Mozilla Working on 'Junior' Web Browser for iPad

[blackcrayon]

Aren't all web browsers for iOS just a wrapper for Safari? What's the point of that?

They all use the UIWebView for rendering web pages (with a couple of exceptions like Opera Mini), but there is a ton of functionality outside of the rendering window that can be added. Just look through the Atomic browser or iCab menus and settings screens.

 

[John.B]

Click2flash is what I use.

I was talking ad blocking for an iOS browser.

 

[mactmaster]

I much prefer a WebKit browser on a Desktop (Safari:Mac, Chrome:Win) and stopped using Firefox altogether years ago.

That being said, on iOS I don't think browsers are able to have their own rendering engine so this will use the built in WebKit?

I don't see what novel features this could add over the available browsers other than Firefox sync for those using it on the desktop.

 

[Dobbs2]

Ok, let's hope you're right. Show me an easy way to get the CMD+1,2,...,9 feature (switching between open tabs.)
I also missed Adblock, but IIRC that's available now.

Click2flash

Cmd+1-9 normally open those bookmarks. If you download the safaritabswitching extension it will do what you like.

 

[John.B]

That being said, on iOS I don't think browsers are able to have their own rendering engine so this will use the built in WebKit?

I don't see what novel features this could add over the available browsers other than Firefox sync for those using it on the desktop.

Ad blocking?

 

[Dobbs2]

I was talking ad blocking for an iOS browser.

My bad. I don't run into a lot of adds on iOS safari. What sites are you going to?

 

[John.B]

My bad. I don't run into a lot of adds on iOS safari. What sites are you going to?

Any of the news or sports sites are the worst. ESPN is an eyesore, and their app is buggy and makes it hard to find content except for the big headlines.

 

[Rab C]

As much as I'd like to know more, I just can't watch that presentation...the guy's speaking and presentation skills are simply so poor, I can't take it. I'm forced to sit through these at work....not doing it here.

I tried to watch it, the first guy was sort of okay but when second guy came on I gave up.

No matter what people offer it will still be a wrapper on WebKit and to be honest Safari on iOS works just fine for me.

 

[Manderby]

Finally somebody publicly admits it: Tabs are evil.

Well, to each his own. I personally disabled tabs in whichever application it was possible. For me, it's so counter-intuitive.

 

[CountBoni]

Presentation skills = Naught!!!

I know that the important thing here is the technology, the browser itself, and I'm sure that very soon Apple will allow to change the default browser on iOS, specially now that an iPad/iPhone can work solely without a PC, but these blokes really need to work on their presentation skills. The browser might be fantastic, but the keynote and how they try to "sell" it are utter rubbish! Nonprofessional at all!

 

[smellalot]

Click2flash

Cmd+1-9 normally open those bookmarks. If you download the safaritabswitching extension it will do what you like.

Thanks, I'll try those.

 

[nagromme]

Really? Safari is too complex? I really don't see how it could be any simpler without it losing vital functionality.

Just because we can’t think of a way to simplify doesn’t mean someone else can’t And, it could just be simple in a different way, rather than being more simple. I’m interested to see what they come up with.

 

[vartanarsen]

Between Safari and Atomic = Atomic wins.

Between Atomic and Proton for the ipad = Proton wins

PROTON has flash capability (easy to invoke) and allows to watch streaming video sites that still use flash.

Easy to use too.

Safari is actually the last of my surfing choices on an ios.

While Firefox will be free I 'd consider it a wasted effort.

Atomic is good for going to sites you dont want Apple knowing you're going to, where Im going via Safari, which I use for clean sites

 

[Saladinos]

Ad blocking?

Most web content is financed through ads. In some sense ad blocking is just as unethical as downloading pirate software.

 

[Rab C]

Most web content is financed through ads. In some sense ad blocking is just as unethical as downloading pirate software.

The person who uses Ad blockers will also be the person who does not click ads so don't see a problem.

 

[Navdakilla]

Where is chrome

 

[CodexMonkey]

There was the odd good idea in here, but I was way too turned off by the lacklustre and completely uninspiring presentation which appeared have been done in the local gym with posters printed on an old Color Stylewriter.

If you really want to sell millions upon millions of iPad users on a whole new concept of browser, Mozilla, then you’re gonna need to spend some money making it look like the cool thing to have. This second rate Powerpoint presentation with it’s "umms", "ahhs" and "is this ons?" just don’t cut it.

Unless they just mis-read something about Apple’s presentation style and decided they needed to set up their own "Really Disjointed Field".

 

[ramuman]

Cool browser, but what a painful presentation to watch man.

There are more "ums" than actual words.

 

[Mad-B-One]

Masking...

...is important. The best feature of Atomic (besides the gestures and full screen and privacy) is that you can mask your browser as any other meaning telling the site you visit it's a Mozilla, IE (yes, even IE 7), Safari or what else... This is important because if the metadata your iPad Safari identifies it as a "mobile" Safari, some pages automatically re-route you either to "buy our iPad App" which is still okay but sometimes even to a phone optimized page. Most of the time, you cannot go to the "normal" site from there. That doesn't happen with Atomic masked as Mozilla Firefox. If I go to a web page instead of the App, it probably has its reasons, wouldn't you think so?

 

[69650]

I've had so many problems lately with Firefox that I've finally given up on it and switched to Chrome. I hope their mobile efforts are more stable than the desktop version which seems to crash almost as often as Internet Explorer. Safari might be a little dull but at least it's stable.

 

[shurcooL]

Seems like it's not as bad as I expected. Good job for trying something new.

 

[Mad-B-One]

I've had so many problems lately with Firefox that I've finally given up on it and switched to Chrome. I hope their mobile efforts are more stable than the desktop version which seems to crash almost as often as Internet Explorer. Safari might be a little dull but at least it's stable.

I had some so I switched to Nightly and Waterfox. Nightly gets the newest beta updates every night (hence the name) and Waterfox is 64Bit compiled, frequently updated and in Windows 8 ultrafast - yet still allows my addons such as Adblocker, DownItNow!, and several language correction tools to run without any turbulences.

 

[coder12]

I'm not a huge fan of Firefox (it's getting a bit bloaty...) but I'd be willing to give this a shot for a while. I'm not sure what they mean by "simpler" though. As if safari were complex?

 

[mdelvecchio]

AND this is something that if Apple doesn't allow soon, I could see becoming a legal issue over the next couple years.

See: Microsoft & IE in the 90's

er, no. you have a total misunderstanding of what took place there. in the '90s (not 90's) MS was in a position of monopoly -- users, customers, and vendors had no real alternatives other than MS/Windows. they were saddled w/ IE because MS threatened vendors w/ revoking their Windows licenses if they tried to side-load other browsers onto OEM disk images. iOS users have a RICH set of alternatives...from android, to nokia, to MS. dozens of options. iOS smartphones are not in a position of monopoly.

its their platform. they can do what they want with it until it becomes a monopoly. not likely.

 

[medazinol]

God, programmers have no business giving demos. That was god-awful to watch. Learn a bit from Apple guys, it doesn't take much to watch a few Stevenotes to see how it's done.
Keep up the innovation though. Some good ideas there.