[App][4.0] ICS Browser+ v1.2.2

ICS Browser + (for Android 4.0)
Only works on Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0)

v1.2.2 (March 21)
* optimization
* important bug fixes (amongst others fixed the freeze issue on the Transformer Prime)

v1.2.1 (March 14)

New:
* Add bookmark button to the navigator bar (optional, only phones)
* New Quick Controls: jump to top of page, jump to end of page, day/night toggle
* Nice little tweak: tap on the page icon on the navigation button will get you to the top of the page
* Option to show navigation bar when the quick controls are enabled

Bug fix:
Fixed the FC issue when disabling the second quick controls ring


Enhancement of the standard ICS browser by adding new functions. For now:
+ option to set the User Agent string
+ option to add extra quick controls and customize them with an easy to use editor. Honeycomb tablet users must know how useful the quick controls are on a tablet as compared to the ones on the phone. Well.. now you got the same controls also on the phone
+ gesture support
+ added home button to nav bar for tablets, bookmark button for phones
+ option to show nav bar when quick controls enabled
+ option to use volume buttons for scrolling
+ more

Suggestions and feedback is very much appreciated. More functions will be added along the way.


Changelog

v1.2
New:
* Auto text reflow (automatically reflow text after pinch to zoom)
* quick control editor (customize quick control rings - up to 3 rings)
* new quick controls (Share page, Close Other Tabs, Find on Page, Add Bookmark and more)
* new swipe actions
* Fine tune quick controls behavior
* and more..


Market link (free):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beansoft.browserplus

Donate version:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beansoft.browserpluspro

Status report (jelly bean update)

A lot of people have contacted me or posted comments in the play store about the update for Jelly Bean.

Here's a status report:
I'm working on it. Lol.. Kidding, the project is progressing slowly. Main reason is that I have to rebuild browser+ from scratch. This may sound as a surprise because Jelly Bean is just a minor ICS update (except for some new goodies and the butter awesomeness) and apps should run on it without a problem (or just with a minor modification in some cases). Although this is true for almost all apps, this is not the case for Browser+. Here is why. Normally an app is using the public APIs published by Android. Android commits itself to these APIs and with each update all APIs that were working on older versions should be available (in principle) for newer versions. Browser+ however, is built using the Android AOSP code. This code is heavily using APIs that are not published as available for developers. You may call them "internal" APIs, used by the Android team itself and OEM developers. Unfortunately the Android team had changed one of these APIs that was used by the ICS browser for building up the window layout (views). This is a major pain in the ass but this was one of the concequences that could happen. So to make a long story short. How simple an update may be, in this case it isn't .

I will commit to it (not in the least place because I'm missing the browser also) but it may take some time. Also because I have some other projects going on.

Last thing.. I do understand the frustration that it is not yet available for JB, what I don't understand are one star ratings in the market with weird comments like "not compatible with JB, fix it" . That's weird and won't make me work any faster. Au contraire. :cyclops: To avoid these weird comments I will publish a new version this weekend that is limited to ICS and not visible for people running Jelly Bean. So if you see an update this weekend it will only contain some bug fixes for ICS and it will have a manifest update that makes the app only available in the Play Store for ICS

(edit: this doesn't mean that people won't see the update for Jelly Bean when it comes available. The moment it is compatible with jelly bean it will be visible in the play store. To get a play store update notification I suggest just to install the ICS browser+ on jelly bean and not to use it)

Thanks for your patience

Status update

Really sorry for the delay. Just wanted to let you know that I started working on this again. Hope to have a working JB update this week.

Working right now on a jelly bean update.

As for the bugs that are reported I'll look into it. One of the reasons the project has been paused for a while is that it is already a descent working mod of the ics browser. Of course a lot could be added and maybe I'll do that.

rjax said:

I think much of the frustration comes from the fact that a lot of us who paid for the donate version thought we were donating in order to eventually get more than decent working mod of the ICS browser. From Play Store stats, that's 1000+ of us... which I guess isn't a whole lot people in the grand scheme of things, but does represent a certain demographic that really looks forward to a continually-improving product.

That said, it's still my browser of my choice, and I'm looking forward to seeing the JB improvements!

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

A major problem with these kind of ports is that it is closely tied with the internal classes of the Android framework. Android doesn't have to make a commitment considering these classes. It is not part of the SDK and could in principle be changed whenever the Android team needs to. Also OEMs are free to change these classes as long as the public APIs wouldn't be harmed. When I heard about the upcoming Jelly Bean update and the Chrome integration several months ago I paused the project because all work could be for nothing. Now I have the source I will get this going again because it still is feasible.