The iOS 9 Content Blocker thread

[Apple_Robert]

Well, I guess this is in part because speed is one of the things that are easy to measure. A tester can only use a limited amount of sites, so getting a truly representative sample of the "blocking power" is difficult. What remains are speed and customization options.

One of the most important aspects IMO hasn't been addressed at all so far: How well does a blocker stop invisible trackers? Many devs will focus on the obvious results, so it's possible that some blockers let more trackers through than they should. It's difficult but not impossible to test (e.g. one could set up an HTTP proxy or use Wireshark to see if there are still requests going out for well known trackers).

In regards to your latter comment, I agree. I think that that is very important and we should do what we can, to try and bring some answers to those kinds of questions.

As to speed, I am not saying it isn't important. It does factor into the app equation. I just don't think it should be the primary focus that many people appear to look to.

 

[Mactaculious]

Nice of you to join us, Ben.

I have 1Blocker and there are a lot of things I like about it.

I know you like it but, there are many here, who aren't interested in tweaking the settings all the time, or building their own custom rules. As such, 1Blocker may not be the best fit for their needs and ability.

Ben? No, sorry not Ben. Just like the rest of you that's tried all the blockers from the first few days before the mass influx of blockers and prefer the customization that 1blocker offers over the others.

Of course one shoe doesn't fit all but it works for me. I don't mind learning how to setup my own block list if it means I'll have even faster load times.

 

[KarimLeVallois]

Slated for the next version of Purify:

• Separating the social and comment toggles
• Cookie-warning blocking option (in consideration: this might be made to be part of the "Ads and Tracking" option instead of a separate one — doesn't seem like anyone wants to see those cookie warnings; thoughts/feedback?)
• 3D Touch support

And the next major release (1.2), so far:

• Intelligent visual rule creator — so you can visually choose things to block from a page you're browsing, and Purify will automatically create the appropriate rules for you
• Instant block-list updates from the backend neural network to everyone running the app.

Cookie warnings alone will mean that I'll just be using Purify then! Currently running Purify and Silentium for this alone.

Would also love to beta test, I spend far too much time on the net during my looooong commutes...

 

[hank moody]

seeing everyone move to purify must be hard to the other devs here (adblock multi's dev, selenium's dev, admop's dev, etc)

 

[yashz]

I'm loving and using silentium and have no complain. I'm not seeing ads in sites that I frequent and I love their whitelist extension that has option. So I can whitelist some for all ad and other just for image whitelist. Iblocker doesn't have a whitelist extension yet which I really would prefer.

 

[KarimLeVallois]

seeing everyone move to purify must be hard to the other devs here (adblock multi's dev, selenium's dev, admop's dev, etc)

How do you think those same developers feel when you keep trying to sell Adblock Fast to anyone that'll listen?

 

[tosbsas]

That is pretty odd — I'm guessing Safari only uses one set of the hiding rules. Try turning them both off, turn on Purify, then the other one, and see if that seems to work.

Seems like purify - as being fast - overrides all other blockers which run parallel. I found a solution for this page. When whitelisting in purify adblock multi gets it and ads are gone.

 

[Applegeeky]

Does purify breaks down? Am using it and notice ads start appearing again

 

[numberfour]

I'd say that you should never group the toggles. Let the user decide if he wants to block tracking, ads, etc. Some seem to only want the cookie warning and tracking, others just the ads and tracking, and others everything. Not enabling all the toggles might also result in a bit better performance (there are less options to check). You could by default have the ads, tracking and cookie-warning toggles set to enabled though.

I agree, don't group!

 

[photoj2754]

Anyone using Purify and having problems with Amazon? Go to main site, search for a item then when I click on it all I get is a blank screen. Sometimes when I try to go back a page get the blank page. Tried turning off content blockers in Safari in Settings and worked fine. Back on now and seems okay but it does this with a few other sites as well. Not sure how to contact support since I don't have Twitter to contact developer. Thanks much.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Anyone using Purify and having problems with Amazon? Go to main site, search for a item then when I click on it all I get is a blank screen. Sometimes when I try to go back a page get the blank page. Tried turning off content blockers in Safari in Settings and worked fine. Back on now and seems okay but it does this with a few other sites as well. Not sure how to contact support since I don't have Twitter to contact developer. Thanks much.

The updated version 1.1 of Purify allows you to report a site within the App. Bring up the Safari share sheet when at the site in question. Look for the Purify option.

Edited to add: I just tried Amazon as you suggested, and didn't have any problems.

 

[Rigby]

seeing everyone move to purify must be hard to the other devs here (adblock multi's dev, selenium's dev, admop's dev, etc)

Not everyone (yet). My current blocker of choice already does pretty much everything Purify promises for the next update, plus blocklist updates and per-resource type whitelisting (e.g. I can block trackers, but whitelist ads for a site I want to support, although the separation is of course not that clear-cut). It "feels" just as fast too, although I haven't done measurements.

An ability to visually create rules would be more impressive.

 

[MrGuder]

Anyone using Purify and having problems with Amazon? Go to main site, search for a item then when I click on it all I get is a blank screen. Sometimes when I try to go back a page get the blank page. Tried turning off content blockers in Safari in Settings and worked fine. Back on now and seems okay but it does this with a few other sites as well. Not sure how to contact support since I don't have Twitter to contact developer. Thanks much.

I just tried Amazon and it works fine for me. I was testing it too last night and found it wasn't loading videos on fox news and turned it on and it played, turned it back off and it would only load a black screen where the video normally would be. I also found that if you toggle off and then on and then off I think you need to either clear your cookies from that website or close the website open it again or refresh multiple times because it will not always register the toggle off or on just by refreshing the screen once. At least that is what I found last night. I toggled it on (just after toggling it off) and it wasn't registering correctly until I refreshed multiple times or closed the site and re-opened. In any case I sent a report, I guess the content blocker was actually blocking valid videos from fox news video page.

 

[scjr]

Anyone using Purify and having problems with Amazon? Go to main site, search for a item then when I click on it all I get is a blank screen. Sometimes when I try to go back a page get the blank page. Tried turning off content blockers in Safari in Settings and worked fine. Back on now and seems okay but it does this with a few other sites as well. Not sure how to contact support since I don't have Twitter to contact developer. Thanks much.

Happens all the time here.

I've reported the site, but no where in app to explain what's happening.

 

[tosbsas]

Post here or mail chris@purify-app.com

 

[LimonJoe]

Ive been using Freedom and it works great.

 

[hank moody]

soooooooo, the whole content blocker's epiphany is dead?

 

[blogbytes]

Do any of the blockers work in the latest public beta? Blockr doesn't seem to work. Doesn't catch any ads.

 

[Alex Crane]

I'm using Purify and it works with 9.1pb3

 

[KarimLeVallois]

I'm using Purify and it works with 9.1pb3

+1

 

[Apple_Robert]

The review for AdblockX has been posted.

 

[AndrewS]

I reported a Purify issue on slickdeals.net - hotdeals but...
Ads are blocked fine but if I click on a link in a thread which takes me to a deal, it won't actually go to the deal.

 

[MrGuder]

Can someone explain why the iPhone 5 can't benefit from an app from the App Store for content blockers.

I understand the iPhone 5 is not a 64 bit processor so it won't work but what does that actually mean in easy to understand language. After using the benefits of content blocker of my iPad Air 2 I'm so bummed I can't benefit from the same feature on my iPhone 5 unless I jail brake or download from some unknown site which I don't plan on doing.

Why is it not possible for a developer to make an app for content blocker that works only for an iPhone 5?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Can someone explain why the iPhone 5 can't benefit from an app from the App Store for content blockers.

I understand the iPhone 5 is not a 64 bit processor so it won't work but what does that actually mean in easy to understand language. After using the benefits of content blocker of my iPad Air 2 I'm so bummed I can't benefit from the same feature on my iPhone 5 unless I jail brake or download from some unknown site which I don't plan on doing.

Why is it not possible for a developer to make an app for content blocker that works only for an iPhone 5?

Apple has restricted 32 bit content blocker apps from being available on the app store. Apple claims that 64 bit is needed, in order for the app to run correctly (performance wise).

 

[GDF]

Happens all the time when I go to Amazon too with Purify. Also, on other websites, I visit too. I have reported the issues a couple times, but nothing has been fixed yet. I ended up not using Purify anymore, until these issues are fixed. Rather have ads than have blank webpages come up

Happens all the time here.

I've reported the site, but no where in app to explain what's happening.

I just tried Amazon and it works fine for me. I was testing it too last night and found it wasn't loading videos on fox news and turned it on and it played, turned it back off and it would only load a black screen where the video normally would be. I also found that if you toggle off and then on and then off I think you need to either clear your cookies from that website or close the website open it again or refresh multiple times because it will not always register the toggle off or on just by refreshing the screen once. At least that is what I found last night. I toggled it on (just after toggling it off) and it wasn't registering correctly until I refreshed multiple times or closed the site and re-opened. In any case I sent a report, I guess the content blocker was actually blocking valid videos from fox news video page.