Friday 2 December 2011

Web browser Dolphin HD now encrypts your backups, adds off switch to webzine toggle, ditches exit menu


Dolphin HD is a strange animal. It has the best features of any Android web browser: well designed tabs, a very useful bookmark sidebar, and its highly customisable gesture controls leave the competition gasping for air.

But this marine mammal has a fishy side. You need a rooted phone and a bit of Android hosts file editing to stop it from calling the mothership, and its backup feature may put info out in the open on your SD card that should be locked.

Encrypted backups, finally!

The latter problem is fixed in the latest update. The old versions didn't encrypt their backups, but the latest version does. I guess a bit of complaining on blogs like this helps ;) Head to the settings and set a password to make sure nobody can grab login cookies and other sensitive data from Dolphins backup files on your memory card.

A bunch of off switches

More new stuff that puts you in control: get rid of the confirmation screen that pops up when you you exit Dolphin with the back button, dump the annoying "rate me" nag screen, and disable the webzine toggle. If you choose to keep webzine on Dolphin will send the URLs you visit to its webzine server, but if you opt out your surfing habits should remain private. If not, I'm sure the folks at the xda forums will find out real soon.

Links in new tab dialog still flawed

Something that didn't change: when you open a link in a new tab and choose between switching to the new tab or opening it in the background, the "remember my decision" checkbox is still checked by default. This doesn't make any sense. If the box was unchecked, you'd only have to check it once. But because it's checked by default you have to uncheck it over and over again. Even worse: if you allow Dolphin to remember your choice by accident it's really hard to make it forget again. Restoring your settings from a backup (if you have one) or resetting to default settings is the only way out.

Dolphin Browser (Android Market)


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