Chrome for iOS Tops The Download Charts, but is Intentionally Handicapped by Apple
44 replies, posted
[IMG]http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u46173/chrome_1.png[/IMG]
[QUOTE]Browser options on Apple’s iOS platform are pretty grim, however one bit of defense Apple will no longer be able to use is a lack of demand. Chrome for iOS was released last week at Google IO, and since then it has shot like a rocket to the top of the app charts. The UI for iOS Chrome emulates pretty closely what we’ve seen over on Android, however it does have a few significant, and disheartening differences.
Apple has been approving alternate browsers for ages now, but what they don’t do is allow users to set them as the system default, or even use their own JavaScript engines. What iOS users are getting here is little more than a new UI wrapper for Mobile Safari, and an inferior version at that. Third party applications are limited to using UIWebView, which means the updated Nitro JavaScript engine that was released in the previous version of iOS is disabled. This puts Chrome at a significant disadvantage to mobile Safari when it comes to SunSpider benchmarks, making it difficult to recommend.
What Chrome for iOS does give users however is an arguably superior UI, along with the ability to sync tabs, pages, and history across all your desktop and mobile devices. Based on the popularity of the app it appears as though these features are enough to garner a ton of interest, however we can’t help but wonder just how many people know what they are giving up in exchange. To make things even more confusing the first two words of the app’s description is “browse fast”. Not as fast as Safari it would seem; Apple has seen to that. [/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/chrome_ios_tops_download_charts_intentionally_handicapped_apple[/url]
Let the Apple hatefest begin.
[QUOTE=Marcolade;36585846]Let the Apple hatefest begin.[/QUOTE]
Well, considering they're deliberately crippling the browser as to not make theirs become inferior, and everything they do on a daily basis...
I downloaded it and it was pretty good, but there wasn't a point in using it if I couldn't set it to open links/use it as the default browser.
[QUOTE=Reds;36585864]Well, considering they're deliberately crippling the browser as to not make theirs become inferior, and everything they do on a daily basis...[/QUOTE]Yeah, I'd say its justifiable hate.
As much as I love Apple, there are a lot of things they could change with iOS that give users more power, still work well, and fit their product image.
Microsoft gets fined a billion dollars for monopolizing, one reason being because they don't allow people to use their products or something (not really sure, something like that), Apple does same thing and I wonder if anyone will find them, or at least make them stop.
There is no room in this world for hate.
i fuck with bookmark syncing
[QUOTE=Keegs;36585868]I downloaded it and it was pretty good, but there wasn't a point in using it if I couldn't set it to open links/use it as the default browser.[/QUOTE]
If your device is jailbroken use [url=http://lifehacker.com/5922339/browserchooser-makes-chrome-your-default-browser-on-iphone]BrowserChooser[/url].
Well I guess it kinda makes sense that they don't want the default browser to seem like shit compared to third party ones. Safari gets the job done for me (except for that shit page/tab system) so I don't really have any problems with this.
[QUOTE=Clementine;36585917]Microsoft gets fined a billion dollars for monopolizing, one reason being because they don't allow people to use their products or something (not really sure, something like that), Apple does same thing and I wonder if anyone will find them, or at least make them stop.[/QUOTE]
Apple bribes more people.
Can it have more than 8 tabs?
I'll be willing to give up apparent speed issues (that somehow I'm not experiencing) in exchange for bringing tabs down to my iPod Touch or vice versa as well as omnibar sync.
Google apparently have their own network layer powering the actual rendering (So it can use the much more efficient SPDY, unlike Mobile Safari), but they also don't have access to the nice JIT Apple have (And they can't provide their own)
It would be great if Apple allowed other, proper browsers, that way Google/Mozilla/Opera could release fully working versions of their browsers, instead of the server side/WebKit wrappers we have at the moment.
Edit: Best thing about Chrome for iOS is that it doesn't crap out if you try to open too many tabs, it just unloads other tabs from memory.
[QUOTE=ColossalSoft;36586052]Can it have more than 8 tabs?[/QUOTE]
Yes!
(Image too big LINK)
[url]http://s15.postimage.org/4s7do9luj/IMG_5707.png[/url]
I like the build quality of apple products (particularly monitors)
Their corporate dickery is a bit silly though
[QUOTE=Clementine;36585917]Microsoft gets fined a billion dollars for monopolizing, one reason being because they don't allow people to use their products or something (not really sure, something like that), Apple does same thing and I wonder if anyone will find them, or at least make them stop.[/QUOTE]
Would be nice to see the EU bitchslap them with an antitrust suit as well.
[QUOTE=Murkrow;36588031]Would be nice to see the EU bitchslap them with an antitrust suit as well.[/QUOTE]
They're certainly pushing the boundaries as far as they can.
[QUOTE=Van-man;36588035]They're certainly pushing the boundaries as far as they can.[/QUOTE]Really, they're more making up their own boundaries than they are pushing already existing ones.
They could spend the time they take to cripple the competition's browser to make theirs not shit, but what's the fun in that?
Apple, it's time to realize that some companies/people are better at doing things than you, and you should not sue/gimp them/their products.
Although i do like the simplicity of their products. That's the one up side.
It's so much easier to use that safari.
[QUOTE=latin_geek;36588692]They could spend the time they take to cripple the competition's browser to make theirs not shit, but what's the fun in that?[/QUOTE]
I don't think it costs a lot to reject an app from the App Store.
This app requires iOS 4.3
Back to Opera
[QUOTE=ycap5;36589831]This app requires iOS 4.3
Back to Opera[/QUOTE]
You think that's bad? It requires ICS on Android which most people don't have
[QUOTE=djjkxbox360;36590012]You think that's bad? It requires ICS on Android which most people don't have[/QUOTE]
Wow thats gay.
It tops the charts because Safari fucking sucks.
Its frozen up my entire device multiple times and crashes constantly.
Didn't Microsoft get sued for not including the choice of other browsers? I'm sure Apple could lose a court case if one is brought up against them.
[QUOTE=bluesky;36590641]Didn't Microsoft get sued for not including the choice of other browsers? I'm sure Apple could lose a court case if one is brought up against them.[/QUOTE]
I thought Opera was suing Microsoft under some bullshit guise solely because even IE was whooping their ass in the browser market
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