own. Introducing...

    Naked Browser

    TRUST: Right permissions with no spying.
    SPEED: No bloat, including minimal GUI candy.
    FEATURES: Crash restore, undo close tab, one finger zoom, infinite tabs, and more.
    FREE: As in no cost. Not even any ads.

    Here's the web site: http://nakedbrowser.com/android/

    I've been working on this for the past few months. I've been quite meticulous when trying to focus on speed and avoiding bloat. As a result, it isn't the prettiest app in the world. However, please know that most of my effort went under the hood. Stability and a rich feature set mean more to me than eye candy.
    39
    Thanks guys. I'm really happy to read that it's real fast and it would be the perfect browser.

    I focused as close to 0% on the UI as possible. Honestly, that was a goal. My top priorities were speed, stability, and functionality/features. In fact, unless I forget something, other than the blue color I added the entire UI is based on function alone. I even resisted adding the button icons but it actually took time to read the labels to figure out what to do so I added them.

    I even wanted to go with the generic default "andy the android" application icon but instead opted to draw my own globe from memory in about 3 minutes in GIMP. So, it's not an old icon! It's new!!! ;-P And obviously I'm no illustrator.

    The UI shows my dedication to making it function properly rather than look beautiful. It's like Apache or something. The interface isn't beautiful--just a config file in Apache's case--but it works like a champ. Sometimes when you focus first on the way it looks (Microsoft?), you end up with a pile of doo doo. I prefer it to look crappy but run great. Later it can look and run great.

    Anyway, thanks for checking it out. I'm still improving it so keep it installed if you like. You might find yourself using it, you might end up thinking it's beautiful, but either way it will improve.
    15
    NEW VERSION in the Google Play Store: 1.0 build 58

    CHANGE LOG
    • bug fix: clear cookies on exit option now works
    • bug fix: disabling history no longer requires app relaunch
    • bug fix: SSL error prompt appeared too often in certain cases (if "Security warnings" option enabled)
    • bug fix: page titles updated properly on tab buttons (would fail in certain cases)
    • maximum number of closed tab undos increased to 12, removed number of tab undos option, decreased memory usage *
    • undo closed tab function restores more fully, including navigation history
    • fixed several odd/rare crashes **
    • small app launch, page load, tab close, and other speed optimizations ***
    • small usability optimizations ****
    * Decreased resource usage with increased functionality! (In most cases just a few KB reduction in memory usage.)
    ** At least five potential causes of crashes fixed. You may never have experienced these particular crashes but you certainly won't now.
    *** Some of these speed increases may actually be noticeable, especially on older devices.
    **** Small improvements include: less sensitive top menu gesture, slightly faster typing into web forms, better typing handling on smaller screens, better full screen video handling on newer devices

    This is a pretty major update! I changed quite a lot of code so it took a lot of testing. You may not notice much of a difference but Naked Browser is now faster, more stable, more fully-featured, and uses fewer resources!

    Thank you for the detailed feedback and support, XDA Developers! :highfive:

    On Messages, when you post a reply, and hit the 'Reply' button, it doesnt refresh the page so you can see the message you wrote.

    Doesnt happen always...

    Froyo and Jelly Bean devices worked without any issue for me. Does this happen on your device when using other WebView-based browsers like stock/Zirco/etc.? Specific steps to reproduce the problem also may help.

    android 4.1.2 , CM 10 nightly(released on 3/3/13)

    actually i have installed nakedbrowser.apk from your site, can you please confirm if its the latest one.

    The most recent release is always on web site. Which version do you have installed?

    Too much ugly.. adjust the ui and its good

    Read the first post in this thread and/or the first few lines of Naked Browser's Play Store description to learn why the UI is a low priority at this time. Search this thread for "UI" to find much discussion about it. If you have specific details on how to improve anything, please provide them. Screenshot mockups are best for UI suggestions.

    [0] Its probably too complex to implement onto existing code, but it would be interesting to have themes.

    1. People could trade some performance for nice look while still keeping features (and lets face it: performance hit would be negleable on newer devices). For others who want pure speed, they just don't apply themes and keep naked style.

    2. App would gain a lot of users (there are many people that seem to love its features, but don't use it due to its UI)

    3. Developer of app could dedicate its time to features and bugfixes like now, since 3rd party developers would take care of UI part.

    0. Would you explain why themes are too complex to add to existing code? This is the first that I've heard of this problem with Android.

    1. See my reply to proyatzu above. I am a solo developer so I have to prioritize carefully. I don't have time to continually worry about graphics or "hooks" for themers when I change code. I'm working on fundamentals.

    2. If you have marketing data, please provide it. Some things I'd like to know: How many more people would use Naked Browser if the UI changed? How does the UI need to look to entice these people? How much would these people be willing to pay for the app? Any specific numbers that you have would be appreciated. Where did you get your data?

    3. There's a catch-22. To allow 3rd party developers to do all the UI work, I need to work on the UI.

    Haha, I actually love the design after seeing it all day for some time! :)

    Thank you, .:Crack:.. Naked Browser is not meant for people who want to scrutinize menus. The web pages themselves are meant to be the primary focus.

    As time passes, more people will probably be satisfied. Everyone wants things now, but this isn't magic. Software development takes time and if it proceeds in the wrong order, you get headaches. :eek:
    11
    Naked Browser is different from many apps. It does not and will never spy or monitor. Look at other apps' permissions and so-called "privacy" policies to get a hint as to what's going on. Devs are creating free products but selling their souls to make money. Naked Browser is my personal not-for-profit project made ONLY to surf the web. I don't need to compete. Use it or not. You can help me make it better just by suggesting something, though.

    Naked Browser does not and will never report to Google or anyone else. If you turn on Google search suggestions, queries will be sent to Google. How else could it possibly work? The option is off by default anyway. Again, a quick look at the permissions of other apps will tell you that they're doing more than sending search queries to Google. The problem is rampant so be aware.

    I've combed through multiple versions of stock browser code and Naked Browser is faster than it. Stock is very well coded, but they were heavy-handed on some things and dropped the ball on others (no tab bar, no persistent user agent setting, etc.). As for Chrome, most people can't run it on their devices, and they've dropped the ball there too (no Flash, no persistent user agent, no tab bar hiding, etc.).

    Naked Browser's UI is intentionally minimal. Non-essential elements waste resources, going against a fundamental goal of the project. I've spent my time keeping it sleek and stable and adding new features. I've spent close to 0% of my time on the UI as a goal. How serious am I about this? I won't even include a donate menu item because I consider it bloat.

    I'm unemployed. I work day and night 7 days a week on Naked Browser. This is no weekend only project and I'm no newb. I've been coding Java since the late 1990s although I usually prefer Perl. It's easy to say Naked Browser is just a skin on top of WebView but that is inaccurate. There is a lot more involved--much more than I ever imagined when I started this project. Regardless, I just want to code and interact with good people. Criticism is fine but why take a dump on someone who works hard with nothing but the purest of intentions? Onward and upward!

    is it possible, that the webpage could render _under_ the URL-bar at first call? Or maybe an autohide for the URL-bar, because everytime you have to click on a webpage first to hide the URL so that you can read the content.

    My plan was to implement it that way but the feature is no longer available on newer versions of Android. It can be worked around but it introduces too much overhead for my liking and as far as I've seen, tends to be quite buggy. Still, I may take a crack at it in the pro version. Auto-hiding is on the to do list for the pro version.

    Also, it does take some time but after a week or so I got used to the menu behavior. The more you use it, the more it becomes expected behavior and hopefully not annoying.
    10
    I understand, and you are wise to be cautious.

    There is no way for me to prove that Naked Browser (and Pro version) are completely trustworthy. Of some reassurance should be the apps' privacy policy, which I am required to post because of a law in my state (California, USA). If I break that privacy policy, I would open myself to legal trouble. This is something that many developers from China or Russia probably would not even think about. This is not a matter of race but a matter of laws and lack of enforcement of those laws.

    In the end you have to test apps yourself. People have done this by monitoring network traffic to/from Naked Browser. Not one bit ever has been transferred by Naked Browser (and NB Pro) other than as a result of web browsing, with the exception of the "Google search suggestions" feature which is off by default and which has a privacy disclaimer in the option's description. This feature opens a connection to google.com to retrieve suggestions. The Pro version does not even use Google's licensing technology to prevent piracy of the app. It would just go against the philosophy of the app.

    I have been contacted by 2 or 3 well-known search engine providers regarding making their search engine the default for Naked Browser. I think I mentioned before what an aggressive jerk the DuckDuckGo representative was in trying to make a deal. A director at another bigger company contacted me the other day with a very kind and personalized email, which I deleted without responding. This should give you some idea of my mindset when it comes to "selling out". The whole point of Naked Browser is that it does not sell out. My anger at Dolphin Browser's spying is what prompted me to make the app in the first place.

    Excelsior! :good: