When will we be able to turn off mobile sites in Safari?

[Rogifan]

Will Apple ever give us the ability to turn off mobile sites in Safari? I hate going to a website and being redirected to its tablet or mobile site. Some of them allow you to get to the desktop version of the site but others don't and mobile versions of sites are crap. You'd think Safari could have a setting to turn off that feature. Yeah I know just use another browser, and I often do, but I don't get why Apple set Safari up this way. Was it because of flash, because the desktop version of a site using flash wouldn't work properly?

 

[Jord5i]

Will Apple ever give us the ability to turn off mobile sites in Safari? I hate going to a website and being redirected to its tablet or mobile site. Some of them allow you to get to the desktop version of the site but others don't and mobile versions of sites are crap. You'd think Safari could have a setting to turn off that feature. Yeah I know just use another browser, and I often do, but I don't get why Apple set Safari up this way. Was it because of flash, because the desktop version of a site using flash wouldn't work properly?

Is not up to apple, this is done by the websites themselves. The website detects your screen is x width and y in height, which will result them in redirecting you to their mobile site.

 

[Rogifan]

Is not up to apple, this is done by the websites themselves. The website detects your screen is x width and y in height, which will result them in redirecting you to their mobile site.

So this same thing would happen if I was using an Android or Windows phone? There's no way to turn this off?

 

[MartyF81]

Like Jord5i said. Its not Apple. The site itself detects your browser type and redirects you to the mobile version.

You really don't want to be directed to the full versions. They are usually bigger payloads and will eat your data up and slow you down. The mobile versions do not contain all the "fat" graphics and images, effects, etc.. , thus making them use less data and load faster.

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So this same thing would happen if I was using an Android or Windows phone? There's no way to turn this off?

99% of the time It "should". It depends on how the website programmer built it. He may have been sloppy and forgot to include the browser agents for Win-Phone and Android in his re-direct code.

But for the most part yes. If a site has invested in a mobile platform, it will redirect any mobile browser to the mobile version.

 

[Zcott]

This is definitely not an Apple issue. When you see the adverts for the iPhone, you'll see full versions of websites like NYTimes or The Guardian. Get in touch with web developers and tell them you want the full web in your hand, like the adverts say.

 

[matrix07]

wrong thread.

 

[MartyF81]

Also,

It is not based on screen size. It is based on Browser Agent. So it sees that it is "Mobile Safari Version XYZ" and thus determines you are using a mobile device and dispatches you the Mobile site version.

I wouldn't waste your time contacting the site developers. 99% of the world does not want to browse a site built for a 15"-20" screen on their 4" or less Mobile screen. It is a terrible experience.

 

[APlotdevice]

Is not up to apple, this is done by the websites themselves. The website detects your screen is x width and y in height, which will result them in redirecting you to their mobile site.

Actually it just looks at the browser agent. Many third party browsers allow you to change this so that mobile sites never come up. Apple will probably never implement such a feature, as they prefer simplicity.

 

[FSMBP]

Is not up to apple, this is done by the websites themselves. The website detects your screen is x width and y in height, which will result them in redirecting you to their mobile site.

Like Jord5i said. Its not Apple. The site itself detects your browser type and redirects you to the mobile version.

You really don't want to be directed to the full versions. They are usually bigger payloads and will eat your data up and slow you down. The mobile versions do not contain all the "fat" graphics and images, effects, etc.. , thus making them use less data and load faster.

----------



99% of the time It "should". It depends on how the website programmer built it. He may have been sloppy and forgot to include the browser agents for Win-Phone and Android in his re-direct code.

But for the most part yes. If a site has invested in a mobile platform, it will redirect any mobile browser to the mobile version.

I wouldn't say that...Window's Phone has an option in their settings which is convenient. Apple should have added that option a long time ago.

 

[Rogifan]

Yes thank you. All Safari needs is a simple toggle on/off option. Desktop sites might suck on the iPhone but I much prefer them to tablet versions on the iPad.

 

[Jord5i]

Also,

It is not based on screen size. It is based on Browser Agent. So it sees that it is "Mobile Safari Version XYZ" and thus determines you are using a mobile device and dispatches you the Mobile site version.

I wouldn't waste your time contacting the site developers. 99% of the world does not want to browse a site built for a 15"-20" screen on their 4" or less Mobile screen. It is a terrible experience.

Are you sure? I was pretty certain there was a way to make a certain screen size link to a specific css file for that screen size... could be off here though.

 

[Gage]

Just use Atomic and set it for desktop.

 

[Resante]

"View Desktop Version"

The default browser in Android ICS has this option, wish Safari did too.

 

[klipan]

I wouldn't say that...Window's Phone has an option in their settings which is convenient. Apple should have added that option a long time ago.

The default browser in Android ICS has this option, wish Safari did too.

correct, both windows phone and android can preset this, browser then reports itself as sandard unit and we do not see those ugly restricted websites
safari only can do it afterwards if website allows it. just another of apple limiations, it should be easy to do that. at least for ipads with bigg screens

 

[APlotdevice]

correct, both windows phone and android can preset this, browser then reports itself as sandard unit and we do not see those ugly restricted websites
safari only can do it afterwards if website allows it. just another of apple limiations, it should be easy to do that. at least for ipads with bigg screens

F course it can be done. Third party browsers do it. But for better or worse Apple prefers to keep their software as simple as possible. Leaving out features that they feel might confuse more casual users.

 

[NT1440]

Yes thank you. All Safari needs is a simple toggle on/off option. Desktop sites might suck on the iPhone but I much prefer them to tablet versions on the iPad.

Thats odd, my iPad always gets the desktop version of websites (thankfully). Are you on the 2 or 3?

 

[DDustiNN]

Thats odd, my iPad always gets the desktop version of websites (thankfully). Are you on the 2 or 3?

Yeah I dunno what he's talking about there... On my iPad 1, I've never gotten a "mobile" version of a website.

I do on my phone (such as MacRumors, for example). I almost always switch to the full desktop site if it's an option though.

I also believe this should be an option in Safari. On my Android phone (older, before iPhone 4), I was able to set an option in my browser as to which browser it would act like. I chose IE so it would display full sites.

 

[xraydoc]

Thats odd, my iPad always gets the desktop version of websites (thankfully). Are you on the 2 or 3?

Because the website's author(s) will sniff the browser and say, "oh, it's Safari on an iPhone - here's the mobile version of our site" versus, "oh, it's an iPad - here's the regular version" (or they don't check for iPad at all).

On some sites there's an option which will set a cookie with the version you want - mobile or standard. But not all websites will have this.

It's really the authors' fault. On some Android browsers, there's an option to request the full, non-mobile website. The website does NOT have to respect this if the author has decided not to implement the check.

I can only guess that Apple doesn't include this option so as to reduce confusion amongst the less-savvy users.

 

[APlotdevice]

Thats odd, my iPad always gets the desktop version of websites (thankfully). Are you on the 2 or 3?

The browser agent on the iPad is different from the iPhone. So most sites will not divert it to a mobile page. Though some do.

 

[NT1440]

Because the website's author(s) will sniff the browser and say, "oh, it's Safari on an iPhone - here's the mobile version of our site" versus, "oh, it's an iPad - here's the regular version" (or they don't check for iPad at all).

On some sites there's an option which will set a cookie with the version you want - mobile or standard. But not all websites will have this.

It's really the authors' fault. On some Android browsers, there's an option to request the full, non-mobile website. The website does NOT have to respect this if the author has decided not to implement the check.

I can only guess that Apple doesn't include this option so as to reduce confusion amongst the less-savvy users.

The browser agent on the iPad is different from the iPhone. So most sites will not divert it to a mobile page. Though some do.

Guys, I know that. I'm wondering why that poster's iPad is supposedly sending him to the mobile version when the iPad has always had the desktop version of sites handed to it.

Perhaps he meant iPhone?

 

[dotme]

Are you sure? I was pretty certain there was a way to make a certain screen size link to a specific css file for that screen size... could be off here though.

No, you're not off. You are correct. "Responsive Design" can be based around either useragent, or screen width in pixels.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_Web_Design

 

[i-John]

Is not up to apple, this is done by the websites themselves. The website detects your screen is x width and y in height, which will result them in redirecting you to their mobile site.

Not exactly how they do it. They detect the type of browser you are using (UserAgent) and push their desired layout to you.

There are two ways to "fix" it.

Change your UserAgent (which could be done via a hack once jailbroken)
The site gives you an option to override.

 

[polythene]

I would welcome this feature because I find mobile sites to be too lacking. Most of them do have an option at the bottom to view the desktop version, but it gets somewhat annoying to redirect it every time.

Like the others said though, it's more or less out of Apple's hands.

 

[rorschach]

Not exactly how they do it. They detect the type of browser you are using (UserAgent) and push their desired layout to you.

There are two ways to "fix" it.

Change your UserAgent (which could be done via a hack once jailbroken)
The site gives you an option to override.

Some DO change the layout in CSS based on the screen size, with something like:

@media only screen 
and (min-device-width : 640px) 
and (max-device-width : 1136px) {

}

That you can't change unless there's a browser for iOS that let's you set a user stylesheet.

 

[Rogifan]

I would welcome this feature because I find mobile sites to be too lacking. Most of them do have an option at the bottom to view the desktop version, but it gets somewhat annoying to redirect it every time.

Like the others said though, it's more or less out of Apple's hands.

How is it out of Apple's hands? If I use another browser like SkyFire or Atomic Web this doesn't happen. It's only happened to me when I'm using Safari. I actually use Atomic Web because in the preferences I can set my browser to a desktop version. No Flash of course but I can get the non-mobile/tablet version of Google search. Only thing I can't get is the link for cached site or related/similar sites but I'm assuming that's because of Flash.