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Chrome for iOS

itunes.apple.com

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Re: Chrome for iOS

#51

Post by bzbarsky »

dbloom wrote: post #8
bri3d wrote: post #5

Chrome for iOS doesn't use V8 or the Chromium fork of WebKit, just UIWebView. [0] Because it's using WebViews, it's about 3x slower than the OS's Safari browser [1], because WebViews in sandboxed apps don't get the "Nitro" JavaScript JIT from iOS 5 onwards (presumably for mark-executable security reasons). Unless the tab-sharing feature is crucial to more people than I thought, I don't think this app is going to be a…

Only JS execution is 3x slower -- everything else (DOM, layout, repaint, parsing) is the same. Most web pages (and even web applications) are rarely bottlenecked by JS execution speed. (There are a few exceptions to this rule...for example, the JS GameBoy Color emulator probably won't work very well)

You mean the same as Mobile Safari, not the same as Chrome, right? Because "repaint" is not part of WebKit proper (it's implemented separately in Chrome and Safari, for example). And even "layout" is different code on iOS and in other WebKit ports...

Re: Chrome for iOS

#52

Post by wlesieutre »

pooriaazimi wrote: post #47
wlesieutre wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't worry too much about that, it's only slower for javascript execution. The other features, including Chrome sync, unlimited tabs, "Request desktop site", more than make up for it. The real stumbling block, IMO, is that without jailbreaking, links from other apps will always open in Safari.

> unlimited tabs Safari on iOS 6 (on iPad, at least) finally lets you open more than 9 tabs! The new max is 25, which is enough.

Safari on the iPhone in iOS 5 only gets 8. I wonder if Chrome for iOS gets any sort of tab recovery on crashes. It doesn't happened frequently, but it's annoying when I have to quit and relaunch safari for whatever reason and lose everything I had open.

Re: Chrome for iOS

#53

Post by spudlyo »

moe wrote: post #44
bri3d wrote: post #5

Chrome for iOS doesn't use V8 or the Chromium fork of WebKit, just UIWebView. [0] Because it's using WebViews, it's about 3x slower than the OS's Safari browser [1], because WebViews in sandboxed apps don't get the "Nitro" JavaScript JIT from iOS 5 onwards (presumably for mark-executable security reasons). Unless the tab-sharing feature is crucial to more people than I thought, I don't think this app is going to be a…

feature is crucial A crucial feature for me would be password-manager support (lastpass, 1passwd). The (lack of) password management on the iPad is driving me nuts. The half-baked external apps that let you copy/paste don't cut it for me. Nor the awfully slow and constantly crashing "LastPass browser". Does Chrome finally bring relief?

Agreed. 1Password support would be the thing that would cause me to use Chrome exclusively on iOS. The machinations I have to go through now with 1Password on iOS are extremely frustrating.

Re: Chrome for iOS

#54

Post by nathan_f77 »

webwright wrote: post #25

The bummer here for Google (and anyone else who'd like to provide an alternative to Apple's apps on the iOS platform) is that there's no way to set your default browser. Or email client. Or calendar. It'll be hard to use chrome if Safari opens up every time I click a link in email or any other app.

I'm sure it's possible to do with a jailbreak tweak, and I'll look into that. I've always wondered, are many HN readers jailbreakers?

EDIT: This looks like it should do the job - http://www.redmondpie.com/change-default-browser-on-iphone-w... Just have to wait for an update.

Re: Chrome for iOS

#56

Post by culturestate »

swang wrote: post #15
srik wrote: post #2

Thanks. Chrome doesn't show up on Appstore search. The Appstore could really use an overhaul in my opinion.

You have to search, "Google Chrome" and it's the last result (of 25). At least when searching through App Store on the iPhone.

As of now, it's #1 when searching for "Chrome."

Re: Chrome for iOS

#57

Post by moe »

pooriaazimi wrote: post #46
moe wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

feature is crucial A crucial feature for me would be password-manager support (lastpass, 1passwd). The (lack of) password management on the iPad is driving me nuts. The half-baked external apps that let you copy/paste don't cut it for me. Nor the awfully slow and constantly crashing "LastPass browser". Does Chrome finally bring relief?

Hmm... I never thought of that. Safari 6 added a new preferences panel for saved passwords. Unfortunately there's not an equivalent iPad setting (just checked on iPad 2, iOS 6 beta 1), but this might change between now and fall... Maybe you should file a bug report?

I didn't have much success with the bugs that I filed at apple over the past years. They all went into a black hole, never received as much as a response.

The thing is that I don't want the iPad to just save passwords. It already does that, although somewhat unreliably for me. I want it to use my existing, ginormous list of passwords stored in LastPass.

I don't even try anymore to do anything that requires a login on the iPad, it's an exercise in frustration. Sometimes Safari remembers the password that I painfully transcribed for a site, usually it doesn't.

It's such a blatant oversight for a device that is touted no least as "the internet in your hands" that I keep wondering why I so rarely see other people mention it.

Re: Chrome for iOS

#58

Post by damncabbage »

moe wrote: post #57
pooriaazimi wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm... I never thought of that. Safari 6 added a new preferences panel for saved passwords. Unfortunately there's not an equivalent iPad setting (just checked on iPad 2, iOS 6 beta 1), but this might change between now and fall... Maybe you should file a bug report?

I didn't have much success with the bugs that I filed at apple over the past years. They all went into a black hole, never received as much as a response. The thing is that I don't want the iPad to just save passwords. It already does that, although somewhat unreliably for me. I want it to use my existing, ginormous list of passwords stored in LastPass. I don't even try anymore to do anything that requires a login on…

It's such a blatant oversight for a device that is touted no least as "the internet in your hands" that I keep wondering why I so rarely see other people mention it.

I was with you up until this last sentence. People who know what LastPass is (let alone use it) are in a tiny minority.

Given how they treat the development community (hello Xcode nightmare), which I'd wager is a much larger group, I don't think it's entirely surprising that something like password manager support would be further down in the list of priorities.

Re: Chrome for iOS

#60

Post by MarkMc »

Several problems:

1. Not very robust - it keeps forgetting the Google passwords I've typed in

2. Why do I need to enter two Google passwords - my 'main' password AND an application-specific password?

3. Not very easy to use. For example, where's the option to see my browsing history on Chrome for iPhone?

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