The One and only Real iPhone Web Browser Roundup

UPDATE (06/23/2009 22.15CET): thanks to the developer, I’ve received the latest, 1.7.2 beta of iCab Mobile.

Unfortunately, it may take several weeks until you are allowed to upgrade to it – lately, the whole AppStore review process has become really sluggish. For example, version 1.6 is already waiting for many weeks for the release and Version 1.7 (this is the version I quickly review here) can only be submitted to Apple when version 1.6 is finally released to the AppStore. Hope Apple improves upon their reviewing process because, knowing the goodies (for example, scriptlet support) of the new version, it’s really a pain in the back to have to wait for weeks for versions that long have been sent to Apple.

First and foremost, tap-the-statusbar-to-scroll-to-the-top works in this version. In the currently available one (1.5), it only worked when there was only one page open.

Then, scriptlets work (unlike in the current version). iCab already supports goodies like in-page search and scrolling to the top but, unfortunately, scrolling to the bottom isn’t supported. Fortunately, my scriptlet runs just great with the new version. (Again, don’t even try to import it into older versions – it won’t work because it always puts an http:/ in front of javascript, which renders it unable to run.)

Finally, there’re a lot of other goodies like offline browsing (favorites) much like those of NetFront on Windows Mobile / Symbian / Linux-based Sharp Zaurus devices etc.

As far as the crashing problems are concerned, it seems I’ve managed to find out what pages are causing them; for example, some article pages HERE. There’re times when the browser immediately exits when loading these pages (ALL of the articles result in a crash) and there’re times when they don’t. It seems the problems are caused by an advertisement or something changing from time to time. Otherwise, under OS3, unless you heavily overload the browser with web pages of several hundreds of kilobytes each (just like my PPCmag forum test suite), it’s pretty stable and I haven’t encountered any crashes, assuming I didn’t visit for example the above-linked pages. The developer’s stating the browser is much more stable under the new operating system version seems to be true.

This also means, also taken the excellent features of the browser into account, that it’s, currently, iCab Mobile that I recommend heartily, particularly because it seems to be quite future-proof and the developer is very responsive and open to implementing new features / ironing out bugs. Keep in mind, however, keeping track of Web pages that cause it to crash and report them to the developer.

Other niceties

I would also mention some of the other goodies already existing in version 1.5. First, there’re gestures in full screen mode to go to the previous/next page (quick left/right swipe in the upper part of the screen) and tab (a quick swipe from the lower left/right to the upper right/left corner to switch to the next/previous tab, respectively). That is, you don’t need to exit full screen mode (which may be a time-consuming project).

Let me also elaborate on how ad filtering works. If you do enable filters in Settings (which are disabled by default), images that follow a certain pattern won’t be displayed. This saves bandwidth, CPU and time. For example, let’s take a look at the following two PPCMag blog screenshots. The first has been taken with filters disabled, the second enabled:




See the difference? Even with the default settings, most of the advertisements images (on the bottom left/right and the top) have been hidden in the second screenshot.

There’s another very nice feature I’ve already mentioned in the chart, but it needs to . When you go to Settings / Bookmarks Export/Import and press Start server at the bottom, you’re presented the IP address and the port number you need to connect to the just-started bookmark server:


Now, navigate to it (in this case, ) in your desktop browser. You’ll see the following:



Here, if you select a Netscape HTML bookmark file to upload in the file chooser under “Upload Bookmarks” and, then, click the Upload Bookmarks file button, your all bookmarks will be uploaded to your handset. It’ll ask you about replacing your existing bookmarks or adding the new ones to them:



What are these Netscape HTML bookmark files? They are really easy to be created in your desktop browser.

In Opera, navigate to Bookmarks / Manage Bookmarks and select Export as HTML:



In Firefox, go to Bookmarks / Organize Bookmarks. In the window coming up, select File / Export… .

It’s the file you’ve exported that you’ll need to pass to iCab Mobile.

 

UPDATE (06/27/2009): there have been two new browser versions since my publishing the review:
Journey 1.1: it’s stated to automatically open links in new windows. Well, this only works when the link target is explicitly set to new; not otherwise. Furthermore, the tap-and-hold context menu no longer has the “Open in new tab” menu item. That is, you can no longer direct the browser to open a link in a new tab – unless it’s instructed to do so by the original author.

Hope this newly-introduced bug is ironed out.

Otherwise, there isn’t much to report on. The scrolling speed is as bad as in the initial (previous) version. This (too) makes this browser a very bad choice – go for iCab Mobile instead.
(BTW, the browser is at a 50% sale; that is, it only costs $1 now. Nevertheless, I don’t recommend it even at this, lower price.)

Mini Browser 1.5: the new versions handles Gmail and calendar better and the reload/stop buttons are positioned to the riht of the activity indicator. Otherwise, no changes; this means I in no way recommend it. Not even for free. Shell out the $2 for iCab Mobile – it’s so much better...

Now, let’s turn to online radio players also containing a built-in Web browser. I didn’t elaborate on them in my dedicated Web browser review as these built-in Web browsers (not even in their best reincarnation; that is, in Pocket Tunes), as their functionality is far inferior to those of even average, dedicated Web browsers. They’re, more or less, are like an afterthought and their only aim is to provide a way of accessing the Web while listening to online radio stations. (Without jailbreaking your iPhone and, as is explained in one of my past articles, using Backgrounder, you can’t send apps like these into the background and switch to, say, Safari or Mail.)

Let’s start with the, in my opinion, apart from some lacking functionality (e.g., direct recording of streams into audio files or lyrics support) some other players have, best (and, unfortunately, most expensive: 8 euros) app of the bunch, NormSoft’s Pocket Tunes Radio (current, tested version: 5.2.2). It has a much better built-in Web browser than that of RadioBOX or Oogli LLC’s ooTunes Radio:
* It supports Landscape (no locking and no full-screen though) and
* favorites

It’s also very stable (has never crashed on me during an about two-hour Web browsing session, while listening to some stream outdoors), remembering the last state and quick scrolling to the top is supported. Too bad scriptlets (find / bottom) and multitabs aren’t supported.


(Note that, in Landscape, the lower icon bar isn’t visible; neither is the address bar. The latter is also hidden when not at the top of the page.)

As stated, it’s a way better browser implementation than that of the two other (albeit much-much less expensive) radio apps, which I introduce below.

Another browser is Oogli LLC’s ooTunes Radio (price: $4). It (as of the current, tested version, 2.1) has a much worse Web browser not even supporting Landscape or bookmarks. All you can rely on to quickly access your favorite Web pages is the four-record history displayed under the address input field:



(Just under “Recent X”).
This is the browser itself with the toolbar enabled:



… and disabled:


Finally, let’s take a look at eingrad’s RadioBOX (current version: 1.4.1; current price [50% sale]: $1), which is even worse than that of ooTunes Radio because it doesn’t even have a history. All it offers is the following:



Incidentally, of the three, this is the only browser that isn’t capable of handling the special types (.ASX) not supported by Safari: it just displays “Frame load interrupted”. This is a pity, as the player does support WMA – it’s “only” HE-AACv2 and OGG (unlike the two other players) that it doesn’t support. It also passes the MP3 and AAC playback to the system-level Quicktime player – and doesn’t try to play back these contents in the app. (The latter - it’s not “catching” URL’s of HE-AACv2 content - is not that big a problem, though, as RadioBOX doesn’t support HE-AACv2 and, therefore, it couldn’t play back these streams in stereo and high quality.)

 

UPDATE (06/29/2009 3:23CET): I’ve jailbroken my T-Mo-locked iPhone 3G (previously updated to OS 3.0) to, among other things, find out how the best browser, iCab Mobile puts up with being sent to the background. (Which is very advantageous: no need to wait for reloading the last page(s) when you restart the browser.) The results are excellent: it can be safely backgrounded.

I’ve also run a some-hour-long test of browsing the Web with iCab, while running Pocket Tunes Radio in the background to play back a radio station using OGG. Everything went just fine – no crashes at all. Great!

As there’s a lot of misinformation on this subject, some remarks on jailbreaking your phone and installing Backgrounder. Note that this is for iPhone 2G/3G, NOT 3G S, and for the (at the time of writing) current firmware version (3.0).

1. If you’ve already upgraded to OS3, don’t throw away your firmware file (iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw) – you’ll need it. If you need to download it again, get it from HERE (2G is HERE)
2. Get redsn0w (for Windows, for example, HERE; other links HERE). Unpack redsn0w.exe and start it.
3. When it asks for a 3.0 firmware, just browse for the official ROM file (see above)
4. Then, just do what it asks you to do (switch off the iPhone and, then, restart in DFU mode). If you doesn’t succeed (which is highly probable if you have a Windows that is pretty slow to auto-install the DFU drivers), you’ll need to re-do the same. Don’t be afraid: it’ll work, even if you don’t start the entire process in a non-switched off iPhone.
5. Do NOT check in the “Install Icy” checkbox! It causes major problems!

Speaking of this, if you do (did) install Icy, you’ll encounter various problems when trying to install anything (including both the essential Cydia and system updates and Backgrounder). To fix it, just restart redsn0w and re-do the jailbreaking process. It won’t uninstall Icy; still, Cydia will work just fine after that. (Many state you need to completely reflash the firmware and reload the backup; this can take more than an hour. In my practice, this has turned out to be unnecessary.)
6. To install the MobileInstallation hack, add the http://cydia.hackulo.us source to Cydia and, after that, search and install the application “AppSync”.
7. To install Backgrounder, you’ll find it in Cydia too (just search for “Backgrounder”). Make sure you download the 3.0-specific version, not the one for pre-OS3 operating systems! Also note that it’s only capable of “basic” multitasking – that is, you can’t play with the config files of individual apps in order to let them run in the background. All you have is the long-pressed Home button to switch between enabled and disabled backgrounding.

That’s all. As you can see, it’s really simple – and even fixing the Icy install can easily be done. As long as Apple doesn’t officially allow backgrounding (to enable multitasking or, for example, preserving the contents of third-party Web browsers), you’ll, unfortunately, need to jailbreak.

 

(NOTE: now that I’ve added a lengthy introduction and link section to it, the contents enclosed in this post needed to be cut from the initial post because of the 10k character limit of each post. That is, just ignore it if you have already read the original article before my editing it. Sorry for the need to do this – I couldn’t otherwise make sure the article starts with a link section pointing to the latest article update posts and info.)

Safari

The built-in Web browser in the iPhone is still the most recommended one unless you have some special needs, which I’ll explain later. For example, unless you’re absolutely fed up with

- the always-visible top and bottom bars taking up some (but not much, contrary to what some developers state) screen estate or the

- inability to easily open and load pages in the background or the

- limited number of pages you can store in-memory (as opposed to some other and, in this respect, better browsers) or the

- inability to just download files (of types handled by the iPhone) into the file system – it will only pass the online files to the respective handler application in streaming mode, which, in most cases, won’t allow for saving.

These aren’t the only problems with Safari – when going over the feature chart, I’ll explain more of its shortcomings.

Nevertheless, if you can live with the problems of the browser, I recommend it the most as there simply isn’t a worthy contender to it. It’s only very rarely that you will want to switch to an alternative browser to, for example, quickly download some files into the file system of your iPhone so that they can later be read / played back / sent to another computer / Internet-enabled phone without having to download them again or you really need to keep as many tabs open as possible.

Note that there’re a number of welcome fixes and additions in iPhone OS 3.0. First, it’s definitely better when it comes to handling memory (but in no way as good as some of the alternative browsers). It also allows for opening links in a new tab (if you don’t just quickly tap a link, but tap-and-hold for about 1 second) – something that has been sorely missing from earlier versions. Nevertheless, it still lacks some essential features like full screen mode or background page loading.

Now, let’s take a look at the alternative browsers produced by independent developers. Again, note that I only provide a quick evaluation / introduction here; it’s in the feature chart that I elaborate on all the features, advantages and disadvantages of each browser and compare them to the alternatives.

iCab Mobile 1.5

Feature-wise, it’d probably be the best browser of the bunch if it was more stable. Too bad it frequently crashed on both my testing environments (iPhone 3G with 2.1.1 jailbroken and 3.0 non-jailbroken), which makes it pretty much useless because of the constant restarts.



It allows for tweaking a lot of its parameters as can also be seen in the following two screenshots, taken from the first and the second half of the Settings dialog:





A screenshot of the Bookmarks dialog. As you can see, it’s also one of the very few browsers to support folders:



It’s also one of the very few browsers to allow for opening a page in a background page:



Air Browser 1.1

While this browser has some unique goodies (quick scroll up and, particularly, down to top/bottom-most; find in page), the exceptionally bad memory handling and the lack of real full screen makes it far less desirable than OS3’s Safari or some other 3rd party browsers. A screenshot also showing the only menu it has:



Also note that the menu has "Find in page" – too bad most other browsers (except for Safari, which allows for running scriptlets implementing this) lack this essential feature.

It’s one of the very few multitabbed browsers to have a list of the tab immensely helping finding the one you want (instead of swiping through pages until you find the one you want, sometimes with multiple swipes, as is in Safari):



Also note the two arrows at the bottom middle – they allow for quickly moving to the previous / next page.

VanillaSurf 1.2

This browser isn’t bad; what I miss the most is background page opening capabilities and quick top / bottom scrolling. As it has never crashed on me, probably the most recommended browser if you do want both full screen and multipage support – for $1 only.

 

UPDATE: A links section posted to the start of the original article. I've also mentioned the latest news about iCab Mobile 1.8 (which will, "thanks" to Apple's very slow acceptance of new AppStore applications, take at least some weeks to arrive to casual users - I have a developer version of it). More verbosely, they're as follows (quote from the developer; note that I don't quote the changes introduced in previous versions - 1.6, 1.7 - but still not accepted by Apple. I've already elaborated on many of them in the previous updates.)

- Download-Manager implemented. It's now possible to download files
within iCab Mobile. The downloaded files can be transfered to the
Mac/PC using the "Import/Export" feature (which is already available
for the bookmarks import/export).
Links which would open a file that can not be displayed, will be now
downloaded. iCab Mobile will ask if you want to download the file.
It's also possible to force the download of a link, by holding down
a finger on the link for about 2 seconds until iCab Mobile opens
a dialogbox where you can choose what to do with the link.
In the "Tools" panel, all the downloads will be listed. Here you can
start/stop/resume/delete the downloads very easily. While downloads
are running, the "Tools" icon in the Browser toolbar will blink.

- In fullscreen mode a 4-finger-tap will open the list of Tabs where
you can open, activate or close tabs.

- Playing media files (audio/video) which are supported by the
iPhone/iPod does now also work in iPhone OS 3.0.

- When restoring the saved session while launching the app, only
the active Tab is loaded immediately. The other Tabs are only
loaded when these Tabs are activated. This speeds up the startup
process extremly when many Tabs were open.

- In the In-App settings it's now possible to switch off the auto-
rotation. This will permanantly lock the GUI in the current
orientation.

- The last search string will be now saved.

 

UPDATE (09/Jul/2009) : I’ve also elaborated on the built-in Web browsers of two instant messaging (IM) applications, Beejive 3.0 and IM+ 3.1. Even the latter is not really worth using (and the former doesn’t even have any GUI components – it’s indeed just a viewer for the, over chats, passed URL’s), particularly now that both these IM apps support Push and can, therefore, be safely exit without logging out.

That is, now with OS3, don’t base your selection of an IM app on the built-in Web browser – unlike with Internet radio apps, where you can’t background the radio app and, consequently, the quality (or sole existence) of a built-in Web browser is essential.

Please see http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/one-and-only-real-iphone-instant-messenger-roundup for the IM roundup.

 

UPDATE (Jul/17/2009):

1. Version 1.5 of iCab is released. It has some nice goodies. However, the next version will even be better: URL autocomplete by name (not only URL); the ability to not only download files, but also invoke downloaded ones (as is the case with BigBrowser+), allowing for .PLS file playback in the built-in QuickTime, allowing for scriptlets (e.g., my “bottom” script) etc. Incidentally, the first three features have been implemented upon my requests

2. Version 1.of Multi-Full browser is out. It fixes opening pages in a new tab. That is, it’s still not recommended.



3. New versions of Web browsers, from now on, upon installation, will display a confirmation dialog as can be seen in the screenshot below. This is Apple’s new rule when third party browsers are concerned; you shouldn’t be afraid of them:



4. I’ve been asked for more info on how form autofill differs in the built-in OS3 Safari and iCab Mobile, the most recommended third-party browser, mostly because Safari’s approach seems to be less awkward (fewer taps needed to save the contents of a form and to retrieve them). The difference is the following: while Safari doesn’t allow saving the contents of arbitrary forms, not even some with passwords, iCab does allow this. Give a try to for example http://www.winmobiletech.com/form.html or http://forum.xda-developers.com/. Try entering anything in the fields and, then, press Submit. No “Save password” will be displayed; that is, you simply can’t save the contents of these forms.

Do the same with iCab Mobile: save the form content and, after reloading it / returning to the page, make it fill out the contents. It’ll be restored in both cases:



All in all, iCab Mobile is much better at restoring the contents of any form, not just a few select ones.

 

UPDATE (Jul/18/2009):

The next version of iCab Mobile, which has already been submitted for approval to the AppStore, will also have a download manager (a much better one than that of BigBrowser+, the only other browser with something similar to it). You’ll be able to not only save files in the background, but also play / read them back after saving (no need to stream them again every time you want to watch / listen to / read them), but also access the downloaded file from any other computer.

Basically, it works the same way as exporting / importing bookmarks; that is, you’ll need to start the same built-in server. To do this, go to the built-in Settings and tap Export/Import. (Note that this has been both renamed (from Bookmarks Export/Import) and relocated (from the bottom to the second group):



When you go to Export/Import, the server will still be shut down:



Tap Start server at the bottom. You’ll be shown the address you can connect to save your files (and, of course, bookmarks – but, again, I’ve already explained how bookmarks can be imported / exported):



Enter the same address (here, http://192.168.1.100:8888/) into your desktop browser. You’ll see something like this:



In the lowermost group, you can already save your files (e.g., right-click the file you want to save and “Save as” or “Save linked content as”).

You may also want to read my “Make Web Browsing Easier- New Safari features and iCab Mobile make browsing easier on your iPhone or iPod touch” article in the next iPhone Life issue, where, in the section “Downloading or streaming content to your iPhone”, I elaborate on the brand new downloading-related features of the new iCab Mobile.

IMPORTANT: as of 17/July, it’s still version 1.5 that is the current one in AppStore. Do NOT try finding the above in it: this version still doesn’t have a built-in download manager. The next version will have, which will hopefully be approved very soon.

BTW, in addition to the list of differences I’ve listed in my previous (yesterday’s) update, iCab has also received an “Orientatation lock” switch right in the built-in (that is, not the system-level!) Settings. (BTW, this has also been recommended by me to the developer )

 

- much easier to open pages in a background tab
- much better tabbed interface (much less swiping / scrolling needed)
- lock orientation (will be better in the new version)
- full screen
- download manager (in the next version already waiting for approval - not in the current one. I'm already using it because I got it from the dev)
- much easier to synchronize the favorites with a desktop, say, Opera, than with Safari (but NOT with the desktop IE / Safari!)
- not very expensive

Cons:
- doesn't stay resident when you press Home
- currently incompatible with scriptlets (next version will fix this)

 

UPDATE (20/07/2009):

1. There’s a new version of Mango browser:



As you can see, there’s nothing to write home about in the new update – it’s still one of the worst browsers.

2. The new version of Perfect Browser, however, is much more interesting as it incorporates a lot fixes and additions:



Now you might want to check it out; however, personally, I’d still stick with iCab Mobile instead.

 

UPDATE (07/22/2009): iCab Mobile 1.6 is, at last, out!

It has a LOT of goodies (several of which has been recommended to the developer by myself):
- Scriptlet support (!!)
- Download manager with multiple background downloads and the ability to render / play downloaded files. They can also be accessed from a desktop.
- The “Lock orientation” flag is, now, in the Settings – far easier to access / use it than in the original position
- etc.

Now, all I can say is go and get it – it’s certainly worth it!

 

UPDATE (07/23/2009): I’ve quickly tested the $1 BOLT too.

AppStore shot

I don’t really recommend it: as of the current, 3.1 version, its quite simple and incomparably less capable than iCab Mobile. Just a few cons:

- No multiple tabs
- No favorite reorganizing (moving) or editing
- No any way to stop loading a page
- No autocomplete
- No history
- No download manager

Some screenshots:
All menubars displayed
Settings
User-Agent spoofing

The only advantage over the only two times more expensive iCab Mobile is the User-Agent spoofing, which will, according to the developer, only be later implemented in iCab Mobile.

BTW, the AppStore description (screenshot) of BOLT states it doesn’t consume any memory, unlike Safari. It’s true in the respect Safari indeed remains in memory so that, when invoked again, it won’t fetch the last page again – and, as is also explained in my radio client roundup, it also allows for streaming MP3 and AAC streams in the background, which is a really unique feature. However, all the third-party browsers have exactly the same advantage (which is quite much a disadvantage in many cases), not only BOLT.

Note that it has nothing to do with Bitstream’s BOLT browser (also see THIS for my review). I think the developers of the iPhone browser will want to rename their product to avoid mistaking it for that of (the much superior and older) Bitstream.

 

See my dedicated article at http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/another-revolutionary-multiplatform-utility-me-add-find-page-support-most-mobile-web-browser

 

UPDATE (02/Aug/2009) : Safari has received a free (!) download manager too with support for both multimedia and binary / compressed files – but only for jailbroken devices.

To install it, search for “Safari Download Plug-in” in Cydia.





Install the package; immediately after this, if you tap any multimedia or compressed archive link from inside Safari, you’ll be able to select from between downloading the linked resource or passing it to the native app (the latter being the default with playable multimedia files – but not with “unknown” file types like ZIP, RAR and so on):



If you select download, it’ll show you the download process:



Fortunately, you can run several downloads at the same time and also continue browsing by manually creating a new tab and firing up a Web page. Alternatively, if you don’t want to go this way, long-tap the original download link until you are presented the link context menu; from it, select Open in New Page:



This will make sure the download page will open in a new tab and, after switching back to the original one, you can continue browsing. It’s a bit less convenient as iCab Mobile’s approach, but if you absolutely don’t want to pay for the latter, still a viable solution.

Note that you can have more than one download running in parallel as is shown in the following screenshot: