The folks behind the popular Dolphin Browser (
http://browser.mgeek.mobi/) for Google Android have seriously upped the game with the release of Dolphin Browse HD (
http://home.dolphin-browser.com/tunny/Download.htm) for Android 2.0 and up. The new browser is fast and supports multitouch pinch zoom, just like the default Android browser. But it has several features which make it really stand out.
The first is support for add-ons, something you don’t see in mobile browsers very often. Sure, Firefox Mobile will support add-ons, but that project is still in the early testing phases. Dolphin Browser HD is already pretty stable even though it was just released to the public.
Right now there are just a handful of add-ons available including social networking and bookmarking plugins that make it easy to share pages via twitter, Facebook, and Delicious. There’s also an add-on that lets you save your bookmarks to an SD card which makes it easy to backup and restore your bookmarks. You can also install a Bookmarks Widget that shows your favorites on your Android home screen.
Dolphin Browser HD also supports visual themes, although there are only two themes available at the moment: The default theme and the Violet Hill theme which you can download from the Android Market.
Like the original Dolphin Browser, the new version shows browser tabs at the top of the screen, making it easy to flip back and forth between open web pages. You can open up to 8 pages at once. While there’s not room to show all 8 tabs at the top of the screen, you can just flick the tab menu left or right to see hidden tabs. When you scroll down a page, the tab bar will disappear, so it doesn’t take up too much screen real estate.
You can also pull up an overlay window showing thumbnails for open pages either by hitting the Windows button from the settings menu or by flicking your finger across the screen from left to right.
Dolphin Browser HD supports gestures, which means you can draw on the screen to initiate some actions. For example, drawing a sort of ^ with your finger will take you to the top of a page. Some of the more complicated gestures were a bit hit or miss. For the life of me, I couldn’t get the computer to recognize my gesture for “Load URL: Facebook,” until I realized that you had to draw the f-like symbol from top to bottom and not the other way around.
The browser also includes a YouTube video downloader, bookmark sorting, and a number of customization options. You can find out more by checking out the video below or taking a look at some of the screenshots posted after the break.
Dolphin Browser HD is available as a free download from the Android Market. The free version will show ads in the bookmarks menu, but you can remove ads by purchasing a $4.99 Dolphin License from the add-ons menu or the Android Market.
