Chrome 51 Arrives on Android, Officially Kills Off “Merge Tabs and Apps”
droid-life.com
droid-life.com
* In a default one-handed grip, it was easier to switch between tabs because the multitasking button on Android is near where one's thumb usually is. Now to switch tabs, you have to reach diagonally across the screen on top near the address bar (which is aggravated by unnaturally big phones, but that's another story)
* I am not on the dev channels, and was not particularly "in the know" about the upcoming change. So I was extremely frustrated to find one day that not only suddenly a fundamental behaviour changed, but there was no option to set it back!! Really disrespectful to the user. If I was dead-set on changing it I would put a highlight near the setting that it was going to be deprecated soon.
I then resolve to switch to Firefox on Android, and I can't believe I didn't do it earlier. While I've made peace with the fact that "merge apps and tabs" are gone, I found out that Firefox had a vastly superior feature set, the most delightful of which is the "Tab Queue" feature. (E.g. when browsing in the Twitter app, and you click on links it doesn't switch to the browser, it queues the link in Firefox. Once you're done with Twitter, you can now switch to Firefox and all the links are retrieved then)
Also the new (old?) behaviour keeps the last tab open when I close the browser, which is annoying and a step backwards in usability. It doesn't seem to be possible to change this.
In my opinion it would have been better to leave the functionality and just turn it off by default.
That doesn't make it OK to remove a feature that people did use and like.
That feels like a bit of a slap - what if they decide to remove some other feature I like but other people don't use (e.g. the always allow zoom feature which I would not like to go without)
Now it's not in and I think thats very sad. It just degrades the open web in relation to native apps even more and the context switch between browser tabs and native apps is as big as it was years ago. Why don't keep the option?
I know progressive web apps that are added to the homescreen still have that functionality but the main idea of PWAs was that the move from a website becoming an app should be as seamless as possible...
I never update software that works, so hopefully I will enjoy this functionality until my next phone.
This is such a terrible mistake for a browser. You're missing vital security patches. Never browse with an out-of-date browser!
This is the way bills in congress work, so let's apply the same social engineering to software.
Someone else gets to ruin my system by bundling a non-essential change with an "essential" change. Never waste a good disaster.
Microsoft supported XP for a long time, but that was paid. At some point it becomes unfeasible to maintain older versions.
Also Android/Chrome is free, so just because phones are paid doesn't mean such laws would apply.
Phone security updates are sometimes provided for some time, actually. I know Samsung at least went back and made new releases for abandoned phones after stagefright.
I am pretty sure what my "Search for updates" returns as error message.
True, and that would mostly likely fulfill their obligation, though personally I don't think I should have to accept what is essentially a new product to get a manufacturing flaw repaired.
Also Android/Chrome is free, so just because phones are paid doesn't mean such laws would apply.
Ah, with that I wholly disagree, and I expect the law to do as well. Android (and Chrome nowadays) is clearly part of the package that I buy with the phone, and advertised as such. That the phone OEM got it for free from Google is irrelevant to me as the consumer; I paid for the whole thing.
Chrome is free and also optional. If you don't like the new features that come with the security updates, you can easily use a different browser.
I disagree with the EU's decision to force MS to have that browser selection dialog, but that doesn't mean bundling should be consider a "gift" by the manufacturer. A browser is an expected part of a current smartphone OS, and as such they should be responsible for the one they include.
1) Perfectly secure software has never been invented and may never be. Does that mean all software has "manufacturing defects"? It definitely means you can't penalize the "manufacturer".
2) Not all security holes are defects that are discoverable when a program is released. There are attacks that no one has thought of. Someone invents the attack, tests it, and then discloses it (or uses it). The average coder isn't anywhere near smart enough to think of all these things (and that includes me). Even if we were, we wouldn't have time to test and mitigate all of them.
If you want to get the exact same piece of software updated only with security patches, you'll have to select software that is updated this way or pay someone to write it for you.
2) True. So what? Why should that get them off the hook? Statistically, we also know that people will always make mistakes, does that mean companies shouldn't be responsible for the blunders of their employees?
The fact that we know our software will have problems we can't fix at launch time just means we need to account for that post-launch cost, plus possibly have insurance for major screw-ups. It doesn't mean we get to claim "caveat emptor" unlike any other industry.
If you want to get the exact same piece of software updated only with security patches, you'll have to select software that is updated this way or pay someone to write it for you.
Yes, that's currently the case, as I admitted in my other post, but it's not an immutable law of nature.
If you find that Chrome updates come with unwanted changes, you might want to try Firefox or Opera.
Anyone know what is the reason behind it? Was it unpopular? A security risk? Hard to maintain?
The recent apps since Lollipop was so convoluted already, since they allowed up to 50 items in it, which kills the convenience of having a recent app list in the first place. If you open the recent list and the app you want isn't in the first 7+-2 items, it'll take longer then going to the shortcut/app drawer.
That's why they got to their senses in N and limited that list to 7. [1]
Sadly we'll get that sometime next year (my phone just got offered M). But that's another bag of dicks.
[1] http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/05/18/android-n-includes-t...
While we're at it, stop shoehorning Chrome views into the Search app and everything else, too. The only reason for it to be there is to make it harder for folks that use a different default browser to be able to launch it. And to ensure that ads are shown since Chrome and Chrome views don't support ad blocking.