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Facebook's Team of Former Apple Engineers Focused on Improving iOS App
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I guess that's the most obvious sign I've read so far that FB is doomed
(as the kids are leaving ship because of their parents being there...)
That's because they're the same thing, but Apple doesn't allow 3rd party apps using webview to run Javascript as quickly as Safari does.
Really, I'm surprised people keep saying that since both are essentially the same thing. The difference is of course that one is run within Safari, the other is run within an App that is basically a UIWebView.
The reason the mobile site is faster on Safari on iOS is simple : Nitro. Nitro is not available to 3rd party developers through the UIWebView.
So speed is something that is being withheld by Apple.
That being said, the problem with Facebook on iOS is both present on their mobile site and in their app : Features. Managing pictures is a nightmare, no-resharing, the commenting UI isn't all that either.
When ever I get a notification and tap on it, it launches to that message thread but the new messages don't show up in time. It is so annoying! I have to wait for some time to get the new messages. I would give the app a rating of -9000.
It's not like Apple are "withholding speed" without having a good reason. It's necessary for security.
In iOS the stack & heap are execute-protected. ie: executable code can't be loaded dynamically at runtime. This is a very good thing for security, but it means that JIT compilers don't work. Nitro is essentially a JIT compiler for Javascript, so it won't work in user applications unless they're given special privileges to allow code execution from the heap. Safari is given such privileges but 3rd party applications are not.
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Hmm, agree with first statement. Disagree with second
It's not necessary for security, it's just that Apple can't secure it or they're unwilling to (and frankly, with the added benefit that Safari is the only usable browser on iOS, I'd say they're just unwilling to).
When I load the page in Chrome for iOS, it is still faster then the app, so I am not convinced it is apples fault. Also, the mobile site is much different then the app, especially on the iPad.
That's because they made an iPad app recently. It probably uses a different site that is not loaded by Safari.
The mobile site to me, be it in Chrome or the app is not any better.
It's certainly not Apple's or AT&T's fault that every app on the iPhone except Facebook is pretty fast.