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

[doug in albq]

Atomic is gone from the app store, only the free one is avaliable. Terra is gone and developer said Apple asked him to pull it.

I have both Atomic and iCab, and they both now crash and/or scrolling is now choppy and poor.

iCab developer said this:




'Yes, I know. Unfortunately I was forced to make this change because Apple
has requested this. There's a big issue with the "Web View" object of the
iOS we need to use to display web pages (Apple doesn't allow other web
engines than their own), and this is issue is that the scrolling is very
jerky, especially on more complex web pages. This is a well know issue
from the beginning. Writing bugreports to Apple didn't help, the scrolling
issue did never get fixed. But because Safari doesn't have an issue with
the scrolling though it uses the same web engine, it seems that there's a
hidden (private) call in the iOS which enabled the smooth scrolling.
So because Apple has obviously no intention in fixing this issue,
developers started to "fix" this by themselves by using this private
(but forbidden) call. All other web browser in the App store are doing
this, and iCab did this as well. But now Apple has detected this in iCab
and demanded that I remove this private call. It is possible that Apple
will be more strict in general now, so maybe in the future you'll see
more and more Apps getting jerky scrolling, when Apple is asking the
developers to remove this special call from their Apps as well.

I'll try to do my best to convice Apple to finally fix this scrolling
issue in the iOS.'






So it appears that Apple, being unable or unwilling to create a mobile browser (for tablets) that actually has a few standard features, chose to sabotage independent developers (usually just one person in the case of iCab & Atomic).

All I can say is WOW (almost evil).









EDIT: As of Saturday, May 14th, the full version of Atomic Web is back in the App Store. Scrolling seems fixed (!!).

Now, I am confused as to what exactly the dev. For iCab was speaking of because this does not seemto be an issue with the latest upadate to Atomic Web







EDIT #2: Upon further analysis, the scrolling in the new version of Atomic Web is far inferior to the scrolling of the now-pulled Terra Web Browser. This is most likely because the pulled Terra is using the illegal API, and the newly updated Atomic Web has removed the better scrolling that can currently only be enabled by the illegal use of an Apple API...

It seems that while the new version of Atomic Web is not using the illegal API to its advantage, the scrolling is still pretty darn good, a testament to the prowess of the developer!

[porcupine8]

Does this mean I shouldn't update Atomic or I'll get worse scrolling?

[CAWjr]

Eeven with the scrolling issue, iCab is far superior to Safari. I have iCab in my dock & Safari put in a folder of unused apps.

I just wish they would make a way to set iCab as a default browser, but I know that will never happen.

[benhollberg]

Looks like others are having the same problem. I don't use any alternative browsers but I sure hope Apple didn't do this.

[JulianL]

Originally Posted by CAWjr

Eeven with the scrolling issue, iCab is far superior to Safari. I have iCab in my dock & Safari put in a folder of unused apps.

Yup. That's exactly what I do, and am continuing to do even with the scrolling issue.

This issue of Apple only making a crippled version of WebKit available to third party apps really sucks. Trying to handicap the browsers is bad enough but that's not the whole story. Think how many other apps also have the ability to follow a link and view a web page from within the app, they must be forced to do this using the official Apple APIs for WebKit so they will all be affected by jerky scrolling and no access to the faster Javascript engine. For me other apps that use Webkit and are essential apps in my dock are Reeder and Friendly and there are others as well that I use (like Articles).

- Julian

[Smoothness]

Yeah I saw the update earlier and decided against it until further investigation. I'm fine with this older version

[kalex]

Nice going Apple. I find it very very very annoying that everything points to safari and no way of changing it. I would prefer to use icab as my main browser and I should be given a choice to be able to use it. Oh wait that's not what Apple wants me to do. Apple wants me to use their aweful safari

Perfect.

And why the need to remove icab modules? those modules make it so much more enjoyable to use it. Thats not what apple wants. Idiots

[EyeForget]

Originally Posted by porcupine8

Does this mean I shouldn't update Atomic or I'll get worse scrolling?

NEVER update Atomic Web if it works. I would suggest half their updates mess up something or another.

[chiefpavvy]

Originally Posted by CAWjr

I just wish they would make a way to set iCab as a default browser, but I know that will never happen.

If you're jailbroken, there's a great Cydia tweak called BrowserChanger which does it. I use it on my iPad 1 and iPhone 4, works great. Intercepts most calls to Safari and allows you to set iCab, for example, as the default browser.

I agree iCab is the better choice, despite the laggier scrolling and a few other limitations (slower JS) Apple throws in because they can't use certain API calls.

[Thedeathbear]

Originally Posted by EyeForget

NEVER update Atomic Web if it works. I would suggest half their updates mess up something or another.

What version do you run? I Am jailbroken so I can use installous to go back. YES, I have bought it, but I have installous to go back version for things like this....and maybe to go back to use a pandora skip hack.

[henchman]

I'll have to check those others out.
I've been using mercury, and it rocks.

[dukeblue91]

Maybe iCab and the others should make a version for the cydia store with the hidden API.

[CAWjr]

Originally Posted by chiefpavvy

If you're jailbroken, there's a great Cydia tweak called BrowserChanger which does it. I use it on my iPad 1 and iPhone 4, works great. Intercepts most calls to Safari and allows you to set iCab, for example, as the default browser.

I agree iCab is the better choice, despite the laggier scrolling and a few other limitations (slower JS) Apple throws in because they can't use certain API calls.

I know there is a LOT you can do if you jailbreak, but I don;t go that route. I want Apple to get their pretentious heads out of their pretentious asses & listen to what customers want. True flexibility & customizability.

[henchman]

Originally Posted by CAWjr

I know there is a LOT you can do if you jailbreak, but I don;t go that route. I want Apple to get their pretentious heads out of their pretentious asses & listen to what customers want. True flexibility & customizability.

Unfortunately that's not goingbto happen anytime soon.

[rayjay86]

Has anyone noticed that iCab doesn't work on the Apple support community forums? I tried typing in a message the other day (venting my frustration at Apple "geniuses" in the Apple store) and it wouldn't show a cursor and when I "zoomed in" it wouldn't show where the cursor was to edit text. The only way I could even make it work was if I changed the text box to HTML but even then I could type text but couldn't get the cursor to show up.

When I switched over to Safari it worked without a problem...

Anyone else notice that/know why?

[archdelux]

did this change happen in the last icab update (probably a couple weeks ago if i recall correctly?)

maybe it's just me, but i don't notice anything different about icab scrolling..

[doug in albq]

This story should be news on some of the mainstream tech news sites & blogs.

Funny, the story is a big deal and the news only exists on this thread!

We scooped Gruber, et al. Good job people.

BTW, two of my oher alt browsers have updates today. I bet their scrolling is slow and choppy if it was not before.

(Note to self: Do not update Terra or Mercury web browsers-too late for Atomic and the jury is still out on whether iCab—at lest on iPad2—has update with the new and unimproved scrolling.)

[zhenya]

In addition to this, Apple is refusing to give developers access to the new Javascript engine, so that Safari has a significant speed advantage. I've largely switched back to Safari just for this reason, which is probably exactly what Apple wants.

[gks]

I don't think many of you understand the concept of a bug. Have the dumbass developers of the dumbass webapps you use report it to Apple instead of publicly bemoaning that Apple has crippled the web view. The more people that report the bug, and the more people that uprate the bug on Radar the more likely it'll be to get fixed. Until then Apple probably will ignore it.

[Novim]

@gsk
You seem to ignore the very first post ih this thread. Read it again and you'll find what is the issue here.

[Readdlemate]

We are working on Terra. A new version will be submitted to the AppStore in 1-2 weeks.

[invisosniper]

This is very not cool... Almost anti-competitive...

Letting your browser have access to APIs that improve the performance... Yet preventing third parties from accessing those APIs while they innovate every other part of the browser experience...

Isn't this what Microsoft just got finished fighting in the EU?

I hope that Terra's 'work-around' provides a decent fix, perhaps that is why theirs is taking so long... QA Instead of rushing a quick fix out, they are taking the time to do a proper fix...

[patp]

Originally Posted by rayjay86

Has anyone noticed that iCab doesn't work on the Apple support community forums? I tried typing in a message the other day (venting my frustration at Apple "geniuses" in the Apple store) and it wouldn't show a cursor and when I "zoomed in" it wouldn't show where the cursor was to edit text. The only way I could even make it work was if I changed the text box to HTML but even then I could type text but couldn't get the cursor to show up.

When I switched over to Safari it worked without a problem...

Anyone else notice that/know why?

Press the key that minimizes the keyboard. then press it again and the cursor comes back.

[gks]

Originally Posted by Novim

@gsk
You seem to ignore the very first post ih this thread. Read it again and you'll find what is the issue here.

I read it. It is likely a low priority bug until enough people vote up the bug on radar or enough duplicates make it a priority. Simple as that.

It's a bug. It isn't Apple making things worse on purpose.

[doug in albq]

so, how are all you alt browser users liking your new-and-unimproved choppy scrolling?

EDIT: Today came iCab's predictable update. Of course, many new features and bug fixes will hide the fact that this update will gimp scrolling, because it will now not be using Apple's "illegal" API, you know, the one that makes scrolling large, image-heavy pages acceptable.

In the last few days Atomic Web, iCab, Mercury have all been "updated" so only Terra has the fast scrolling. My magic ball says Terra will also update in the next few days....