Atomic Browser vs iCab

[gwynne]

Right now I've found Atomic to be the one I want to use when doing fairly standard web browsing, by which I mean lots of reading, sometimes with multiple tabs. I do get the text-entry bug sometimes (the one where it forgets it's in text mode), but closing the keyboard and retapping the field fixes that for now. It's generally remained the most usable for me and my browsing habits. But icab does have one advantage, the black and white module. This makes browsing forums where you want to uncover "spoiler tags" much easier.

Meanwhile, a very few sites only seem to operate right in safari, so I'm basically stuck with all three.

 

[ScottFitz]

Try going to the settings and choosing 'Identify Browser as' option. Select Desktop Safari then close the browser then reload facebook. You should have no problem.

I've had it that way since I first started using it. That was initially my first reason for using it. Thanks for the tip. I'll give it some time. I'm sure it'll get better.

 

[GoCubsGo]

If you press the hide keyboard button then tap the text entry box again you get the cursor back. Still a bug but a quicker workaround than pressing preview

Holy crap thank you!!!

I've also just switched to icab. Atomic's bugs with opening links in background and losing focus on type areas annoys me to no end.

When using atomic, you can long press to open a link in the background tab, but when you're zoomed in a page, it often opens up a wrong link.

Also if you're typing something when a page is still loading, wether the adressbar or a replybox as this one, you'll lose keyboard focus when the page is done loading.

Also atomic can't handle popup login dialogues and it can't save typed passwords.

Icab can do all of this without problems.

iCab loses focus, it was doing it last night. I am not sure why I did not notice it right away but it does indeed happen. With iCab I went to Imageshack to copy a line to link a pic and though it said "copied" it didn't actually copy. Safari did though, Atomic was never tried. All three have their downfalls.

by far, Atomic is more robust, stable, faster and more American that iCab, and half the price.

To quote you ... "huh? I think you are extrapolating a bit to far there...." Seriously, more American?
I bet when you call customer service and get Pune India that you're one of those people who demand to speak to an American, right?

 

[doug in albq]

Holy crap thank you!!!
iCab loses focus, it was doing it last night. I am not sure why I did not notice it right away but it does indeed happen. With iCab I went to Imageshack to copy a line to link a pic and though it said "copied" it didn't actually copy. Safari did though, Atomic was never tried. All three have their downfalls.

To quote you ... "huh? I think you are extrapolating a bit to far there...." Seriously, more American?
I bet when you call customer service and get Pune India that you're one of those people who demand to speak to an American, right?

Why listen to the few obvious trolls, spammers and posters with hidden agendas on this thread, including me!?

Instead, why not trust Apple's iTunes app reviews as an unbiased judge?

OK lets do that...

Per Apple's iTunes App Reviews:

Atomic: All Versions 1,570 reviews, 4 out of 5 stars. Current version 425 reviews, 4 out of 5 stars

iCab: All Versions: 382 reviews, 3.5 out of 5 stars. Current version 90 reviews, 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Also, last time I checked, I still am a citizen of the good old USA, and yes that does matter to me—buy American.

EDIT: if you click on my blog link you will see that my agenda is not hidden, so I am none of the above. Biased or not, Atomic is still better, faster, more stable, and, yes, more American.

Really? That truely [sic] is a reason for you to buy anything? Because it's american?

yup.

 

[srl7741]

I'm giving in to iCab 4 now.....

 

[JNGold]

EDIT: if you click on my blog link you will see that my agenda is not hidden, so I am none of the above. Biased or not, Atomic is still better, faster, more stable, and, yes, more American.

I am changing back to iCab. Why? It is absolutely faster consistently than Atomic. Opening the same website on launching, icab ALWAYS is completed loading the page a good 3-4 seconds faster than Atomic. As far as stability, both have crashed from time to time so there is no competitive advantage either way there. Plus, icab's password and form saving cability offer features that Atomic doesn't.

That being said, the speed difference on launching is the major reason I have switched back to iCab.

 

[srl7741]

Well? guess I've changed my mind just a bit. iCab does not seem to work too well when entering information into forms etc. The keyboard seems to be a bit tricky to use (like posted above). It's annoying enough to where I'm gonna have to wait for improvements b4 I can use it exclusively.

Tabs are nice, page load good and the full browser window is also very nice.
I like it but it's going to a part time status.

I was hoping to promote it to a full time position.

 

[Redneck1089]

I just wanted to point out something:

- They both drain battery quicker than Safari.

- If you have GoodReader installed on the iPad, you can kind of download using Safari too, just by putting a "g" before the URL (e.g. ghttp://randomvideo.avi)

Haven't used iCab yet so I will try it before I weigh it against Atomic Browser.

I have not found that my battery drains faster using Atomic Browser. ...


EDIT: Has anyone else besides Harrison here experienced battery drain using either one of these broswers?

 

[srl7741]

I have not noticed any while using iCab. I've only been using it for a few days but I still have not seen any increase in battery usage.

 

[JulianL]

If iCabmobile is draining my battery faster then I wonder what the life would be with Safari! I'm getting about 12 hours on a charge. I think this stuff about draining the battery faster is highly suspect (probably for both browsers).

I'm an iCabmobile person but I confess that I haven't tried atomic. As far as developer support is concerned, I emailed the developer some suggestions last Sunday afternoon and had a detailed reply back, covering each of my suggestions one by one, within a couple of hours. It was a very constructive response and he's subsequently sent me another follow-up email to update me on some tests he did as a result of one of my comments. I can't fault him for his support of his product.

I don't know if atomic has an equivalent but one thing that got me really excited about icabmobile is the modules feature. A module in icabmobile is a Javascript program that can be loaded into the browser and invoked by a button press. It's a bit like Firefox extensions and there are a few modules that are already available for download like one that, with a single click of a button, automatically translates all the text on the current page using Google translation. I tried it on a page in French and it automatically detected the language and translated it into my default language (English) really nicely. As more people start writing modules for icabmobile and publishing them then this could become really exciting and open the door for things like proper password managers and other stuff.

- Julian

 

[srl7741]

I don't want to sound wishy washy but I'm leaning more toward Atomic. I like both but it seems I have less problems with Atomic. So I guess I would recommend trying both before deciding on one if at all possible. I'm not noticing any difference in speed between the two. The Atomic seems to have more eye candy I guess.

.

 

[JulianL]

There's one thing that I suspect we'll all agree on. Isn't it great that we have at least two strong candidates that are trading blows and trying to better each other with every new release. Isn't competition great when it's done in a straightforward an honest way like this.

- Julian

 

[mixvio]

I got Perfect Browser, Atomic and iCab. I loathe the way the first two look (I can live with a colour scheme, but the icons look bad and the UI has so many inconsistencies that it's not even funny, on both of them) and then I tried iCab. iCab looks *so* much better, and allows me to import my desktop's Firefox browsers which is a big plus. I do wish I could hide the bookmarks bar, but I can live with that considering how much better it looks. I'll use it more consistently and see if I have any quirks with stability but it will have to be epic to make me consider anything else.

 

[srl7741]

I think at this point it's a race to listen to and update each Browser based on customer feedback. They all seem to have quirks that need addressed. The developer who listens and improves the best will gain the most users in the end. The cost of each will level out also. Just a guess or a wish of mine at this point. Non of them are Safari replacements. I've deleted all but Atomic for now.

Actually I wish Google would release a Chrome Browser for the iPad.
I know, not going to happen but it would be nice.

 

[iRabbit]

I didn't even know icab existed until tonight and reading through this thread... I've downloaded it and will be giving it a good workout the next few days.

Atomic has been my browser of choice since I bought the iPad... It Was the first app I installed. But there have been a few little bugs that have annoyed me, so it will be nice to see how icab compares.

Great info everyone!

 

[Redneck1089]

If iCabmobile is draining my battery faster then I wonder what the life would be with Safari! I'm getting about 12 hours on a charge. I think this stuff about draining the battery faster is highly suspect (probably for both browsers).

I'm an iCabmobile person but I confess that I haven't tried atomic. As far as developer support is concerned, I emailed the developer some suggestions last Sunday afternoon and had a detailed reply back, covering each of my suggestions one by one, within a couple of hours. It was a very constructive response and he's subsequently sent me another follow-up email to update me on some tests he did as a result of one of my comments. I can't fault him for his support of his product.

I don't know if atomic has an equivalent but one thing that got me really excited about icabmobile is the modules feature. A module in icabmobile is a Javascript program that can be loaded into the browser and invoked by a button press. It's a bit like Firefox extensions and there are a few modules that are already available for download like one that, with a single click of a button, automatically translates all the text on the current page using Google translation. I tried it on a page in French and it automatically detected the language and translated it into my default language (English) really nicely. As more people start writing modules for icabmobile and publishing them then this could become really exciting and open the door for things like proper password managers and other stuff.

- Julian

I still have yet to notice faster battery drain using Atomic abroswer over safari. Still getting around 12 hours myself.

 

[Sfdoddsy]

Is there any way to get iCab to save passwords?

So far only Safari seems to do this properly.

 

[JNGold]

Is there any way to get iCab to save passwords?

So far only Safari seems to do this properly.

In the toolbar click the "+" sign And select "save forms". I find that when filling out forms, it works much better than Safari.

 

[iRabbit]

Sorry, but now that I've used icab for a few days I'm back to Atomic. ICab just crashes way too much. I'll give it a go again after their next update, but for now, Atomic is just better.

I also want to say that yes, it opens faster than Atomic, but that's because it's not reloading the pages/tabs you had opened. It's giving you an offline version. By the time I refresh things to see the most current content, I might as well have just used Atomic and waited for it to do that for me.

 

[JulianL]

Sorry, but now that I've used icab for a few days I'm back to Atomic. ICab just crashes way too much. I'll give it a go again after their next update, but for now, Atomic is just better.

It's really odd how, even on a closed device like an iPad, people's experiences can be so different. I've never had a single crash in iCab, not one.

It makes me think that there must be something in certain websites that it doesn't handle properly and none of the websites that I visit have any of the troublesome stuff in them.

Do your crashes tend to be totally random or can you see any pattern with them tending to happen on certain sites?

- Julian

 

[JNGold]

It's really odd how, even on a closed device like an iPad, people's experiences can be so different. I've never had a single crash in iCab, not one.

It makes me think that there must be something in certain websites that it doesn't handle properly and none of the websites that I visit have any of the troublesome stuff in them.

Do your crashes tend to be totally random or can you see any pattern with them tending to happen on certain sites?

- Julian

Same experience here. iCab has been very stable for me also. That's not to say it has never crashed but no more (or less) so than Atomic - which I also have on my iPad.

I also have my browser set to Safari (iPad). I wonder if that might have some affect on certain websites if set to some other value (the default is standard).

 

[JulianL]

Same experience here. iCab has been very stable for me also. That's not to say it has never crashed but no more (or less) so than Atomic - which I also have on my iPad.

I also have my browser set to Safari (iPad). I wonder if that might have some affect on certain websites if set to some other value (the default is standard).

Ooh, you're right. What the user agent is set to might be a big variable. I know from personal email exchanges that the developer is looking at being able to set site-specific rules to define what agents can be used for specific sites, e.g. Stay at the default most of the time but have specific setting for specific sites that need it.

I really do get the impression, from my communications with the icab developer, that he has a lot of stuff in the pipeline.

- Julian

 

[srl7741]

I just noticed Atomic released an update and now has the book mark bar added

look for the update in the Store.

 

[iRabbit]

First thing I did when I opened iCab the first time was change the user agent to Safari (iPad).

I visit a lot of different forums (running vbulletin, like this one). I usually have Facebook open in a tab also. eBay has crashed iCab. Amazon crashed it once. Youtube crashes it a lot. Sometimes it just seemed random (more than 4 tabs open though.)

I rarely have crashes with Atomic under the same condition.

 

[lokerd]

Atomic has a bug. When I am typing a reply (for example) in a forum (like this) out of no where the cursor disappears.

I have had the same problem...but with iCab. I have found that I just need to collapse the keyboard, then tap back in the typing area and the keyboard pops back up and I can type again.

I use mostly iCab...because Atomic seems to crash more with more than 4 tabs. But then so does iCab...with more than 5.

Oh, and I don't understand why people don't like the Bookmark Bar...that is awesome having all of the most visited sites on the bar. I edit the names to be really short...like this sit is called MR. I do this in Firefox for the desktop and it is perfect.

Also, why can't either iCab or AB enalrge pages as big as Safari?

Really, all I want is a freaking arrow key for the keyboard!!!