defaults to yahoo search without the ability to change does not feel private to me
I wonder why not DuckDuckGo. Perhaps Mozilla has a sponsorship from Yahoo.
Firefox Focus – a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS
131–140 of 206 posts
Re: Firefox Focus – a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS
#132Why can't someone take Apple to court and argue that developers should be able to build native web browser apps without relying on the Web View component? We have st3fan saying "Firefox Focus" is not ideal because he's had to use the older and slower WKWebView to implement it. Isn't this similar to Microsoft when they were forced to allow a choice of browser, or do Apple get away with it because they allow alternativ…
Start from the other end – on what basis do you think that someone would be able to take Apple to court? Why do you think that they should be stopped from deciding what the platform they develop will and will not support?
just like there is freedom of speech, there should be freedom of browser choice. either device is browserless, or, it should allow for more than one browser. I'd add this to modern commandments, somewhere between net neutrality, independent DNS and guaranteed free internet access for everyone.
Re: Firefox Focus – a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS
#133Works really well! First I joked about how it's the perfect browser for watching adult content on the go (which it is :P) but it's rather impressive. The execution is really smooth, there's just enough options and it's really fast; there's even an option for blocking web fonts. Great work!
Certainly less clunky than iCab, which is also pretty good when you're "looking for an engagement ring" and other such sensitive browsing.
Yes, I'd never heard it called that before
Re: Firefox Focus – a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stop talking about 'reskinned safari' please. This is not how it works. It is not what those alternative browsers currently are. You make it sound like we just change the color of the bezel. There are huge amounts of code around the WKWebView, which is the only thing common between browsers.
Servo for example cannot come to iOS because of Apple's restrictions. It doesn't matter that YOU are fine with WebKit, some of us want to see dfferent rendering engines seeing how they're kind of core to the whole browser. WebKit is slowly but surely becoming another IE, something I think we can all agree would be a bad thing.
Oh I agree that the ban on alternative engines should be lifted. No disagreement there.
Re: Firefox Focus – a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stop talking about 'reskinned safari' please. This is not how it works. It is not what those alternative browsers currently are. You make it sound like we just change the color of the bezel. There are huge amounts of code around the WKWebView, which is the only thing common between browsers.
Sure, but there is also a huge amount in the rendering engine that can't be changed, which is the issue.
My counterpoint is that with better, more open, APIs in WKWebview we would be able extend the current engine with new, unique, functionality. I would be happy with that as a start.
Re: Firefox Focus – a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
As I understand antitrust law, it is legal for a monopoly in one market to expand into an adjacent market. However, if that monopoly stifles competition in the adjacent market in a way that harms consumers, that monopolist’s acts are illegal. By virtue of Apple integrating the operating system with hardware, iOS has a defacto 100% monopoly on devices compatible with Apple's Ax series chips (e.g. A9 in iPhone 6s). The…
I don't think the law defines monopolies so narrowly that it's useful or interesting to narrow it down to "devices compatible with Apple's Ax series chips." Back in the MS monopoly days, there were a ton of things people wanted to do where they had no choice but to buy Windows if they wanted to do them. Today, there is very little that people do which requires an iOS device. Apple has many closed features (the App St…
I'm pretty sure Apple doesn't need a monopoly on the entire smartphone market to have monopoly power...
Apple already got in trouble for price fixing - a violation of the Sherman antitrust act. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Apple_Inc.
Related to iOS and competition within it, see
http://fortune.com/2016/06/30/elizabeth-warren-apple-google/
http://www.thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/272399-time-to-prosecut...
Hopefully more to come from me on this topic...my channel here. https://medium.com/@ryanpollock
Re: Firefox Focus – a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because of security, browsers are a huge vector of attack.
> Because of security, browsers are a huge vector of attack. That's not a valid reason. With per-app sandboxing. At worst a non-Apple native browser that escape the confines of the web page and be subject to app security. That amounts to using "security" as an argument for not being allowed to do something with the reason as, " Because we're smart and you're not ".
There is a sandbox, but to be a competitive third-party browser you also need something else:
Safari has a special permission (entitlement) that allows it to compile JavaScript to native code. This is what their JIT does.
This is something that no third-party app has ever gotten. No JIT means slow JavaScript. No ASM.js, no WebAssembly.
I have mixed feelings about giving third-party applications (browsers) this permission. Bugs can lead to remote code execution, can lead to sandbox escapes, can lead to compromised devices.
This is a really tough one. Specially for apps that load random content from the web.
Re: Firefox Focus – a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
But why should third party developers forced to use the engine Apple provides, instead of trying to innovate? The whole point of having different browsers is to have competition (which means better performance/new features), but currently in the iOS world there is Safari and multiple reskinned Safaris.
Because of security, browsers are a huge vector of attack.
Then I guess we need to get rid of all the alternate browsers on Android, Windows, Linux, etc because they are all just ticking time bombs waiting to destroy your device.
Re: Firefox Focus – a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS
#139Not (yet?) available in Germany, it seems.
It's called "Klar by Firefox" in Germany due to the naming conflict with Focus, the magazine. I haven't seen the update in the app store yet, though. Probably still rolling out.
Update: I can see the Update to "Focus by Firefox" in the App Store (the logo changed), but due to the rebranding in Germany I can no longer access the details page of that in the App Store. The German version, "Klar by Firefox", hasn't updated yet. Likely someone needs to build the rebranded version explicitly and just hasn't done so yet.
Re: Firefox Focus – a free, fast and easy to use private browser for iOS
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
I imagine so, but it's hard to be in a position like that when you have less than 20% of the market.
But Apple had 90% of profits, isnt that a better metric of monopoly?
it's actually 104% of profits now
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2016/11/04/apple-ipho...