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Ask Slashdot: Gaining Control of My Mobile Browser?
An anonymous reader writes: I run Firefox with NoScript and FlashBlock at home. Browsing is easy, and I only have to enable scripts on a few sites. If they have 20+ scripts, I just surf somewhere else. Fast forward to the mobile experience. I had an Android device, but now I have an iPhone. In addition to the popup problem, and the fake "X" on ads, the iPhone browsers (Safari, Chrome, Opera) will start to show a site, then they will lock up for 10-30 seconds before finally becoming responsive. If I switch back to another app and then return to the browser, Safari and Chrome have a little delay, but Opera delays 20+ seconds before becoming responsive again.
Firefox is not available on the iPhone, so I can't simply run NoScript. Chrome does not appear to have a NoScript equivalent for mobile. What solutions are you using to make mobile browsing work?
Firefox is not available on the iPhone, so I can't simply run NoScript. Chrome does not appear to have a NoScript equivalent for mobile. What solutions are you using to make mobile browsing work?
Or just switch back to Android after realizing that you fell for all the FUD about Play store malware and paid 2x as much for an Apple phone as a result, while getting a worse experience. Firefox for Android does what you want.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
All you'll get on Slashdot is "neener-neener" posts from Android fan boys telling you you deserve it for buy the Phone That Shall Not Be Named. What you should have done was ask Google, and it would have taken you to a number of browsers available for iOS that block banner ads. Question answered, no psychopathic schadenfreude.
Serious question: But how do I totally block Google? My objection isn't so much with the advertising as with the tracking. I don't want Google to know much of ANYTHING about me and I don't want them to track ANYTHING about me. I imagine I can jail break the phone, but that seems a bit extreme. Give me a good solution to my problem -- which is far bigger than mere advertising, imo -- and I would probably be interested in your solution. Until then (and aware that this may change) I don't see Apple sharing my private info with tracking companies and, so far, Apple's interest in tracking seems to be pretty Apple oriented..and I avoid all that by avoiding itunes .
"Mobile" is basically a trailer for the cryptographically sealed dystopia after the demise of the general purpose computer. Your options are basically 'consume that content, just the way its creator intended you to' or 'walk away'.
Android is slightly better, in that (while it is peddled by a massive surveillance-and-advertising vendor) it is fairly easy to buy a handset that will accept substantial modification without the blessing of the creator. iOS starts from an incrementally less user-hostile place; but Apple's dedication to lockdown is very, very, thorough and relatively competent. Short of using the phone as a VNC/RDP/ICA client and connecting to a real computer, you are mostly SOL.
If you want to talk about freedom, why are you letting your employer hold your phone over your head like a bully teasing a child?
Go buy your own phone if you want control over it. Otherwise, don't complain.
All iOS browsers use WebKit. That's completely orthogonal to the original question: are there iOS browsers that block ads and pop-ups? The answer is yes, there are.
That's nice and all, but it doesn't solve his performance problems. In fact, since WebKit in non-Apple apps doesn't get to use JIT, it will just make his performance issues worse.
The problem is that WebKit on iOS takes absurd amounts of memory, to the point where launching it is almost guaranteed to out-of-memory kill every other background app running on the phone.
His other issue almost certainly has to do with Apple's well known wonky wi-fi support, where wi-fi connections will just randomly stop working despite the signal strength indicator merrily showing full strength. Going into and out of airplane mode will sometimes restart wi-fi in a working state, but frequently your only option is to reboot the entire phone. I know my mom has to constantly reboot her phone in order to get iMessage to work. (Also the only way I've gotten AirDrop to work: reboot both devices, and it'll work for a couple of minutes, maybe.)
The solution to the submitter's issues is "don't use iOS." That's the correct answer, no matter how much you may wish it weren't.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.