xScope Browser Update

[rjax]

Odd. Today I was browsing a site. I look away from the phone a second, look back and I'm on my home screen. So I open xscope and it clean opens (like after a reboot). Just one tab...

I click history and a lot of the history from right around the crash is missing.

This is exactly what happened to me. Gary's working on my issue -- so hopefully if he solves mine, it would also solve the issue for you.

And now I have a couple suggestions for xScope's continued development:

1) Add one more option for Orientation in Settings -- "Landscape only when keyboard is pulled out" (or maybe a shorter, better name... obviously this is mostly for the Droid, but I would find it very useful, and I don't think it would add much of a footprint to xScope)

2) This one might be a more complex issue... or maybe not. But it would be awesome if xScope allowed you to retrieve cached web pages for offline viewing after the phone has been turned off -- this would be great for airplanes.

This might easier than it sounds because I've noticed that when xScope restores itself after Android kills it for memory-management purposes, xScope restores the page to the state I last saw it, instead of actually refreshing the page. (This is most obvious with sports scores... if xScope is displaying a web page from before a game is over, and restores itself after a game is over, the restored page still shows the game in-progress instead of being over... at least for me.) If that behavior could be used after a power cycle and with no network connection present, that would be pretty sweet.

[garysui]

3/10
Waste no time to finally enable vimeo viewing and downloading.

[garysui]

Warr,
Thanks for the good words. I have also noticed other threads and comments about xScope. However I just don't feel right to comment there as a developer.
You got the way to update right. There is one just now
I was thinking about making a button down to the bottom of the homepage but then later gave up that idea to be less intrusive.

Having just bought my Droid last week, then having installed xScope yesterday, and then having just slogged through 55 pages of comments (whew!), I am thrilled with the development of this browser.

I had a feeling that developers of Gary's character were being drawn to the Android platform, so reading this threat gave me the warm fuzzies.

Keep up the good work, Gary.

Stupid Newbie Question: To get an update, I assume I go to the Market, tap Menu and then the Downloads button, and look for an "Update Available" tag in the xScope button, and then tap it?

-Warr

PS: Just one suggestion: when you post updates about releasing new versions, how about mentioning what the new version's version number is?

[garysui]

Unfortunately, we can't change much of the behavior of the web engine (webview to be specific). I hate that mis-aligned password field.

Could you make an option for passwords to not asterisk em at all, for some reason I might just be crazy, but I'm not paranoid about people standing behind me staring at my phone as I enter passwords.

[garysui]

The Orientation setting should address your first suggestion. Also, the view turns automatically landscape if keyboard is slide out.
2 is indeed complicated. I can imagine it will be like 'Save as' function on desktop computers. Then there should be a tidy file manager to retrieve them back. I will make a note on this feature. Thanks!
Still working on the problem you mentioned. I think you are right on the reasoning. In android world, anything can be killed if the system thinks the memory is too low. So how to preserve and restore the state becomes necessary. We have achieve it to some degree but apparently not all. I have found that wsj.com through yahoo's external link is always troubling.
With the most recent update, each dynamically created view is given a unique ID. Let's see if that will make any difference.

Odd. Today I was browsing a site. I look away from the phone a second, look back and I'm on my home screen. So I open xscope and it clean opens (like after a reboot). Just one tab...

I click history and a lot of the history from right around the crash is missing.

This is exactly what happened to me. Gary's working on my issue -- so hopefully if he solves mine, it would also solve the issue for you.

And now I have a couple suggestions for xScope's continued development:

1) Add one more option for Orientation in Settings -- "Landscape only when keyboard is pulled out" (or maybe a shorter, better name... obviously this is mostly for the Droid, but I would find it very useful, and I don't think it would add much of a footprint to xScope)

2) This one might be a more complex issue... or maybe not. But it would be awesome if xScope allowed you to retrieve cached web pages for offline viewing after the phone has been turned off -- this would be great for airplanes.

This might easier than it sounds because I've noticed that when xScope restores itself after Android kills it for memory-management purposes, xScope restores the page to the state I last saw it, instead of actually refreshing the page. (This is most obvious with sports scores... if xScope is displaying a web page from before a game is over, and restores itself after a game is over, the restored page still shows the game in-progress instead of being over... at least for me.) If that behavior could be used after a power cycle and with no network connection present, that would be pretty sweet.

[anewday]

Just bought the app tonight, it's working great so far. One suggestion is to make the progress bar line thicker.

[rjax]

I just tested the Orientation Settings again... hopefully this will be a better explanation of what I think would be good -- I have "Portrait," not "Automatic" selected for the Orientation. When I open the keyboard in Portrait mode, xScope stays in Portrait, which makes sense. But if I want to use the keyboard to type in something, either I have to go into Settings and switch to "Landscape" or "Automatic" or I have to type into a sideways text box. So, I'd like to see a fourth choice that is always Portrait, except for becoming Landscape when I pull out the keyboard.


On the second point, I was thinking the implementation might work something like this: When you're ready to shut down, long-press the back button and there'd be an extra option in the menu that pops up -- "Exit and Save State" or something like that. Then, next time xScope starts up, it would restore itself just like it does now after Android's memory management kills it.

But, I like your idea of being able to save any web page for offline viewing even better.


By the way, one thing I noted while testing out if there'd be room for an extra menu choice when long-pressing the back button was that as soon I hit the back button the tab I'm in goes back to the previous page, which could be a little frustrating if I change my mind, hit "Cancel," then find out I'm not on the page (or tab, since the tab will close if there's no other page history in that tab) where I was when I started to hit the back button. Basically, I don't think xScope should execute the back command until it knows for sure whether the user is short-pressing or long-pressing the back button.

The Orientation setting should address your first suggestion. Also, the view turns automatically landscape if keyboard is slide out.
2 is indeed complicated. I can imagine it will be like 'Save as' function on desktop computers. Then there should be a tidy file manager to retrieve them back. I will make a note on this feature. Thanks!
Still working on the problem you mentioned. I think you are right on the reasoning. In android world, anything can be killed if the system thinks the memory is too low. So how to preserve and restore the state becomes necessary. We have achieve it to some degree but apparently not all. I have found that wsj.com through yahoo's external link is always troubling.
With the most recent update, each dynamically created view is given a unique ID. Let's see if that will make any difference.

Odd. Today I was browsing a site. I look away from the phone a second, look back and I'm on my home screen. So I open xscope and it clean opens (like after a reboot). Just one tab...

I click history and a lot of the history from right around the crash is missing.

This is exactly what happened to me. Gary's working on my issue -- so hopefully if he solves mine, it would also solve the issue for you.

And now I have a couple suggestions for xScope's continued development:

1) Add one more option for Orientation in Settings -- "Landscape only when keyboard is pulled out" (or maybe a shorter, better name... obviously this is mostly for the Droid, but I would find it very useful, and I don't think it would add much of a footprint to xScope)

2) This one might be a more complex issue... or maybe not. But it would be awesome if xScope allowed you to retrieve cached web pages for offline viewing after the phone has been turned off -- this would be great for airplanes.

This might easier than it sounds because I've noticed that when xScope restores itself after Android kills it for memory-management purposes, xScope restores the page to the state I last saw it, instead of actually refreshing the page. (This is most obvious with sports scores... if xScope is displaying a web page from before a game is over, and restores itself after a game is over, the restored page still shows the game in-progress instead of being over... at least for me.) If that behavior could be used after a power cycle and with no network connection present, that would be pretty sweet.

[bloodstains]

Rjax - not sure what exactly is happening with you, but I agree with Gary. I keep my xScope settings as "Portrait", but when I slide the keyboard out it automatically kicks it into Landscape, which is exactly what you're asking for.

Maybe there is some other setting that is preventing it from working this way? I'm not sure.

[rjax]

Rjax - not sure what exactly is happening with you, but I agree with Gary. I keep my xScope settings as "Portrait", but when I slide the keyboard out it automatically kicks it into Landscape, which is exactly what you're asking for.

Maybe there is some other setting that is preventing it from working this way? I'm not sure.

Thanks for the info. This is very odd, then. Any other app, including the home screen, switches to landscape when I slide the keyboard out... so it's not a global problem with my phone. I've tried messing with the global orientation settings and Home++ orientation settings just to be sure, but with no luck. I guess it could be a weird app conflict.

[ipawd1]

...I just wish we could make the favorites look better.