The iPad safari - Pain in the but!

[iWoz]

The only thing that grinds my gears with safari on the iPad is that certain websites redirect you to a mobile version of there site and sometimes there's no option to change to a non-mobile view.

Anyone else experience a similar problem? Or have a workaround?

Bet365
Twitter
Skybet

Are just a few that comes to mind

 

[BergerFan]

I can access the full Twitter site in Safari, no problem.

 

[petvas]

The only thing that grinds my gears with safari on the iPad is that certain websites redirect you to a mobile version of there site and sometimes there's no option to change to a non-mobile view.

Anyone else experience a similar problem? Or have a workaround?

Bet365
Twitter
Skybet

Are just a few that comes to mind

I would suggest that you try one of the alternative browsers out there: iCab, Atomic, Mercury etc. They all allow you to change the user agent of the browser.

 

[EssentialParado]

I've noticed this on Kotaku and a few other sites. I use iCab and I can change the user agent, but it's irritating as anything. Hopefully won't be long before staff at these sites get equally annoyed when they use their own iPads.

 

[petvas]

I've noticed this on Kotaku and a few other sites. I use iCab and I can change the user agent, but it's irritating as anything. Hopefully won't be long before staff at these sites get equally annoyed when they use their own iPads.

The biggest issue here is the features that Mobile Safari lacks, compared to a modern desktop browser. I am sure that when Apple brings more desktop power to the iPad, that we will see more and more of these sites support the iPad better.

 

[treyjustice]

atomic is a great browser. it is a little slower but it has many more features and you can tell it to act like IE 8 or safari

 

[Joey47]

If safari had tabs then it would be the better browser...

 

[c14nhl]

My main issues with Safari for iPad are the reloading when switching between pages and also the lack of chat on Facebook.

I think I understand the refreshing, but can anyone explain how chat isn't available?

 

[eyespii]

I can't stand the refreshing on safari, nor the lack of real tabs. What was jobs on when he said that the iPad was a better browsing experience than a laptop?

I'm between atomic and mercury right now. Mercury has a nicer more integrated ui compared to atomic, but I seem to run into more low memory warnings with mercury.

 

[number84]

I've been using atomic now for a day and love it. Will never switch back to safari. For 99 cents totally worth it!

 

[Crosbie]

Kotaku is the most annoying. Direct links redirect to the front page of the ***** phone version of the site. You think a tech and gaming site like tha would wise up quicker than most....

 

[Ashka]

My main work around is a friendly email to the site owners asking them to please fix it. Many forum type sites have difficulty differentiating between iPhones & iPads. .. So far 100% success.

 

[Don Kosak]

iCab does a good job if you set the user-agent to regular Safari.

I do use Safari for most general browsing, but iCab is my favorite alternate.

 

[smiddlehurst]

Kotaku is the most annoying. Direct links redirect to the front page of the ***** phone version of the site. You think a tech and gaming site like tha would wise up quicker than most....

That's largely because the recent Gawker redesign (which I can only assume was done by a room of crack-adicted monkeys having a bad day) utterly breaks under pretty much every mobile browser. They knew this before pushing the changes across all their sites as they'd trialed it on... I think it was io9 but one site anyway. They got a ton of complaints that it didn't work and rolled it out anyway. They then got a whole lot more complaints and their solution was to simply put a redirect in to get the iPad using the mobile site. However THAT doesn't work either as all their links on the mobile site break horribly.

If it's any consolation at least you don't have to look at the mess they made of the full version. Honestly, I've actually resorted to using the mobile version of the site (or the uk one as that hasn't received the new template yet) any time there's something I really want to see. Mostly I just stopped going.

As for the iPad safari issue... technically it's not the browser that's the problem, it's badly written sites that treat the iPad browser as a mobile one. Expect to see the same sort of problem crop up on Android and webOS tablets as we go forward.