Why doesn't Safari have a fullscreen mode?

[SomeDudeAsking]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

So, I'm using my iPhone with Safari to browse MacRumors and I am wondering why in the world Safari lacks a full screen mode. The iPhone display is small as it is and having the status bar and the Safari controls always displayed is very annoying and not a good use of space.

You would think that this is something that Steve Jobs would be furious over.

 

[robbieduncan]

Any website can choose to scroll the address bar off screen. Whine to the website owners...

 

[Darwin]

The address bar will disappear when scrolling downwards. As for the onscreen controls they can be removed when a web app developer adds the line of code required.

At the end of the day an iPhone will be rendering pages that are designed mainly for systems on bigger displays. Removing the bars on either side doesn't provide that much extra space and at the same time removes navigation and other options from the user preventing them from doing much.

Like some sites MacRumors provide an iPhone / Mobile optimised site which gives a better experience, at least in terms of reading on a smaller display.

 

[SomeDudeAsking]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

The address bar is not a problem since I can scroll down but the status bar at the top with the time and the toolbar at the bottom are always there even when I'm doing something like reading this forum where a fullscreen mode is very beneficial given the small screen size of the iPhone.

 

[Frosticus]

Like some sites MacRumors provide an iPhone / Mobile optimised site which gives a better experience, at least in terms of reading on a smaller display.

I've noticed that the standard Macrumors page has been loading on my iPhone 4 the past few days.. instead of the optimised one. I've always used the same shortcut from my home screen and not had the problem before. Anyone else have this problem or able to confirm the correct URL for the optimised version..?

 

[Darwin]

I've noticed that the standard Macrumors page has been loading on my iPhone 4 the past few days.. instead of the optimised one. I've always used the same shortcut from my home screen and not had the problem before. Anyone else have this problem or able to confirm the correct URL for the optimised version..?

What happens when you navigate from safari typing in macrumors.com?

I see the iPhone designed site loading a bookmark I have from within Safari.

 

[Frosticus]

What happens when you navigate from safari typing in macrumors.com?

I see the iPhone designed site loading a bookmark I have from within Safari.

Typing in macrumors.com into Safari, I end up on the normal page, not the iPhone optimised one - see attached image.

 

[Frosticus]

Strange... just quit Skyfire which was set to "desktop" mode and now Safari loads the correct iPhone formatted page for macrumors.com... Is Skyfire changing a setting outside of the app or just coincidence?

 

[Darwin]

You must have a cookie that is set to load the full page, if you scroll to the bottom you can select the iPhone site from a link at the bottom.

 

[Frosticus]

Fair enough - cheers Darwin.

 

[oBMTo]

Atomic browser >>>>>>>>>>> Safari