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What’s a good alternative for Safari on iOS/iPadOS, as all other browsers there are essentially different WebKit skins, right?
Exactly, and that is a problem. Apple is simply not willing to implement plenty of modern standards into WebKit. Not only those that might posses a danger to their App Store business, but even neutral web standards are coming many years later and buggy as hell, needing few more years to be fixed. Really, Apple is holding whole web back these days.
 
Anyone has used chrome on IOS?. Safari is extremely like that. Specially the horrible tab grid, that is a blatant copy of Chrome on IOS 15. So much more effort to close the tabs on iOS 15!. Change for the sake of change, no value on that grid view vs the older tab view. How is apple getting away with that design?, what is the difference now between Safari and Chrome. Not looking to upgrade this year.
 
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Anyone has used chrome on IOS?. Safari is extremely like that. Specially the horrible tab grid, that is a blatant copy of Chrome on IOS 15. So much more effort to close the tabs on iOS 15!. Change for the sake of change, no value on that grid view vs the older tab view. How is apple getting away with that design?, what is the difference now between Safari and Chrome. Not looking to upgrade this year.
On iOS there is a difference only with GUI. App Store policy doesn’t allow to use other browser engine than Safari’s WebKit. So Chrome, Firefox on iOS are same as Safari in terms of web standards.
it’s even worse, some features of webkit are typically not usable by other browsers on iOS for some time.
 
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With the new design having the address bar and tabs visible at the bottom, how does “Open in New Tab” work when long pressing a link? Does it take you to the new tab right away, or does it open a new tab in the background?

I’ve always wished the iPhone would open new tabs in the background, like it does on the iPad or Mac. More often than not, I don’t want to go to the new tab right away. It gets a little annoying having to switch back to my original tab every time, especially if I am opening multiple links in new tabs.
 
But it is still ugly as hell when shown. And why we need to have it there when we have a better solution?

Well, partly because there was an initial backlash against moving the address bar down to begin with. Remember those “Google tried it, but then got rid of it.” articles? Then some people complained that the floating address bar in early betas missed the refresh button, obstructed website navigation on some sites, etc. and it was taking them longer to get to the options they were used to. So what Apple did now is a compromise, attempting to keep both camps happy.

What do you have in mind when you say “we have a better solution”?
 
Thank God there’s a way of keeping the address bar at the top. On my iPad at least, the very bottom of the screen tends to be eclipsed by my duvet when I’m using the iPad in bed (as I often do).
Ditto to using the iPad in bed and the issue at the bottom of the screen.
 
I dunno. It looks like a lot of change for the sake of change becuase they don't even know what to do anymore.
I completely disagree, the changes represent a huge leap in usability and accessibility, especially for tab management.

Using a desktop mentality for a mobile browser has always been an odd design choice, Apple is the first to show how it should be done.
With the new design having the address bar and tabs visible at the bottom, how does “Open in New Tab” work when long pressing a link? Does it take you to the new tab right away, or does it open a new tab in the background?

I’ve always wished the iPhone would open new tabs in the background, like it does on the iPad or Mac. More often than not, I don’t want to go to the new tab right away. It gets a little annoying having to switch back to my original tab every time, especially if I am opening multiple links in new tabs.
Tap any link with two fingers will open in a new tab in the background - while it’s a bit awkward, is a lot quicker.
 
Well, partly because there was an initial backlash against moving the address bar down to begin with. Remember those “Google tried it, but then got rid of it.” articles? Then some people complained that the floating address bar in early betas missed the refresh button, obstructed website navigation on some sites, etc. and it was taking them longer to get to the options they were used to. So what Apple did now is a compromise, attempting to keep both camps happy.

What do you have in mind when you say “we have a better solution”?
I fully understood what was going on and the reasons behind the compromise. As I said in my OP, in my opinion, the first solution was a better solution, even though it was not perfect.

And Apple is so 'unApple" handling this case. They should have believed in themselves with the new Design, which I believe they had spent much effort on research / review internally and externally, instead of simply putting back that ugly Bottom navigation bar. (it was fine when with the old design, but just appears to be ugly when put together with new button address bar, even if they want to bring it back, they should have perform a thorough research when merging with the case where address bar is at bottom, which I do not think possible due to time limitless. That again say Apple should not rush back to it just for some criticism, discarding the tons of effort spent. So not apple, so not cool. )
 
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I fully understood what was going on and the reasons behind the compromise. As I said in my OP, in my opinion, the first solution was a better solution, even though it was not perfect.

And Apple is so 'unApple" handling this case. They should have believed in themselves with the new Design, which I believe they had spent much effort on research / review internally and externally, instead of simply putting back that ugly Bottom navigation bar. (it was fine when with the old design, but just appears to be ugly when put together with new button address bar, even if they want to bring it back, they should have perform a thorough research when merging with the case where address bar is at bottom, which I do not think possible due to time limitless. That again say Apple should not rush back to it just for some criticism, discarding the tons of effort spent. So not apple, so not cool. )

I guess that Apple did not have enough energy this time round to see it through, as they also had to address the CSAM criticism. I think what might happen is that they will go with this cramped compromise for iOS 15, but might find a way to get rid of the bottom (command) bar in iOS 16. This way users can gradually get used to the address bar being at the bottom.
 
I got questions due to poor wxplanation.

Landscape Tab Bar:
How is this any different than iOS 14.7.1 and all versions before?
I go to landscape and I have several tabs open, when I scroll the tab bar disappears. If I tap the top the open tabs show up. In iOS 15 does the tab bar remain present during scrolling ?

website Tinting:
Seems to already be here in iOS 14.7.1 as well as far back to iOS 12 onward. From the description above if maceumors is in dark mode (iOS 14.7.1 it remains so), but in iOS 15 looks like an ugly white toolbar shows up unless you enable website tinting.

Tab Overview gris looks like something that Opera Browser/Opera Mini browser had over a decade ago on feature phones like SonyEricsson K/W series or Nikki S40 series phones.
 
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Does Group Tabs stored contents offline or you still need internet to access it?

Tab Overview gris looks like something that Opera Browser/Opera Mini browser had over a decade ago on feature phones like SonyEricsson K/W series or Nikki S40 series phones.
Tab Overview in current Safari on iPhone is CoverFlow style. On iPad it shows mini webpage style since forever.

website Tinting:
Seems to already be here in iOS 14.7.1 as well as far back to iOS 12 onward.
I don't have website tinting on my iPhone (14.7.1) but I have it on my iPad which is running 15 beta.
 
Does Group Tabs stored contents offline or you still need internet to access it?
You still need internet access to access content in group tabs.

You may already know this, but if you want content to be accessible offline, you should be adding it to your reading list instead, and then save offline. (Or have the reading list automatically save things offline through Safari settings.)
 
With the new design having the address bar and tabs visible at the bottom, how does “Open in New Tab” work when long pressing a link? Does it take you to the new tab right away, or does it open a new tab in the background?

I’ve always wished the iPhone would open new tabs in the background, like it does on the iPad or Mac. More often than not, I don’t want to go to the new tab right away. It gets a little annoying having to switch back to my original tab every time, especially if I am opening multiple links in new tabs.
You can change this in safari settings to always open in the background
 
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In iPadOS and landscape mode, after opening the side bar and navigating to a bookmark, how does one close the side bar? It doesn’t seem possible to close the side bar without navigating all the way back to the top level (with the list of open tabs, private, shared with you, etc.).

Switching to portrait view, the side bar slides out and disappears automatically.
 
The problem is that if you have a lot of tabs, let's say 100 or just visually need a simpler way to scroll through them the thumbnails it's a lot. It's fine to have those ways, but the tabs list needs to come back
 
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