Appletouts the iPad ’s browsing chops , and the iPad ’s WWW experience is indeed very good from what we ’ve see so far . But the iPad ’s Safari Web web web browser is based on the iPhone rendering , and as good as iPhone browse is compared to other mobile phones , even the biggest iPhone fan will hold that it has its limitation compared to browsing on a Mac or Windows PC .
Which lead to the obvious question : Is browsing on the iPad really honorable enough to get you forgo a laptop or netbook in favor of an iPad — or at least good enough that you could give your laptop computer at rest home for many trips ? Or is it more like surf on the iPhone : serious enough for casual , on - the - go use , but not your first alternative for ecumenical browsing ?
After a day of iPad use , the answer is an authorised “ it calculate . ” For some sites , iPad browsing is an incredible experience ; for others , you ’ll get hold yourself save URLs to visit afterwards on your Mac . The well tidings is that , compare to the iPhone , the balance has shifted significantly towards the former and away from the latter .
iPad Safari comes up blank on this bit of Flash on the BBC site.
That Flashy pink elephant in the room
Let ’s get this out of the way of life at the showtime : Like the iPhone , the iPad ’s internet browser does n’t back up Flash . If a particular site has Flash content and no iPhone / iPad - well-disposed choice , you wo n’t be able-bodied to catch that content on the iPad . Period . ( This includeshorrible Websitesthat are entirely Flash . ) In this obedience , the iPad is firmly in the iPhone column in the desktop vs. wandering argumentation .
iPad Safari comes up blank on this flake of Flash on the BBC site .
That being tell , a peculiar thing has fall out over the preceding twelvemonth or so , and specially over the past few months : Because of the success of the iPhone and other mobile ( read : Flash - uncongenial ) devices , many Web sites that previously used Flash — particularly sites that used Flash preponderantly for video — have transitioned to formats these peregrine devices could treat . YouTube , for example , start up nearly three years ago to dual - encode many videos in Flash and H.264 formats , and now has a edition of the site that uses Mobile Safari - friendly HTML5 and H.264 . And Apple is currentlyshowing off a lean of iPad - quick sitesthat include heavy batsman such as CNN , The New York Times , Vimeo , Major League Baseball , Flickr , and Sports Illustrated . Oh , and do n’t leave that many sites that utilise Flash to stream media — includingCBS , ABC , Netflix , and Hulu — are either already offering native iPad apps or are working on them .
Safari iPad’s portrait view of the Macworld site—it looks much like you’d see on your Mac.
On the other helping hand , NBC is on the face of it not concerned in streaming medium to the iPad , and with a few exception for Flash game that have been converted for iPhone OS ( Canabalt , anyone ? ) , online Flash games are out of reach .
So count on your browsing habits , the iPad ’s deficiency of Flash support could mean missing out on your favourite online games and media , or it could just mean that you ’ll no longer be annoy by Flash Web ads .
The experience in general
As those who ’ve used Safari on an iPhone or iPod touch sensation can attest , there ’s something deeply intuitive about touchscreen crop : tapping links and button with your fingertip , slither your finger up and down the concealment to scroll , pinching or tapping to zoom … it just feels so much more natural than using a mouse or a trackpad to interact indirectly with a Web page . With Safari on the iPad , you get all those touchscreen benefits , but the larger screen improve the browsing experience even more dramatically : you could see much more of every page , and when you do need to soar in on something , you could do so without the sentiency of “ World Wide Web blinders”—the rest of the page being completely hidden from prospect — you get on the iPhone .
Safari iPad ’s portrait view of the Macworld site — it looks much like you ’d see on your Mac .
The iPad ’s faster processor , graphics , and wireless performance ( the iPad includes 802.11n radio receiver ) also better the browsing experience . In addition to faster Sir Frederick Handley Page loading and rendering , you get less stuttering on streaming - medium site , and some of those website will even send you better - quality streams than on an iPhone due to the faster Internet link . Resizing and scroll Web Sir Frederick Handley Page is also observably faster . In fact , you could resize and scroll a internet pageboy in any focusing at the same time , which can be utilitarian in some berth . ( you’re able to actually do this in Safari on an iPhone , as well , but the iPhone ’s small screen door makes such actions impractical . On the iPad ’s gravid CRT screen , it feels quite natural to pan across a page as you ’re zooming in on its text . )
The pages view in Safari on the iPad
On the other bridge player , the iPad ’s screen , while much larger than an iPhone ’s , is still considerably smaller than what you ’ll find on most laptops ; it ’s closer in size to the screen of a magnanimous netbook . This means that less of each World Wide Web Thomas Nelson Page will be seeable compared to Safari on a “ existent ” computer , and on many sites the text will be tiny . So you ’re still move to be doing more scrolling and zooming than if you were browse on your Mac or MacBook .
Mobile vs. desktop sites
One major difference between Safari on the iPad and the iPhone is which version of a WWW page , background or nomadic , you see when visiting a internet site . While the iPhone interpretation of Safari is normally served the mobile version of a page — one with a taut layout , few images , and other design differences that make the page easier to view on a midget screen — Safari on the iPad unremarkably get the full - bumble desktop variation of the Thomas Nelson Page . In most cases , this is a good matter , as the iPad ’s larger screen means you ’ll want to see that full version . The exceptions would be site where the mobile version of pages are optimise for touchscreen , or unity where the desktop version uses Flash for video while the nomadic version use H.264 or another non - meretricious formatting ; in those eccentric , you ’d want to see the mobile version .
Assuming a vane server provides both mobile and desktop versions of its vane pages , which interpretation you get bet on how the waiter is configured . When a Web web web browser contacts a WWW server to request a Thomas Nelson Page , the web browser describe itself to the server ; found on that recognition , the server sends ( what the server administrator suppose is ) the appropriate version of the requested page : a wandering - earpiece web web browser generate the mobile variant , a Mac or Windows web browser sire the desktop version . Most , but not all , twofold - version web site serve Mobile River - optimize Thomas Nelson Page to the iPhone . ( There are exceptions , however : some sites prefer to send background versions to iPhones , give that the iPhone plow background site much better than the typical mobile phone . )
In our early testing , the iPad ordinarily get the full interpretation of such sites . However , we suspect that most web servers are not yet configured to accredit the iPad ’s web browser — Mozilla/5.0 ( iPad ; U ; CPU OS 3_2 like Mac OS X ; en - us ) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 ( KHTML , like Gecko ) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B367 Safari/531.21.10 , for the Webdevs out there — so you ’re mystify the desktop version of page by nonpayment . Once servers around the ’ net profit are update to recognise Safari on the iPad , you may get different outcome on particular sites ; for good example , you may get a touchscreen - optimized version of a site or else of the desktop version .
On the iPad, bookmarks appear in a popover menu.
The pages take in in Safari on the iPad
Desktop vs. iPhone features
One of the most popular features of screen background Web browser app is tabbed browsing , which lets you open up multiple Web page within the same window , placing each within a “ yellow journalism ” in that window . But despite the iPad ’s larger screen and closer - to - desktop carrying into action , Safari on the iPad is closer to the iPhone version here : you’re able to open up to nine vane pages simultaneously ( vs. the iPhone ’s eight ) , but only one varlet is visible at a time , and to switch between pages , you must bid a toolbar clitoris to enter the Pages purview . But even here , there ’s a courteous improvement : Whereas the iPhone provides a one - page - at - a - time view for choosing a Safari page — you swipe to cycle through all your open page — Safari on the iPad yield you an Exposé - like screen for previewing all your open pages at the same time ; tap on one to bring it forward , or beg any page ’s close ( ten ) clit to close that page .
On the iPad , bookmarks come out in a popover menu .
Another minor pinch that pays vainglorious dividend is the way you get at bookmarker . The bookmarks display in Safari on the iPhone takes over the entire screen ; you ca n’t see any part of the World Wide Web page you were view . Thanks to the iPad ’s prominent screen — and its fresh popover interface elements — iPad Safari expose your bookmarks in an onscreen computer menu that leaves most of the Web Sir Frederick Handley Page visible . ( The menu covers more of the page in portrayal manner than in landscape painting mode , but can expose more bookmarks and folders in portrait orientation course without scrolling . )
The iPad’s Safari gains a bookmarks bar like its desktop sibling.
One of my favorite changes to Safari on the iPad compare to the iPhone reading — and a variety that brings the iPad ’s browser app closer to its Mac twin — is the improver of a bookmarker bar just below the toolbar . As with Safari on a Mac or Windows , you’re able to place bookmarker or folder of bookmarker in this bar for quicker access . By default , the bookmarks bar appear whenever you tap in the URL or Search field , but a new Safari setting lets you choose to keep the legal profession seeable all the metre . If you sync your Safari bookmarks with your reckoner ( using iTunes or MobileMe ) , the bookmarker bar mirrors Safari ’s bookmark bar on your Mac or Windows PC , with one minor exclusion : iPad Safari does n’t support the concept of tab groups , so a chit group in desktop Safari ’s toolbar is converted to a folder in Safari on the iPad .
The iPad ’s Safari gain ground a bookmarker bar like its desktop sibling .
We ’ll have more reportage of Safari on the iPad in the come days and weeks . I ’ll also be take aim a similar look at Mail on the iPad compared to its iPhone and Mac counterparts . So detain tuned .
[ Dan Frakes is a senior editor with Macworld . ]
