Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker • Hacker News Board

Re: Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker

#31

Post by LeoNatan25 » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 6:56 AM UTC

blub wrote: post #30

lstamour wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That said, none are perfect. Swapping between all three and reloading Slate.com, it seemed impossible to block an after-page-load ad inserted at the top of the article via JS. Except when I ran Purify with Scripts disabled on Slate, then the page loaded instantly with no ad for obvious reasons. (Sadly Purify is missing an extension to selectively enable JS.) Searching the store, Blockr looks nice enough, specifically…

Can't one keep more than a single blocker active at the same time?

You can enable more than one blocker at a time.

Re: Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker

#32

Post by ytch » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 7:01 AM UTC

heinrich5991 wrote: post #23

LeoNatan25 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Content blocking requires a 64-bit CPU.

Interesting. Why is that?

Apple only says:

Note: Apps containing content blocking extensions for Safari on iOS are available only on 64-bit devices, due to performance limitations of 32-bit devices.

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releaseno...

Re: Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker

#33

Post by jd3 » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 7:02 AM UTC

LoSboccacc wrote: post #18

pvg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an app from the guy who took over uBlock on Safari, the uBlock guy is the guy who wrote uBlock and not the same person.

so, uhm, is him reputable? I'd hate to install and ad blocker only to make the problem worse.

in terms of skill, the current ublock maintainer seems to be a kid with little to no skill who is not updating the project and instead milking it for money. I'm sure the iOS implementation is sound though.

Re: Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker

#34

Post by pvg » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 7:04 AM UTC

lstamour wrote: post #13

Just bought and tried (in this order): Crystal, Purify and Peace. Each has features to like. Crystal has a great price and is the only one to let you report an ad not blocked or broken page so that the ad block list can be updated. Purify lets you block scripts and images on top of font-blocking options also in Peace. Crystal missed an ad that Purify (and Peace) caught, but Peace was the only one that seriously remov…

Keep in mind that there will be zillions of these in short order and many will also be free. Since they all use the same Apple-provided matching/blocking engine, there isn't going to be much in the way of innovation there - there won't be a content blocker that is 3 times faster and uses a quarter of the memory of some other content blocker.

It'll be down to config UI and the quality of their rules - the rules are all going to be derived from publicly available rule lists. There will very likely be publicly available lists in Apple's format quite soon as well.

Marco Ament comes out looking best on the last point by being completely upfront about where the rules in his blocker come from.

Re: Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker

#35

Post by ytch » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 7:04 AM UTC

blub wrote: post #30

lstamour wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That said, none are perfect. Swapping between all three and reloading Slate.com, it seemed impossible to block an after-page-load ad inserted at the top of the article via JS. Except when I ran Purify with Scripts disabled on Slate, then the page loaded instantly with no ad for obvious reasons. (Sadly Purify is missing an extension to selectively enable JS.) Searching the store, Blockr looks nice enough, specifically…

Can't one keep more than a single blocker active at the same time?

In Setting ->Safari -> Content Blocker,

You can Enable/Disable each one, so you may enable all at the same time

Re: Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker

#36

Post by jd3 » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 7:04 AM UTC

lstamour wrote: post #13

Just bought and tried (in this order): Crystal, Purify and Peace. Each has features to like. Crystal has a great price and is the only one to let you report an ad not blocked or broken page so that the ad block list can be updated. Purify lets you block scripts and images on top of font-blocking options also in Peace. Crystal missed an ad that Purify (and Peace) caught, but Peace was the only one that seriously remov…

Cool technology, but I don't understand why every tiny little feature or program costs money on mobile. The price of convenience?

Re: Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker

#37

Post by lstamour » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 7:05 AM UTC

blub wrote: post #30

lstamour wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That said, none are perfect. Swapping between all three and reloading Slate.com, it seemed impossible to block an after-page-load ad inserted at the top of the article via JS. Except when I ran Purify with Scripts disabled on Slate, then the page loaded instantly with no ad for obvious reasons. (Sadly Purify is missing an extension to selectively enable JS.) Searching the store, Blockr looks nice enough, specifically…

Can't one keep more than a single blocker active at the same time?

Yes, I ultimately don't want to though for both performance and debugging purposes. If something goes wrong, I'd rather easily know who did it. But yes, I would prefer if say, a "no script" content blocker specifically focused on that, an "ad block" one on that, a "privacy" one too... You could also combine apps to block regional ad variants, maybe, if in future country-specific ones are developed. Running more than one might work best for something like 1Blocker as a way to add your own block rules...

Re: Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker

#38

Post by LargeCompanies » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 7:06 AM UTC

Is it just me or does it seem Apple is trying to put a hurt on Google and in turn hurt the web simultaneously. Safari has so many awful bugs that it's reminding me of the days of when you had to develop specifically for IE6.

Such tactics are reminiscent of when Microsoft ruled the land and well that didnt turn out so great for MS.

Re: Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker

#39

Post by jamestnz » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 7:06 AM UTC

heinrich5991 wrote: post #23

LeoNatan25 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Content blocking requires a 64-bit CPU.

Interesting. Why is that?

According to the release notes for Safari 9 [1], it's because of performance concerns: "Apps containing content blocking extensions for Safari on iOS are available only on 64-bit devices, due to performance limitations of 32-bit devices"

I imagine there's no real reason that content blocking shouldn't work on 32-bit devices, but that Apple are trying to hit certain minimum performance numbers (for marketing/brand purposes)... and I'm sure they won't be upset if this should happen to encourage a few users of older devices to upgrade (i.e. forced obsolescence).

I think there are various examples of Apple doing this kind of thing (saying a certain generation of hardware is supported by software X, but then you find various things are disabled for you). Not exactly the same, but pre-2011 Macs cannot mirror their display via AirPlay (Apple saying the video hardware isn't up to the task) -- at least not until you install the third-party app AirParrot, then it works fine.

[1] https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/releaseno...

Re: Crystal – iOS 9 ad blocker

#40

Post by bbayer » Thu, Sep 17, 2015, 7:09 AM UTC

I am curious how this will impact the web. Ads are the only revenue stream for most of the sites. Blocking ads is good for user experience but when you think from publishers site how will they survive? "I like ads because I can support people I like without even spending a dime" said one of my friends. I cannot agree more because there are plenty of people on mid and small scale try to earn living with the content they provide.