Did Apple Sabotage iCab & Atomic Web & other alt browsers...??

doug in albq said:

Might help if you read the post directly above yours...

Also, one could download any app to their iOS device, NOT download it to your actual computer that you sync with, and delete it before you sync with your desktop/laptop in iTunes...

I did this with Terra to test it.

Click to expand...

Top tip, will implement!

I can confirm Sleipnir 1.3 is as smooth as a peach. How did the dev get this past Apple? Dynamic recompilation hiding the call? Who cares, the smoothnes and new features make this the indisputable choice for the discerning user.

What can I say, I'm delighted!



New Features....


Update with a circle gesture
You can update a webpage by drawing a circle on the screen with your finger.

Quick access to Twitter/Facebook
View pages with basic authentication
Improved Hold And GO
Added Unclassified bookmarks
Improved bookmark sync
Enable to add custom user agent flexibly
Improved operational stability

To be honest, I can't say I've noticed any performance difference with iCab on either my iPhone's or my iPad 2. Then again, I'm not a heavy user. Casual at best and infrequent. I really like iCab and have adjusted to the interface and how to get things done (like grabbing files) and really don't have any intention of making further changes. If anything, iOS 5's Safari will probably win me back making all of these alternate browsers obsolete in my book. YMMV.

Sleipnir 1.3.1 has hit app store with some stability fixes. I can confirm it scrolls as smoothly as ever.

Muzzakus said:

I can confirm Sleipnir 1.3 is as smooth as a peach. How did the dev get this past Apple? Dynamic recompilation hiding the call? Who cares, the smoothnes and new features make this the indisputable choice for the discerning user.

What can I say, I'm delighted!



New Features....


Update with a circle gesture
You can update a webpage by drawing a circle on the screen with your finger.

Quick access to Twitter/Facebook
View pages with basic authentication
Improved Hold And GO
Added Unclassified bookmarks
Improved bookmark sync
Enable to add custom user agent flexibly
Improved operational stability

Click to expand...

Lol, sounds like an ad. As far s the clear choice for the discerning user...I don't like losing 1/3 of my screen real estate, so no thanks!

I know, I'm resuscitating an old thread. I've been following it for a while and was thinking about this thread as I was looking in the app store on the iPad. I don't think Apple is sabotaging alternative browsers. Look at how many of Apple's own apps, like the app store, use web views. They are also vulnerable to the minor stuttering issue. And having used iOS 5 for a couple of weeks now I can tell it hasn't been addressed yet. Perhaps the key is both to report it as a bug but also point out Apple's own products that are affected by it.

nwcs said:

I know, I'm resuscitating an old thread. I've been following it for a while and was thinking about this thread as I was looking in the app store on the iPad. I don't think Apple is sabotaging alternative browsers. Look at how many of Apple's own apps, like the app store, use web views. They are also vulnerable to the minor stuttering issue. And having used iOS 5 for a couple of weeks now I can tell it hasn't been addressed yet. Perhaps the key is both to report it as a bug but also point out Apple's own products that are affected by it.

Click to expand...

Well, it's very apparent they don't want us to use other browsers.
I'm not really sure why as I don't see what harm it possibly does them.

If they were happy for people to use other browsers then they would have put an option under the settings area to select your default browser.

They obviously know that when anyone taps on a web link, perhaps in an email then Safari pops up and has to be closed if you don't like Safari.

They have chosen to keep it this way despite knowing that it would be very annoying for those who prefer a different browser.

I guess it's as they want to try and force Safari to be more popular. However for me, that's always the wrong way. You may yourself popular, and people wanting to use your product by being the best. Not just by being deliberately awkward.

Piggie said:

Well, it's very apparent they don't want us to use other browsers.
I'm not really sure why as I don't see what harm it possibly does them.

If they were happy for people to use other browsers then they would have put an option under the settings area to select your default browser.

They obviously know that when anyone taps on a web link, perhaps in an email then Safari pops up and has to be closed if you don't like Safari.

They have chosen to keep it this way despite knowing that it would be very annoying for those who prefer a different browser.

I guess it's as they want to try and force Safari to be more popular. However for me, that's always the wrong way. You may yourself popular, and people wanting to use your product by being the best. Not just by being deliberately awkward.

Click to expand...

If they really did not want us to use other browsers then they never would have allowed them on the app store to begin with. I agree however that the lack of an option to select your default browser is annoying. It could be as you said a way to force Safari to be more popular. A less conspiratorial way to look at it though could be that it could just be a throwback to when they did not allow any browser. Either way it is annoying and needs to be fixed.

Fix with jailbreak

Hey all. I've been fascinated by this thread, and annoyed by the issue. I've found something that hasn't been mentioned yet. It was noted that the developer made a change causing the scrolling issue. If you are jailbroken you can downgrade to a version prior to iCab's developer changing the scrolling. I experimented with it until I found out this change was made in 4.8. If you can track down and install 4.6 scrolling is silky smooth again. Yes yes piracy is terrible terrible terrible. So buy it first through the app store, then install the old version. All of your previous bookmarks and settings carry over!

Tah dah!

I should add, you of course loose a few recent tweaks and additions. To me it's worth it, but I'm noticing gestures to be less responsive and a couple missing things from the "action" menu.

Any news on io5 fixing 3rd party browser scrolling issues that have plagued us?

Muzzakus said:

Any news on io5 fixing 3rd party browser scrolling issues that have plagued us?

Click to expand...

Still the same in IOS 5 GM. Safari is nicer though with tabs, reading view etc. but it could use gestures for swapping tabs, navigating etc.

Donka said:

Still the same in IOS 5 GM. Safari is nicer though with tabs, reading view etc. but it could use gestures for swapping tabs, navigating etc.

Click to expand...

Extremely disappointing. Any other info on what the future holds? Maybe ios5 specific app updates need to be made to the 3rd party browsers?

Muzzakus said:

Extremely disappointing. Any other info on what the future holds? Maybe ios5 specific app updates need to be made to the 3rd party browsers?

Click to expand...

That's a question for developers. I don't see this changing as this was apparantly a private API that dev's had used previously. Unless Apple allow the use of it again then I don't see it changing. A shame really as I prefer 3rd party browsers as well. The same situation relates to movie players, they cannot leverage the GPU for video decoding as Apple don't allow it.

Looks like all prominent browsers are now performing like crap. I'm surprised this topic is not on fire. Is there anywhere else a tech discussion is raging right now. I'd like to follow it if possible.

How about a whitelist of smooth browser versions?

Smooth Scrolling:
iCab 4.6.0
Diigo Browser (ichromy)

Smooth but slow reload:
iLunascape

Not smooth (legal webview)
Mercury
Maven
Atomic
Skyfire
Grazing
Apollo
Sleipnir
Terra
Dolphin HD
Knowtilus

chromax said:

How about a whitelist of smooth browser versions?

Smooth Scrolling:
iCab 4.6.0
Diigo Browser (ichromy)

Smooth but slow reload:
iLunascape

Not smooth (legal webview)
Mercury
Maven
Atomic
Skyfire
Grazing
Apollo
Sleipnir
Terra
Dolphin HD
Knowtilus

Click to expand...

Thank you. Using IChromy to write this. What a difference a smooth scroll brings to the experience. Very slim pickings in worthwhile browsers now. What a shame.

I haven't had any scrolling issues wit iCab since I upgraded to the 3rd generation iPad.

dukeblue91 said:

I haven't had any scrolling issues wit iCab since I upgraded to the 3rd generation iPad.

Click to expand...

Same here. iCab works fine on iPad 3..and the last update finally fixed the Firefox Sync issue I had (It caused iCab to freeze).

Opera looks turrible. Not retina ready so the top bar is tiny.

I own an iPad 1 and at work I develop on Ipad 2 and 3. The scrolling issue only happens on the iPad 1 in a disturbing way. The iPad2 and 3 has enough cpu that you simply not recognize it. But the bug is there.

Because the iPad1 is outdated the problem wll disappear by itself. I will use my iPad 1 and do not need to upgrade, but the prize I have to pay is to use iCab 4.6 or Safari forever.

Furthermore I downgraded to IOS 4.3.3. because IOS 5 sucks RAM as hell and has no advantages for me.

Muzzakus said:

I can confirm Sleipnir 1.3 is as smooth as a peach. How did the dev get this past Apple? Dynamic recompilation hiding the call? Who cares, the smoothnes and new features make this the indisputable choice for the discerning user.

What can I say, I'm delighted!



New Features....


Update with a circle gesture
You can update a webpage by drawing a circle on the screen with your finger.

Quick access to Twitter/Facebook
View pages with basic authentication
Improved Hold And GO
Added Unclassified bookmarks
Improved bookmark sync
Enable to add custom user agent flexibly
Improved operational stability

Click to expand...

Maybe you have a backup of that in your itunes and you can upload it? (sharehoster)
I search for the version before it started to scroll crappy but its not easy because there is no "oldversion.com" for apps but I really like Sleipnir. I only have iCab 4.6 here.

chromax said:

Maybe you have a backup of that in your itunes and you can upload it? (sharehoster)
I search for the version before it started to scroll crappy but its not easy because there is no "oldversion.com" for apps but I really like Sleipnir. I only have iCab 4.6 here.

Click to expand...

Sorry no. Slinir is dead to me now with the terrible performance. Official Chrome is out. Guess what, chop city.

Hi, I am interested in the opinions of everybody talking about Sleipnir.
I work with the Sleipnir team, and would love to help users, and use any feedback to improve the development of Sleipnir.

Yes, quite a few people have mentioned how "Sleipnir" is a difficult word to remember and pronounce. The company is actually from Japan, and when "Sleipnir" was originally created it was on a much smaller scale than today, so the English market was not important at that time. It is very easy to pronounce once converted into Katakana in Japanese.

Regarding smooth scrolling, tabs taking too much space, etc., I will suggest your feedback to the development team.

Thank you

doug in albq said:

To me, the most recent updates to Atomic Web & iCab are now unusable if you want a great browsing experience. The scrolling is not smooth even on lean, well-coded sites like Macrumors.

The browser Sleipnir (sp?—never going to remember how to spell that one!) is cool in a gimmicky-sort-of-way, but its rendering of tabs takes up too much space and cannot be hidden. Virtually no features where Atomic & iCab have hundreds. Smooth scrolling for now, I bet it will not last.

I will not update Terra, as it is the only full strength browsere with smooth scrolling i currnly own.

Safari is fast, but I NEED TABS!

Oh please, Apple, give Safari some tabs in iOS 5, please....

Click to expand...

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Hi, thank you for your feedback regarding Sleipnir.

I will check out the "Smooth Scolling" browsers and compare them with Sleipnir to see what can be done, and make suggestions to the development team. If you can provide any further feedback it will be greatly appreciated.

chromax said:

How about a whitelist of smooth browser versions?

Smooth Scrolling:
iCab 4.6.0
Diigo Browser (ichromy)

Smooth but slow reload:
iLunascape

Not smooth (legal webview)
Mercury
Maven
Atomic
Skyfire
Grazing
Apollo
Sleipnir
Terra
Dolphin HD
Knowtilus

Click to expand...

damiengolding said:

If you can provide any further feedback it will be greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

Why doesn't the option to change user agent works?
Is it because on iOS you guys have to resort to using the underlying safari engine and it simply changes the headers at will and puts safari mobile as user agent?

I found it appropriate to discuss here, since it might seem as either you guys have a bug, or Apple is "sabotaging" as the OP implies.