A lot of the people with Honeycomb on their Nook love the browser (and it's Lab-feature 'Quick Controls'). However, the user agent string displays it capabilities as a phone. Therefore, most websites load as a mobile website or as desktop site when a mobile version is not available.
I found a trick to spoof the useragent as a iPad, with the stock browser. I've read is elsewhere on this forum and found out that it works on a Nook Color with HC too.
Step by step instructions
Open browser
Enter url: 'about:debug' and press enter
Open menu (right top), go to settings > debugging (3rd item)
Press 'UAString' and select 'iPad'
Now for example, go to gmail.com and see the tablet (read: ipad) optimized version of GMail. There are a lot of sites optimized for iPad, so you can have a great tablet experience with this simple trick, without having to switch to alternate browsers like Dolphin HD.
Great tip, thanks! Really works well if you're browsing in landscape.
Related
hey guys. got my SGS today, loving it. and been playing with it since 5 hours non stop now lol
anyways, coming from a nokia n900, im used to the browser showing sites in full web version, not mobile version.
is it possible somehow to make it appear like that in SGS browser too?
cheers
go to the browser url bar, and type about:debug and enter.
nothing will happen, but now you can go to the browser settings from the menu, and scroll all the way down. there will be new menu options there. find the one which allows you to choose between desktop/android/iphone display for websites.
this is a little bugged, because for me after i did this from a fresh rom installation, i can access espn soccernet perfectly. but if i revisit the page it will load up the mobile version.
to view desktop pages permanently try skyfire browser from the market.
awesome maaan! thanx a bunch!!! u think this will work in froyo 2.2 also?
p.s i tried youtube.com desktop version. upload loading the video, the browser crashes. and kicks me to home screen.
so i suppose some sites are not quiet ready to be run n desktop mode on SGS.
perhaps froyo wioth 10.1 flash will solve this
SonicSpinner said:
awesome maaan! thanx a bunch!!! u think this will work in froyo 2.2 also?
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Oddly enough with the stock browser and present 2.2 you cannot access the User Agent setting with About:debug.
Yea they removed it in 2.2, but why? I think it should be an option that is easy to access for everyone. This phone handles desktop sites almost as well as a PC, the big screen actually makes a lot of mobile sites look rubbish.
Sometimes we want mobile sites to save bandwidth, other times we want the full experience.
In Dolphin Browser HD you can get an addon called "Desktop Toggles" which adds a switch on the right toolbar for easy switching between desktop/mobile modes. With some performance and other small improvements it would be a perfect replacement for the stock browser.
One other annoyance with the stock browser is that even with it set to desktop you are still often sent to the "Touch" version of the site and then have to scroll to the bottom and click on full site link. Shame there is not a command line or script to set it to desktop proper.
With the screen real estate on the Galaxy S we should be given the option to view full desktop versions of websites. Often the mobile sites just don't cut it. We want the full version of websites on our phones.
I've noticed that when I use any browser other than stock, mobile web pages will not show on my NookColor. Has anyone else noticed this and if so, is there a way to fix it?
I have double checked in the settings to make sure that the user agent was correctly selected. Check out the attached screenshots to see what I mean.
thirteen113 said:
I've noticed that when I use any browser other than stock, mobile web pages will not show on my NookColor. Has anyone else noticed this and if so, is there a way to fix it?
I have double checked in the settings to make sure that the user agent was correctly selected. Check out the attached screenshots to see what I mean.
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Have you updated to 1.0.1 from B&N?
Yes, before AutoNooter.
Have you tried the "More Options" choice after tapping the rightmost (menu) button that is next to the address bar in the stock browser? It lets you select the user agent. Is that what you're looking for?
Let me clarify, I want to Use Dolphin HD, but mobile webpages don't show when using the app. They also don't work for Firefox, Miren or XScope. The user agent for each was set to android in each app.
The stock NookColor browser shows these pages just fine, but is particularly slow.
Do mobile webpages automagically show when you browse in a Non-Nook browser? If they work fine for others, I will just reset my Nook and start the root process over. But I don't want to do all of that if it's just normal behavior.
Same issue here on Dolphin HD. No matter what I do (clear data, change user agents, restart browser) it always displays the web page in "Desktop" format.
On a side note- Yesterday I had success watching html5 videos off Dailymotion, but today none of the videos work for me. Tried using the same video players and added a new one. Same result, can't play video. Does this happen to anyone else?
Looks like Firefox with the "Phony" Add-on works right.
I've had a lot of success making Dolphin use the iPad user agent.
There's a market app called User Agent Switcher. You call it up via Share Page in your browser. It worked fine for me in Dolphin.
using Ipad agent
KitF said:
I've had a lot of success making Dolphin use the iPad user agent.
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is there something special you had to do to get this to work (other than change the default UA in Dolphin HD settings)? Is Dolphin set as your default browser? When I change to Ipad UA it still uses desktop (same with Android and Iphone).
myecomemail said:
is there something special you had to do to get this to work (other than change the default UA in Dolphin HD settings)? Is Dolphin set as your default browser? When I change to Ipad UA it still uses desktop (same with Android and Iphone).
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I think it probably IS working (you can go to a site that lists your user agent to know for sure) . . . iPads display most pages in desktop versions (and why not, with a huge screen).
I tested it, and, at least for me, they all work in Dolphin except for Android (ironically) - which, strangely, reads as a Mac. The iPhone user agent will give you mobile views.
You can test by going to http://whatsmyuseragent.com
Thanks wvcachi. Earlier today I went to the market and saw the app User Agent Switcher but now it seems to be gone. Could you please post the APK?
myecomemail said:
Thanks wvcachi. Earlier today I went to the market and saw the app User Agent Switcher but now it seems to be gone. Could you please post the APK?
Click to expand...
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pm'd
(free app, but since it's removed from market, not sure if that means it's warez) ... Wonder why it was removed?
Getting same thing. A typical android user agent should look like this (from my Evo):
Code:
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; PC36100 Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1
Instead, I get this, no matter which agent I select in Dolphin HD:
Code:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_7; en-us; AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17
Could it be something in Dolphin that is 'Froyo-only' compatible? A bug in the older webkit? Maybe I'll try the Dolphin mini and see if that works any different.
[edit]
Dolphin mini shows Mac as well.
myecomemail said:
is there something special you had to do to get this to work (other than change the default UA in Dolphin HD settings)? Is Dolphin set as your default browser? When I change to Ipad UA it still uses desktop (same with Android and Iphone).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was on 1.0.0.. Now that I've upgraded I seem to have this issue as well.
KitF said:
I was on 1.0.0.. Now that I've upgraded I seem to have this issue as well.
Click to expand...
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I'm on 1.0 as well, and I'm able to change to all except for android.
I think it might be a 1.0.1 issue. User agent was working properly for me with 1.0 and Dolphin HD, but after I upgraded it no longer works.
can someone send me the apk for the user agent switcher??
i was trying to access the ipad version of gmail, but i cannot change the user agent on most of the browsers, most of them (dolphin HD and mini, miren), as a previous post said, always show this one
Code:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_7; en-us; AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17
no matter what i chose in the UA selection options
in opera mobile i was able to change it to the ipad specific UA, and it worked, but opera cant handle this specific gmail page.
i was trying to find that program "User Agent Switcher" but i cannot find it, could someone share it? (since it is free, i guess it wont be a problem)
Aloha All!
First, thanks to all y'all for all the helpful posts on making the Nook Color the best Android tablet it can be!
I want to use my nootered NC to browse mobile.nytimes.com. After setting NC's built-in browser to mobile (vs desktop), I can browse the site with no problems.
Thing is, the built-in browser does not support tabbed browsing, which I can't go without. So I tried installed Dolphin HD, but try as I might, I can't get it to stop redirecting from mobile.nytimes.com to the full version (replace "mobile" with "www"). Even if I change the Dolphin HD's User Agent to Android/iPhone/Ipad, it still redirects. (And yes, I tried Desktop user agent too.)
I also tried Miren Browser -- no luck there either.
So, can anyone recommend a decent tabbed browser for a nootered NC that won't redirect mobile.nytimes.com?
Alternatively, any magic setting in the NC or Dolphin HD to stop the redirect?
Mahalo,
-Dave
808dp said:
Aloha All!
First, thanks to all y'all for all the helpful posts on making the Nook Color the best Android tablet it can be!
I want to use my nootered NC to browse mobile.nytimes.com. After setting NC's built-in browser to mobile (vs desktop), I can browse the site with no problems.
Thing is, the built-in browser does not support tabbed browsing, which I can't go without. So I tried installed Dolphin HD, but try as I might, I can't get it to stop redirecting from mobile.nytimes.com to the full version (replace "mobile" with "www"). Even if I change the Dolphin HD's User Agent to Android/iPhone/Ipad, it still redirects. (And yes, I tried Desktop user agent too.)
I also tried Miren Browser -- no luck there either.
So, can anyone recommend a decent tabbed browser for a nootered NC that won't redirect mobile.nytimes.com?
Alternatively, any magic setting in the NC or Dolphin HD to stop the redirect?
Mahalo,
-Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can just use Opera Mobile, type the mobile address, and it'll take you there.
Dolphin HD won't change user agents correctly on firmware 1.0.1. They all work except Android if you're on 1.0.
Hi,
Does anyone know if is it possible to load the tablet optimized version of gmail on the nook?
I can do it by changing the UserAgent of Dolphin HD by the iPad one, but I'm looking for a more native way to do that. i.e. running it on the home screen like a native app.
Thanks in advance.
Are you asking if you can run an Apple app on a Nook Color?
No! This is not possible, I know. What I'm asking is if is there any way to run the GMail Webapp google optimized for iPad in our nooks. I can get it running inside Dolphin Browser setting it's user agent to iPad.
What I like to do is run this iPad optimized version of GMail on the home screen, like the native one.
Try using Dolphin HD browser and set the ID to iPad, instead of Android or desktop as example. It works on some sites I've tried.
Well,
Actually is what I did! But I look for a more native way, like any way to force the native android gmail app to open the optimized iPad version of the web app.
Are you on CM7? If you are, and you want to use the ipad optimized version on the stock browser, do this:
Go to the browser, hit menu, settings, scroll all the way to the bottom, click user agent, then ipad. See if that works.
Don't forget to hit thanks if it does!
Sent from my CM7.1'd, ICS Themed NookColor using Tapatalk
Web pages aren't apps.
@mvpilot172 & @kcls
Did either of you even bother read the OP's initial post where he states "I can do it by changing the UserAgent..."?
Wow, no body bothers reading threads anymore...
I just gave it a shot then, set my user agent to ipad then went to gmail. The fact that it was ipad seemed to be reflected in the URL, so i typed in the same URL on my computer to test.
So what i would suggest is going to the ipad site: https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/536/#tl/Inbox
Then bookmarking it
if you want to give it the native app feel, you can add the bookmark to your desktop and even change the icon to the gmail icon if you want.
Thank you! This was what came closest to what I'm search!
My husband has a stock Nook HD on which I use ADB to install some non-PlayStore apps. I've finally managed to find a copy of the AOSP browser that would install and function well--except: the device convinces all websites that it is a desktop machine. Even though the option box for "request desktop site" is unchecked, even attempting to directly type in the URL of a mobile site results in a kick back to the desktop version. I'm using the AOSP browser on an old Nook Tablet running CM 10.2 and never have this issue.
Even when he was using Puffin there were issues with accessing the mobile version of sites as a default.
What's going on and is there a solution?
Since your obtaining apps away from the play store, who knows if they were hacked or not. It only compounds your issue.
If you find a legit browser from the play store that still works with the bn rom, then what it displays is your answer to either accept it or move on.
It is ultimately up to the browser to send to the web server basically, "Hello, I'm a mobile device". The web browser can also be made to spoof that to display the desktop version of the website via plug-in or from its code.
I'm sure there's some other less likely scenarios as well, but the above are the most likely to occur.
Solved!
And the answer is......the setting for the UserAgent string is hidden from the general settings and can be revealed by typing "about:debug" in the address bar and then "enter" (or touch "go", whatever). Nothing seems to happen but now the "Settings" option will include an additional category (debug) and the "Advanced" section may contain the UAString setting.
On my Nook Tablet with CM 10.2 the default "Android" setting is sufficient for correct recognition by most sites that I am using a mobile device. On my husband's Nook HD the same setting always resulted in the desktop site being loaded. Lower down on the list of possible options there is a selection for "Froyo" and another for "Honeycomb". I tried both and "Froyo" gives the behavior closest to my Tablet. So now the AOSP browser works great (and with Flash) on the Nook HD!