Phone Browser Wars

[Dan]

Just wondering what folks prefer on their phones for web browsing.

After trying tons of them on my Android, I finally settled in with the Ghostery browser.

[blaze]

Ooooops, confess that I am an old boring f... when browsing on my phone. Firefox there too... but my excuse is that I hardly do any real browsing on my phone. Just check the latest headlines, inbox, some social media... Nothing to get too excited about.

[leenie]

Wow, this is prophetic. I just got a $20 tracfone just to learn the android system- KitKat. Google stuff is all in it. I can't make certain Google stuff I don't use stop updating. even after disabling them, uninstalling has the same effect, updates still come (what was uninstalled gets reinstalled). I will try this browser.  Mostly I will use the phone for emergencies because of a sorry old car...
I guess I need some good tutorials on tweaking. All the tutorials I have found are on how to use it. I am a real newbie with this one. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

[Dan]

leenie, mine is a KitKat too. Mine's also a tracfone. I actually love tracfone. My first one was a $20 KitKat with a 3.5" screen. About a year ago (I think), I bought a $79 phone with a 4.5" screen. Both phones were/are LG phones. Unless it's handled differently by phone manufacturer, this is what I did with all of the Google apps...except the Play Store of course...and yes, Android and Google are tied very close together.

I think if you root your phone, you can totally remove the Google apps. I've never tried rooting mine. It voids the warranty, and I don't know enough about Android to be willing to possibly mess something up and have to fix it. 

So...I just disabled/uninstalled mine. I don't think it technically uninstalls them. Also, I do still get a message every once in a while that four of the major apps (Chrome, Maps, and 2 more) have updates available...I just don't let them update.

This is the process that I used for each Google app...takes a while, cause there's several of them! But it did disable them on my phone.

1. Go to System settings
2. Scroll down and click on Apps
3. Scroll RIGHT to All
4. Find the app that you want to disable, click on it, and...
    a) Click Clear cache (I don't remember if a window pops up here. I don't think it does).
    b) Click Clear data and click OK in the window that pops up.
    c) Click Force stop and click OK in the window that pops up.
    d) Click Disable and click OK in the window that pops up. Don't let the warning message scare you. I've never had any
        problems, but then again, I disabled ALL of the Google apps.

Following those steps in that specific order is what worked for me. Seems like I remember it saying that it would revert an app back to a previous version or something like that. Sorry, it's been a while since I've done this. I just remember the steps, because I wrote them down when I finally figured out what worked.

[Mike]

This may be kind of surprising coming from a Linux user, but I use an iPhone. I use it mainly because the rest of my family uses apple products and we have family sharing set up. There are other browsers to choose from but I stick with the default (Safari) because it works well enough.

[Dan]

This may be kind of surprising coming from a Linux user, but I use an iPhone. I use it mainly because the rest of my family uses apple products and we have family sharing set up. There are other browsers to choose from but I stick with the default (Safari) because it works well enough.

Heresy! 

[Dan]

Ooooops, confess that I am an old boring f... when browsing on my phone. Firefox there too... but my excuse is that I hardly do any real browsing on my phone. Just check the latest headlines, inbox, some social media... Nothing to get too excited about.

That basically what I do blaze. In fact, about a year ago, Tracfone gave me a year of free service for being a regular customer...that means, unless I needed to, I didn't have to buy more minutes for an entire year. With Tracfone, I get triple minutes, so when I buy at least a $20 card, I get triple the amount of everything...minutes for calls, amount of texts, and the amount of data. My year is almost up, and I haven't run out of anything yet! 

If I wasn't using Ghostery, I'd be using Firefox.

Mostly I will use the phone for emergencies because of a sorry old car...

I feel your pain! I drive an old '98 Ford Escort ZX2.  It has over 260,000 mile on it! It needs a valve job, and it takes "skill" to keep it running when I have to stop at a stop light or stop sign. LOL! It's not a car for a novice! Hopefully, you'll not need the phone!

I will try this browser. 

Be warned! Ghostery doesn't have a "Home" button. To compensate, I made a bookmark of the homepage. Other than that, I really like it. It has never crashed on me, and every other browser I've tried has at some point. Plus, it blocks ads! 

I guess I need some good tutorials on tweaking. All the tutorials I have found are on how to use it. I am a real newbie with this one. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

I'm not much of a tweaker.  As a fellow Tracfone user, and in addition to what I said about how to disable the Google apps, my main advice would be to make sure to set your apps to only update while connected to a Network. That way, it won't use your Data minutes while updating.

[cheiron]

I use CM browser on my Note 2. But then it is fully rooted with resurrection remix. Not a bad browser just ads.. i can't be bothered to purchase though lol

[Dan]

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

This might just be my personal preference, but rather than downloading files straight to my phone, I prefer to hook the phone up to my computer and transfer files from the computer's file manager to the phone. I just like being able to see everything on the computer's file manager instead of single folders on the phone's.

Then again, I don't do this often, and it could be that I just haven't found a file manager for my phone that I like...

[leenie]

Yay! I have found a browser that works great on my tracfone. Give Brave browser from the play store a try. I haven't been able to crash it yet.

[CharlieK]

I use Firefox and Chrome. The latter because my job demands this for some obscure reason and Firefox because I am trying to be wise.

On the side: I am doing the illogical thing of using a 'hosts file' (Steven Black) on my phone to avoid a lot of nasty crap.

[leenie]

Brave browser is blink based like Chrome, similar to Ghostery Privacy Browser setup with more privacy options. It sucks up way less battery power. Like I said I have yet to crash it. I have a low spec tracfone, and I can't believe how well Brave runs on it.

[Dan]

Thanks leenie. Sounds like I should give Brave a spin surf. 

[Dan]

I'm liking Brave! I do have one issue; in that, it won't allow me to sign in on one website...have to figure that out.

I like how it offers to make some pages "mobile friendly" too.

It also makes the font bigger in cases like this (typing this message) without having to enlarge the page.

Good find leenie! I might give Brave a try on my computer too.

[leenie]

Hi Dan, I tried it on pc, it was kind of heavy. When I had it  open task manager said over 1100 mb ram used with one page open.