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Apple Allows 3rd Party Web Browsers into App Store

macrumors.com — Over the past 24 hours, Apple has begun to approve 3rd party web browsing applications for the iPhone. A number of new web browsing apps have suddenly appeared with original submission dates ranging as far back as October.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 14, 2009

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  • c010rb1indusa, on 01/14/2009, -4/+124First no DRM now this? Is Apple opening it's gates a bit? Hope so...
  • Zantive, on 01/14/2009, -12/+132MUST. HAVE. FIREFOX. ON. IPHONE.

    NERD RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE
  • digiguy, on 01/14/2009, -7/+106Everything but Flash
  • wonderchemist, on 01/14/2009, -1/+61You have to buy an Apple iPhone first.
  • sonictonic, on 01/14/2009, -21/+78No flash, so what the ***** is the point? I don't ***** get it. Do people care THAT much about the skin of the browser? Because Safari is what the ***** it is basically anyway.

    Give me flash and then I will give a *****.
  • esumti, on 01/14/2009, -1/+39Perhaps caused by a hormone imbalance.
  • Azimuth1, on 01/14/2009, -1/+32All I want is Safari except with accelerometer support turned off so that I can lie in bed and it doesn't rotate annoyingly.
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -4/+33Well I'm guessing they're all just using the UIWebView object which is purely WebKit. It's not like Mozilla can just come along and throw their engine in there, since that would mean running interpreted code (like Javascript) and that's not allowed.

    These apps are really just Safari with a different UI, not that it matters too much since WebKit is probably the best engine to use anyway.
  • supersteve, on 01/14/2009, -3/+29come on firefox and flash
  • Oinkie, on 01/14/2009, -4/+28What's the catch?
  • rubblecovers, on 01/14/2009, -1/+23This is just more freedom in the "duplicate functionality" department. These 'browser' apps still all use the same engine as safari.

    The rule banning apps that run interpreted code still would block actual Firefox,Chrome or Opera implementations.
  • andronmon, on 01/14/2009, -4/+24I don't understand why you would want to run a different browser. How different can they be on the iPhone? Aren't they all using the same engine?
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -3/+22they have to suck more than safari
  • mithrasinvictus, on 01/14/2009, -5/+23All are Webkit implementations which means apple is still your only option.
  • greensky, on 01/14/2009, -0/+15Well if I could use Opera, I bet it would have an option to load pages without images which on edge would be a lot faster.
  • CressCrowbits, on 01/14/2009, -3/+16Wow. Issues.
  • vancanucksfan, on 01/14/2009, -1/+13these aren't new browsers. Its the same safari browser but with a different interface. the sdk allows using the browser engine in your app.
  • bigfigdesign, on 01/14/2009, -6/+18"Still, Apple appears to be loosening some early restrictions they had applied to the App Store approval process." hmmm. what's next? Good news for developers!
  • Elranzer, on 01/14/2009, -1/+12Should Apple be commended for something they should have already done? Why is there praise for this when it's just Apple buckling under peer-pressure? If APple had their way, we'd still only be able to use Apple-only apps on the iPhone (no Apps Store at all).
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -0/+11Rotating in bed.
  • gozu, on 01/14/2009, -3/+14Edit: Nevermind, they won't allow the use of external rendering engines, only Webkit. No Opera Mobile for us :(

    YES! OPERA AT LAST! GIVE ME MY MOBILE OPERA BROWSER!

    Safari is slow and unstable on the iPhone.

    It is also ill-designed, going back pages should be instantaneous (access to cached materials on local storage) instead of reloading from scratch like its desktop sibling. It also lacks the neat tricks Opera mobile uses (converting and compressing web pages before sending them to the phone browser) that increase rendering speed enormously.

    An Opera browser would be a huge improvement.
  • philry4n, on 01/14/2009, -5/+15Time for Opera Mini \o/
  • kris33, on 01/14/2009, -2/+12imobilecinema.com - Flash Video Plugin for the iPhone
  • SickofSects, on 01/14/2009, -2/+12I'll bet 5 zimbabwean dollars mithrasinvictus is under the impression that webkit is some proprietary Apple technology.. probably thinks the same of AAC.. sigh.
  • randall82, on 01/14/2009, -0/+10maybe a little off topic, but if you tap the little gray bar at the top where it shows the time and stuff it will pop right to the top of the page. Copy & paste, you're on you own...
  • normalkid, on 01/14/2009, -1/+9you could ask the same about Google Chrome. It uses the same engine as Safari.
  • Ryanleafasaurus, on 01/14/2009, -1/+9I'm pretty sure all of these are safari/webkit with a different UI, which really isn't apple loosening up. I wish they would though :(

    heres to hoping they allow the slingbox app :D
  • imneveral0ne, on 01/14/2009, -1/+9it actually has everything to do with apple. they said they didnt want it because it would bogg down the phone too much.
  • dragon76, on 01/14/2009, -0/+8I think you're right, I think it's just skinning WebKit. None of these add any sort of function so it's not even like Shiira for that matter.
  • ibeetle, on 01/14/2009, -11/+18The ***** point is that ***** flash would slow the iPhone down to a crawl and Adobe would control your phone completely.
    If the website make one little change in one little line of code the entire site stops working.
    I can see the pop up errors now, Oh... you need the Windows version of flash we don't support your iPhone. Adobe with Flash and ***** Windows developers can suck it.
    Every two weeks you would have to update the flash player. 56 ads and pop ups and secondary windows would corrupt the browser so bad it would take a hour to load a single page.

    A lot of mobile devices do not have ***** Flash and that is the way it should be.
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -0/+7You don't use Chrome because it runs on Webkit? Do you know what Webkit is?
  • noahhoward, on 01/14/2009, -0/+6Uh... why? Out of about 100 links in my bookmarks the only flash appears in banner ads. There's no reason for flash on 90%+ of all websites.
  • RyomaNagare, on 01/14/2009, -3/+9Digg for remote possibility of using Opera Mini on the Iphone
  • mithrasinvictus, on 01/14/2009, -1/+7@sick No, i just think this does not imply that we are any closer to seeing competing products like Firefox or Opera being allowed on the iphone. I don't think one rendering engine should have a monopoly on ANY platform.
  • ProjectGSX, on 01/14/2009, -0/+6Point is: No Firefox. Apple hasnt changed their stance on that.
  • ethamajin, on 01/14/2009, -0/+6Bed eh?
  • jptolife, on 01/14/2009, -0/+6All of those browsers suck balls. Seriously...
  • mithrasinvictus, on 01/14/2009, -0/+5http://gizmodo.com/5072333/opera-for-iphone-ready- ...
  • SteveMax, on 01/14/2009, -0/+5It's still misleading. In the same way that Maxthon, Enigma or NeoPlanet aren't "alternative browsers" (just alternative UIs for IE), none of these are actually 3rd party web browsers (just alternative UIs for Safari). It's not like Konqueror or Chrome (WebKit browsers with their own JS engines), they use the exact same technology for everything except the user interface.

    This headline should be used only when a Presto/Gecko-based browser is allowed in the app store; or at the very least, a Webkit browser that doesn't use the built-in JS.
  • NinjaPig, on 01/14/2009, -2/+7You won't get flash on OSX that's practical with its current hardware. To explain it, and be abstract: take a macbook for instance, whenever you run a flash application you can see the weight its puts on the processor. Steve Jobs himself said, and was absolutely correct in saying Flash is a resource hog. While I am not sure if that's entirely Adobe's fault, I am sure that it is resource intensive on OS X and iphone runs on OS X.

    Adobe stated they have a version ready to run for the iPhone, but i can bet you it will kill the battery worse than the 3g transciever and the baseband processors.
  • scootinger, on 01/14/2009, -1/+6Apple should sell a Mac that only allows you to run software that has been approved by or purchased from Apple and that has been designed to brick itself when you try to get past this restriction. I'd like to see everyone's reaction.
  • schroeder, on 01/14/2009, -0/+5"At the Flash On The Beach (FOTB) conference in Brighton, Sr. Director of Engineering at Adobe Systems Paul Betlem, confirmed that Adobe is indeed developing a Flash Player for the iPhone. However, Apple calls the shots as to when it'll be available."
    http://www.flashmagazine.com/news/detail/flash_for ...

    I think there was rumor that if Apple didn't approve the app it would be released for jailbroken phones.
  • benologist, on 01/14/2009, -0/+5Well I'll see you 10 cordobas and raise you 500 colones.

    mith is right this just allows skinned versions of Safari it doesn't get Opera or Firefox onto it it just means there'll be a gazillion branded versions of Safari cluttering the store.
  • Rantul, on 01/14/2009, -2/+7Simple answer... HACK YOUR IPHONE!
  • CoD4, on 01/14/2009, -1/+6How dare you make fun of our god???!

    allahu akbar!
  • fugazied, on 01/14/2009, -2/+7I don't think I use any flash websites now, it's mainly used to create intrusive ads which annoy me.
  • jclardy, on 01/14/2009, -0/+5There is a browser that was just released today that does that, QuickSurf. iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/ ...
  • normalkid, on 01/14/2009, -3/+8Chrome uses Webkit as does the Palm Pre.
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -1/+5They all have to be based on Safari,
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -0/+4Well, you still can't run interpreted code, which means it'll basically only be something running Safari within itself.
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