Firefox for Android still a million miles behind the competition

Firefox is one of the best web browsers for desktops and notebooks, but the mobile version of Firefox is a work in progress. And it still needs a lot of progress, because in its present form it's no match for Dolphin or Skyfire. The latest update didn't change that.

First impressions last forever. Upon installing the latest version of Firefox I loaded a website (guess which one?) and was greeted by a popup that said "Sorry! Something went wrong while displaying a web page."

Second attempt worked, somewhat. The site loaded, but Firefox has a problem with text. On most sites the fonts are way too small, and pinching the screen to zoom doesn't help either.

Landscape view didn't look any better. For some reason Firefox decided to leave the right and bottom parts of my screen unused, and font rendering was terrible again.

So I opened some new tabs to see if other sites would look better. Firefox handles tabs better than the stock browser, but not as well as Dolphin. Firefox hides tabs in a side panel without an option to move 'em to the top of the main screen. Accessing your tabs in Firefox works better than in Skyfire, Opera, and the stock browser, but it's not as simple and intuitive as Dolphin. As for the sites I opened, text rendering was a mess for all pages I tried.

So what good things does Firefox for Android bring? It has a lot of add-ons, including AdBlock. The option to send a page to a PDF file is a nice touch too. You'd almost forgive Firefox its lack of Flash support.

But there are other ways to block ads in Android browsers. AdAway keeps ads out of all your browsers and other apps. It even blocks the ads from this site ;) You don't need Firefox to send web pages to PDF either, because Dolphin can do it too with the right add-on. And there's always UrlToPDF which works regardless of which browser you use.

So for now there's really no reason to use Firefox on a phone. You're better off with Dolphin or Skyfire. And if bandwidth is tight then the server side compression of Opera Mini is your friend.

• Firefox (Android Market)
• Dolphin
• Opera Mini (Android Market)

Dolphin Browser HD improves gestures and syncs bookmarks, but keeps the old tab popup

Dolphin Browser HD is not the fastest web browser for Android, but it's the most versatile browser on any mobile operating system. Its tab layout is better than the tabs in Opera or the native Android browser. The sidebars with bookmarks and plugins are a nice touch, and if it's all too much for you there is a mini version with most of the fat trimmed off.

What's new?

New in the latest version: bookmark syncing. It requires an add-on, so it only works in Dolphin HD, not in Dolphin Mini. And you'll need to set up an account at Dolphin. Wouldn't it be easier if you could just sync bookmarks through Gmail?

Also new: the gestures got more accurate. My gesture to get to the top of the page looks like ^, my gesture to go back to the previous page looks like <. The old Dolphin often mixed them up, just like it did for my "next" gesture (>) and my "bottom of page" swipe (v). But not anymore. The latest update really made things more precise, so now I'm no longer sent to the top when I want to go back to the last page. If you use gestures that look like "O" and "Q" you should notice the difference too.

Old & annoying

There are two old annoyances that Dolphin did not fix.

The first is the "new tab" dialog.

When you long-tap a link you can select "open in new tab." This launches a popup that lets you choose between opening the link in a foreground or background tab. I'd rather have this choice straight in the main menu instead of in a popup. But what really annoys me is that the popup comes with a "remember my decision" checkbox that's checked by default.

Having the box checked by default really makes no sense. Remembering the decision is a one time event, so it's no big deal checking the box once. Not remembering your choice is something that you'll need to tell Dolphin over and over again. For obvious reasons the box should be unchecked by default.

Worse yet, if you accidentally open a new tab without removing the checkmark you're screwed. You can't undo it in the settings menu. The only way to get the old behaviour back is by going into the settings and restoring all Dolphin settings, which includes gestures, bookmarks, etc. All because you want your choice between foreground and background tabs back.

Update: the new tab popup issue has been fixed.

The desktop version of Firefox has a menu editor add-on. The makers of Dolphin should have a good look at this.

The second annoyance is the exit dialog. You can switch it off, but that only works if you exit Dolphin from the button in the menu. If you try to get back to your home screen with a tap on your phone's back button the exit dialog still pops up.

Update: the latest version of Dolphin HD lets you kill the exit dialog.

The verdict

The flaws of Dolphin are only minor. So minor that I keep Dolphin as my default browser because the shortcomings of the stock browser, Opera, Skyfire, Maxthon, xScope, Firefox, Miren etc. are much worse. Still, it would be nice if the makers of Dolphin can sort things out in the next update.

• Dolphin Browser (Android Market)
• Dolphin Mini (Android Market)
• Dolphin Bookmark Sync

Wi-Fi Ruler keeps your phone away from bad networks

There are plenty of Android WiFi managers that tell your phone which networks to use, but what about an app that tells your phone which networks to ignore?

Rogue access points, public networks that look open but send you to a payment page, or the routers of your neighbours that spill their waves into your house, there are plenty of WiFi networks out there that you want your phone to stay away from.

Enter Wi-Fi Ruler. Its interface is barren, its icon is ugly, but it does a good job at keeping your phone out of unwanted networks. You can feed it a list of networks that it should never touch. Of course you can also tell it which networks it should connect to whenever possible, and its network priority slider lets you fine tune things even more.

The latest update does a better job at finding out if you switch WiFi on or off outside Wi-Fi Ruler, like when you toggle WiFi from a widget or with a scheduling app.

Wi-Fi Ruler still has some issues to deal with. Sometimes when you try to set rules for a network it remembered it refuses to do so. It won't let you export your rules to share with other devices either, although you can work around this by sending Titanium backups to your other Android gadgets.

Tip for users of DroidWall, LBE Privacy Guard, etc.: Wi-Fi Ruler does not need permission to go online. If you firewall the app it will keep working.

• Wi-Fi Ruler (Android Market)

Chat app imo cleaned up its act

Update: imo is dead!

The market

There are plenty of instant messaging apps for Android, and there's something wrong with all of them. They either suck your battery dry, don't chat with Skype, or they won't let you use multiple accounts on the same network. And even if they get these things right, they show obtrusive ads that even AdFree can't block. Or they ask for money. I know programmers need to eat too, but instant messengers are like web browsers: nobody pays for them.

What makes imo good

Instant messenger imo is one of the few chat apps that works with Skype. Of course it also talks to the usual suspects: Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Facebook, AIM, etc. Better yet, you can use as many accounts as you like. Want to sign in with your Google Talk account for work and use your separate Google Talk account for your friends at the same time? Most IM clients will refuse, but imo knows your need for split personalities and lets you log into all of them.

An old imo problem used to be that it would launch itself out of nowhere and sign you back in after you logged out, but so far the latest update keeps quiet when I tell it to shut up. And now it does group chats too! Did I mention its interface got polished up a bit?

To do list

Not that imo is perfect. Its smilies are an ugly shade of green. They're case sensitive too: :-P works, but :-p does not. Neither do :P and :p. Not everybody uses imo, so it should learn to handle the slightly different smiley formats used by different apps and networks. Those with amoled screens might want a black background instead of a white one. The biggest annoyance: whenever you scroll through a chat, imo pops up the question whether you want to enable "chat history" or not. Your only options are "yes" or "not now." They really should add another choice: "no, and don't ask me again."

But in the grand scheme of things those are minor flaws. The shortcomings of the competition are much, much worse. For now, imo is the best Android chat app out there. Yes, even better than Nimbuzz. Although push notifications would be a nice addition to a future version. Maybe one day it will add WhatsApp to its list of supported networks too?

• imo (Android Market)
• imo.im

Update: imo is dead!