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Comment by qingcharles

15 hours ago

I feel like there are a lot of iOS/iPadOS 17 and below devices holding things back right now. Desktop browsers are in a really good standards space now with their constant and frequent nagging for users to update.

14 comments

qingcharles

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stephenlf  8 hours ago

Speaking of iOS holding things back, my iPhone’s Safari doesn’t offer a reader for this post. Not sure why.

  • oefrha  4 hours ago

    iOS Safari's reader mode heuristics has always been mediocre at best, and it's getting less useful by the day as more publications knowingly cripple it. It used to be that you can get around some soft paywalls with reader mode, especially if you turn on "Use Reader Automatically" which distills the content before JavaScript kicks in to remove it. Nowadays that works on fewer and fewer commercial websites, and the other day I noticed something truly shocking on a pretty mainstream tech publication (don't remember which one unfortunately): I can see like two paragraphs of content before the paywall, but when I turn on reader mode, the content shown is literally a list of Christmas laptop deals (that is not visible on the non-reader page), with the title being the only relevant thing.

leptons  13 hours ago

Apple is the only ones holding anything back on iOS. They forbid any browser except Safari. At least if they let Google Chrome or any other browser maker use their own browser engine, iOS could have a capable browser installed. It is one reason among many Apple is being sued by the DOJ, but so far no progress forcing them to allow other browser engines like they did in the EU.

  • delaminator  4 hours ago

    I’m typing this in Vivaldi on my iPhone 11 in the UK.

    I acknowledge my privilege.

    • eviks  3 hours ago

      you can get Vivaldi outside the UK, the issue is the web engine, is it different in the UK?

  • kg  12 hours ago

    IMO if they had allowed Firefox onto the App Store (Mozilla have had working ports more than once AFAIK) it might have helped it hold onto market share - I think Apple is partly responsible for the Chrome monoculture.

    • least  11 hours ago

      If that were the case then why isn’t Firefox on mobile on Android more successful? Apple blocking other browser engines in iOS is the only thing preventing a complete hegemony of the web by Google/Blink.

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