Pinch & Zoom Web With Dolphin Browser
| by Rob Jackson on November 30th, 2009 |
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Android 2.0 has multi-touch support including pinch & zoom for 3rd party applications but, for one reason or another (probably legal in nature), Google/Verizon did NOT include this capability on its core applications for the Motorola Droid. Google Maps, Webkit Browser, Picture Galleries and other features don’t allow you to use the feature… BUT… 3rd party developers can incorporate the feature for use in their own applications.
That is what makes Dolphin Browser so intriguing. It has been on Android Market for awhile now but they just recently added multi-touch support. So, download Dolphin Browser and use THAT for your mobile web browsing needs and it’ll be your Robin to the Droid’s batman:
It has a bunch of other features and they call it a “social browser” but multi-touch is what will make most people try it for the first time… at least for now.
Are you a long time Dolphin Browser user? How have you liked it? Just get for multi-touch on the Droid? Let us know too! And keep in mind… pinch/zoom will ONLY work on the Motorola Droid for now as it is currently the only Android 2.0 device available (at the time of publication).
1. Zer09 wrote on November 30, 2009
Actually it should work on the Hero and CyanogenMod as well as Droid
2. Enderx wrote on November 30, 2009
Yeah, dolphin browser has actually had multitouch support for the cyanogen ROMs for awhile now.
3. Brian H. wrote on November 30, 2009
I cannot believe they released that video with Android misspelled on the first slide! :)
4. Arachnyd wrote on November 30, 2009
I want to know if they plan on implementing pinch and zoom in Fennec (Mobile Firefox). Everything else about that browser looks awesome.
5. Matthew wrote on November 30, 2009
I tried it out and it was a little buggy on my Droid, as well as slower. It was not worth the performance decrease to just have pinch/zoom, but it did work.
6. troy wrote on November 30, 2009
Want multitouch? Bypass Doid for Hero or Eris. Much, much nicer UI and cheaper too.
7. Johnson wrote on November 30, 2009
Is the spelling in the video supposed to be ironical?
broser, Adnroid etc…
8. Nebfire wrote on November 30, 2009
Sheesh! It’ll sync with my Chrome bookmarks! Now that got my attention. I’d like to give Dolphin a try.
9. chris wrote on November 30, 2009
the pinch zoom sucks. when viewing websites on the regular browser i double tap and the text column fills the width of the screen. it takes longer to pinch zoom the text to the same effect.
10. G8D wrote on November 30, 2009
“Adnroid”
Lol.
11. Matt Wheeler wrote on November 30, 2009
The opening scene of the video spells Android as “Adnroid”!
12. DannyDarko wrote on November 30, 2009
Way to unstable for my tastes I will stick with the default browser.
13. T wrote on November 30, 2009
I’m not a fan of Dolphin at all… it’s just….. ugly. I’ll wait for an add-on for the browser to turn it on I guess.
14. Matt Wheeler wrote on November 30, 2009
I just downloaded and tried it on my Droid. I was a previous iPhone user and thought I would miss the pinch to zoom for the browser, but I really haven’t. I like some of the features that dolphin has, but overall it was not as smooth and polished as the default browser. I don’t think I will keep using it.
15. mythin wrote on November 30, 2009
Tried it, the pinch and zoom seemed laggy. I like the idea of pinch and zoom for fine tuned zoom control, but the implementation needs to be as snappy as the rest of my droid.
16. MOEMAN wrote on November 30, 2009
I switched to dolphin from the HTC browser (which already had a better pinch zoom) because of the tabs and because it doesn’t cover the notification bar. I “hide” the tabs, so they are just a thin line at the top, and then pan left/right to switch tabs. Way better than the 3 presses it took to switch windows in the HTC browser, and in the HTC browser, I could never tell if there were other tabs open or not.
17. Chuck wrote on November 30, 2009
I’m just trying it out, but I’m really liking it so far.
MUCH better UI than the Droid’s native browser. Multi-touch is great too and the reason I got it, but it’s the other stuff that’s made me the most happy with it so far.
18. GEO wrote on November 30, 2009
I love Dolphin. Found it about a week ago and find it faster than the stock browser, very stable, and the pinch/zoom works great. Even better is the gesture support, plus the ability to program in one’s own gestures. Absolutely recommend it.
19. Lars wrote on November 30, 2009
With such big misspellings in their promo video, it’s hard to take this company seriously.
20. GEO wrote on November 30, 2009
If you go to their website (http://browser.mgeek.mobi/) you will see lots of grammar errors. My guess is that the developer, and apparently it is an individual, is foreign speaking. I agree it looks unprofessional to have typos, but I say cut the person some slack. The product is actually pretty cool and it is free, so we all benefit.
21. David wrote on November 30, 2009
Works great on my Hero w/ pinch and zoom. Very smooth. Tabs are nice. Performance is still about the same as the HTC browser: a bit sluggish.
22. Rahux wrote on November 30, 2009
I’ve been using it for quite a while and like it for its gestures feature and other features. It’s in rapid development without sacrificing speed. I’ve had no more crashes with dolphin than the default browser in my HTC Magic.
23. jim wrote on November 30, 2009
The zoom is laggy + jumpy and the entire page doesn’t seem to zoom together …
It’s a start, but has a long way to go.
24. Motorola Droid Multitouch Web Browsing via Dolphin Browser | PMP Today wrote on November 30, 2009
[...] browser via phandroid] GA_googleFillSlot("PMP-300×250"); dolphin browser, droiddoes, motorola droid, [...]
25. Beau wrote on November 30, 2009
Dolphin doesn’t show up in the Market for me. Using a myTouch 3G with the latest Cyanogen. The same thing when I scan the QR-Code. Any ideas?
26. Goldman wrote on November 30, 2009
An app call xScope on the market has MUCH smoother multi-touch implementation however without any notice. See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKpC90dvO3k
27. solid wrote on December 1, 2009
is this at all related to dolphin file browser in kde?
28. Dbest1 wrote on December 2, 2009
On my G1 there’s no pinch zoom. But it works pretty good. I prefer it to the standard browser. I expect it to become even better looking and much of the features are indeed useful especially preinstalled bookmarks. Its good really good.
29. Nicholas Barry wrote on December 6, 2009
It’s becoming common practice to display an application’s QR Code (2-D barcode), or link to it, whenever talking about the app. This page is less useful if apps don’t have QR Codes dilplayed.
In the age of in-phone barcode scanners, leaving out the QR code is tantamount to talking about a website without remembering to link to it.
Please join others in displaying an app’s QR Code when talking about it!