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Best NON-safari browser for iPad? POLL

What is the best alternative web browser for iPad?

  • Total voters
    381
So glad I stopped by... I tried the browsers above and fell in love with atomic!!! Man, finally I can use tabs best of all, background tabs so I can open multiple articles found as I read one. 🙂

Thanks op for the post
 
laurenr said:
Icab does all of the above extremely well, including opening a link in a background tab. I also find the incorporated modules extremely useful, eg. Evernote, Instapaper, Goodreader, etc. (similar to what you would find in a desktop browser extension.)

Another cool feature, is that today I discovered I could upload/attach pictures to my forum posts directly from my iPad - have not been able to do this with any other Browser, such as Safari or Atomic. This new discovery is especially useful, as I belong to several types of forums.
Click to expand...

Wh-what., upload files!? Gotta get it now 🙂
 
Ok you got me. I had atomic browser. Seeing all icab praise made me buy it and I must agree with the comment stating "icab is like atomic but made by apple".

It's much more elegant and offer even some more nice features.

I'm a believer now!!
 
MasonH said:
Does icab have the option to cover the upper Apple status bar (battery, etc) to save more real estate?

I ask because it already uses a tad more space than Mercury for the 3 main sections I need on top... Address bar, bookmarks bar and tabs.

Mercury has this option so I wondered If other browsers offer it.

Thanks
Click to expand...
When in full-screen mode, the upper status bar is hidden, giving all the screen real estate to the browser.
 
jaimeastin said:
Wh-what., upload files!? Gotta get it now 🙂
Click to expand...

Definitely! I think being able to upload pictures directly from the ipad photo album to a forum post is incredible useful - otherwise you would have the nuisance factor of having to switch to your Desktop computer just to do this. I belong to a few forums, and have this feature is invaluable to me.😀
 
joec1101 said:
Not correct - iCab and Atomic both (probably others as well) handle https. I just tested iCab and Atomic on a few different web sites using the https protocol and they work just fine.
Click to expand...

I said I tried everything EXCEPT iCab but, yeah, you are correct on that the Atomic browser does do https. I said it didn't work because the website I usually go to specifically said that my browser is not compatible with https and wouldn't display anything while others worked fine. I may have to do some digging why that's happening but that's for pointing that out.
 
archdelux said:
Looks like icab and atomic are the big ones..for some reason the free version of atomic hurts my eyes...is it just me? I imagine it is no different in the paid version..?

Also, would those who have tried icab and atomic and terra and the rest tell me which will be able to do all of the below the best/smoothest (some features are not articulated on the web at all and in some browsers they Are not well implemented):

can download files to dropbox
Can open/view docs and PDFs
Ad blocker
Private mode
Has search/find feature allowing you to click go to next word sequentially
Can save passwords like safari/ autofill
Has suggestions when you type in google search bar like safari
Bookmark bar

Edit: forgot to add--sometimes it's a pain to open a background tab in terra by long pressing because it doesn't detect it so I have to keep trying...do any of the other browsers have this problem?
Click to expand...

Both can do it. I've tried even more browsers now too icab and atomic are still top of the list.

The icab dev is very helpful and responds. Apparently he is working on making the gestures easier to use and full screen options.

I agree the plugins are nice. Icab is more polished. If I may need to follow php download links or want a browser not full screen. Icab wins.

Atomic definitely feels faster and has better full screen as I stated.

Mercury has the speed of atomic and a better Ui than icab. But lacks features of both and uses the stupid circular control like 360 browser. Speaking of which 360 may be te fastest but using it is a mess and it's an eye sore. The dev should give away skins. It's HIDEOUS. Terra is fine for a free browser and better than safari. Pales compared to icab and atomic. Perfect browser is like a browser made in 2005.

I think I've bought just about every browser and for all around. Icab. For fastest and best full screen and gestures. Atomic.

I wish those deva would team up. They'd own the browser market.
 
iCab is way better. icab has the ability to upload photos to most forums such as MR. It can also upload photos to Facebook and chat now works. Dropbox integration. Bookmark import/export. MacBook multi-gestures. Bookmark bar. Downloads any file. Spoof a desktop version like IE or Firefox. That's all I can think of now but there's more.
 
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm wondering what people's stance are on this now that Safari has seen some fairly big updates in iOS5? In particular the new 'Reader' functionality really sets it apart from other browsers, and it's incredibly quick too.

Does anyone know if Atomic/iCab plan to integrate any features like Reader in the future? Also, using a jailbreak whether you can change your default browser?

Thank you!
 
blizeH said:
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm wondering what people's stance are on this now that Safari has seen some fairly big updates in iOS5? In particular the new 'Reader' functionality really sets it apart from other browsers, and it's incredibly quick too.

Does anyone know if Atomic/iCab plan to integrate any features like Reader in the future? Also, using a jailbreak whether you can change your default browser?

Thank you!
Click to expand...

Atomic is still better. I find it the most desktop-like with swipe features built in. It may not be optimized like Safari, but it's still fast loading. And for my Flash needs, I use Photon Web Browser. Again, very desktop like and it has a very click2flash like setup, just like in OSX.
 
Thanks, and you're right about the swipe gestures, they really do make it quite nice to use! Shame there's no option for that in Safari, should be so easy for Apple to implement (or for someone to implement on a jailbreak app?)
 
blizeH said:
Sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm wondering what people's stance are on this now that Safari has seen some fairly big updates in iOS5? In particular the new 'Reader' functionality really sets it apart from other browsers, and it's incredibly quick too.

Does anyone know if Atomic/iCab plan to integrate any features like Reader in the future? Also, using a jailbreak whether you can change your default browser?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Actually, iCab has had the Reader, Evernote clipping and many other modules available long before IOS 5.They are available in a drop-down menu that can be configured according to one's needs:

View attachment 308096

List of modules:

View attachment 308099

View attachment 308100
 

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May I ask why do you even need to think about other browser? Personally, Safari simply is the best and all my bookmarks is all sync with iCloud 😉
 
henry72 said:
May I ask why do you even need to think about other browser? Personally, Safari simply is the best and all my bookmarks is all sync with iCloud 😉
Click to expand...

Yeah, Safari is nice on the iOS5 and faster than other third party browsers. However, with iCab browser, I can download files (any files, even the ones not supported by iOS like .flv), full screen mode, and create PDF files of websites, among many other things. It used to allow downloading of youtube vids, but not now. It's certainly better than Atomic (I use both).
 
henry72 said:
May I ask why do you even need to think about other browser? Personally, Safari simply is the best and all my bookmarks is all sync with iCloud 😉
Click to expand...

Two words: file uploads.

If Apple would get around to implementing file uploads (and not just photo uploads, though that would be a start) in Safari, then I'd seriously consider giving up iCab. Until then, no dice.

Truth is, I do use Safari as my primary browser (mainly because there's no way of changing the default browser that links open in), but I'm in iCab just about as often as I'm in Safari.

One criticism of the new Safari: with the page's title only showing up on the tab, it's usually the case that you can't actually see the whole title of the page. For example, right now all I can read of the title of the tab I'm in (yes, this is being posted from Safari) is "MacRumors Foru..." In iCab, on the other hand, when you're on a tab, the full title of the page is displayed above the address bar, and iCab uses a small font so the title bar at the top takes up relatively little extra space.
 
laurenr said:
Actually, iCab has had the Reader, Evernote clipping and many other modules available long before IOS 5.They are available in a drop-down menu that can be configured according to one's needs:
Click to expand...
Ah, wow! That is great, thank you. Going to buy it now I think, real shame there's no way to change the default browser, but hopefully with a jailbreak it'd be possible. Will look into it!
 
I've been using iCab since March. I'm testing out the new safari... but it just seems so bad compared to all the functionality in iCab. I'll try a bit longer, but I'm probably going back to iCab. As everyone else is mentioning, I wish I could make it the default browser...
 
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