Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ask Slashdot: Gaining Control of My Mobile Browser?

Posted by Soulskill on from the lagging-utility dept.

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?

6 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Why not just enjoy the experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Instead of dealing with malware in the Play store, you get to deal with no freedom in the App store. You knew the sword cut both ways when you switched, and now you're complaining?

  2. You're not supposed to ask that by rrohbeck · · Score: 5, Funny

    Accept the walled garden. Even if you find a fix now Apple will probably break it with the next release.

    --
    thegodmovie.com - watch it
    1. Re:You're not supposed to ask that by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Informative

      Root the phone, remove Google apps, use alternative apps. Not terribly hard, and pretty much what I've done to my LG Google Nexus 5, but I choose to use a few Google apps. Why you trust Apple to track you appropriately but not Google would be a better question though.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    2. Re:You're not supposed to ask that by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 5, Interesting

      On iOS you've got a few alternatives.
      1) Set up a VPN, and run that VPN through privoxy to strip the junk.
      2) Jailbreak and install Adblocker 2, Firewall iP, PrivaCy and if you want, Tor.

  3. Don't even bother asking by halivar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. There is no hope. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "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.