I want a feature like this in the iPhone! Why do they have it and we don't?

[BearerOBadNews]

That quick controls feature in the Ice Cream Sandwich browser is very nice. I wish Apple would be more innovative and come up with something like that. Who knows, maybe in the next iOS they will copy this. But hey, at least the guy said the apple browser is slightly smoother in scrolling. Note: The guy explains what quick controls are at around 5:45 in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm3dCbxjeqw&feature=player_embedded

 

[mysterioustko]

That quick controls feature in the Ice Cream Sandwich browser is very nice. I wish Apple would be more innovative and come up with something like that. Who knows, maybe in the next iOS they will copy this. But hey, at least the guy said the apple browser is slightly smoother in scrolling. Note: The guy explains what quick controls are at around 5:45 in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm3dCbxjeqw&feature=player_embedded

I have to agree that the quick controls feature is pretty slick. Having used it, I will say, it's funny how something so simple can change your browsing experience so much. You get full screen browsing and can bring a quick menu up using a gesture. On honeycomb I got addicted to using it, I was glad to see they brought it over to the phone side now.
As for the scrolling being smoother in the iphone browser, I think that apparent "smoothness" is very easy to explain (and you kind of get to see what I mean in that video where the guy shows the scrolling). In iOS, you can only scroll but so far at a time, so the phone only has to scroll a very small section of a page at a time, whereas the browser in Android can scroll the entire page and therefore has to be able to render all of that while scrolling. In other words, fundamentally, the iOS browser has to do less work when scrolling due to it only scrolling through a limited area at a time. This is what delivers that perceived "smoothness". Personally, I don't like that limitation, as it is very irritating to me when I am on a long site (like engadget). I much prefer to be able to quickly scroll to where I'd like to go, than to have my scrolling MANAGED for me so that the phone appears to be smoother.

 

[registerusername]

the dolphin browser in the app store is like that

 

[BearerOBadNews]

the dolphin browser in the app store is like that

Yeah but this is part of the stock browser now meaning that android users don't have to get a 3rd party browser to use a feature like this. WHY DOESN'T APPLE HAVE USEFUL FEATURES LIKE THIS????!!!! Especially with our small screen we waste screen space having that address bar up there so that gives us even less space on the screen for web browsing. Why don't we have full screen browsing?

 

[mysterioustko]

Yeah but this is part of the stock browser now meaning that android users don't have to get a 3rd party browser to use a feature like this. WHY DOESN'T APPLE HAVE USEFUL FEATURES LIKE THIS????!!!! Especially with our small screen we waste screen space having that address bar up there so that gives us even less space on the screen for web browsing. Why don't we have full screen browsing?

I have to agree with you. I don't think apple makes the best use of the iphone's screen. It's already a small screen, so I think they should try to maximize it's use as much as possible. That being said it really isn't that shocking though. Just look at the design of the iphone, the amount of bezel on the phone is ridiculous for a device released in 2011. With less bezel, they could easily have increased the screen size without significantly increasing the size of the device (see htc sensation). For a company that prides themselves on design, I just think they dropped the ball there (as they did with the design of the browser).

 

[tarasis]

Matt Gemmell created a Pie Menu for iOS devices ages ago (he public showed it on his blog in September this year but he had it working well nearly a year back) which would be perfect for this sort of thing.

Again, say press and hold on a page to bring a wheel up, slide to "Tabs" and slip your finger down to another tab.

[edit] I should note that according to the blog it isn't planned to be released for fear of patent trolls. Which is a great shame, if thoroughly understandable.

 

[BearerOBadNews]

Matt Gemmell created a Pie Menu for iOS devices ages ago (he public showed it on his blog in September this year but he had it working well nearly a year back) which would be perfect for this sort of thing.

Again, say press and hold on a page to bring a wheel up, slide to "Tabs" and slip your finger down to another tab.

Well the bottom line is we still don't have anything like that for our browser. We're still browsing the same way we have been for years (for the most part). It's time to see some real improvements made to the browser that actually improves on the browsing experience. What he did is nice, but if it's not implemented then it does no good.

 

[mysterioustko]

Matt Gemmell created a Pie Menu for iOS devices ages ago (he public showed it on his blog in September this year but he had it working well nearly a year back) which would be perfect for this sort of thing.

Again, say press and hold on a page to bring a wheel up, slide to "Tabs" and slip your finger down to another tab.

[edit] I should note that according to the blog it isn't planned to be released for fear of patent trolls. Which is a great shame, if thoroughly understandable.

Well considering that something of this nature is already out (not sure if there's a patent for it) that seems to be a legitimate concern. It is a shame however, when our patent system stifles progress due to the fact that there are those out there who utilize them as a means to be an opportunist.

 

[PNutts]

Especially with our small screen we waste screen space having that address bar up there so that gives us even less space on the screen for web browsing. Why don't we have full screen browsing?

The address bar is locked to the top of the webpage meaning it disappears when you scroll down so it's no longer consuming screen real estate. Some websites automatically "scroll down a line" so the address bar disappears when the page loads.

I prefer controls not be hidden and there's no question about the meaning of the little button with a 3 on it instead of swiping to look.

Also, I really like the Reader feature which mitigates some of the "small screen" complaints (actually more of a website design issue). Does iCS have a feature like that? I've never used ICS.

 

[mysterioustko]

The address bar is locked to the top of the webpage meaning it disappears when you scroll down so it's no longer consuming screen real estate. Some websites automatically "scroll down a line" so the address bar disappears when the page loads.

I prefer controls not be hidden and there's no question about the meaning of the little button with a 3 on it instead of swiping to look.

Also, I really like the Reader feature which mitigates some of the "small screen" complaints (actually more of a website design issue). Does iCS have a feature like that? I've never used ICS.

Yes ICS has an option to save for offline. But really unless you're just saving pages to read at a time you won't have an internet connection it isn't very useful. You have to remember that the browser in ICS (and one's previous to it) reformat text to fit your screen when you double tap it. So it's already easy to read without side scrolling. All in all, it makes the offline reading option fairly useless (at least for me).

 

[WordMasterRice]

Yes ICS has an option to save for offline. But really unless you're just saving pages to read at a time you won't have an internet connection it isn't very useful. You have to remember that the browser in ICS (and one's previous to it) reformat text to fit your screen when you double tap it. So it's already easy to read without side scrolling. All in all, it makes the offline reading option fairly useless (at least for me).

Reader isn't for offline reading. It's the feature that sucks out the article and leaves the ads behind.

 

[mysterioustko]

Reader isn't for offline reading. It's the feature that sucks out the article and leaves the ads behind.

Gotcha. I was always under the impression that you could view the pages offline. Thanks for the correction. Even when using an iPhone4 it was never a feature I really bothered with.

 

[VulchR]

@OP: Obviously you prefer alternatives to iOS (10 posts along those lines). In answer your your question, perhaps Apple felt their interface is better overall.

 

[Oppressed]

I have to agree that the quick controls feature is pretty slick. Having used it, I will say, it's funny how something so simple can change your browsing experience so much. You get full screen browsing and can bring a quick menu up using a gesture. On honeycomb I got addicted to using it, I was glad to see they brought it over to the phone side now.
As for the scrolling being smoother in the iphone browser, I think that apparent "smoothness" is very easy to explain (and you kind of get to see what I mean in that video where the guy shows the scrolling). In iOS, you can only scroll but so far at a time, so the phone only has to scroll a very small section of a page at a time, whereas the browser in Android can scroll the entire page and therefore has to be able to render all of that while scrolling. In other words, fundamentally, the iOS browser has to do less work when scrolling due to it only scrolling through a limited area at a time. This is what delivers that perceived "smoothness". Personally, I don't like that limitation, as it is very irritating to me when I am on a long site (like engadget). I much prefer to be able to quickly scroll to where I'd like to go, than to have my scrolling MANAGED for me so that the phone appears to be smoother.

The video said it correctly when they connected the speed of the Android's scrolling to the acceleration setting of the browser. If you want you can download a third party browser and have faster acceleration, and it will still be smooth.

 

[BearerOBadNews]

@OP: Obviously you prefer alternatives to iOS (10 posts along those lines). In answer your your question, perhaps Apple felt their interface is better overall.

No it's not even that. It's that some things like this I prefer and other things I don't. Just because I point out something that's done better on another platform and have an issue with being sold beta software, doesn't mean I prefer "alternatives to iOS". If you noticed, this is the only thread where I even brought up a different OS. I just happen to think the ICS browser is better than our browser on the iPhone. Especially with the quick controls. You have to admit, that is a nice feature. I'd love to have it on the iPhone. It was 18 months between the last releases, I feel they could have come with something stronger than what they did. While the hardware improvement was nice, it really makes no difference to the average user's usability, because the iPhone 4 wasn't slow by any means. I've felt that the browser could use some improvement for a while now. After the last iOS update where they added in features like Reader, I thought we were headed in the right direction and that changes would eventually be made to the browser more so. But then the new version of the OS released and to be honest I was disappointed that the browser really felt like more of the same. Granted it moved a tad bit faster due to the processor, but overall it was more of the same. Then when I saw this video, it just kind of irritated me that android has added useful features to enhance the browsing experience and we're still stagnated.

 

[VulchR]

@OP: I guess it depends on whether you feel the features in other platforms are indeed better, and whether you believe that iOS has stagnated. I am not convinced of either, because I presume that Apple has even better solutions in development. I suppose if the next iterations of the iPhone and iOS are as conservative as the last ones, I might agree with you. But not just yet. Just my 2¢...

 

[OptyCT]

@OP: Obviously you prefer alternatives to iOS (10 posts along those lines). In answer your your question, perhaps Apple felt their interface is better overall.

Yeah, the OP creates an account this month and all of his posts are along the lines of "Why is Apple bad and other guys good?". Stop posing as an iPhone owner and go back to the Android forums.

 

[BearerOBadNews]

@OP: I guess it depends on whether you feel the features in other platforms are indeed better, and whether you believe that iOS has stagnated. I am not convinced of either, because I presume that Apple has even better solutions in development. I suppose if the next iterations of the iPhone and iOS are as conservative as the last ones, I might agree with you. But not just yet. Just my 2¢...

Well when I said stagnated I was referring to the state of the browser not the state of iOS as a whole. I feel like the browser hasn't really progressed the way it should have. The OS as a whole is progessing (somewhat slowly I might add), but I guess some progress is progress, but the browser for the most part seems to be standing still.

 

[Superbbrr]

Sweet JEEEEBUS! That screen looks gorgeous.

iPhone looks ancient when side by side.

 

[GiantSteve]

Instapaper

Reader isn't for offline reading. It's the feature that sucks out the article and leaves the ads behind.

The best way to do this (and get off line reading capabilities) is with Instapaper. Having moved recently from Android I have to say that Instapaper is one of the best apps I have used on either platform. It only seems expensive until you buy it and set it up. Then it becomes apparent what a bargain it is.

 

[takeshi74]

Why do they have it and we don't?

Development resources are always finite. There are countless features that people want that don't exist in iOS -- or any smartphone OS for that matter. Don't fall into the trap of assuming that the grass is greener. A major point of smartphones (IMO anyway) is that they are extensible. Asking why your favorite pet of a feature isn't stock is a fairly pointless question IMO. There are any number of potential answers to that question. Does speculating really help in any way?

 

[s15119]

Yeah but this is part of the stock browser now meaning that android users don't have to get a 3rd party browser to use a feature like this. WHY DOESN'T APPLE HAVE USEFUL FEATURES LIKE THIS????!!!! Especially with our small screen we waste screen space having that address bar up there so that gives us even less space on the screen for web browsing. Why don't we have full screen browsing?

I think you have to email apple all in CAPS AND JUST DEMAND THEY DO YOUR BIDDING.

 

[PNutts]

Development resources are always finite.

So true. A few weeks ago I was shaking my head at what Apple has recently rolled out. iPhones for Verizon and Sprint, iPhone 4S, iOS5, new iOS5 apps, Siri, iCloud, MobileMe migration to iCloud, backups to the iCloud, iTunes Match, Apple TV iOS updates, Lion, Thunderbolt, and refreshes of their other products. I'm probably forgetting a few.

Something has to take a back seat and I'm appreciate Apple doesn't change their UI at every iOS upgrade. "Stale" to some is "consistent" to others and change isn't always better. In the video the guy twice failed to activate the swipe and instead moved the page to the left. Meh. I tap a button and swipe left or right to look at / go to / close my open pages.

Off topic: But I am still bitter about losing double tap home to launch favorites.

 

[Jordan921]

Android also has NFC which I wish they added to the 4S but they didn't. Is it gonna kill me that the 4S doesn't have it? No. Maybe they'll add it in the next iPhone.

 

[eezing]

Couple important features he missed in Safari:

- Open link in background
- Reader and it's features
- Dictionary