I also tried MyEtherWallet
MyEtherWallet isn't a Bitcoin wallet.
blockchain . info is a good one. Well done for not thinking about Android. Love Android, but hey, friends separate, money separate.
No private keys=no bitcoins. Personally, I created a wallet sometime back to see how it looks and I don't find it so user-friendly and a bit confusing. (but that's just a personal opinion)
You need to tell your friend to wise up if he want's to use a online wallet. A lot of the online wallets won't allow you to know your private key so if the website ever goes down through DDOS or other attacks then you won't be able to access your Bitcoin.
Nope, no online wallet is 'safe', if you do not hold the private keys - you do not control or own the coin.
Also, I lost an account on blockchain.info, no longer there but the BTC still shows.. another story there..
Bitwala gives you the private keys, in fact, they don't store any keys, for security reasons. So if you lose your keys it's gone because they won't be able to help you with this.