iPad Safari - better than 'laptop browsing'? Any details?

[dolbinau]

Such a strong claim Jobs has made. Does anyone have more details on the browser and how it differs from the iPhone version?

Especially in terms of multiple windows/cards/tabs etc..

I saw one video, and it looks like there is now room for a lot more windows, and multiple thumbnails open of all windows on the same page, which is interesting. But is there any other improvements RE: multiple windows that make the iPad safari better?

 

[Ka Ora!]

Such a strong claim Jobs has made. Does anyone have more details on the browser and how it differs from the iPhone version?

Especially in terms of multiple windows/cards/tabs etc..

I saw one video, and it looks like there is now room for a lot more windows, and multiple thumbnails open of all windows on the same page, which is interesting. But is there any other improvements RE: multiple windows that make the iPad safari better?

Well hopefully with a better processor and more ram less page refreshes should occur when you have lots of tabs open. Would be nice if unlike the iPhone and iPod the Tabs bar was always visible but unlikely.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

By better he means the interactivity of it. The whole package of the iPad. Not so much a new or better browser.

 

[greygray]

Not when it can't run Flash enabled websites. You'll see broken links everywhere on a big screen.

 

[Julien]

Sure wish Firefox would make an App/browser for the iPad (and iPhone). I want my Bookmarks.

 

[Sketh]

I've read on a few sites (Gizmodo, Engadget, etc) That they say browsing could very well possibly beat out using a computer to do it. And from what I can see it sure as hell is snappier than a netbook.

 

[G4R2]

I think the claim centers primarily, as noted by others, that the browsing experience benefits from the touch interface in combination with speedy rendering.

The absence of Flash, as viewed by Apple and others, will be increasingly irrelevant to the browsing experience as the web moves to superior open standards that don't constrain hardware performance or browser optimization as Flash does.

 

[colmaclean]

Sure wish Firefox would make an App/browser for the iPad (and iPhone). I want my Bookmarks.

I've got my Firefox bookmarks on my iPhone, it's possible if you have MobileMe and use Xmarks.

You need to:

• use the Xmarks add-on for Firefox
• run Xmarks for Safari on your Mac
• set your MobileMe prefs to sync Bookmarks
• set the iPhone pref for Mail, Contacts... Fetch New Data to Push

Easy!

 

[err404]

Not when it can't run Flash enabled websites. You'll see broken links everywhere on a big screen.

In a recent post on flash compatibility, 4 out of 5 Flash enabled sites are already written to properly render w/o flash. It's up to the web designer to create sites that render properly on a standards complaint browser. Despite what Adobe would like, Flash is not a web standard.

Personally I block Flash on my Macs because the OSX build is very unstable and requires too much CPU for my battery to handle. The windows build of Flash is much better, but I wouldn't want to deal with the performance and battery impact of Flash rendered in-line on the iPad. Keep Safari snappy.

That said, Flash is not all bad and I feel that it does have a place on the device. I would like to see a Flash app that would launch as a dedicated player outside of Safari when I click on an applet (similar to how the QT app is launched for h.264).

 

[GeekGirl*]

How much ram does it have ?

 

[poseidon84]

I thought it looked liem the mobilesafari but with one new feature atleast and that was the dropdown-menu thingie

 

[mrklaw]

I've got my Firefox bookmarks on my iPhone, it's possible if you have MobileMe and use Xmarks.

You need to:

• use the Xmarks add-on for Firefox
• run Xmarks for Safari on your Mac
• set your MobileMe prefs to sync Bookmarks
• set the iPhone pref for Mail, Contacts... Fetch New Data to Push

Easy!

wow, didn't know this. Thanks!

I'm assuming i'll have to run safari now and again to sync the bookmarks up, there is no way yet to sync OTA directly with xmarks on iphone?

 

[colmaclean]

wow, didn't know this. Thanks!

I'm assuming i'll have to run safari now and again to sync the bookmarks up, there is no way yet to sync OTA directly with xmarks on iphone?

Xmarks for Safari is a standalone application (make sure it's set to run at startup), so you don't even have to run Safari.

The beauty of this system is that any bookmarks you add to your phone will be synced to Firefox and also vice-versa.

 

[Julien]

I've got my Firefox bookmarks on my iPhone, it's possible if you have MobileMe and use Xmarks.

You need to:

• use the Xmarks add-on for Firefox
• run Xmarks for Safari on your Mac
• set your MobileMe prefs to sync Bookmarks
• set the iPhone pref for Mail, Contacts... Fetch New Data to Push

Easy!

I use Xmarks but don't have Mobile Me. I wish Safari would allow this (is there a work around?). I have to use Windows at work and in my HT so I need to be able to share my Bookmarks. Xmarks is great for this but not so great for my iPhone (and iPad). How do Windows only people handle getting their Bookmarks on the iPhone/iPad?

 

[Night Spring]

I use Xmarks but don't have Mobile Me. I wish Safari would allow this (is there a work around?). I have to use Windows at work and in my HT so I need to be able to share my Bookmarks. Xmarks is great for this but not so great for my iPhone (and iPad). How do Windows only people handle getting their Bookmarks on the iPhone/iPad?

Just sync bookmarks to iPhone using iTunes. On Windows, iTunes lets you choose between syncing to Safari or IE. I don't have Firefox, but I'd kind of assumed if you had Firefox installed on your computer, Firefox would also show in iTunes as a syncing option. It doesn't?

 

[Julien]

Just sync bookmarks to iPhone using iTunes. iTunes lets you choose between syncing to Safari or IE. I don't have Firefox, but I'd kind of assumed if you had Firefox installed on your computer, Firefox would also show in iTunes as a syncing option. It doesn't?

So how do I install IE on my Mac?

 

[Night Spring]

So how do I install IE on my Mac?

I forget if there is an IE for Mac or not, but you don't have to install IE, Macs come with Safari preinstalled, right? So once you get your bookmarks into Safari, you can then use iTunes to sync them to your iPhone. Or maybe iTunes will even let you sync bookmarks directly from Firefox to your iPhone -- it's hard to imagine why it wouldn't.

 

[MacRy]

I hope that pages don't refresh all the time like they do on the iPhone version of Safari. Can anyone explain (in layman terms for me please ) why the iPhone version does that and speculate as to whether the iPad version is likely to?

 

[lordhamster]

I hope that pages don't refresh all the time like they do on the iPhone version of Safari. Can anyone explain (in layman terms for me please ) why the iPhone version does that and speculate as to whether the iPad version is likely to?

From what I understand (and I'm probably wrong here), it has to do with how much RAM is available to the browser application. I think this is already somewhat improved in the 3GS and hopefully there will be more available RAM in the iPAD.

 

[Night Spring]

I hope that pages don't refresh all the time like they do on the iPhone version of Safari. Can anyone explain (in layman terms for me please ) why the iPhone version does that and speculate as to whether the iPad version is likely to?

My guess is that the iPhone webpages refreshes so often because it doesn't have enough RAM to store the pages. Thus, when you navigate away from a page, it gets erased, and when you try to go back to it, the iPhone has to redownload the page all over again. Hopefully the iPad has more RAM, allowing for less refreshes, but I haven't seen any info about how much RAM it has.

 

[MacRy]

Thanks chaps, that answered my question perfectly without me having to scratch my head in bewilderment and then cry in a corner for an hour.

I hope they have ensured that it has enough RAM to cope so this doesn't happen as I find it aggravating on the iPhone when I have a couple of tabs open and they reload frequently.

 

[mrklaw]

I use Xmarks but don't have Mobile Me. I wish Safari would allow this (is there a work around?). I have to use Windows at work and in my HT so I need to be able to share my Bookmarks. Xmarks is great for this but not so great for my iPhone (and iPad). How do Windows only people handle getting their Bookmarks on the iPhone/iPad?

looking at the xmarks website, you can go to mobile.xmarks.com and it'll display your stored bookmarks there. So you could save mobile.xmarks.com as a bookmark on the homescreen, use that to launch safari and have access to your home bookmarks.

 

[Julien]

...So once you get your bookmarks into Safari, you can then use iTunes to sync them to your iPhone. Or maybe iTunes will even let you sync bookmarks directly from Firefox to your iPhone -- it's hard to imagine why it wouldn't.

No kidding but how do I get them into Safari to sync with my iPhone/iPad (plus keep them dynamic)? iTunes doesn't sync from Firefox.

looking at the xmarks website, you can go to mobile.xmarks.com and it'll display your stored bookmarks there. So you could save mobile.xmarks.com as a bookmark on the homescreen, use that to launch safari and have access to your home bookmarks.

I have this but it's an awkward band-aid approach.

 

[nateharr]

I use Xmarks but don't have Mobile Me. I wish Safari would allow this (is there a work around?). I have to use Windows at work and in my HT so I need to be able to share my Bookmarks. Xmarks is great for this but not so great for my iPhone (and iPad). How do Windows only people handle getting their Bookmarks on the iPhone/iPad?

Can't you export your bookmarks from Firefox to Safari and then sync them to your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad?

I've done it and it's super easy. Or are you guys doing something more complicated?

 

[Night Spring]

No kidding but how do I get them into Safari to sync with my iPhone/iPad (plus keep them dynamic)? iTunes doesn't sync from Firefox.

Really. Well, that's too bad. However, googling this turned up some possible solutions, including other threads specifically about this on Macrumors, such as this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/342381/ Perhaps we should move our discussion over there instead of hijacking this thread, which was about general browsing experience on the iPad.