If you're like me, the default Chrome start page probably doesn't suit you. A homepage would be much nicer and so...
Here's a little app that will add a built-in homepage function/option to Chrome (it can be found in settings).
No, I did not make this. I simply noticed the feature is missing from most carriers and international ROM's. I extracted it from a stock T-Mobile 5.0.2 ROM, it has been tested and works for all devices and carriers.
Download, move to /system/app, set the permissions to read for all and write for owner (the same as all other applications in that folder and subfolders).
Reboot, enjoy.
homepage for chrome
I've been using centpage.com as my homepage for sometime.
I'll check this out, as i believe that the default homepage can be a lot better for chrome.
Related
Is there a way to make it so the browser default browser shows the desktop version of the website by default? I hate going to web pages pages and it's the mobile version.
You could use the about:debug method, but I don't think that's permanent. I just use Dolphin HD browser and set it to desktop since I like it better than the stock browser anyways.
If your default homepage is Google, the setting is at the bottom of the page.
prettyboy85712 said:
If your default homepage is Google, the setting is at the bottom of the page.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure that is only for Google.com and not for any other pages.
this is my old gripe about the default web browser is the constatn mobile website crap, personally i think all mobile websites should be disbanded, no one even uses them.
Yeah, I'm using the about:debug method. I wish I would be permanent.
I completely agree with disbanding all of the mobile websites. They are just annoying and it's not always easy to find the link to switch to the desktop page.
someone needs to find a way to make the default browser (i like the default browser) able to permanently go full site, without rooting.
I know that this not exactly what you want, but Dolphin Browser HD has that option, to always go to the desktop version of a website.
That does not help for the default browser, of course, but maybe something to consider, if you didn't know about that option?
Cheers
Only thing keeping me from using the stock browser is not being able to get my bookmarks as my homepage
Any way for this to be done?
Run a script or set homepage and put the file path to the bookmarks instead of a url?
looked on google and everywhere and seems no way for this to be done on stock browser.
Figure some type of workaround for this should be available by now.
fidorulz said:
Only thing keeping me from using the stock browser is not being able to get my bookmarks as my homepage
Any way for this to be done?
Run a script or set homepage and put the file path to the bookmarks instead of a url?
looked on google and everywhere and seems no way for this to be done on stock browser.
Figure some type of workaround for this should be available by now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will probably get moved to q&a or somewhere other then android development.
If you have cyanogenmod 6/adw you can do this easily.
long press blank spot on one of your screens,
click custom shortcut,
click pick your activity,
click Activities,
click Browser,
Click Bookmarks(CombinedBookmarkHistoryActivity).
Enjoy your new shortcut to bookmarks. Alternatively you could use anycut/bettercut to launch this specific activity.
gIMpSTa said:
This will probably get moved to q&a or somewhere other then android development.
If you have cyanogenmod 6/adw you can do this easily.
long press blank spot on one of your screens,
click custom shortcut,
click pick your activity,
click Activities,
click Browser,
Click Bookmarks(CombinedBookmarkHistoryActivity).
Enjoy your new shortcut to bookmarks. Alternatively you could use anycut/bettercut to launch this specific activity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry if this wasn't in the right forum but reason I posted it in development is I actually want to change the browser homepage to the bookmarks in the actual browser app and not simply put a shortcut to the bookmarks which current isnt an open with the stock app.
Reason for this is many times when I use my browser (dolphin currently) ill open multiple tabs (windows whatever you want to call it) strait from my bookmarks
So for example at the homepage(aka bookmarks) I long press on a page and open in background
I do this for maybe 7 pages thus they are loading at the same time and I can do what I need
With the current config with every new window I open the original window goes back to the homepage thus I have to re-select to access my bookmarks instead of the bookmarks page simply staying put
I know this isnt a big deal but it would save me at least 1 extra click per page I want to open doing this so it can add up over time
Don't know if this would be desirable to many, but with launcher pro you can set the swipe-up activity to pop up your bookmarks. So on my launcher I can start the browser normally or swipe-up and select the bookmark I want to access directly.
poorboy168 said:
Don't know if this would be desirable to many, but with launcher pro you can set the swipe-up activity to pop up your bookmarks. So on my launcher I can start the browser normally or swipe-up and select the bookmark I want to access directly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info but still simply a work around. Im sure im not the only one who would want this
many other browsers allow this such as opera (even if limited to 9) or xscope and even miui browser
Also chrome on my computer shows by default the most visited sites when opening a new tab which is almost the same thing
I would like to dedicate one homescreen to show all (or as many as possible) of my Dolphin bookmarks, either with a fullscreen widet, an app that syncs shortcuts on the screen to the bookmarks, or even a folder icon that would open to the bookmarks. So far I have searched in vain. The widgets I have found are not big enough.
Would appreciate any help.
If you use launcher pro plus it has a bookmark widget that is scrollable. LP plus isn't free but it's worth every penny.
i dont know how many bookmarks you have, but I also love LP's swipe gesture to show the widgets when swiping up on Dolphin in the dock. All the LP widgets are awesome
Over the years I grew tired of syncing bookmarks among computers and between different browsers on the same computer (and now the tablet). The ISP includes a bit of disc space for hosting pages as part of the account. I use an editor (jedit.org) with FTP within it to edit very-straight-forward HTML pages directly on the server. Each browser on my cell phone, tablet, and computers has its homepage set to an appropriate page; a mobile sites page for the phone, a "tablet" page for the stuff I use daily. It sounds like a lot of work, but not so. It takes me only a few seconds to open a page to update and resave the page. The pages are quick to load. No more losing bookmarks when something fails or when changing computers. Just an idea as an alternative to looking for a piece of software... hope it helps.
Tom
Well, I found a solution, kind of. I switched to the Notion Ink browser, which uses stock bookmarks. (To see how to update the NI browser to the latest version, which fixes a couple of nasty bugs, see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=928832&page=19). Then I got DMarks from the market, to sort the bookmarks automatically. Then I got Live Bookmarks, which shows all the bookmarks on an overlay on your screen. Works great for me.
5-31-21 I've ceased development on this app because I think there is a better alternative. See post #7.
*updated to version 1.3, adding error trap for discontinued or blank feeds*
It's been awhile since the demise of the last working version of Genie Widget (aka Google News and Weather) but not so long since the big G retooled news.google.com so that our browsers can no longer deal with it and also put the kibosh on the Google News RSS feeds. Sigh.
I have a work-around
Google News 1.3 for the NST/G exploits the "alerts" that Google offers on news topics. These alerts can be optioned in the form of RSS feeds. My app downloads the HTML source for the feed, picks out all the good stuff and trashes all the rest, then builds up a local HTML document which is easily displayed by our browsers (I highly recommend Opera Mobile for ease of scrolling and general all-around function). You can build up your own topics, change your mind, mix them about, read that one more story you didn't get to the first time around, etc. I'm not saying that your browser will negotiate every target link. Some newspaper sites have just become too much. That was true even when Genie Widget was still working. But updating Opera Mobile for TLS 1.2 solves much of that. See this post for details.. The beauty of this app is in the simplicity. It's entirely browser-based once the feeds are downloaded, so you're not going back and forth between the app and your browser (like the current Google News app.......). Designed for both portrait and landscape.
Requirements
1. Android 2.1 has a security issue with opening local HTML files. In order for Google News to work properly you need to address that. Included in the zip below is a tiny app, android-open-in-browser-0.0.4-4-debug. Install that. It's not my app but I have used it for years and wish I could credit the originator.
2. This is a Tasker-generated app. If you already have one of my other Tasker-generated apps or have previously installed GApps, you don't need the two Google maps library files included in the zip and can delete them. If you do need them, copy the two files into the locations shown below:
/system/etc/permissions/com.google.android.maps.xml
/system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar
Set permissions for both files to rw-r--r-- and reboot. Without these files resident, the app will not install.
3. Create a folder in the root directory of your sdcard: Google News (exactly as shown)
4. Install the app itself, Google News.1.apk
How to use
Before you run the app you need to select some news categories, set up the feeds, get the URLs, blah-blah-blah. All of this is covered in the PDF included with the zip. It may seem a little annoying at the start, but it goes quickly once you get started and it's not like you have to do it every time you use the app. You're just setting up your news topics, just as if you were using the current Google News (either the app or the web version). Once you have your topics and URLs and have edited the included text file google_rss_feeds.txt, copy that into the Google News folder of your sdcard.
Note: recently (June 2019) the big G has not been very consistent with the RSS feeds. Some days they are "empty" but come back the next day with lots of stories. Some feed topics simply "die" and a minor change in the topic will resurrect them (change "World" to "World news", as an example). Version 1.3 includes a trap for these eventualities so that the app should not crash, even if your first feed comes up empty. To inspect/edit your feeds, point your browser (on your PC) to your Google Alerts page. If you are signed in this will be found among the options on the Google home page, in the upper right corner where the "apps" grid is shown.
Now you're good to go. Start the app, make sure you're connected to WiFi. There are only three buttons on the app screen. The first one, "Fetch the news" does just that. You will see a little toast that the first news category is being prepared. Once that is done, you will be taken to the browser and that page will open. Meanwhile the remaining pages are being downloaded and reconstructed in the background.
The news page is very simple. I tried to aim for readability over all other considerations (this is the reason the news items are in bold black, even though they are the external links). I have my Opera Mobile set to 100% page zoom. It looks good to me, but you could probably get away with 75%. External websites are another matter. At the title bar left is a drop-down menu button that gives you access to your other news topics. Since no fixed navbar schemes work under Android 2.1, there is a duplicate drop-up menu bar at the end of the page. The use of NoRefresh, or to a lesser extent FastMode, is a plus.
Edit: you cannot use this app with Opera Mini. It lacks the ability to open local HTML files.
The second option on the opening screen, "Read old news" sounds a bit daft, but I just thought maybe someone might have been looking at the topic pages, saw something that interested them and then got interrupted. So this option opens the first local file in the browser again and you can navigate from there. Strictly speaking, WiFi is not needed to browse the local files once they have been created, but it is needed to pursue any stories.
The third option simply dismisses the app screen.
Whew! So this is new...and I think I exterminated all the bugs, but I did not try other browsers. I'm open to suggestions and would appreciate feedback.
Google alert change? No option for RSS alerts anymore...
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
v619284 said:
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm away from home right now but my copy of the app is working so the RSS feeds must still exist. I'll have to sit down with my instructions in front of the computer and see what mischief they've done. Thanks for letting me know.
v619284 said:
If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, so I've run through the instructions sitting at my PC. Everything is correct although Firefox no longer wants to open the RSS feed page as anything other than an xml "text" file. That just means the image on page 4 needs updating.
As far as page 3, everything is currently exactly as shown. Just to be sure, you have to be signed in to Google on your browser before you do any of this. Then when you get to the screen depicted on page 3 you need to change the "Deliver to" option to RSS feed. But even before that, it's important not to get sucked into the email alert business back on page 2. Do NOT click on "Create Alert" there, only on "Show options". That's how you get to the screen I show on page 3.
When you finally get to click on the little RSS symbol shown on the lower half of page 3, you (at least on Firefox) may end up at a page of xml code, or perhaps your browser may show a news feed page. Regardless, the URL shown for the page is the same and it's what you need to copy, just as described on page 4.
Let me know if you are still having issues with this.
v619284 said:
First off, thanks so much for putting the time and effort into this app. I would love to have a more "future-proof" news reader solution for my NST. Sadly however, in typical Google fashion of constantly dropping/messing with feature support, it seems that there is no longer an option to deliver Google alerts to RSS feeds (only email addresses). If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So a few days after I wrote my last post, the app stopped working for me. It just hangs on "Preparing......News"
Google has apparently changed the format of their RSS xml file. Right in the middle of something else at the moment, but I will get it fixed.
Nope, nix that. After fooling around with the app and an xml file from the Big G, I find nothing out of place and it seems the app is now working again
They're just messing with us.
Edit: Indeed they are. Today I caught another malfunction but this time looked at the Tasker routines for an error. Google is sending out (at least today) RSS feeds with empty content fields. That messes up my app. So I wrote an error trap for that. Updated in first post. Have to watch the big G like a hawk....
v619284 said:
If I'm reading this thread and your PDF correctly, I'm worried that this may break the app. In any case I'm stuck on page 3 of your setup PDF since I can't figure out how to get the RSS alert string from Google anymore. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whilst looking around for a solution to a different issue, I came across this: https://medium.com/@cassandragraft/...tion-not-appearing-heres-the-fix-bf842ca32b88
It appears to address the issue you describe. I never encountered the issue, but obviously some people have.
The Big G is making me very angry lately. Even version 1.2 with a new error trap is crashing. I'm finding that some of my feeds are "empty". The skeleton of the RSS file is there but there is no content populating the file. A category as ordinary as "world" is simply blank. This is new and very annoying. Just a change of topic to "world news" brings up a list of stories longer than your arm. I encountered this before with "science" and fixed it with a slight change in name, so I should have seen this coming. It's a nasty game Google seems to be playing....
Anyway, if the app crashes on the first topic it leaves an overlay artifact behind when you exit. To remove this, go to the App Manager and force stop the app. I will work on a fix which will alert you to the effect that the feed appears dead but allow the app to complete the download of whatever is still working and exit properly.
Grr....
Edit: App updated to v1.3 in first post. I hope that solves the problems. For now.
As I mentioned in my edit of the first post, I think my app is exhibiting creakiness already owing to Opera Mobile's increasing difficulty negotiating many websites.
I have an alternative to suggest, however, that is totally browser based. It seems to work "OK" with Opera Mobile although text display is a bit small with a default zoom of 100%. In Opera Mini, however, it shines, especially with NoRefresh.
Thanks to XDA member @SJT75 , I found out about a list of text-only news sites. One of them is a text version of Google News! The list is at: https://greycoder.com/a-list-of-text-only-new-sites/
While the Google News option does not allow for custom categories (hey, there's an app for that!), it does cover all the usual suspects. Even better, all of the links lead to text-only versions of the sources. Occasionally you go to a page and find it could not be fetched by whatever mechanism the author is using, but pages (even those error ones) include a link to the original source
Also notable on the list are the NPR and CNN sites. Both work well.
Hi all. Sharing a quick tip that made me a happy man. I have always preferred the desktop site view on the main screen. In the past I had to toggle on desktop view for each new tab but have found a method to toggle it on depending on the screen the tab is opened in automatically.
Launch chrome
Enter this url in the browser: chrome://flags
In the search box, search for “desktop”
Look for “request desktop site for tablets on android"
select "enabled for 100dpi+ screens" and restart the browser.
Chrome should indicate you need to restart the app and provides a button. If missed, make sure to restart Chrome later (use task kill or something similar) and it should now give you the respective formatted screen on the display in use.
I selected 100dpi vs a higher one, but it seems to work so I kept it in that setting. If others see otherwise please comment.
If not working, check post 2 item 2 as a newer build temporarily broke this. Hopefully fixed in newer. Please post if working on newer builds and I will update this post.
Also note: I use Resolution changer (again no root needed) to modify my resolutions somewhat by fine tuning the density to get more screen real estate. Another very nice update to get a better "desktop" browsing experience.
Change list and notes for post #1.
1. Corrected 1st post: updated URL removing HTTP.
2. Looks like the latest version broke this (96.0.4664.45 from 11/15/21). I restored the 11/4/21 version:
com.android.chrome_95.0.4638.74-463807410_minAPI21_maxAPI23(armeabi-v7a)(nodpi)_apkmirror.com.apkand got the functionality back. Hopefully this gets fixed in the next latest build. (Don't forget to turn off auto update in google play).
3. Corrected step #4 in post 1. The look for target was truncated and not completely written out.
4. The December 15, 2021 release of Chrome still is broken so stick to the known good listed above. Even the flag to set all to desktop does not work. If anyone sees otherwise do let me know. I may file a bug on this. I filed a bug on this here.
5. With the newer chrome version breaking this I did find one other useful tidbit. Setting the "Global setting to request desktop site on Android" to enabled (in the chrome://flags page) makes a new toggle in settings -> Site settings. This is labeled "desktop site" and turning it on will enable desktop site to be the default on all pages (main and cover). Not as useful as the intial post but helpful if you want to force it on or have it as the default (can still toggle it off).
6. Chrome beta is missing the "“request desktop site for tablets on android"" so possibly gtting phased out? Hope not.
7- I filed a bug on this here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1280779
If you are using this, please go here and up vote the issue so it will get fixed.
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1280779
the builtin samsung internet browser (which is far superior to chrome and others) has the feature, together with dark mode, one-button adblock disabler for cocky sites etc.
thanks @vratnik that's good to know. I played with it some. It does not auto adjust to mobile on front and desktop on primary. That's the key thing of interest with this on chrome. But I do find the Samsung browser to be working much better than it did years ago and worthy of some more use.
Thanks for sharing. Are there any news to make this work??