The iOS 9 Content Blocker thread

[pcfacts]

AdMop, which is free, is improving daily.

I've sent the dev multiple reports of sites that needed adjustments and ads that needed to be blocked. He responds that he's on it and thanks you for the report. Then he emails you back to tell you it's completed and to download the latest rule set. I check the site to confirm and it's done. Extremely responsive developer.

I had AdMop on my phone at one point and had emailed the dev on numerous occasions on broken sites or ads on some sites. He's quick on fixing the issues and got back to me the next day similar to your experience. But after a while emailing the dev gets old quickly and I was just tired of it.

I think picking a content blocker is very personal - what works for me may not work so well for others. But the good news is that there are a handful of quality free adblockers that people can try before shelling out money.

 

[scjr]

I think picking a content blocker is very personal - what works for me may not work so well for others. But the good news is that there are a handful of quality free adblockers that people can try before shelling out money.

Totally agree. Definitely a personal choice.

I don't think you can say there's a "best app", because something might come along that's better.

 

[tok]

I had AdMop on my phone at one point and had emailed the dev on numerous occasions on broken sites or ads on some sites. He's quick on fixing the issues and got back to me the next day similar to your experience. But after a while emailing the dev gets old quickly and I was just tired of it.

I think that the AdMop developer is the most responsive of them all, including paid apps such as Crystal and Purify. He does update the rules very frequently, fixing the reported issues. Every email I sent him was replied within hours. However, I do wish there was a way to report the ads inside the app, as I do feel weird emailing him for every single ad I find. I also wonder, for how much longer will he be supporting the app like this, given that this is a free app.

 

[ardchoille50]

This is my opinion, so take it as just that.

I feel that creating an ad blocker and then accepting money to whitelist ads is a conflict of interests - even if the whitelist is optional.

The purpose of an ad blocker is to remove ads, and taking money to thwart their purpose makes it appear that the entire exercise was driven by money rather than the desire to help the community.

I would have felt more comfortable if the ad blocker included a donate function, I would be more willing to donate now and then.

Just my $0.02.

 

[Rigby]

7 rules is a ********. They have 8Mb JSON fitted in the iOS app. It can't be neither fast nor not-sites-breaking with such over-bloat.

But it is. Perhaps they know something you don't. Besides, about half of the rules seem to be CSS rules using the same few triggers, which will be merged into common style sheets by the Safari compiler anyway.

 

[Polydactyl]

I see Adblock Fast blocks sponsored ads on my iPhone 6, as well as my iPad Air. Nice.

Adblock Fast is also open source: https://github.com/rocketshipapps/adblockfast

Has anyone compiled it for 32 bit? I tried installing the same method as BlockParty using Xcode7, but couldn't resolve all the errors. I don't have a paid developer account, which apparently is required if you want to enable push notifications. I tried to disable push in Xcode, but still got errors.

On the other hand, Blockparty works quite well with my 4th gen iPad, but I wanted to try some others.

 

[Rigby]

There are three more contenders in the App Store.

Hm, seems adblockers are the new flashlight apps. But the $$$ party is over.

 

[ardchoille50]

And Safari Blocker seems good too... i think it hasn't a review too

Yep, I really like that one. You can create your own rules by URL and regex. Crowdsourced rules too!

 

[Brien]

I'm still waiting for ABP to get approved. Creature of habit.

 

[miknos]

I feel that creating an ad blocker and then accepting money to whitelist ads is a conflict of interests - even if the whitelist is optional.

I guess those "acceptable ads" are a middle ground for users and advertisers.

Since its optional, I'll continue to block EVERY SINGLE AD.

 

[Rigby]

I guess those "acceptable ads" are a middle ground for users and advertisers.

Well, they really aren't, since users had no word in defining what "acceptable" means. In my mind the biggest issue in today's online ad business is the massive tracking and profiling without user consent, and Eyeo's "acceptable ads" don't do a thing to address this. For example, they could require that the "acceptable" advertisers honor Do Not Track requests by the users. But of course this is not in the interest of their biggest sponsor (Google).

 

[stulaw11]

This is my opinion, so take it as just that.

I feel that creating an ad blocker and then accepting money to whitelist ads is a conflict of interests - even if the whitelist is optional.

The purpose of an ad blocker is to remove ads, and taking money to thwart their purpose makes it appear that the entire exercise was driven by money rather than the desire to help the community.

I would have felt more comfortable if the ad blocker included a donate function, I would be more willing to donate now and then.

Just my $0.02.

This. You can't charge users and then take money on the back end too from the content providers to skate through why people bought your app- to block ads. Not "well some are ok because they paid us to be." No, that's not ok. Then refund everyone who paid for your app, $75k it sounds like, and take the backend money disclosing in your app description. People will still move to others though free or not.

It's shady and a sell-out, period.

 

[scwinsett]

I'm still waiting for ABP to get approved. Creature of habit.

Definitely agree with this

 

[C DM]

This. You can't charge users and then take money on the back end too from the content providers to skate through why people bought your app- to block ads. Not "well some are ok because they paid us to be." No, that's not ok. Then refund everyone who paid for your app, $75k it sounds like, and take the backend money disclosing in your app description. People will still move to others though free or not.

It's shady and a sell-out, period.

How about having an open discussion about it and making it all optional to begin with? Is that exactly the same?

 

[LinuxDoc]

Adblock Fast is also open source: https://github.com/rocketshipapps/adblockfast

Has anyone compiled it for 32 bit? I tried installing the same method as BlockParty using Xcode7, but couldn't resolve all the errors. I don't have a paid developer account, which apparently is required if you want to enable push notifications. I tried to disable push in Xcode, but still got errors.

On the other hand, Blockparty works quite well with my 4th gen iPad, but I wanted to try some others.

Same here i have resolved the errors, but the app uses push notifications, that isn't allowed withe the free dev account.

I don't find a way to disable the app push notifications.
The last error is the enabled push without having a payed development account.

 

[tops2]

Has anyone using Silentium 1.1 beta notices ads get through sometimes? This morning on this very forum I notice ads pop up sometimes. I close Safari and disable then enable Silentium and its ok. But this happened a few times this morning on my iPhone 6 Plus so far...

 

[DanEp]

Has anyone using Silentium 1.1 beta notices ads get through sometimes? This morning on this very forum I notice ads pop up sometimes. I close Safari and disable then enable Silentium and its ok. But this happened a few times this morning on my iPhone 6 Plus so far...

I'm still wondering why I intermittently see sponsored ads in this forum when using Adblock Fast. No one else seems to have this problem.

 

[scjr]

Has anyone using Silentium 1.1 beta notices ads get through sometimes? This morning on this very forum I notice ads pop up sometimes. I close Safari and disable then enable Silentium and its ok. But this happened a few times this morning on my iPhone 6 Plus so far...

I haven't seen that behavior.

I would contact them and tell them that's happening. Maybe they are aware of it?

 

[tosbsas]

Anyone knows how to make this
http://ads.e-planning.net/ei/3/1552a/Home/Header?it=i&rnd=$RANDOM
disappear - still see the boxes and writing in nearly all blockers I tried

 

[charles4515]

Crucially: “This will not be forced on anyone. It will be an entirely optional feature that will be described and presented clearly within the app before it is activated and that you can turn on/off at will. It will not be silently/secretly pushed out to everyone. I will to make sure that everyone is fully aware of how this feature works before it's enabled.”



Impossible!

View attachment 585708

You are taking $5000 a month to add this "feature" and you expect users to accept it as benign. I don't think so! And I would not have purchased the app if you had included it when I bought it. Your ethics are rotten.

 

[KALLT]

You are taking $5000 a month to add this "feature" and you expect users to accept it as benign. I don't think so! And I would not have purchased the app if you had included it when I bought it. Your ethics are rotten.

I am not the developer.

 

[hank moody]

Thank god we have other apps.

People, these are the best:

AdBlock Fast FREE https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1032930802
Safari Blocker FREE https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1011678834
AdBlocker by Dolphin FREE https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1039210135
Purify 0,99$ https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1030156203


You don't need to buy a poor app that does deals with ad companies and charges money on both sides.
Ask a refund to Apple and buy one of these. http://www.imore.com/how-to-get-refund-itunes-app-store

 

[tops2]

I'm still wondering why I intermittently see sponsored ads in this forum when using Adblock Fast. No one else seems to have this problem.

I haven't seen that behavior.

I would contact them and tell them that's happening. Maybe they are aware of it?

Just reported. It's happened a few times since..but so far there's no pattern. Not sure if I tried other ones it'll also happen.

I'm wondering if it's like with the 3rd party keyboard extension working reliability. I used to use Swype but stopped since the reliability of the keyboard working got too annoying. It seemed like it's an Apple problem since it seems to happen to at least the 3rd party keyboards I pay attention to.

Otherwise, I had settled on Silentium (at least for now.) Hopefully it'll be sorted.

 

[DanEp]

I'm still wondering why I intermittently see sponsored ads in this forum when using Adblock Fast. No one else seems to have this problem.

Just disabled Adblock Fast yet the app still reports Blocking Ads. Even after relaunch and toggling the app...

 

[KALLT]

Thank god we have other apps.

People, these are the best:

AdBlock Fast FREE https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1032930802
Safari Blocker FREE https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1011678834
AdBlocker by Dolphin FREE https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1039210135
Purify 0,99$ https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1030156203

Safari Blocker is apparently free for a limited time, whereas Dolphin seems to be a light version of an unreleased pro version.

Ask a refund to Apple and buy one of these.

Mind you, asking for a refund can result in a denial of future refunds. I’ve read that Apple has already been imposing a waiver upon users who did so, they’re getting more aggressive. $1 might not be worth losing that privilege.