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Safari in iOS 7: great ideas but not great execution.

I

iphnhelp

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 16, 2010
258
42
There are some things about Safari in iOS 7 that seem like great ideas in concept but aren't quite working out the way they are currently implemented. Does anyone else have a problem with these new features?

- The disappearing bottom toolbar. I like it but many times I find myself wanting to go to another bookmark, looking down, not seeing the button, and not knowing what to do. Then I have to remember to scroll up or down enough to bring it up, but I'm not sure how much to scroll so every time there is a bit of uncertainty.

- Swipe to go back/forward. I really like this feature but I find that when using my iPhone with my left hand and scrolling a page with my left thumb I frequently initiate a partial swipe back instead of scrolling.

- The unified search and .com button. I wanted this like everyone else but it just isn't working because the keyboard is too cramped. Maybe we need a row of buttons above the keyboard like Chrome. (Or, as I write this I notice, iOS puts a form back forward and Done button above the keyboard in Safari when typing in a form. Why not put the .com up there?)

- Favorite icons when taping in the URL bar. It seems confusing to have favorites in two places. Should I be using the menu as always, or this new full page interface? At the very least it should not be scaling up the small icons so they're pixelated and ugly, keep them small if they're not big enough.

I think all these things can be smoothed out before release. And hopefully they will be.
 
You don't have to scroll to bring the bottom bar back, just tap the stays bar once
 
imaginex20 said:
You don't have to scroll to bring the bottom bar back, just tap the stays bar once
Click to expand...

Not very obvious or discoverable, though. I thought it would be like how it works in a lot of apps, where you tap in the middle of the screen to bring up the controls. Took me a while to figure out I have to tap the... well, in my experience, you have to tap the website name, not the status bar. Tapping status bar jumps you to the top of the webpage.
 
I'm not sure why swiping tabs off to the left close them, but to the right is locked... seems both should work fine.

Unless to the right could become a gesture to send the tab to another iCloud instance of Safari..?
 
If you just touch down near the safari controls would be they also pop right up. So it's basically a double tap in the bottom left corner for the back button. The swipe gesture helps but still annoying to have to double tap to pull up the multitab switcher, or bookmarks, etc.
 
Reader is a bit broken as well, right now. Some articles get cut off and font choices haven't been implemented yet.

This article for example, when in Reader mode, produced a solid black at the bottom of the page, before the end of the article...

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnew...eme-court-bombshell-no-right-to-remain-silent

----------

The double tap without waiting for the bar to appear works with all of the bottom bar functions...
 
iphnhelp said:
There are some things about Safari in iOS 7 that seem like great ideas in concept but aren't quite working out the way they are currently implemented. Does anyone else have a problem with these new features?

- The disappearing bottom toolbar. I like it but many times I find myself wanting to go to another bookmark, looking down, not seeing the button, and not knowing what to do. Then I have to remember to scroll up or down enough to bring it up, but I'm not sure how much to scroll so every time there is a bit of uncertainty.
Click to expand...

You can tap the status bar, but it is still lacking intuitiveness. Agree, I don't like it.

iphnhelp said:
- Swipe to go back/forward. I really like this feature but I find that when using my iPhone with my left hand and scrolling a page with my left thumb I frequently initiate a partial swipe back instead of scrolling.
Click to expand...

Same thing happens with me. In other words, I don't think this works on the iPhone, but this should work on the iPad (just mimic the way it is done in OSX, two fingers).

iphnhelp said:
- The unified search and .com button. I wanted this like everyone else but it just isn't working because the keyboard is too cramped. Maybe we need a row of buttons above the keyboard like Chrome. (Or, as I write this I notice, iOS puts a form back forward and Done button above the keyboard in Safari when typing in a form. Why not put the .com up there?)
Click to expand...

I do not like the unified search on the iPhone, again this probably works fine on the iPad, the iPhone screen is to small. I thought the reason for it not being unified on the iPhone was to offer the custom keyboards, one for search and one for urls, since the iPhone's screen is so small.


iphnhelp said:
- Favorite icons when taping in the URL bar. It seems confusing to have favorites in two places. Should I be using the menu as always, or this new full page interface? At the very least it should not be scaling up the small icons so they're pixelated and ugly, keep them small if they're not big enough.
Click to expand...

I hate that the Bookmarks Bar has been renamed to favorites. I don't understand why there is LACK of consistency between Mavericks and iOS7. This is very annoying.

iphnhelp said:
I think all these things can be smoothed out before release. And hopefully they will be.
Click to expand...

Fingers crossed, otherwise Apple just introduced fragmentation to iOS. However there is one big difference in fragmentation between Apple and Android. On Android, fragmentation exists mainly because the phone manufacturer do not update there roms to support the new Android release. For Apple, fragmentation will exist because people will not want to update to the new iOS. If fragmentation happens like this to Apple then this is BAD, VERY BAD. Unlike Android, where you have customers wanting to update, with no official roms existing, Apple will have the released OS, and the customers will choose not to update.
 
You understand the concept of "Developer Preview", yes?


iOS DPs are to get APIs out there for programmers to test. Not really for product evaluation :)


Hence, they most likely WILL be rough around the edges.

Hell, a heap of the preference panes in OS X 10.9 DP1 were blacked out...
 
Jakimo said:
I'm not sure why swiping tabs off to the left close them, but to the right is locked... seems both should work fine.

Unless to the right could become a gesture to send the tab to another iCloud instance of Safari..?
Click to expand...

Or this is a example of where tabs should look and act as done to manage running apps in iOS7, flick the tabs up. This would still provide a familiar look to the way tabs works in iOS6, but give it a fresh way of interacting with the user.
 
grockk said:
If you just touch down near the safari controls would be they also pop right up. So it's basically a double tap in the bottom left corner for the back button. The swipe gesture helps but still annoying to have to double tap to pull up the multitab switcher, or bookmarks, etc.
Click to expand...
I'd say this is somewhat harder than tapping on the website URL right below the status bar at the top. Usually you can have links or other web site controls that are present at the bottom of the screen, so how would iOS properly figure out what you are trying to do in a situation like that--tap on some link/control on the web site you are on at the bottom of your screen, or actually bring up the Safari navigation bar?
 
iphnhelp

You sir, now what you are talking! Apple, please listen to him.

I agree with all the mentioned points.

My suggestions:

- remove the '.com' shortcut on the keyboard for the unified bar.
- go back = 2 finger swipe
 
Frederico Luna said:
You sir, now what you are talking! Apple, please listen to him.

I agree with all the mentioned points.

My suggestions:

- remove the '.com' shortcut on the keyboard for the unified bar.
- go back = 2 finger swipe
Click to expand...

That would work fine on the iPad, but definitely would not work for one handed operation on the iPhone.
 
they should really do away with favorites on new tab pages and incorporate top sites.

that would be awesome.
 
iphnhelp said:
There are some things about Safari in iOS 7 that seem like great ideas in concept but aren't quite working out the way they are currently implemented. Does anyone else have a problem with these new features?

- The disappearing bottom toolbar. I like it but many times I find myself wanting to go to another bookmark, looking down, not seeing the button, and not knowing what to do. Then I have to remember to scroll up or down enough to bring it up, but I'm not sure how much to scroll so every time there is a bit of uncertainty.

- Swipe to go back/forward. I really like this feature but I find that when using my iPhone with my left hand and scrolling a page with my left thumb I frequently initiate a partial swipe back instead of scrolling.

- The unified search and .com button. I wanted this like everyone else but it just isn't working because the keyboard is too cramped. Maybe we need a row of buttons above the keyboard like Chrome. (Or, as I write this I notice, iOS puts a form back forward and Done button above the keyboard in Safari when typing in a form. Why not put the .com up there?)

- Favorite icons when taping in the URL bar. It seems confusing to have favorites in two places. Should I be using the menu as always, or this new full page interface? At the very least it should not be scaling up the small icons so they're pixelated and ugly, keep them small if they're not big enough.

I think all these things can be smoothed out before release. And hopefully they will be.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with every statement you have made :)
 
the only thing i don't like is the space .com button. it just needs the . again i like that the top and bottom disappear it shows a little more of the website.
 
My bookmarkbar isnt showing, how can i enable it (i did enable it in the settings...)
 
Is there any way to bring up the control panel in Safari? It just scrolls down the page for me.
 
iphnhelp said:
There are some things about Safari in iOS 7 that seem like great ideas in concept but aren't quite working out the way they are currently implemented. Does anyone else have a problem with these new features?

- The disappearing bottom toolbar. I like it but many times I find myself wanting to go to another bookmark, looking down, not seeing the button, and not knowing what to do. Then I have to remember to scroll up or down enough to bring it up, but I'm not sure how much to scroll so every time there is a bit of uncertainty.

- Swipe to go back/forward. I really like this feature but I find that when using my iPhone with my left hand and scrolling a page with my left thumb I frequently initiate a partial swipe back instead of scrolling.

- The unified search and .com button. I wanted this like everyone else but it just isn't working because the keyboard is too cramped. Maybe we need a row of buttons above the keyboard like Chrome. (Or, as I write this I notice, iOS puts a form back forward and Done button above the keyboard in Safari when typing in a form. Why not put the .com up there?)

- Favorite icons when taping in the URL bar. It seems confusing to have favorites in two places. Should I be using the menu as always, or this new full page interface? At the very least it should not be scaling up the small icons so they're pixelated and ugly, keep them small if they're not big enough.

I think all these things can be smoothed out before release. And hopefully they will be.
Click to expand...

So you basically want something like this, buttons over buttons that tell us where's everything is?
 

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nikicampos said:
So you basically want something like this, buttons over buttons that tell us where's everything is?
Click to expand...

uh, no.

As I said I like all these changes just think they need some improvement.

Also, whoever mentioned tapping the bottom of safari to bring up the menu- that's been working well. But it's not very obvious. Maybe we'll see some of this addressed in beta 3 next week.
 
Just an update with Beta 3 reflections:

Obviously removing the .com button and making the Go button smaller helps immensely. It's a great tradeoff because usually by the time you need to type .com the autocomplete suggestion usually lists the site anyway and you can just click on it. And I even find just type . c o m is even faster than the long-press .com on the . So goodness all around.

And now that I know hitting the bottom of the screen to bring up the bottom bar I use that all the time. But still I wonder if it wouldn't be better to have this whole full screen browsing thing be optional.

Does anyone know if safari on iPad has the same full screen functionality in iOS7?
 
iphnhelp said:
Just an update with Beta 3 reflections:

Obviously removing the .com button and making the Go button smaller helps immensely. It's a great tradeoff because usually by the time you need to type .com the autocomplete suggestion usually lists the site anyway and you can just click on it. And I even find just type . c o m is even faster than the long-press .com on the . So goodness all around.

And now that I know hitting the bottom of the screen to bring up the bottom bar I use that all the time. But still I wonder if it wouldn't be better to have this whole full screen browsing thing be optional.

Does anyone know if safari on iPad has the same full screen functionality in iOS7?
Click to expand...

Does holding down the "." button present options like .com, .net or .org?
 
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