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You know, it'd be cool to take this - and a great many other browsers - out for a spin, but first Apple needs to allow us to change our default browser in IOS. I've looked but can't find a way to do so. Click any link at all and up comes Safari.

I'm not complaining too loudly, as I don't mind Safari. But if other browsers are going to get any traction at all, this functionality needs to be in place. Microsoft was forced to do so at one point in time. Wonder if the EU will complain to its courts about Apple about this.

It's frustrating, but there isn't.

Most users don't stray from the bundled defaults, even on desktop, so there's little incentive to., and Apple's current mindset is far removed from the Think Different days, even if that was only a marketing slogan.

By allowing browser alternatives, Apple keeps clear of regulators, but that doesn't mean it makes it easy to stray from Safari, even for users who do wish to use something different. I doubt the EU would take any action, since the browser market is in a different, more competitive situation than when IE ruled.

As one of the most used tools, I like to have a level of customization that isn't found in the common defaults like Chrome and Safari; think Eudora and Firefox. On iOS, iCab is the one that comes closest to replicating such an experience, and is well worth the cost. But it can be infuriating when links invariably launch Safari unintentionally, because iOS doesn't give users the power to choose a default other than Safari, even if those users are a minority.
 
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I guess it depends on your definition of native. WebKit content blocking exists, and it is indeed built right into Safari – the third-party app is just needed to load filter lists into the content blocker.
I'm confused. iOS content blockers only work with Safari---Purify or 1Blocker X or Wiper or whatever will not work with Edge, Chrome, Firefox, etc.

But 3rd party browsers can enable similar ad blocking functionality? Most 3rd party browsers I've used with "ad blockers" end of missing a whole bunch of stuff the content blockers that work on Safari catch.

If they ever achieve parity, I am happy to give Edge of Firefox a spin. But I need a multi platform browser with serious mobile ad blocking chops. Once I got used to an internet free of ads, I just cannot go back. No hyperbole in that statement either.
 
1Blocker is great. 1Blocker X is even greater. Have you tried it yet? It's a newer version that takes advantage of the ability to have more content blocker units loaded, which I think might have been added in a newer version of iOS at some point. Basically it was limited to like 50,000 rules, but the newer version is rewritten and can use like a million or something ridiculous. However I've noticed that it can sometimes be a bit aggressive with things like Google News that requires a separate tap to open links and it sometimes doesn't open them but reloads the news module. I need to remember to file a report about that. I tried to find a workaround by toggling off the rule that affects it, but there are so many now it's difficult to track down.

Yeah I bought 1Blocker X because I loved 1Blocker so much and wanted to support the devs. I haven't noticed any problems with it yet.
 
How does an ad blocking VPN work? You aren't installing a new root CA for HTTPS (or at least I hope you're not), so it'll only work with the increasingly small number of plain HTTP sites.

Right-click on an ad, grab the hostname used to load the ad, open up your /etc/hosts file (via sudo user or root), and map that domain name to 127.0.0.1. Now, any ad that tries to load from that domain will fail entirely because the domain resolves locally on your machine instead of to the remote server. I suspect this is how many ad blockers work.
 
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