Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Alternate Web Browser for iPhone?

iPhone Safari

RedTomato said:
I've just started using an iphone. Came from a HTC windows mobile 5 device (TyTn).

I have to say, iPhone Safari takes some getting used to, compared to WM5 Internet Explorer.

WM5 IE reformats the page to a long column to fit the screen, making it easy to open a page and start reading. This matches the original intent of the WWW, to provide content independently of presentation, allowing devices and users to change presentation to suit their needs.

And (IRRC) it has instant previous page.

iPhone Safari preserves the page layout, meaning you always see the designer's layout. It has its advantages, and it's prettier, but it means EVERY SINGLE page I go to, I have to poke about, resize, fob about etc to get it to the right size for reading. (e.g. BBC News, MacRumours etc) OK for some, but for me it's a hassle, when I just want content presented quickly in a readable form. And it clashes with the original vision of the WWW.

Also, it seems to do a full reload every time I go to a previous page, wich takes longer, and it forgets where I was on that page too, so I have to poke and enlarge all over again.

Just my $0.02. Wouldn't mind having a few more options for how safari deals with pages.
Click to expand...

Dude no offense but if you're unhappy with your iphone, why don't you trade it back for a WM???

Didn't think you'd do that...LOL OWNED!
PS. Pinching and fobbing rules... ;) I'll take "pinching and fobbing" 1,000X in exchange for "real internet" page layout! (Minus of course, FLASH! Bad Apple! :D)
 
macfan09 said:
Dude no offense but if you're unhappy with your iphone, why don't you trade it back for a WM???
Click to expand...
I didn't say I was unhappy with my iPhone. I said 'iPhone Safari takes some getting used to'. That's one single app out of many. Don't put words in my mouth. Try reading a bit more carefully instead of leaping to conclusions.
 
Merlyn3D said:
I would expect getting flash to work on a mobile device with far less processing power and a different CPU architecture takes time. What's funny is you already have a mobile browser that far surpasses other and yet still you want more. Have patience...good things take time.
Click to expand...

and money. i doubt that the current iphones would do that well with flash anyway. maybe the next iphone?
 
Two other recommendations

First of all, there is an iPhone browser called SPY that allows you to define the "User Agent" (I.E. the type of browser it reports itself to be), and can thereby pretend to be a browser that many banks allow. That is what I use for online banking.

For other ecommerce stuff, I like to use a content filtering browser like SafetyNet (http://www.tinyurl.com/fortiphone is the iTunes link). That way, I can be assured that I am not being redirected to some untrusted website.
 
decadentdave said:
Wow, it's been 2 years and STILL no Flash or Firefox for iphone. WTF?
Click to expand...

I just don't get it. Why do you want firefox for iphone? What better it could do than safari?

and btw mozilla said that they are not doing a iphone port of firefox, atleast not at the moment.

Firefox desktop browser is very laggy and memory hungry, i don't want that on my iPhone. My Safari has been the best mobile browser i have used. Although it would be nice to test Opera Mini on the iphone.
 
carfac said:
That is assuming the WiFi source is secure, too. It could log everything through it, or spoof https and your destination site. WiFi is NOT secure, and I would never use it for Banking.
Click to expand...
Sorry but this is wrong. You cannot "spoof" a https connection since it uses certificates. A certificate certify that you are communicating with the site you want to communicate with and not someone else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTPS
 
emotion said:
Not really. There is no keychain on the iPhone like there is on a 'real' browser/OS.

I'm sure it will come.
Click to expand...

I know it's not the same thing as full fledged Keychain, but with iPhone OS 3.0 there is now AutoFill options and Safari can auto fill your info, passwords, etc.

You have to enable it by going into the Settings App - > Safari - > AutoFill area.
 
axxo08 said:
I'd like opera to launch thier browser for the iPhone
Click to expand...

So would Opera.

Seriously though, wish there was a real alternative at least in jailbreak. I'm so tired of Safari crashing all the damn time when a link to new window that is also a forward is involved.
 
alternative for safari

inf said:
I just don't get it. Why do you want firefox for iphone? What better it could do than safari?

and btw mozilla said that they are not doing a iphone port of firefox, atleast not at the moment.

Firefox desktop browser is very laggy and memory hungry, i don't want that on my iPhone. My Safari has been the best mobile browser i have used. Although it would be nice to test Opera Mini on the iphone.
Click to expand...

Well here in Holland safari doesnot support certain sites, while e.g. firefox does.

So there are reasons for having the possibility of having an alternative.

How to get apple to comply?
 
JPyre said:
Anybody that won't use wifi for banking has some serious paranoia issues, seriously get a girlfriend or lay off the smoke.
Click to expand...

Wow... You've obviously never been a victim of identity theft. WiFi is one of the easiest ways it can happen.

You've either been really lucky thus far, or your bank account is dry.
 
I found this thread while asking the same question today and thought I'd chime in and clear some things up.

Mozilla has been developing Fennec / Firefox Mobile and has releases for Android and N900. I don't know if an iPhone port is even possible since the SDK terms forbid having embedded interpreters (JavaScript) or using cross platform toolkits.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/mobile/
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/27/firefox-iphone-2/

There are still some other alternatives, however. Opera Mini gets around the restrictions by proxying all requests through Opera's servers and executing the JS there. I think this is more for low-end phones.

http://www.opera.com/mobile/

Skyfire embeds Webkit, so it will still render the same as Mobile Safari, and includes some other features like transcoding Flash video to HTML5. The rest of its features are pretty underwhelming, IMO.

http://www.skyfire.com/ ($2.99)

iSurf looks like its on the right track to making an alternative with tabbed browsing and better gesture support.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/isurf/id360970775?mt=8 ($1.99)

There were a couple others I found but nothing else seemed worth mentioning. I'm probably going to be sticking with Mobile Safari for now until the competition gets a little stronger.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back