Life Browser adds sideswiping, improved page queue
Building a better browser for iOS devices is a bit of a Sisyphean task. When you're pitching your product against one of the most successful mobile browsers of all time -- in fact, when you and everyone else trying to hike the trail are simply staging your product atop the underlying WebKit engine shared with Mobile Safari -- it's not easy. The best approach may be to identify the pain points Apple isn't addressing in designing Safari for 80% of the users, and hit hard on the convenience and features demanded by the other 20% who might be shopping for a new deal.
Looking at Life Browser, the latest project from the team at It's About Time, brings home the concept of power features for the rest of us. This snappy browser, available in a $2.99 universal build and an $0.99 iPhone-only version, is evolving pretty quickly as user feedback translates directly into new features and bug fixes. Life Browser first appeared on the iPad back in June of this year, at which time TUAW provided a first look at the app.
The three big features that recently joined the list for Life Browser are sideswiping to navigate from open page to page, an 'Open Sites' popup at the bottom of the screen to assist navigation, and the seemingly-omnipresent 'pull to refresh' pioneered by Tweetie/Twitter on the iPhone. Life Browser also tweaks and improves the Queue feature, which is handy for preloading links off of a page you're browsing (think Reddit or Twitter, where you might want to see several outgoing links without jumping forward and back repeatedly).
All in all, Life Browser provides quite a bit of value for your app dollar, and the rapid iteration of features and fixes is good to see. It's a shame that there isn't a way to do a trial version of the app, because it's hard to know if you're really in the 20% of high-needs users who will really take advantage of the power it brings.
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Building a better browser for iOS devices is a bit of a Sisyphean task. When you're pitching your product against one of the most...
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Does Life (or Atomic or any others) use Mobile Safari for its bookmarks store? I ask because I'm syncing bookmarks over MobileMe and not having those bookmarks available would be a dealbreaker.
Thanks.
Yeah bookmark sync doesn't seem to be a priority for any of these 3rd party browsers.. that's why I don't use them.
October 17 2010 at 9:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI've contacted a few developers (Atomic and Grazing Web Browser) about adding the ability to sync Safari bookmarks. Both said that Apple has blocked access to Safari's bookmarks and lamented NOT being able to!
If you're interested in an alternative iOS browser, check out Grazing Mobile Browser ($1.99). It looks quite nice and has some interesting features. Its on my AppShopper list (another cool app).
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grazing-web-browser/id387125749?mt=8
Are there any iOS browser that syncs to Google bookmarks as Chrome does?
If so I'm sell!
Yeah, with XMarks gone, we need some sort of cross-browser syncing. I use Chrome on my desktop and laptop. The bookmark, preference, and extension syncing is awesome.
October 17 2010 at 2:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI thought people stopped paying for web browsers like 10 years ago...
October 17 2010 at 11:25 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyYeah, 99¢ or even $2.99 for a browser app is a real back breaker.
Think how much computer time do you spend in a browser? It's worth a few cents if it improves the experience.
I sprung the 99¢ for Atomic Browser because it has tabs. Life Browser certainly has my interest piqued.
I'd recommend iCab Mobile. It is certainly the browser I'd stand by after Safari on the iOS platform.
It is very nicely done, has a native iOS feel without breaking any UI regularities and has my two favourite features. One being able to mimic the browser as a desktop client and the other being a download manager.
I would go into more detail but if anyone else has it and like to add more about iCab Mobile, please do.
I thought I'd just quickly add, iCab Mobile also support two finger, three finger swiping as well and it is done very nicely.
In all honesty, I had a look at the screenshots of Life Browser, and given how odd it looks compared to the rest of the feel of iOS. I wouldn't have bought it even if iCab wasn't there to fill the void. Even feature-wise iCab seems to stand out, transparent AdBlock integration, auto-fill out forms, private browsing, pass-code access control, site compression via google mobilizer, file import/export through iTunes and full screen mode too.
All in all, well worth the money compared to any other browser. I'm surprised no-one covered it here.
Are you guys looking for staff by any chance? :P
Been using iCab since its relaease and it has always been my primary browser. But since I'm a bit of an app junkie, I now have 6 browsers installed on both my phone4 and pad- ICab, Atomic, Life, mercury, Dual (multi browser on iPhone- does something which is to have multi be windows not tabs open at the same time) and Safari...... These are in the order of use frequency and life was at the end, but it's creeping up the list fast!
Ok back to why I was replying- a very cool feature that iCab has that I believe no other ios browser has yet are modules/bookmarklets that act sorta like extensions. Plus a very user friendly way to download files. Like Khurraam said, it closest to a native browser not to mention the closest to a real browser you'll find for ios.
I own & use both Life and Atomic Browsers. As of the v1.5 update, I prefer Life Browser & hardly use Atomic anymore.
October 16 2010 at 7:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAtomic Browser is way better and is only $.99
October 16 2010 at 5:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThank you Mike for the great post! To see the new features of Life Web Browsers v1.5, please click the youtube link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiRSPuDa3gY
BTW, Life for iPhone 4, open sites, and more are all new features in v1.5 and were all the top customer requests. We're very open to ideas. Here's a link to contact us if you'd like to send us an idea or two.
http://www.itsabouttimeproducts.com/Its_About_Time/Support.html
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TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
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