Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
ipad is not full internet?
- Thread starter mrdinh
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
No. The iPad does not come with a full functioning browser. There are many sites that force you to view their mobile site because their real site will not display correctly on an iPad.
You can look around their site for a switch to go back to the desktop version. You can download a third party browser from the app store that lies about it's user agent. They are all based on safari but some of them will say they are desktop safari, ie or firefox so you get the full site regardless of whether it has been optimized for iPad. You see, the iPad browser says it's an iPhone so web sites tend to switch to a narrow iPhone view.
For example, I was using google reader but got sick of the mobile view so I stumbled across a setting that let me force it to desktop view.
Yes, I've run across several sites that defaulted to the mobile version on the iPad, but were switchable to the full version with a link on the page. Yahoo is one example. In some cases it may be because the iPad can't support a Flash object, but in many cases it's just seeing Mobile Safari and iPhone OS and assuming it's running on a small-screened phone.
You can easily also switch to the full version of YouTube in Safari by tapping on Desktop at the bottom of the main page.
If you can't find a link to use the full site, send an email asking about iPad compatibility and letting you see the full site. I've been trying to do that when I can. The more iPad traffic they see, the more likely they'll be to make an effort for compatibility.
This is weird. I went to the Apple store this past weekend and asked if I would get a mobile or desktop version of websites using the iPad. He told me I would get the dekstop version. That the iPad is programmed to use the desktop version unlike the iPhone. Hmmmm....
It'll give you whatever site's URL you type in, and then possibly modified by the site's server based on what your browser says it is. The iPad's Safari browser could present itself as the desktop OS X Safari, but I don't believe it does, and it shouldn't as that would cause problems (for one thing, it might indicate you have Flash available, as well as layout issues). So I don't think that Apple "genius" really understood it. What he probably meant was that the iPad is capable of viewing most sites' full versions.
My understanding is that iPad Safari presents itself both as Safari on the iPhone OS and as Safari running on the iPad. Thus, if a website simply defaults to a mobile version when it sees the iPhone OS, it will continue to do so on the iPad. However, if the website is programmed to distinguish iPad traffic, it can serve a desktop page (or even an iPad-specific design) to the iPad. So the Apple representative was correct, assuming the specific site knows to distinguish iPad traffic from iPhone traffic. My guess is that a bit of time will cure this issue.
This isn't exactly right; the iPad's user agent string does not mention the iPhone so sites that specifically look for that should default to their full version. However the user agent does mention "Mobile" so sites that look for that will take you to their mobile version. It really depends on how the web site is coded.
As you suggest, this situation should change quickly as web sites are updated to detect the iPad. Plus there is the option of using the Atomic Browser to change the user agent string if the web site doesn't provide any other choice.
Good, I've been doing the same. This also means for many site managers, they've never seen an iPad.