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Comment by mattmaroon | Hacker News Reader

I first noticed this on Android. Dolphin Browser has done this for years now. Swipe to the left side (by swiping right) to get to bookmarks, etc. Swipe to the right side to get to add ons.

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In android 4.0 browser (don't know about earlier versions) there a mode to "save space" where the menu only comes out with a swipe from the border.

Hopefully, Apple hasn't already patented this gesture.

In fact, I think it's an Android trend that has migrated to iOS. It works better on Android, IMO, with its hardware menu button.

The hardware menu button is dead starting with Android 3.0 released 1.5 years ago.

What about all the phones that have launched with 4.0 and hardware menu buttons?

What about them? Relying on the menu button is a very, very, very bad idea because there are devices that it doesn't exist on.

Except my GS3 has one, and released on 4.0 with 4.1 due out very soon.

The only phone I can think of that doesn't have that is the Nexus.

HTC's new phones, every single tablet released after Honeycomb.

Google said it was no longer "required" but even through 4.1 SDK it is still supported.

Interestingly, the button that HAS died is the search button. Any device I've seen with a physical home button has opted for a long press to be the app switch, and then to leave the menu button in.

Personally, I like the menu button. It feels very natural on my SGSIII (and also did on my SGSI and Galaxy Tab). It feels weird to hunt for the soft menu button (either top or bottom) on my Nexus 7.

Latest version of Dolphin (on iOS, anyway) remixes this a bit. Swiping left still goes to bookmarks. But now swiping right goes to tabs. There's a button bar on the bottom, and a navbar on the top. Both of these automatically disappear when you scroll down, and automatically reappear when you scroll up.

Still getting used to it, but my initial impression is that it's a pretty slick interface.

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