Four Browsers from Apple App store — none you know
By Gareth Powell
Apple wants to keep a tight control on what you can and can not put on your iPhone.
Take browsers. Many would like Mozilla Firefox and others would like Internet Explorer.
On a standard phone — one which has not suffered the indignity of Jailbreak — you are not likely to get them in the very near future.
Instead there is Safari and now four more developed by third parties.
Edge Browser, WebMate, Incognito and Shaking Web may not ring a bell with you but worry not. Most other people have never heard of them. Edge is free, Incognito is only $1.99 and lets you surf without leaving a trail. WebMate is a tabbed browser at US$0.99 — it queues all the links you click on so that you can view them later which is a pretty neat idea. And, in a major breakthrough for technology, there is Shaking Web at $1.99 which has an algorithm to compensate for shaky hands. Ideal for the elderly and those who have been pursuing solitary vices.
This is the first time we have been offered options — for which relief much thanks. Although we may all love iPhone’s Safari — perhaps tolerate is a better word — there are the eccentric, idiosyncratic few who really, really would like Mozilla Firefox.
Tough.
It may well be they are not there because Apple sees them as competition for Safari, which they are. Apple developed and built the iPhone — and it is truly a technology miracle — and Apple is not too keen on other, non-Apple browsers getting in on the act. The attitude seems to be; let them designed their own phones.
The generally held view is that Mozilla Firefox and Opera will probably be barred from entry for some time in the future. And Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, being the work of the Redmond Satan simply does not have a chance.
With iPhone you get Apple’s Safari and it would be best if you learned to get on with it.
There are some who think this may change.
Patrick Goss in TechRader said: Mozilla would likely be the biggest beneficiary should Apple allow a version of the popular Firefox to appear on the App store, although the likes of Opera, Google Chrome and, whisper it, even Microsoft’s Internet Explorer could feasibly be offered as well.
Indeed. And it is possible that you will become the Queen of the May. But not likely.
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