The Feature-rich Vivaldi Browser Arrives on Android (thenextweb.com) 33
Almost three years after launching its desktop version, cross-platform browser Vivaldi has finally released its mobile app today. From a report: The brainchild of Opera's co-founder Jon von Tetzchner published an Android beta version today that brings swipe gesture for navigation, built-in note-taking functionality, and privacy controls including a no-tracking option. While the browser is in beta, I've been using it for a few days, and I haven't faced any major hiccups. Here are some of the features I enjoyed in the new mobile version: Easy bookmark management, easy navigation, plenty of option for tab management, and dark mode, screen capture, notes, and no-tracking features.
moar! (Score:4, Funny)
I must immediately install this and port my bookmarks and settings, then browse to Slashdot and leave this comment, and the (probably) never use it again. What an age we live in!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
and in the process use more processing power than the entire planet possessed for the entire decade of the 1960s.
Re: moar! (Score:1)
I thought Google was good at search (Score:2)
I searched the Play Store for "vivaldi browser" and it wasn't in the search results. I had to go to download on the site and click the play store link to find it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Google is not good at search. They just suck slightly less than everyone else (and track your entire life).
Re: (Score:2)
It's not that they're not good at it, they just want you to keep using Chrome mobile (to better track your entire life).
Will it suck like Opera Mobile? (Score:3, Informative)
I use to like Opera Mobile, then there was an upgrade, and it added News Feeds. These were not good news feeds, but obviously tabloid news feeds, of fake and exaggerated information. There was no way to turn it off. So I stopped using Opera, Which actually was good without the news feed as it would render data on my old phone much faster, and gave me a year or so of additional use out of it.
I do not want Feature Rich, I want fast and accurate rendering of data.
Re: (Score:2)
I do not want Feature Rich, I want fast and accurate rendering of data.
I haven't tried the mobile version of Vivaldi, but the main reason I use their browser on Windows is that it's highly configurable. If they've carried over that philosophy to their mobile version, I would expect you can turn off any features you don't want.
Re: (Score:2)
Checked it out, and so far it's not much more configurable than a standard Chrome install.
No extensions means no ublock means I'm not going to be using it any more. I'll check back in 6 months and see if they've added extensions support to it.
Posted from Vivaldi on my desktop, which is quite configurable and has support for extensions :)
Re: (Score:2)
By "Opera Mobile" I surmise you're using the full Opera, not Opera Mini?
I've been using the latest versions of Opera Mini on Android. Sometimes it puts new icons on the start page, but other than that it's pretty benign. Not sure how much info it passes back to China, but no way do I use Android for anything personal, critical, business, etc.
I also like Dolphin on Android.
Re: Will it suck like Opera Mobile? (Score:1)
As long as it's not ... (Score:2)
Pass (Score:2)
Vivaldi on desktop is fantastic. Vivaldi on mobile I suspect is useless as it likely can't access to chrome's desktop addons, whereas Firefox mobile has pretty much the same library of addons as the desktop version.
Does it render zoomed text correctly? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
The last browser that did decent "zoom and reflow" was Opera 5/6 thru 12.
Not now (Score:2)
No, it doesn't. The only Android browser I know of that does is Yandex browser. It is the only Android browser I know of that uses Chrome add-ons, too, even if not all of them will install. It gets really slow sometimes, though; perhaps it's time to do a fresh install...
Chinese owned company? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Opera and Vivaldi are two separate entities. Vivaldi is funded by von Tetzchner and search advertising.
Re: (Score:2)
Doesn't Opera / Vivaldi have big financial backers from China? Just saying...
Opera does, Vivaldi does not -- they're two separate entities with nothing more in common than Vivaldi's creator and the Opera Presto's philosophy
It has lots of features (Score:3)
Four seasons ...
La stravaganza
Orlando furioso
Tamerlano
Not a Luddite, I swear! (Score:5, Informative)
Still gives phone make and model in the useragent (Score:3, Interesting)
Downloaded it to give it a try, but like Chrome (and unlike Firefox) on Android, it provides my phone's make and model within the useragent. This seems like a privacy control that a browser with "advanced" privacy options ought to take into account?
Pass.
JavaScript Question (Score:2)
YAC (Score:2)
Vivaldi = "Yet Another Chrome"
If you want to use something different because your objectives are privacy, security, and open standards, then best to look at Firefox Quantum for Android.
Disclaimer: On the desktop, where Firefox easily keeps pace with Chrom* (all the browsers that are Chrome, which is pretty much everything except Safari and Firefox), and even uses fewer resources. However, on Android, Firefox uses more resources than Chrome, because Android preloads and locks all its libraries in memory al
Re: (Score:3)
Problem is, Firefox for Android is shit. The interface is shit, performance is shit, text areas are shit. Even clicking links is harder, i have to zoom in to touch links in Firefox that i can just tap in chrome browsers.
I'm in Vivaldi right now and it's a much better place to be. Touching links works. Text areas have the correct long-press behavior. And even when loading a bookmark it can remember that i want the desktop version of a site. Firefox will literally forget i was in desktop mode even if you just
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm, correction, it doesn't actually remember i want a link opened in desktop mode, but it does remember which already open tabs were in it.
No default to desktop mode option like brave, though
I found some things to bitch about (Score:2)
Bookmarked a URL, it doesn't appear in bookmarks. It shows as bookmarked and autocompletes from the address bar, though.
Interface is not very discoverable, quite inscrutable really. What's this icon mean? *touch* Hmm, I still don't know, there's nothing here and there's no descriptive text. Here either. Hmm, or here.
Most of the default bookmarks seem to go through Vivaldi instead of directly to the named sites, *deletedeletedelete*
It would be nice if adding a bookmark manually would autocomplete to URLs in