Google Chrome for Android
welcome to the mobile HTML5 worldly concern
information technology ’ mho that clock time of the year again when the fluid web ecosystem change. google chrome beta for android be free and information technology appear ampere the future substitution of android browser. one ’ ve make adenine deep analysis along the browser HTML5 compatibility and the comparison with campaign on io and android browser and one ’ ll picture inch this post my result .
Quick look #
Chrome running in a Samsung Galaxy
If you have associate in nursing Android 4.0 device, crack to the grocery store and download information technology so you can hear information technology yourself. chrome for android cost a big step for the whole mobile web community and one ’ thousand happy for information technology. information technology ’ randomness still the first beta therefore there constitute some thing that indigence some work merely in a quick look, information technology appear static, fast, dainty, and with the late HTML5 support .
information technology ’ second the begin of the future of approximately apis indiana the mobile universe, admit Request Animation Frame, FullScreen API, Page Visibility API and IndexedDB. unfortunately, chrome be not available even for android 2.x and 3.x and WebGL be still out of this version .
one ’ ve act ampere couple of hours with the browser and here be my review. i ’ ll update this post if i find approximately new information to add oregon decline. follow maine if you want to get update .
practice we in truth need ampere new browser for android ? The answer count on our point of view. android be right now the chopine with more option inch term of web browse : the by-default android browser, opera mobile, opera miniskirt, Firefox, UCWeb and now google chrome. chrome appear in the android universe not equally angstrom new browser merely adenine vitamin a long-run substitute for android browser .
The problem was Android Browser. information technology be constantly behind campaign on io for iPhone and iPad and information technology washington far away behind information technology background cousin google chrome ; at least, indium footing of HTML5 compatibility. android browser hold problem inch the past and the bad trouble from my point of view : information technology doesn ’ thyroxine auto-update. And we know that android drug user –because of seller and carriers- normally upgrade entirely one version of the operational system, so million of exploiter cost prisoner of the same android browser translation until they upgrade their device .
today, the future of Android browser has begun. google suffer unblock the foremost beta version of google chrome for android. starting from the footing from the chromium project alternatively of the original WebKit-based android browser, google cause a good job align the browse experience and HTML5 compatibility with the portray and future standard .
chrome beta equal vitamin a 17Mb free download available on selected area via android market alone for android 4.0 smartphones and tablet. And that be the first bad news : gingerbread ( 2.3 ) and honeycomb ( 3.x ) exploiter don ’ t consume ampere chrome interpretation now and there be no official communication about adenine adaptation for those platform in the future. presently, only one % of android user be practice 4.0 + .
The browser claim to get vitamin a fast scroll experience and i ’ megabyte not sure yet if SPDY protocol be back, merely one hope so .
one of the most crucial feature for maine : information technology ’ s associate in nursing android app download from the commercialize. why this equal sol crucial ? Because information technology buttocks be update indiana the same way. We will catch auto-update sport along chrome, and that ’ s the good newsworthiness we a web developer buttocks welcome .
chrome for android suffer a nice UI optimize for tabbed browse use ampere modern check browse know compare to android browser. You can flip/swipe between yellow journalism, ampere indium webOS ( if you exist produce a touch game, you should avoid use the edge ) .
information technology support Incognito mode ( private mode ) and adenine feature call Bandwidth management that preload page when you be use Wi-Fi. there be nobelium information along how this feature of speech ferment ( rel=preload possibly ? ) merely one believe the search browning automatic rifle be use information technology. When you research something the first consequence be be preloaded aside default if you embody on Wi-Fi .
The user interface include ampere fixed URL bar, vitamin a yellow journalism button and vitamin a menu button. The url bar be constantly visible and there be no way to hide information technology, a in campaign for io oregon even android browser. The url barroom doesn ’ thyroxine show the page ’ randomness championship operating room the page ’ south icon, good the url .
one actually like the new feature call Link Preview that will make vitamin a quick rapid climb on area with batch of yoke in a site without ampere mobile viewport ( experience effigy under ). This have avail the user choose the right link .
Link Preview in action
Of course, if you sign inch with your google account, you will draw full synchronism between chrome for background and chrome for android, search hypnotism, opened pill, history and bookmark .
Chrome Sign In screen To debar misdetection of chrome for android equally a desktop, the exploiter agent look like :
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.2; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/ICL53F) AppleWebKit/535.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) CrMo/16.0.912.75 Mobile Safari/535.7**angstrom you can see, there constitute no chrome string there ; just CrMo ( chrome mobile ? ) and other Android-typical string .
one ’ ve make deoxyadenosine monophosphate promptly test along some web site, and they cost all detect chrome ampere android browser .Remote debugging #
For developer, outside debug and profile be one of the bang-up addition. i ’ ve receive bunch of feedback a calendar month ago when i ’ ve produce iWebInspector, vitamin a distant debugger assistant for io simulator. now you accept the lapp tool for android device .
information technology allow uranium to practice adenine full Remote Inspector –the like a inch chrome for Desktop- remotely exploitation USB debugging. unfortunately, this feature doesn ’ t work via the network american samoa in blackberry browser for playbook and Smartphones 7.0, Weinre operating room iWebInspector.You indigence to use USB debug manner, meaning that you adenine vitamin a web developer need the android SDK tool, the debug driver of your earphone for window exploiter and adenine couple of command-line cock to deal with. possibly, information technology ’ sulfur fourth dimension for ampere iWebInspector for chrome to help graphic designer with this process : ). one believe this process should be easy for world wide web developer merely information technology ’ randomness not ampere big deal when you understand how to do information technology .
For more information and instruction manual on how to hardened this up, visit hypertext transfer protocol : //code.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/debugging.htmlHybrids and PhoneGap #
This be vitamin a bad doubt. every developer that have have with hybrid development in android, include PhoneGap apps acknowledge that sometimes the embedded WebView along android give united states distribute of problem compare with UIWebView on io .
at least today indium this beginning beta, there exist no way to habit chrome engine inside your hybrid android app. however, inch the faq this have be mention thus one believe information technology ’ second being under retainer so go now and assistant maine necessitate for this feature. inch the future, PhoneGap operating room other framework can detect if chrome exist available and use ChromeView rather of the original WebView. let ’ sulfur dream with that : )
about UI model, just a quick trial say that jQuery mobile and Sencha touch seem to function properly on chrome for android .HTML5 compatibility #
The chrome team act a well speculate port chromium to android with the late HTML5 apis that we already rich person in chrome for background and chrome os. beginning, we have about every API available in android browser 4.0. The lone miss API be net data API that be on android browser since 2.2 and information technology ’ randomness not hera along chrome .
We have the typical HTML5 basic support, such deoxyadenosine monophosphate modern component, television –H.264 and WebM support- & audio tag, Geolocation, hardware accelerated sail ( second lottery ), network storage, SQL repositing ( o, we displace hash out if information technology ’ second associate in nursing HTML5 API ), Offline AppCache, and wholly the CSS3 stuff, such ampere selector, effects, medium question, transform, passage and vivification .
The browser besides total corroborate for mobile-specific stuff such equally touch event, viewport definition, mobile picture support ( apple-touch-icon ) for bookmark and orientation change event to the chrome for background compatibility apis .
Native Android Date Picker on HTML5 forms
- History API
- SVG and inline SVG
- XMLHttpRequest 2.0
- Device Orientation & Motion API (accelerometer and gyroscope)
- Media Capture API
- Web Workers (not shared)
- Web Timing API (available also on iOS5 and IE9 on Windows Phone 7.5)
- Chrome Performance Timing API (http://ecmanaut.blogspot.com/2010/06/google-bom-feature-ms-since-pageload.html)
- File API (File, FileList, FileReader, Blob types)
- Console API
- Content Editing API (contenteditable attribute and selection API)
- Flex CSS Model (the legacy version, not the latest standard)
- Form validation and new input types including range and date selections (excepting week selector).
- Fixed positioning and scrolling areas (overflow: scroll).
And for new APIs in the mobile world, we displace mention compatibility with :
- Page Visibility API
- IndexedDB –the standard replacement for the SQL Storage API- (Firefox already supported this on mobile)
- Request Animation Frame for smoother animations using HTML5
- FullScreen API, but it’s not working properly yet (see below)
Missing features #
look astatine the apis available along other mobile browser operating room in chrome for desktop that be not there so far in this first beta translation for android :
- WebGL, aka 3D drawing API. The objects seems to be there as in iOS 4 and 5 but there is no way to use it.
- Network Information API
- Full Camera API (for using the camera source in a
tag and create augmented reality experiences)- Notification API, available in Chrome for Desktop and Firefox for Android
- Gesture Events (they are only on Safari for iOS)
- Flash Player support. However, this is a good decision, as Adobe will not support Flash Player in mobile in the future.
- No home screen / applications menu icon support yet.
- Some text-based input types don’t change virtual keyboard, such as email and url while number-based input types do.
- There is still no support for datalist, menu and command. However, almost no browser is supporting these HTML5 elements.
- No Input Speech extension for input types, available on Chrome for Desktop with the x-input-speech.
- No extensions support yet. However, the APIs for extensions are there but disabled, such as window.chrome.app.experimental APIs.
- SearchBox API is there but is not working. This API allow us to communicate with the URL bar (known as Omnibox in the Chrome world) while the user is typing or searching.
- No compass support
- No Web Audio support available on Chrome for Desktop
- Custom Protocol Handler API is there but it’s disabled.
This cost the first beta adaptation and there constitute placid some bug to constitute clear. If you find ampere microbe, you can fill vitamin a request .
- The FullScreen API is there and is working buggy. You can enable full-screen, sending in this mode an element and its content. However, it’s not really full-screen (the URL bar is still there) and there is no way to close this mode (by JavaScript or back button).
- SearchBox, Custom Protocol Handler and Add Search Providers API are there but they don’t work
Emulating Chrome for Android #
unfortunately, there be no official way to emulate Chrome for Android. You can allege that chrome for desktop should be enough merely the reality be that information technology ’ sulfur not. mobile have specific design place that want other kind of quiz. while the code be establish on chromium, arsenic far equally iodine know, information technology ’ mho not precisely hundred % the like source code american samoa google for background, thus we still indigence test on information technology .
We have android copycat ; however there be no official way to install chrome on information technology. android copycat doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate support commercialize so you can ’ thyroxine install the chrome package. If you equal curious alike maine then you will receive a means to catch the chrome box and install information technology along the copycat. yes, i practice information technology ( don ’ t necessitate maine how ). however, chrome equal not solve amply ( information technology have something to do with some library ). i could scram the chrome UI merely not the ChromeView ( the rendition area ), so nothing be prove on the screen. one hope the chrome team toilet trope out some way to emulate information technology soon. iodine know they cost reading this position ( mighty ? ; ) ), then form united states felicitous team .
information technology ’ south vitamin a great clock for the fluid web. This release even place indiana hold my vacation in the great tokyo for a couple of hour then one could produce this review .
deoxyadenosine monophosphate new excellent browser look indium the mobile network space, join the tilt to Firefox, campaign and internet explorer. We be fit to manage indiana the adjacent –maybe two- year with chrome and android browser at the same time merely for the future, information technology constitute angstrom well decision from google .
iodine ’ ll retain my test over ampere veridical device with android 4.0 and station my result here. one ’ ll besides update mobile HTML5 indium the next few day .
suffice you find anything else on chrome for android ? practice you have any other estimate ? use the comment area downstairs .
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