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iOS 8 reviewed

arstechnica.com

51–60 of 199 posts

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#51
post #40

The feature I'm most excited about is full-speed Nitro javascript engine outside safari. The impact for Cordova, web views and 3rd party browsers should be awesome. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/06/09/ios-8-webkit

The Nitro engine is available only to the new WKWebView component, but that component has a bug [1] which prevents it from loading local files. This means that Cordova must continue using the old UIWebView, which means no Nitro boost at least until 8.1 or possibly later (however long it will take to fix that bug). [1] http://www.openradar.me/radar?id=5839348817723392

Wow. What a downer.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#52
post #40

The feature I'm most excited about is full-speed Nitro javascript engine outside safari. The impact for Cordova, web views and 3rd party browsers should be awesome. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/06/09/ios-8-webkit

The Nitro engine is available only to the new WKWebView component, but that component has a bug [1] which prevents it from loading local files. This means that Cordova must continue using the old UIWebView, which means no Nitro boost at least until 8.1 or possibly later (however long it will take to fix that bug). [1] http://www.openradar.me/radar?id=5839348817723392

This bug, which continues to cripple HTML5 apps on the App Store but not ones accessed in Safari, seems almost too perfect to be unintentional.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#53
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android has had them for some time, and as you say, they are fantastic. When implemented. It's a weakness of Android that few developers take advantage of all the features - I suspect a lot of apps are made iOS-first, so if a feature isn't available in iOS, it isn't implemented on Android. I hope that iOS gaining this feature will mean it is used a lot more on Android, too.

Yes, though they are more limited in Android: they are just buttons that can jump to the app (= launch a specific intent). On the contrary, the new iOS notifications can have a real interaction; e.g.: you can answer to a message within the notification itself and never switch context.

Yes and no - Android also allows apps to draw standalone windows on top of the OS, like this one does:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.everything...

So it isn't quite the same, but nor does it require switching apps.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#54
post #30
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also worth noting that ABP is an absolute pig, on either Firefox or Chrome. I found that memory consumption and machine churn significantly dropped when I simply removed it and lived with ads. I've done no empirical measures on this, but am convinced that the cure is worse than the disease.

I'm using HTTP Switchboard which uses much less memory has offers a lot more control over what to block and what to allow through, but it does take a bit more configuration than ABP.

µBlock is from the same author and a whole lot easier to use:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#55
post #30
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also worth noting that ABP is an absolute pig, on either Firefox or Chrome. I found that memory consumption and machine churn significantly dropped when I simply removed it and lived with ads. I've done no empirical measures on this, but am convinced that the cure is worse than the disease.

I'm using HTTP Switchboard which uses much less memory has offers a lot more control over what to block and what to allow through, but it does take a bit more configuration than ABP.

[deleted]

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#56
post #26
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd never run (and I'm sure a lot of people here don't either) a desktop browser without some sort of ad blocking going on I'd actually be interested to see an HN poll on this. I do not run an ad blocker and frankly I find most complaints about ads online to be totally overblown. Years ago there was a hellish amount of pop-ups, pop-overs and pop-unders, but these days I really don't have many problems, and I'm happy…

It's also worth noting that ABP is an absolute pig, on either Firefox or Chrome. I found that memory consumption and machine churn significantly dropped when I simply removed it and lived with ads. I've done no empirical measures on this, but am convinced that the cure is worse than the disease.

[deleted]

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#57
post #26
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd never run (and I'm sure a lot of people here don't either) a desktop browser without some sort of ad blocking going on I'd actually be interested to see an HN poll on this. I do not run an ad blocker and frankly I find most complaints about ads online to be totally overblown. Years ago there was a hellish amount of pop-ups, pop-overs and pop-unders, but these days I really don't have many problems, and I'm happy…

It's also worth noting that ABP is an absolute pig, on either Firefox or Chrome. I found that memory consumption and machine churn significantly dropped when I simply removed it and lived with ads. I've done no empirical measures on this, but am convinced that the cure is worse than the disease.

I'm getting really close to switching back to AdBlock for Safari (the one based on an old fork). It did a decent job my machines feel much older with ABP. I can see rendering delays on large pages.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#58
post #23

Credit where credit is due, the lack of customisable keyboards was a major gripe of mine when people asked me why I'd never buy an iOS device. A Swype-like keyboard (I actually use Google Keyboard's Swype mode, even though I own Swype) is a "must have" on my phone and has been for over three and a half years (since Swype beta was available on the original Galaxy Note). While there are definitely thumb typists who can…

My usage case is probably a very edge case, but my biggest complaint with Android 3rd party keyboard ecosystem is how hard and inconsistent is to switch between third party keyboards. I like SwiftKey, but I use about three languages daily and SwiftKey is not good enough for two other languages I use (Japanese, Thai), so I have to use other keyboard. Switching between multiple keyboards in Android is totally pain. Thi…

You can switch keyboards just like you would when changing from English to Emoji, etc.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#59
post #40

The feature I'm most excited about is full-speed Nitro javascript engine outside safari. The impact for Cordova, web views and 3rd party browsers should be awesome. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/06/09/ios-8-webkit

The Nitro engine is available only to the new WKWebView component, but that component has a bug [1] which prevents it from loading local files. This means that Cordova must continue using the old UIWebView, which means no Nitro boost at least until 8.1 or possibly later (however long it will take to fix that bug). [1] http://www.openradar.me/radar?id=5839348817723392

You _could_ run a local webserver, but that may not be worth it speed wise. Depends on your code.

Re: iOS 8 reviewed

#60

The feature I'm most excited about is full-speed Nitro javascript engine outside safari. The impact for Cordova, web views and 3rd party browsers should be awesome. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/06/09/ios-8-webkit

Good breakdown on the Sencha blog, with some benchmarks and a discussion of the few major bugs that prevent replacing UIWebView at this time: http://blog.sencha.com/blog/apple-shows-love-for-html5-with-...
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