Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Atomic Browser vs iCab
- Thread starter flipangle
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I can sort of answer that last question because I emailed it as a bug to the icab developer last week and I think that his answer covers Atomic as well. Aparently it's a limitation imposed by Apple that third party apps using the WebKit (which is what all these browsers are built on) don't get access to as high a level of zoom as Safari does. Apparently he's exploring some workarounds to see if he can improve matters but I've no idea what, when, or whether they'll get past the AppStore police.lokerd said:
Re bookmark bar, I agree; I can't imagine being without it. Personally I maximize space on my bar by using folders rather than shortened names but it's good to have the choice.
I've also had the disappearing cursor issue with icab but it's never bothered me enough to report it. If it really bugs you then it's probably worth emailing the developer about it. In my experience he's very good about replying to emails.
- Julian
What's the difference between paid and free Atomic? I've only played with the free version. What features have I missed out on trying?
- Julian
- Julian
Ah. Thanks. That makes sense because I did only ever run it once. As soon as I found that it didn't (at the time) have an on-screen bookmarks bar I judged that to be so important to me that it could never compete with icab that I'd already tested and liked. I didn't see any other killer features that could compensate for that big negative and I wasn't having any stability issues whatsoever with iCab (and I'm still not).
Maybe I'll download the free version again in a few months, once both browsers have had a couple more version updates. I have no real issues with iCab but the browser is the single most important app on my device so it makes sense to keep up to date on developments. I don't think that I can be bothered to do it on every single version change though - maybe just a couple of times a year or so.
- Julian
I have all three
After I noticed the appearance of iCab yesterday I've revisited atomic and it's moved on a lot since I used it first on my iPhone.
I'd say for me it's two or three features away from being spot on in the way bookmark folders are handled:
1) change open all bookmarks in tabs to have the same behavior as desktop safari, i.e. Close the current set before opening the new. Having 12+ tabs open at the same time is not going to work.
2) lose the option to open a bookmark in a new tab, I prefer to add the tab and then open the bookmark which leads to
3) move open all in tabs to the bottom of the list of bookmarks in the folder, as safari does.
The open all bookmarks in a tab has moved me to using atomic, the minor tweaks above would leave me not looking at another browser...
After I noticed the appearance of iCab yesterday I've revisited atomic and it's moved on a lot since I used it first on my iPhone.
I'd say for me it's two or three features away from being spot on in the way bookmark folders are handled:
1) change open all bookmarks in tabs to have the same behavior as desktop safari, i.e. Close the current set before opening the new. Having 12+ tabs open at the same time is not going to work.
2) lose the option to open a bookmark in a new tab, I prefer to add the tab and then open the bookmark which leads to
3) move open all in tabs to the bottom of the list of bookmarks in the folder, as safari does.
The open all bookmarks in a tab has moved me to using atomic, the minor tweaks above would leave me not looking at another browser...
AndyMulhearn said:
And one more change, shrink the size of the close tab crosses, they're way too big and look clumsy on an otherwise very slick UI.
Oh, and we need to do something about the macrumors comment field - not being able move the cursor to the bottom of the entry field meant I had to quote rather than edit my previous message.
I'm exactly the opposite. iCab currently forces me to open a new tab first and then open the bookmark whereas what I really want to be able to do is have it set up the same way I use Firefox on my desktop, i.e. pages opened from the bookmark toolbar always open in a new tab. This feature might now accelerate my plans to revisit Atomic, although these two browsers are in such head-to-head competition that I suspect it's only a matter of time before iCab gets an option to automatically open bookmarks in new tabs.
- Julian
JulianL said:
While we may not agree on the usage, we do on the develoment. These two browsers are going head to head and it's a good thing for us users as it can only result in better products all round.
One thing that bothers me with all browsers except Safari, go figure on that. But let's say I have a page or two open and then close the browser (go check email) .. Safari, when re-opened, the pages are exactly like they were and all other browsers refresh when opened. I hope I explained that right.
That's annoying as hell. Especially when I have a form open or some other page that I don't want refreshed. Anyone know why?
But back on topic, I like icab better. I like bookmarks on the toolbar but not all, only ones that I select. A fix to that would be great. In the end though, I usually end up going back to Safari.
That's annoying as hell. Especially when I have a form open or some other page that I don't want refreshed. Anyone know why?
But back on topic, I like icab better. I like bookmarks on the toolbar but not all, only ones that I select. A fix to that would be great. In the end though, I usually end up going back to Safari.
I agree re the refreshing. I don't know why iCab and Atomic insist on a refesh but it makes life difficult for posting in these forums. If I get half way through posting a reply and then think "I wonder what that app I'm talking about was called?" then I can't go to the app store, look up the app, and then come back to iCab because when I do I'll still be on the reply page for this forum but my half-completed reply that I was typing will have been reset to blank. (OK, I could always select-all and copy it before exiting iCab and then paste it back what I return but that's a pain.)
Regarding your bookmarks requirement, iCab can do this already. See my two posts in this other thread for how to set it up: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/929425/
- Julian
Yeah (although iCab is still the horse I currently back).
Technically there should be no issue whatsoever. It's a human issue in that the Atomic or iCab developer would need to talk to the Xmarks developer to get the protocols and the whole thing would almost certainly be much more stable and less fragile (less likely to break on an Xmarks update) if the xmarks developer was supportive of the effort.
I was actually thinking of emailing the iCab developer to suggest this but then I discovered that I was quite liking the fresh start that using the iPad gave me as far as not having a huge collection of bookmarks and now I'm finding it a benefit that I have to add by hand the bookmarks that I really want in the browser. I'm beginning to use Evernote more now for the "I want to keep a note of that <product, how-to tip or some random fact>" references I want to keep rather than bookmarking them in my browser but I realise this is just me and other people's requirements will differ.
Regarding passwords and forms, there are also at least two other desktop PC solutions that I know about, namely Roboform and Lastpass. Integrations with these would also be good.
I've used Lastpass for the last couple of years and it's good. I can at least fill in passwords and forms on the iPad because I've installed the Lastpass bookmarklets and they actually work pretty well for filling in but they can't save new passwords so I still need to do that on my PC. I'd love to see a proper integration between Lastpass and iCab - that for me would be a total lock-in to using iCab.
Lastpass have already gone off and built their own tabbed browser for the iPad but it is really basic and just not in the same league as either iCab or Atomic and I fear that, because Lastpass have invested this effort already, they'll probably be unwilling to go any other route than their own browser. I'm still going to have a go at posting the suggestion on their forums though.
One thing that iCab has going for it is its modules mechanism that make it possible for a third party to add quite big Javascript modules into iCab (as opposed to bookmarklets where the entire Javascript needs to be on one unbroken line so there's a limit on how complex it can be). I think Atomic might have some equivalent but I'm not sure. This seems a good way to integrate with third party services without the developer needing to maintain Objective C code (or similar) for third party functionality within the code base of the browser itself.
- Julian
Has anyone noticed that the bookmarks on atomic's bookmark bar are scrollable? All you need to do is flick left or right and the bookmark bar scrolls in the appropriate direction. Very cool.
Not sure if this function was included in the last update, but this along with the other items in the last update puts Atomic well in the lead for me.
Not sure if this function was included in the last update, but this along with the other items in the last update puts Atomic well in the lead for me.
Can anyone compare and contrast iCab modules vs. anything similar that Atomic has?
iCab has reasonable documentation for modules (http://www.icab.de/blog/2010/02/17/modules-for-icab-mobile/) but I can't find the equivalent for Atomic.
- Julian
iCab has reasonable documentation for modules (http://www.icab.de/blog/2010/02/17/modules-for-icab-mobile/) but I can't find the equivalent for Atomic.
- Julian
Don't forget about 1Password Pro.
1Password is the #1 solution on the Mac (they have an alpha Windows version) for password saving. The iPhone/iPad apps are quite slick as well. Cross-platform-wise, LastPass is also up there. Roboform used to be #1 on Windows but LastPass has beaten them out recently--I see they added an iPhone app recently.
Not sure how it'd be possible but it'd be nice of iCab or Atomic both had integration somehow with 1Password and LastPass as well as Xmarks.
Thanks for adding in 1Password. I was vaguely aware of it and your reply has explained why. I hope this won't get me shunned here, but on the desktop I'm a Windows user which is why 1P was never very visible to me. It's interesting to hear that Lastpass has knocked Roboform off the top spot on Windows; that tallies with my experience since I was a Roboform user before I switched to Lastpass. Lastpass did internet synchronization of password and form data between machines much earlier than Roboform did so I think they probably picked up customers that way.reiichiroh said:
Integration of any of these would be possible, and for iCab the obvious route would be use the modules mechanism to do it, but it would require development work by Xmarks/Lastpass/1Password and probably for the iCab developer to add some extra capabilities into the modules mechanism (additional built-in javascript functions that modules can call) so the chances of it happening are probably somewhat remote unfortunately.
- Julian
JulianL said:
Safari doesn't reload the page when you quit the program because it can multitask...so in reality you are not really closing down the program, just suspending it. Atomic and iCab can't do that so you are stuck with reloading, unless of course you jailbreak and use Backgrounder which solves your problem.
HXGuy said:
I am having the same problem. But I have backgrounder installed. Icab will not stay backgrounded. Even if I hit the activator, and it comes up saying that it is enabled, but then it will just quit being backgrounded.
I have played with the settings in backgrounded...and caused a general instability with the iPad...but still no luck with getting icab to stay in the background.
unrealiable closing of tabs in icab is driving me crazy, until that is fixed i have returned to atomic
I wish Atomic would have Mercury's mega-scroll bar, and I wish that was easily-toggleable if it was present since the Mercury (iPhone, haven't tried the iPad one) gets in the way of selecting text.