Apple Opens Flood Gates: Will You give up Safari? [Update]

Yesterday, browsing the net on your iPhone or iPod touch was limited to mobile Safari. Today, it’s a totally different story. Yes, Apple have started accepting rival browsers into the store, seen as a shock move by most. The reason? – If you remember, it was only a few weeks back we we’re talking to you about Apple rejecting applications due to ‘Duplicated Functionality‘. It seems there has been a major shift in AppStore polices, and the result? – more user choice …

I’ll be taking a quick look at each of the newest browsers to hit the store (including the free) and will give you my opinion on which one’s are worth it, and the one’s which aren’t …

Note: During these speed tests the same test page was used – ‘http://www.bbc.co.uk‘. To assure fair results, we loaded the test page up three times in each of the browsers. The tests were carried out using the same connection, and each were conducted using Wifi on a 16GB iPhone 3G.

[Update] – Macworld reveals Apple will only be letting browsers that run on the Webkit Engine through the door. Therefore, Firefox and Opera are straight out of the equation from the get go.

“There’s an implicit catch however, namely that all of the browsers must be based on the same WebKit engine that underlies Safari itself. So don’t expect to see Firefox anytime soon.”

Shame, but this is Apple we’re talking about …

Original Article:
Before you get too excited, although the below are web browsers, and are mostly good at what they do, none of the ‘BIG’ name browsers have come to iPhone just yet. Saying this, with Apple’s acceptance policy obviously seeing a huge shift, maybe we will see the likes of Firefox, Opera and other well known (widely-used) names appear on the store?

Ok, so now down to which browser is the most efficient. Lets dive right in with ..

Shaking Web [App Store]

Firstly, God-awful icon, and opening screen, but as a designer, that’s just me. Shaking web was designed for people on the move … literally. One of the browsers core features uses the built-in accelerometer to detect when you or the device are moved or jolted, and bounces the page in that direction (with elastic effect). Why would you need your browser to do this? – Its for people who are traveling. Naturally when your in a car, or on the bus you going to be moving .. so reading a page that’s static, can be a chore. With Shaking Web, the page moves with you, giving your eyes a bit of a chance to catch up.

Shaking Web has two modes. Turbo and Non-Turbo. Now you might expect these to affect the load time of pages, right? Wrong. In Turbo mode the app will allow the shaking of pages on both the vertical and horizontal axis. When this mode is turned off, shaking will only apply to vertical movement, of which the company says is all that is required in most circumstances.

Shaking is pretty innovative, but the innovation stops there. Shaking Web only supports one window being open at any one time. So you can forget about sites that require pop-ups to initiate, or you simply just want to look at something else while browsing.

Overall: Pretty neat ‘Shaking’ concept, although not one for the permanently stationary …
Speed Test: 23 Seconds

Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2
Download size: 0.2MB
Released on: 13th January 2009
Retails for: £1.79 / $2.99

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G

Next up …

Incognito [App Store]

Developed by Dan Park, of who I approached to design RazorianFly Mobile back in late September 08, Incognito does exactly what it says on the tin. With this app, you can put on your cloak, and browse the web, without leaving where you’ve been lying around for prying eyes. Yep, Incognito keeps no previous history of web pages you have visited.

But .. that’s about all it does. Touching ‘Setting’ at the bottom right on the screen flips the entire interface over to reveal a fairly basic UI, and from here you have the options to set your ‘homepage’ (the page which will load up every time you launch the app), and choose whether you want to lock rotation to portrait, or allow the app to enter landscape, on tilt.

Overall: If you want to keep your pages a secret, then this is for you. Otherwise you don’t really need it. Having said that, Incognito does seem to have speed on it’s side, with our tests returning it has a load time which is exactly 9 secs up on Shaking Web. £1.19? – I little high in my opinion.
Speed Test: 14 Seconds

Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2
Download size: 0.5MB
Released on: 12th January 2009
Retails for: £1.19

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G

Onto Number 3 …

WebMate: Tabbed Browser [App Store]

Coming from a respectable developer, also the guys behind Air Mouse [App Store], Webmate may be the browser everyone goes for. Compared to the others, WebMate has an exceptionally clean and crisp UI, which falls directly in line with the sleekness of something like Safari.

Here is where WebMate differs to Safari, and any other iPhone browser to date. It has the ability to ‘queue’ your links. For example, if you don’t want what you click to override the page your currently viewing, with the on/off button in the bottom left switched on, each link touched will be queued for later viewing. Even better? – Quitting the app and re-launching will ask you if you want to return or recover your previous browsing session!!

Overall: Slick looking, but slow.
Speed Test: 23 Seconds

Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2
Download size: 0.0MB
Released on: 13th January 2009
Retails for: £0.59 / $0.99

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G

Finally, we have …

Edge Browser [App Store]

Seriously don’t waste your time on this. Although free, it won’t serve as a ‘daily browser’. Actually I’ll go as far as saying you probably won’t use it at all. Basically, Edge Browser allows you to set one, yes ONE, site up of your choice in iPhone settings, and displays this page (albeit full-screen) every time the app is launched. That’s it.

Overall: Great, it’s fullscreen!! ..However, it’s pointless without tabs.
Speed Test: 18 Seconds

Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2
Download size: 0.0MB
Released on: 13th Oct 2008
Retails for: FREE

Compatible with: iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G
Note: Edge Browser is currently not available in the UK

But, Which is Best?

Well before I get into the best, none of these so called browsers have bookmarking ability!! – Whats with that? To be selling a web browser, and not be able to save a page to refer to at a late stage in a different section of the app, unforgivable? – I suppose when it comes down to it, some make up for this by caching or restoring your previous session, but still – NO BOOKMARKS?

For me, by far the best was between Shaking Web and WebMate. If I had to put my finger on one, it would have to be WebMate, the tabbed browser [App Store]. It’s really the only browser of them all that you can actually feel the work gone into it. The fact it has queuing ability is a bonus. It’s slick, works – ok it’s a tad slow – nothing a future update can’t fix up I’m sure. I’d like to see this evolve into something great, and far better than, mobile Safari.