Safari -- Engadget Mobile

safari posts

Google's new Gmail mobile web app sports offline message caching, lots of floaty goodness

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Apr 7th 2009 @ 3:12PM

If you've been losing sleep in eager anticipation of the new Gmail for mobile, rest assured that you'll sleep soundly tonight. With support for both Android phones and iPhone / iPod Touch OS 2.2.1, the gang over at the Google mobile blog are justifiably proud of the new app. Expect nothing less than a more robust cache that utilizes Gears (for Android) and SQLite databases (for iPhones / touches) to allow you to compose messages and access recently read messages without a network connection, an improved look and feel, and the all new "floaty bar" (their name, not ours) that keeps popular menu commands from scrolling off screen, as this bad boy rolls out progressively over the course of the day. Most interestingly, using the new Gmail on your devices doesn't require any tweaks or installs -- it's utilizing HTML5 (and its offline storage APIs) already present in the browser. Google is just turning on the juice behind the scenes. And for those of you who are resistant to change, fear not -- the previous version is still available. Check it out for yourself over at gmail.com, but not before peeping that super-sweet video after the break.

Continue reading Google's new Gmail mobile web app sports offline message caching, lots of floaty goodness

Mobile web traffic reports show Symbian, OS X on top

by Darren Murph posted Mar 28th 2009 @ 10:34AM

Ready for the latest dose of facts and figures to chat over at the nerd water cooler? Here goes! The latest AdMob report, which tracks mobile web traffic from a variety of handset models and operating systems, has found some rather interesting -- if not completely unsurprising -- results. For starters, we're told that the biggest web surfing phone on each US carrier is a touchscreen model, and breaking that down, we find that the iPhone, Nokia N70 and BlackBerry 8300 take the top three spots (in order of mention) globally. As for OS, Symbian is still leading the pack from a worldwide perspective with 43 percent of requests, though the iPhone ain't far behind at 33 percent; oh, and in case you were wondering, Apple's darling generated 50 percent of all US mobile web traffic in February. More numbers in the links below, should you be inclined to visit.

[Via mocoNews]

Google demos offline Gmail for iPhone, Android at MWC

by Jacob Schulman posted Feb 18th 2009 @ 6:47PM

If you were thinking offline Gmail on your desktop was the greatest thing since sliced bread, prepare yourselves people. If an MWC keynote from Google's VP of engineering, Vic Gundotra, is any indication, the same functionality might be coming soon to an iPhone / Android phone near you. Amongst other things, the souped up web app boasts an overhauled interface, supports labels, and of course, offline access. Despite our own hunch that Google's just using black magic and voodoo to make this happen, Gundotra claims that it's all made possible through HTML5 standards -- AppCache being the biggie. This development certainly opens the doors to more offline-enabled web apps in the future -- Docs, anyone?. Of course, we know Apple has a thing about people messing with its own apps, so it's probably going to take some time / knee-breaking to get them to come around, but for some reason, we don't think it'll take as long with Android. There's a demo video available after the break, and please, try to contain yourselves.

Continue reading Google demos offline Gmail for iPhone, Android at MWC

WebKit-based Iris browser for Windows Mobile hits beta v2

by Darren Murph posted Nov 16th 2008 @ 9:00PM

We know how it goes -- once you get your Windows Mobile setup situated how you like it, making tweaks is a rare, rare occurrence. To that end, you probably passed on the highly dangerous first beta of the WebKit-based Iris browser. At long last, the entirely more stable beta v2 has emerged for those courageous enough to give it a go, and the designers are promising that the over 100 fixes and improvements make it "incredibly fast" and almost life-altering. If you're not keen on waiting for the next iteration of Internet Explorer Mobile, and if you're somehow not pleased with Opera Mini or Mobile Firefox, roll the dice with this one and see how things turn out.

[Via the::unwired]

iPhone gets tweaked Safari in firmware 2.2

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 27th 2008 @ 9:55PM

We're going down our "things that absolutely must change on the iPhone" list, and yeah, "redo the Safari toolbar" isn't anywhere on there. Not even at the very bottom. Cupertino works in mysterious ways, though, and they've decided in firmware 2.2 that it's time to muck with the positioning of the text boxes so that the address bar and search bar both appear at all times without needing to first tap in the area. They've also moved the refresh button inside the address bar itself, which should truly revolutionize our browsing experience yet again. Apple, screw copy / paste -- we're officially stoked.

[Via Wired, thanks Konstantin]

Debunk: BlackBerry Bold's browser on WiFi actually not that slow

by Nilay Patel posted Aug 21st 2008 @ 1:22PM

Now that the BlackBerry Bold's made its official North American debut, there's a lot of talk about a video Mobile Computer did of the Bold getting blown away browsing head to head with an iPhone 3G over WiFi -- but there's a slight problem there: the Bold was actually using 3G and EDGE. Yeah, that's not a fair fight -- and given how flaky the iPhone 3G's data speeds can be, it actually reflects quite well on the Bold. Head to head on WiFi, the Bold does seem a tick slower, but we'll let you judge that for yourselves -- videos after the break.

Read - BGR browser vid
Read - Mobile Computer browser vid

Continue reading Debunk: BlackBerry Bold's browser on WiFi actually not that slow

Google crafts web-based Google Talk for iPhone

by Chris Ziegler posted Jul 2nd 2008 @ 10:45PM

Google's released a new version of its Google Talk web app that's optimized for the iPhone and iPod touch -- that's right, web app, meaning that they've stayed true to Stevie's original vision of keeping everything within the Safari sandbox. No firmware 2.0, no App Store, and certainly no iPhone 3G needed to take advantage of this one, just a plain ol' iPhone Classique and a willingness to keep Safari open for however long you wish to be available to your Google Talkin' comrades.

About that Samsung L870 Safari browser thing...

by Thomas Ricker posted May 30th 2008 @ 3:04AM

We now have official word from Samsung regarding the browser on its new Samsung L870 slider. You may recall that the Samsung-issued press release listed "Safari browser (full browsing)" as a feature. Now the clarification:

"Actually, L870 is equipped with S60 OSS browser, also known as S60 safari browser because both are using same webcore platform. Sorry again for the unclear specification, and bothering you with this."

Of course, the S60 browser has never been known, even informally, as the "S60 safari browser," but we'll let Samsung bang heads together internally over that one.

Samsung L870 S60 slider features Webkit-based browser

by Thomas Ricker posted May 28th 2008 @ 5:29AM

Yup, you read that right. We're not talking about just any Webkit-based browser, Samsung's long-rumored L870 slider features a full "Safari" browser (which we'll take to mean Webkit). The 13.5-mm thin phone pumps Symbian v9.3 and S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 at its core with a 3 megapixel camera, 2.4-inch QVGA display, FM radio, Stereo Bluetooth, and microSD expansion. Unfortunately, this pup is tri-band GSM with single-band UMTS/HSDPA 3.6Mbps support so it'll be heading to Europe around the August time frame.

Update: As per the full press release (posted after the break), Samsung claimed that they'd brought mobile Safari to this device. Technically feasible, we suppose, but far more unlikely than some clueless PR flack screwing up the release. We'll let you know if Samsung HQ has anything differently to say about the matter, but until then we're calling this Webkit, not Safari.

Update 2: Yup, it's Webkit all right.

Continue reading Samsung L870 S60 slider features Webkit-based browser

Mobile Safari getting support for psychedelic effects

by Chris Ziegler posted Apr 7th 2008 @ 4:40PM

A close examination of the descriptions of Apple's 2008 WWDC sessions revealed at least one iPhone gem, buried in the appropriately-named "Enhancing Your iPhone Web Application with CSS Transforms and Animations" overview: Safari's getting a little bit of an update. With firmware 2.0 baking to a delightfully golden brown right now in preparation for a June release, of course, it only stands to reason that the iPhone's Safari implementation would get retooled a bit to pull in a more recent Webkit build and stay somewhat in sync with the headway Apple's browser has made on the desktop, and we now know that CSS transforms and animations will be supported as a part of that. What does that mean, exactly? In short, the feature allows web page elements to be twirled, zoomed, and skewed, making for some pretty eye-popping (or watering) effects. It's all going to be accelerated by the iPhone's hardware, too, meaning that the next ultra-annoying ad for some sketchy product that you view on your iPhone should really fly.

Safari exploit gives hackers full control over iPhones and possibly PCs and Macs

by Thomas Ricker posted Jul 23rd 2007 @ 3:05AM

Oops, researchers just unveiled a pretty serious security vulnerability in the iPhone. More specifically, it's Apple's Safari web browser which exhibits the vulnerability. Researchers at Independent Security Evaluators have used the vulnerability to take malicious control of the iPhone from rogue websites loaded with the exploit. Once in, researchers have full administrative access over the phone allowing them to listen in on room audio or snatch the SMS log, address book, call history, email passwords and more -- we're talking full access to your phone. Researchers note that the only way to stay safe is to check those URLs and only visit sites that you trust (which isn't very reassuring) and "may or may not be exploitable" from Mac and PC versions of Safari -- the same vulnerability exists only they haven't written the proof-of-concept exploit to test it yet. Apple has been notified of the vulnerability and a proposed fix with full public disclosure coming at the BlackHat conference on August 2nd. You listening InfoSec Sellout? That's how you report a bug. Check the exploit in video form after the break.

[Via MacRumors]

Continue reading Safari exploit gives hackers full control over iPhones and possibly PCs and Macs

Apple posts iPhone for Web Developers guide

by Darren Murph posted Jul 7th 2007 @ 8:02AM

Well, would you look at this. Yet another way to entertain yourself with that newly purchased iPhone, if you understand web development jargon, that is. Apple has now posted a guide that gives web developers the tools to design and create their very own web-based applications. The tutorial runs through a basic understanding of the user-iPhone interactions, integration with Phone, Mail, and Maps, page optimization techniques, AV guidelines, and of course, the low-down on what Safari for iPhone supports. Now, get to work -- there's hordes of non-techies just waiting to indulge in the fruits of your labor.

[Via TUAW]

In case it wasn't obvious, iPhone apps run on S60

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 28th 2007 @ 11:51AM

Since the iPhone's apps aren't really apps but rather web-based widgets employing a variety of Web 2.0 standards, it only stands to reason that there are probably some other devices out there that can take advantage. In particular, Nokia's S60-based devices already rock a Safari-based browser (and an absolutely terrific one, may we add) -- and sure enough, the few iPhone "apps" kicking around out there seem to work. Of course, the upcoming glut of widgets will likely be designed to take full advantage of the iPhone's somewhat unique input methodology and screen size, so it's not a perfect fit -- but it seems pretty likely N95 owners will be able to find a few new goodies with Apple to thank.