Tablets are great devices for reading and browsing websites. Using the touchpad is intuitive and convenient, and tablet screens don’t present the size limitations of mobile phones. However, with tablet web browsing, you will notice that many websites automatically load their mobile version. This is because the browser you are using identifies itself as a mobile based application to the websites you are visiting.
Being restricted to the mobile version of a website can be annoying since they often lack features offered by their desktop version. If you would prefer to view the desktop version of websites on your Google Android Honeycomb tablet, you will be delighted to hear that there are two simple ways to achieve this. Read on to find out how you can toggle between the desktop and mobile versions on your Honeycomb tablet.
Change The Honeycomb Browser User Agent Setting
The Honeycomb browser’s user agent is set to ‘Android’, which most websites interpret as ‘smartphone’, thus displaying the compact version of their website. To change this, you need to change the respective user agent string.
- Open the native browser on your Android Honeycomb tablet.
- Type about:debug in the address / URL bar and press Enter.
- Don’t expect anything to happen; it will probably look like nothing happened.
- Next, open the browser’s settings via the icon in the top right corner.
- Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
- Switch to the Debug tab via the left-hand menu.
- On the right side now select UAString.
- Select Desktop.
- Click the Back button in the bottom left corner of the browser to exit settings.
- Repeat step 2 to exit debugging mode.
Note that the setting may be reset every time you reboot your device.
Interestingly, the browser on Android-based smartphones has a different user agent setting, which reads ‘Android Mobile’. This actually allows websites to differentiate between tablets and smartphones. Unfortunately, not all websites support the two different settings and surprisingly, this includes Google Mail.
Use A Different Browser
You may find that some mobile websites are actually more convenient than their desktop counterparts. In this case you probably don’t want to change the user agent setting since switching back and forth between different settings is quite a hassle. The alternative solution is to use a different browser which allows you to toggle easily between the desktop and mobile version of a website.
A browser I highly recommend is Dolphin Browser HD. To rapidly switch between the mobile and desktop versions of a website, you also need to install the Dolphin Desktop Toggle add-on. Once installed, you will find a toggle button in the right-hand menu of the browser. The right-hand menu opens when you attempt to slide the browser window to the left. Pressing the toggle button will load the respective other version of the website, if available.
Are you still undecided which tablet to get? There are at least 5 Things To Consider Before Buying A Tablet PC. Maybe you would like to Try Google’s Android Mobile OS on Your Computer with Live CD? And if you have made up your mind about getting an Android Tablet, be sure to review The 3 Best Android Tablets Available Today That A Buyer Should Check Out.
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