Purify is better than Peace and it appears the dev won't have an attack of conscience, realize his app blocks ads and quit.
I have and am loving Purify. Is there any reason to get an additional blocker?
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The iOS 9 Content Blocker thread
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I have and am loving Purify. Is there any reason to get an additional blocker?
I guess there really isn't, but it's nice to have others and follow their development. Could be one of them in the future gets better than the others.
Of course from Apple's perspective it doesn't hurt that the ad blocking will potentially push publishers into Apple's News app, where ads can't be blocked ...
Were you successful on refund? Shame we paid money, and now the app is no longer supported or will be updated
I was, just explained that the Dev had pulled his app and there would be no future support so I wanted a refund. Got a refund confirmation a few hours later.
As already mentioned AdMop is free for a short time "Get AdMop while it is free!", Vivio seems just to be free because it has in-app purchases, which AdMop does not have.
Purify is better than Peace and it appears the dev won't have an attack of conscience, realize his app blocks ads and quit.
I figure that, at this point, I'll wait for a sale. I got Crystal for free and that does enough for me right now.
I'm going to keep using crystal and wait for a purify sale
My recommendation would be to stick with one of the free/inexpensive apps for now and wait until the dust has settled.
These apps are very simple to write, since the main work is done by Safari (I'm doing some iOS programming for fun in my free time only and could probably cobble together a simple ad blocker in a few hours), and they usually use publicly available block lists. The difference over the long term will be how much time the developers invest into keeping the lists up to date and customized. My guess is that probably 80% of the blockers available today will be abandoned within a few months once the initial bonanza is over.
Something I noticed: Now that most of the regular ads are gone, the smart app banners generated by Safari ("get in the app store") seem even more annoying. Of course, Apple has cleverly designed the content blocker API such that the app banners cannot be blocked (since they are based on meta tags) ...
If you are looking for a free content blocker, Freedom (by Zachapps) is one to check out. Like Crystal, it is a set it and forget it app. It does not have in app feedback, rating, or contact the developer. There are no user toggle selections for trying to fine tune any page loading , nor is there Whitelisting ability.
Like Crystal, Freedom has already pushed out an update since iOS 9 went live, and the developer does keep an active presence on Twitter as well as Reddit, where the app was first launched in beta.
As to website display, Freedom does a much better job with website rendering on Yahoo with the news photo carousel, versus Crystal. It does not block sponsored ads. With the other sites tested, I did not experience any noticeable missing content boxes as with Blockr. It was able to handle ThePirate…without redirects or popups, as well as kat.cr (two well known ad laced sites)
In regards to speed, some site usage was commiserate with Crystal while other pages were on par with the slightly lower and slower Blockr rendering.
In regards to hidden trackers and script prevention, I was not readily able to test such with Freedom, given its usage limitations.
Freedom’s business model is about freedom with emphasis on free. You won’t have to worry about it turning pay down the road.
At this point in time, the direction of Freedom in regards to upcoming features (if any) is unknown.
For those looking for a free app due to budget, or want to stick with a free app until the content blocker apps dust settles, Freedom appears to be able to run not too far behind the leaders of the pack (at this point in time).
Grade B
*Review was done using the latest beta of Freedom.
Like Crystal, Freedom has already pushed out an update since iOS 9 went live, and the developer does keep an active presence on Twitter as well as Reddit, where the app was first launched in beta.
As to website display, Freedom does a much better job with website rendering on Yahoo with the news photo carousel, versus Crystal. It does not block sponsored ads. With the other sites tested, I did not experience any noticeable missing content boxes as with Blockr. It was able to handle ThePirate…without redirects or popups, as well as kat.cr (two well known ad laced sites)
In regards to speed, some site usage was commiserate with Crystal while other pages were on par with the slightly lower and slower Blockr rendering.
In regards to hidden trackers and script prevention, I was not readily able to test such with Freedom, given its usage limitations.
Freedom’s business model is about freedom with emphasis on free. You won’t have to worry about it turning pay down the road.
At this point in time, the direction of Freedom in regards to upcoming features (if any) is unknown.
For those looking for a free app due to budget, or want to stick with a free app until the content blocker apps dust settles, Freedom appears to be able to run not too far behind the leaders of the pack (at this point in time).
Grade B
*Review was done using the latest beta of Freedom.
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Just my opinion, but dealing with feedback and support with a hundred or so people is much different than dealing with thousands of people. I don't blame a developer at all for adding a small price to an app after the fact. Time and trouble and all.
Find your emailed receipt for the app, on the receipt is a link labelled "Report a problem", click the link and it opens a webpage, I chose the "other" option and then just wrote that the Dev had pulled the app and wasn't supporting it any further and added a link to the blog post where the Dev said why and said as the app was pulled with no further support I wanted a refund.
I will post a brief review on Vivio later on today.I really appreciate your thorough reviews. Consider reviewing Vivio.
I love Crystal. I didn't get it for free since it's 99 cents now but it sure does the job and it's cheap.
As mentioned before, Purify update v1.0.1 will add a feedback form to the app. Dev has shared some details regarding the speed on his Twitter and Purify's webpage. Imho, these numbers are impressive (source). Purify works like a charm on my iPhone. It's the fastest blocker I've tried so far.
Yes, the validity of the numbers would depend on who conducted the research.. and whether or not they were paid by one of the parties being investigated.Surely the numbers (measured by the dev himself, I guess?) are completely unbiased.