First Look: Edglin

Posted on March 2nd, 2009. Written by Arron.

Following the release of his first two apps iMood [App Store] and DonkPad [Review] [App Store] Dominic is now focusing his efforts on Edglin ..

Note: Edglin is not yet available on the App Store, but RazorianFly did managed to grab a copy off Dominic to give you guys an exclusive look before it’s release! During this review you are reminded that Edglin is still in it’s development stages and screenshots of the app and it’s features may not depict the final App Store product.

What is Edglin?
Edglin is a new user friendly, feature full internet browser for iPhone and iPod touch, which works over Wi-Fi, 3G and Edge networks. Comparable to the Edge browser we featured at launch, Edglin is a capable full-screen browser with a difference. I say with a difference because it does have some features which are going to set it part from the competition.

Screen Layout
Opening Edglin you’ll find a floating toolbar which stays fully visible until dismissed by you. On the top you have the usual address bar and ‘Go’ buttons. On the bottom (from left to right) you have one tap ‘Lock’ and ‘Unlock’ options for screen orientation, Bookmarks – which brings up a semi transparent bookmarks panel, Go back one page, Stop – for ceasing a page loading, Go forward one page,
a page ‘refresh’ option and finally a ‘Done’ button.

Edglin’s screen layout and bookmarking options.

Browsing
Remember that ‘Done’ button I mentioned above, well your going to want to be giving it a tap as that will remove the floating toolbar to reveal full screen browsing. Browsing with Edglin is done in the usual way by typing out an address in the address bar. There’s no need to type http:// protocol though, Edglin will take care of that for you.

To test Edglin I used two test sites. These included: RFlyGD (RazorianFly Graphic Design) and the BBC. To assure fair results, I loaded the test pages up three times and then took an average. The tests were carried out using the same connection and each were conducted using Wi-Fi on a 16GB iPhone 3G.

Speed Test:

Edglin loaded RFlyGD in 0.8 seconds
That’s faster than Shaking Web and Incognito

Edglin loaded the main BBC homepage in 0.13 seconds
That’s faster than Shaking Web, Incognito and WebMate

Demonstrating Edglin’s full-screen view (RFlyGD.com).

Orientation
Edglin (like most) also features the ability to view web pages either in landscape or portrait. What I personally found interesting and unique about Edglin was the recent addition of the orientation lock button. Now although I think this should possibly be moved out to the iPhone OS settings panel, this option allows you to lock Edglin’s browsing screen orientation to either landscape or portrait.

Edglin in landscape view (BBC).

Why would I need this? – Well say your browsing a site lay in bed or on the sofa, most people will have a tendency to tilt the device into a comfortable position. Without the lock activated, Edglin would switch out to landscape (or visa versa). With it activated you’ll be able to browse a site in your chosen orientation without worrying about your accelerometer kicking in. – Great. The only thing I’d like to see hear is some visuals, so the user knows when the lock is active and when it’s not.

Bookmarks
Unlike most browsers currently on the store, Edglin sees you bookmarking sites from outside of the application. Setup of your bookmarks is done before entering the application using the iPhone OS settings panel. Here you can create 2 valid bookmarks for quick reference while browsing. Again, there’s no need to type the http:// protocol, as Edglin will take care of that for you. Now although 2 bookmarks does seem low, I’m sure this number of stored bookmarks will increase as updates are pushed through, and Dominic may even decide to incorporate live bookmarking from within Edglin itself (using list view).

That said, when testing Edglin out, having to bookmark before didn’t seem to matter. If anything, I was glad Edglin does have a separate settings panel as there is now future scope for Dominic to expand on app features and user-customisable browsing options, while keeping the weight of the app itself down to a minimum.

Overall
It’s a solid application. It’s browsing speeds are faster than most iPhone based browsers we’ve tested and Edglin has some pretty unique features from the get go. While the app will have it’s downsides to some users, others may find Edglin such a simple and clean alternative, that it may turn out to replace mobile Safari.

Coming up
I managed to have a chat with Dominic who said that, one of the features he’ll be added pretty soon is the ability to stop the loading of images on web pages. Presumably this will further increase the speed of browsing. Dominic, who can be found on Twitter at @Domness, is a very active developer who loves to hear new ideas and feature suggestions from you guys. If you’ve read this, feel free to send him a note!

Things we’d like to see

- Live bookmarking within Edglin
- List View for Bookmarks
- Visual feedback of orientation lock/unlock
- Site History options / Clear History
- Tabbed browsing

As of yet no release date has been announced for Edglin other than ‘Coming Soon’.
Feel free to let us know what you think of the Edglin browser in the comments below!