Google Chrome for iOS Updated with Voice Search, Faster Page Reloading

Best iOS browser keeps getting better.

This is me: *Sees update for Chrome in App Store, hits update, loves the new features*

This goes on for all updates for Google Apps

But still nowhere near as good as safari.

If only it was as fast as Safari, and be made the default browser!

Then I'd use it!

.Asa said:

But still nowhere near as good as safari.

Click to expand...

Haha made my day!
Safari is so old fashioned. Shame on you Apple for I am forced to use it as standard.
Apple has the same attitude as M$ with InternetExplorer.
I'd bet a lot of money that chrome is exactly the browser Ive would have liked to see for iOS.
Clean, simple, fast.

love chrome if only i could set it as my default browser without the jb i just lost -.-

anomie said:

Haha made my day!
Safari is so old fashioned. Shame on you Apple for I am forced to use it as standard.
Apple has the same attitude as M$ with InternetExplorer.
I'd bet a lot of money that chrome is exactly the browser Ive would have liked to see for iOS.
Clean, simple, fast.

Click to expand...

I like Chrome but I think we have different definitions of the words, clean, simple and fast.

With the help of the jailbreak I made Chrome my default browser and bought Nitrous. Absolutely perfect.

Chrome just keeps getting better and better. This is a very welcomed update, they are streets ahead of apple in this area.

jabingla2810 said:

I like Chrome but I think we have different definitions of the words, clean, simple and fast.

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Maybe, but then I am right and you are wrong.
In safari I still have to scroll up the entire page to enter a new address or search.
Safari still has an address field and a search field (in osx Apple already adopted this from google).
Finally in safari I always have the stupid menu at the bottom. Why?
Cause it's nothing but old. I bet there will be nothing left from iOS 6 safari in iOS 7.
Safari is only fast cause Apple does not allow other developers what they allow their own.
Artificial.

Great!! Probably updated to try even more attempts to dial out and 'sniff' about my system.

My 'Littlesnitch' Application will probably go into meltdown with the 'Update'.

Why does Chrome try to sneak about my system and try to 'Update', when the App is not in use and supposed to be closed...?

Happens all the time and also whilst writing this post...

Chrome is a great desktop browser right on par with Safari. However, on mobile it is laughably bad. First of all, on iOS it can't use the Nitro Javascript engine so that means its significantly slower than Safari. It's basically just a wrapper for iOS Webkit which means any amateur can create a "browser" in iOS over the weekend just as fast as Chrome.

Anandtech did some testing showing Chrome FOUR TIMES slower than Safari in Javascript performance:

To check the difference, we ran the SunSpider 0.9.1 JavaScript benchmark on both browsers on the iPad three times each. Safari's average total time came out to 1843.8ms compared to Chrome's 7248.6ms, making Safari almost four times faster than Chrome in JavaScript. These results were largely duplicated by a number of other users as well, who saw anywhere from 7000ms to more than 9000ms results from Chrome (the higher end coming from iPhones, lower end from iPads).

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But then on Android, Chrome is very buggy and terribly laggy compared to the old Android browser. The old Android browser can't do a lot of modern HTML5 things but at least its somewhat stable. Most people I know with the newer Android phones that come with Chrome use a different browser.

Declaring Chrome to be the best mobile browser is one of the surest ways to out yourself as just a Google fanboy.

newagemac said:

Chrome is a great desktop browser right on par with Safari. However, on mobile it is laughably bad. First of all, on iOS it can't use the Nitro Javascript engine so that means its significantly slower than Safari. It's basically just a wrapper for iOS Webkit which means any amateur can create a "browser" in iOS over the weekend just as fast as Chrome.

Click to expand...

Have you attempted to write your own browser? I thought the same thing until I tried and I discovered that it's actually a lot more difficult than you would think to implement every little feature of mobile safari starting with the UIWebView.

(I wanted to actually make my browser a lot better than Safari, feature wise, but ultimately gave up since it was just a school assignment.)

Best browser in the game.

newagemac said:

Chrome is a great desktop browser right on par with Safari. However, on mobile it is laughably bad. First of all, on iOS it can't use the Nitro Javascript engine so that means its significantly slower than Safari. It's basically just a wrapper for iOS Webkit which means any amateur can create a "browser" in iOS over the weekend just as fast as Chrome.

Anandtech did some testing showing Chrome FOUR TIMES slower than Safari in Javascript performance:

Click to expand...

Safari, with full access to all of the private APIs and things like Nitro is definitely faster than 3rd party browsers overall, but it's not nearly as big of a difference as your quote implies. It isn't as if there is 60 seconds of javascript on every web page to churn through (as in a sunspider test). If it's just a few little code snippets here and there, it's not going to matter much if one gets done in .2 seconds and the other .05.

Haven't had a chance to play around with it yet but with voice search built into Chrome is there really any need now for the stand-alone Google Search app?

A Hebrew said:

Best iOS browser keeps getting better.

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Still nowhere near iCab Mobile.

This is why I love google. Always updating their products. Unlike, Apple who waits a whole year to be a 'feature' in the next version of iOS, instead of a steady stream of updates to keep up with the competition. No wonder they are always behind.

Razeus said:

This is why I love google. Always updating their products. Unlike, Apple who waits a whole year to be a 'feature' in the next version of iOS, instead of a steady stream of updates to keep up with the competition. No wonder they are always behind.

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I doubt it will happen, but I would love for iOS 7 to bring standalone Apple core apps that can be updated. There's no good reason that Safari, Photos, Weather, Mail, etc. have to wait a full year to be updated to the public.

I can't believe Nitro has been out for so long now and Apple still hasn't figured out how to allow third-party apps to use it.

Oh wait, they probably have, but want all third-party browsers to be inferior so people use Safari.

And the "security" argument doesn't hold water. Apps are sandboxed anyway, so a hole in nitro isn't going to let you get very far anyway.

zorinlynx said:

I can't believe Nitro has been out for so long now and Apple still hasn't figured out how to allow third-party apps to use it.

Oh wait, they probably have, but want all third-party browsers to be inferior so people use Safari.

And the "security" argument doesn't hold water. Apps are sandboxed anyway, so a hole in nitro isn't going to let you get very far anyway.

Click to expand...

there's really not much to figure out, the jailbreak community pretty much established that it's simply a matter of enabling it for use outside of safari

it's market control obviously. i'm just surprised that no one has put forth a case against them as was put forth against microsoft years back with internet explorer

A Hebrew said:

Best iOS browser keeps getting better.

Click to expand...

Best?

- Not default (unless you jailbreak), so links don't open in it.
- Slowest (unless you jailbreak and use Nitro).
- Can't "Copy" an image, so you have to copy and paste the link into Safari, then copy the image.

I think I'll stick with Safari.

Chrome is even worse on Android.

- Requires a 4.0+ OS, when most devices are stuck on 2.x or older.
- Requires a very fast device. Have a 1GHz device with 512MB RAM? It still chugs along and freezes frequently. It has thousands of 1-start reviews about how slow it is.

And don't get me started on the Desktop Chrome.

- No decent NoScript replacement.
- Inconsistent Auto-scroll. It's there on Windows, but not on Mac without installing an extension!
- This crap: "This extension is managed and cannot be removed or disabled."

Chrome is terrible on all platforms, but there's always a circle-jerk party for it.

Was anyone else hoping for the "touch-less conversational search" demoed at I/O. Eg..."Ok Google (insert search here)"? Sort of disappointed this isn't out yet.

I'd like Google to add a bookmark bar to iOS Chrome. At least for the iPad...