Microsoft Edge arrives (in beta) to Android and iOS devices - Sync between PC and Phone, "Continue on PC" feature, and more.

[GoodBytes]

Microsoft Edge, a web browser that start with poor impression following its hype which got massively since its release, and continues to improve step-by-step between every new updates of Windows 10 (next one October 17, I am typing a whole document on what is new and improved. And yes Edge got better like always there), is going multi-platform. A big issue/complaint is that Edge doesn't and cannot sync bookmarks, sessions, and so on with their phone as there is no version of Edge on it. Following the feedback (and its failed mobile strategy) , Microsoft is making Edge on iOS and Android device

 

 

 

 

The Verge says:

Quote

Microsoft is finally bringing its Edge browser to iOS and Android. It’s the next logical step in Microsoft’s new approach to mobile: make Android and iOS work better with Windows. If you’re an Android or iOS user, you’ll be able to use Microsoft Edge mobile to push webpages to a PC and resume where you left off. This “continue on PC” functionality is at the center of Edge for iOS and Android, and it’s useful for when you hit a mobile website that just doesn’t work right, or if you want to continue with a big screen and keyboard.

 

Beyond continue on PC, Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android also includes access to favorites, history, reading list, and ebooks. I’ve been testing Edge for the past couple of days, and the design looks and feels a lot like Microsoft Edge on the desktop. Microsoft has clearly tried to match this design, but it hasn’t quite matched all the features just yet.

 

One of the biggest missing features for me personally is tab syncing. While you can use continue on PC to get a similar experience, tabs and history of what you browse on mobile are not shared to the desktop version of Edge yet. Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore says the company still has work to do on the desktop version of Edge to support this, but the company is hoping to enable this at some point in the future.

 

 

Currently in Beta form, you can download and use Edge on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. It includes "Continue on PC" feature (requires Fall Creator Update, coming Oct 17),which will allow you, from your smartphone to send a page to your PC, where you can continue reading it where you left off. This is especially great for sites that doesn't work well on mobile. Bookmarks (Favorites), Reading List, purchased Windows eBooks. Currently as we speak, as The Verge noted, Tab sync is missing, and a few things. But it is in Beta, so these things might come before the official release or soon after (I mean I don't see why not)

 

 

To get Edge on iOS or Android, you'll need to sign up here:

 

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/5/16428658/microsoft-edge-ios-android-preview

 

 

 

NEWS UPDATE

 

Due to restrictions of iOS, and Apple policies:

Edge on iOS simply uses Safari like any other web browser. More exactly, it uses the Apple's Webkit engine. So, beside helping making your iPhone/iPad an extension to of your PC, and a different look, you won't get anything special, over any other web browser officially allowed on Apple App Store.

 

For Android, it is uses Blink from the Chromium browser. But it isn't a full web browser with a skin on top like iOS is basically is. They are just using the core engine Blink that is used, and Microsoft builds the rest on top of it, which Microsoft claims gives them more control and more performance over using Android WebView Control (ie: using Chrome). This is inline with other web browsers on Android, beside Chrome.

 

Microsoft says:

Quote

On iOS, we are using the WebKit engine, as provided by iOS in the WKWebView control. That means that from a compatibility perspective, Microsoft Edge for iOS should match the version of Safari that is currently available for iOS.

 

On Android, we are using the Blink rendering engine from the Chromium browser project. This approach gives us more control and better performance than using the Android WebView control, but means that we are shipping our own copy of the rendering engine in the app. Much like other Android browsers based on Chromium, we expect to keep up with Chromium releases. You can expect that, from a compatibility perspective, Microsoft Edge for Android will match the version of Chrome that is currently available for Android.

 

Source: https://www.onmsft.com/news/here-are-some-more-technical-details-on-microsoft-edge-for-ios-and-android

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

At least for Android users, if it is like Windows 10 Mobile version of Edge, you will be able to set the web browser to Desktop mode, and it will identify itself as a desktop web browser version of Edge, forcing the display of the non mobile version of sites anywhere you go. This allows you to get the full experience of sites, and not the cut down version. So for example, if you are a content creator, and you want to use YouTube.com, you have full access, you can upload videos, set thumbnails, do everything you can normally do on your PC with the site, on your phone. If your bank has a shitty mobile website and app, well, the full website will always display to you, and things will display correctly. Same for, say, your company websites - employee portal pages.

 

 

PS: Microsoft Launcher (aka: Arrow Launcher) for Android also got updated with "Continue on PC" feature.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.launcher&hl=en

(Has excellent reviews on Google Play Store. Look gorgeous (my opinion) as well)

 

 

 

[KuJoe]

Hopefully it allows the use of extensions so I can finally have a permanent fix for people who post dark fonts when I use the Night Theme here.

[Guest]

Oh man now ill finally be able to get a browser i would like to uninstall from my PC on my phone. Fabulous

[GoodBytes]

Just now, KuJoe said:

Hopefully it allows the use of extensions so I can finally have a permanent fix for people who post dark fonts when I use the Night Theme here.

I hope so too. But, I don't think it will be there on day 1. Might come later.

[KuJoe]

Just now, GoodBytes said:

I hope so too. But, I don't think it will be there on day 1. Might come later.

It's a race to see if Chrome does it first since I have an extension for both... but I doubt Chrome will offer it on mobile anytime soon.

[PlayStation 2]

I've been needing a Chrome replacement on my iPod.

[knightslugger]

9 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

Hopefully it allows the use of extensions so I can finally have a permanent fix for people who post dark fonts when I use the Night Theme here.

i just reply in white font.

 

Not sure i'll migrate my Chrome to edge anytime soon. i'm not a big fan of Edge anyway. fast as hell, sure, but clunky to use.

[Eduard the weeb]

kinda like edge so whatever.

[captain_to_fire]

It wants me to use W10 Insider Preview, that ain't happening. Also, Edge on iOS will still be using WebKit as Apple's terms of service of making a third party browser on iOS should use WebKit rendering engine and the Nitro Javascript engine. I guess with Android, Microsoft has the freedom of using their proprietary rendering engine.

[GoodBytes]

UPDATE:

Due to restrictions of iOS, and Apple policies:

Edge on iOS simply uses Safari like any other web browser. More exactly, it uses the Apple's Webkit engine

 

For Android, it is uses Blink from the Chromium browser. But it isn't a full web browser with a skin on top like iOS is basically is. They are just using the core engine Blink, and Microsoft builds the rest on top of it, which Microsoft claims gives them more control and more performance over using Android WebView Control (ie: Chrome)

 

[GoodBytes]

13 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

It wants me to use W10 Insider Preview, that ain't happening.

Yup. As mentioned, you'll need to wait for Oct 17 when Fall Creator Update will be released. I am working on a "Here is everything you need you to know..." type article as I always do with a new release of Windows 10. I am to release it during the weekend.

 

13 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Also, Edge on iOS will still be using WebKit as Apple's terms of service of making a third party browser on iOS should use WebKit rendering engine and the Nitro Javascript engine. I guess with Android, Microsoft has the freedom of using their proprietary rendering engine.

See update

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, GoodBytes said:

you'll need to wait for Oct 17

Well Windows 10 major releases tend to be somewhat a waiting game since Microsoft release the updates in waves and they have to test the new release on many different hardware configurations as to minimize bricking of PCs with different configurations. I think the Surface line tends to get it first. I'm not risking it with a beta operating system.

3 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

See update

Basically, Edge for iOS is more of a way to sync your history, bookmarks and open tabs across an iOS device and a Windows PC since Microsoft is aware that a lot of PC owners use an iPhone or iPad. I'm surprised that they went with Google's rendering engine Blink; a forked version of Webkit, since Mozilla is using their own open source rendering engine Gecko on Firefox for Android. I was hoping that Microsoft will use EdgeHTML on Edge for Android since an app developer has more freedom on Android.

[GoodBytes]

1 minute ago, hey_yo_ said:

Basically, Edge for iOS is more of a way to sync your history, bookmarks and open tabs across an iOS device and a Windows PC since Microsoft is aware that a lot of PC owners use an iPhone or iPad. I'm surprised that they went with Google's rendering engine Blink; a forked version of Webkit, since Mozilla is using their own open source rendering engine Gecko on Firefox for Android. I was hoping that Microsoft will use EdgeHTML on Edge for Android since an app developer has more freedom on Android.

This is probably because they want to release something now,/soon, and not in a year or so porting EdgeHTML for Android. And then maintenance and support will be much higher for the company, and have no guaranty that it will be any better. They can focus on the rest of the web browser component engines and the interface to differentiate itself as a much lower cost for Microsoft. I guess, if it becomes more popular, they might focus on porting EdgeHTML on Android.

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, GoodBytes said:

I guess, if it becomes more popular, they might focus on porting EdgeHTML

Or better yet, they should open source their rendering engine just like what Apple did with Webkit in 2005. More people to come and inspect the code, more bugs reported and fixed. 

[GoodBytes]

16 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Or better yet, they should open source their rendering engine just like what Apple did with Webkit in 2005. More people to come and inspect the code, more bugs reported and fixed. 

Maybe they will. But they want a solid web browser today. And again, porting stuff is not a weekend project. It is a whole team working on it, and it can take anywhere from 6 month to a year minimum. And things are more complex on Android, as everything needs to be in Java... you can't code directly in C/C++. So, optimization is a lot trickier. Java is quite limited compared to C/C++. It doesn't allow you to do those fine memory control. And so you can end up with an engine that is slow. To do a proper port, you need to know the inside out of Java, and Google's custom Java Runtime layer, to know what it is good at, and not, and design your code and algorithms to take full advantage of it. In other words, work with its strength.

 

The impact of Java in terms of performance, is visible on Android. I mean look at the Nintendo Switch. It is showing the impossible in terms of graphical and CPU power for the Tegra chip it has. Ignoring graphics (as this is thanks to its full, architecture wise, GeForce GPU), it is pumping impressive CPU performance due to not having to run Java runtime, to run Java made games. Devs can use the same code base (C/C++) for their games on other consoles and PC to the Switch, and so, due to the  much lower overhead of C/C++ compared to Java (my opinion), the Tegra chip appears faster than what it is.

 

P.S: On Android, while you have many programming languages, it all ends up in Java runtime binaries for the Google custom Java VM to execute.

[captain_to_fire]

17 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

as everything needs to be in Java

I thought Google is moving away from Java with Kotlin

[mynameisjuan]

Or I could just stick with chrome and firefox focus...

 

Yeah ill do that.

[GoodBytes]

58 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I thought Google is moving away from Java with Kotlin

Kotlin still uses Java Virtual Machine. It is just another language that compile in Java binaries codes.

[Trixanity]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

Maybe they will. But they want a solid web browser today. And again, porting stuff is not a weekend project. It is a whole team working on it, and it can take anywhere from 6 month to a year minimum. And things are more complex on Android, as everything needs to be in Java... you can't code directly in C/C++. So, optimization is a lot trickier. Java is quite limited compared to C/C++. It doesn't allow you to do those fine memory control. And so you can end up with an engine that is slow. To do a proper port, you need to know the inside out of Java, and Google's custom Java Runtime layer, to know what it is good at, and not, and design your code and algorithms to take full advantage of it. In other words, work with its strength.

 

The impact of Java in terms of performance, is visible on Android. I mean look at the Nintendo Switch. It is showing the impossible in terms of graphical and CPU power for the Tegra chip it has. Ignoring graphics (as this is thanks to its full, architecture wise, GeForce GPU), it is pumping impressive CPU performance due to not having to run Java runtime, to run Java made games. Devs can use the same code base (C/C++) for their games on other consoles and PC to the Switch, and so, due to the  much lower overhead of C/C++ compared to Java (my opinion), the Tegra chip appears faster than what it is.

 

P.S: On Android, while you have many programming languages, it all ends up in Java runtime binaries for the Google custom Java VM to execute.

I'm quite sure you're wrong. Android can run apps natively in C or C++ for the past 4 years I believe. The Java argument is frequently regurgitated but it would be pointless to write C or C++ if it all ended up running through a VM as you'd make things needlessly difficult with no benefit.

 

Also, their Edge mobile efforts didn't fall out of the sky so they should have had time to port. I'm pretty sure it was just more cost effective to use what was already working.

[GoodBytes]

3 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

I'm quite sure you're wrong. Android can run apps natively in C or C++ for the past 4 years I believe. The Java argument is frequently regurgitated but it would be pointless to write C or C++ if it all ended up running through a VM as you'd make things needlessly difficult with no benefit.

Sorry, yes you are correct.. but not a native full C/C++ app Only library, the main app is in Java. See Android NDK

 

[Trixanity]

34 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Sorry, yes you are correct.. but not a native full C/C++ app Only library, the main app is in Java. See Android NDK

 

From my reading the 'main' app can be written in C++ just fine. It might call on a library written in Java through JNI though. I don't see any documentation saying otherwise.

[NvidiaIntelAMDLoveTriangle]

Why would anyone who has either an Android or IOS device, even use Edge? Or even considering using it?

[vanished]

I would much rather have chrome on windows phone than edge on android.  Then again, I don't think my phone could withstand its RAMlust

[GoodBytes]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I would much rather have chrome on windows phone than edge on android.  Then again, I don't think my phone could withstand its RAMlust

You can, well Chromium. There is a Vietnamese company (but the app in full English) that made it. Called CoqCoq Browser (2x accents on each o's which I can't do), it means: Knock Knock Browser. Has extension support, fast, lean, full featured, UWP Windows 10 Mobile app, free, professional looking.

[Guest]

Just now, NvidiaIntelAMDLoveTriangle said:

Why would anyone who has either an Android or IOS device, even use Edge? Or even considering using it?

The only reason I would use it personally is that edge puts some of the controls at the bottom as firefox and chrome don't (At least for Android as I think safari still uses controls at the bottom) but still that is a stretch for a reason. Not going to stop me from downloading it as I already have 6 browsers on my phone