6 ms·

Apple need to move Safari to the App Store. A Browser only being updated with the OS in 2016 is ridiculous.

by muddi900 11y ago

ptomato 11y ago
That hasn't been the case since sometime early 2014 iirc.
- cpncrunch 11y ago
  Do you have a reference for that? According to wikipedia, iOS safari is updated with iOS updates. Also, Safari isn't in the App Store.
  - cmelbye 11y ago
    You're correct about iOS. For OS X, open App Store and then Updates. You'll see individual Safari updates (separate from OS updates) in the update history.
    - masklinn 11y ago
      For the most part these are minor updates, the major stuff with new features comes with the yearly OS release.
ksec 11y ago
When you get 80%+ of your OS updated within 6 months this isn't so much of a problem.
- warfangle 11y ago
  Safari is so far behind every other browser, it's not even funny.
  - coldtea 11y ago
    Really? In anything significant that people (more than 5) actually use?
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - andybak 11y ago
      Isn't arguing for adoption as a measure of value rather putting the cart before the horse? People use things when they have utility. They have utility when developers make something cool that uses them. Developers do this if there's a chance of mainstream adoption...
- forrestthewoods 11y ago
  But it is a problem when you only release 4 or 5 OS updates per year. All the built in apps on iOS require full OS updates to patch. Some iOS minor versions have existed solely to patch Apple Music. It's pretty terrible.
- SiVal 11y ago
  It's interesting to note the unprecedented success Apple has achieved at keeping millions of its users at the very leading edge of Apple OS technologies along with its "difficulties" keeping up with new Web technologies. And it's amazing how rapidly they are able to invent a whole new programming language, compiler, toolchain, overhaul the OS APIs, add new OS features, and innovate Apple-only "native" technologies on Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even watches, while porting some features from open-source browsers into Safari is so darned "challenging". (I'll bet Apple could get some help from organizations with more resources like, say, Mozilla or Opera, if they just asked.) I might suspect that they were intentionally impeding the progress of the Web, sabotaging all of us while putting on a great show, if it weren't for the fact that they allow other browsers, such as Chrome, on the iPhone. No, if they wanted to slow the progress of the Web platform, they would slow the development of their own browser as much as they dared and simultaneously cut off all detours around it except the one that goes through their own native apps. But no, they aren't doing anything like that, because there's Chrome right there in the App Store. As long as it's not some sort of trick, some sort of imposter, there's no reason for suspicion....
  - Hydraulix989 11y ago
    I don't think you realize this, but Chrome on the App Store is actually just a shell with the Chrome UI around the embedded Safari browser, rather than the actual Chrome browser, due to Apple restrictions. Stated more plainly: http://www.howtogeek.com/184283/why-third-party-browsers-will-always-be-inferior-to-safari-on-iphone-and-ipad/ http://www.howtogeek.com/184283/why-third-party-browsers-wil... I must say this fact makes reading your last sentence quite humorous.
    - SiVal 11y ago
      Thank you. ;-)
  - inglor 11y ago
    Sorry to be a bummer. Chrome does not run on the iPhone - instead it's a Safari UIWKView (until two weeks ago UIWebView) - the only "Chrome" there is the UI on top of it. Apple does not actually allow running Chrome on iOS so Google worked around it by giving you a handicapped version of Safari with Chrome UI that lets you share tabs between the computer and the box. edit: just saw someone else posted a similar comment - so upvoted his - not deleting this since it has some additional info.
- muddi900 11y ago
  6 months? Firefox before auto-updates had faster turnaround for the updates. Not only that iOS still doesn't have auto-updates. The user still has to manually agree to the nag. It's ok when your app is the iBooks. Not so when it is a modern browser.
balladeer 11y ago
A lot of things Apple does is ridiculous, or at least they seem ridiculous - they seem so to me at least (or maybe I just find them frustrating). But I think (and I don't have a detailed theory regarding this) it works well for Apple's walled garden business strategy. Good or bad, they seem to be selling well. As it has been said many times - they sell "experience", not merely products. Now, in today's tech market this is up for debate and fairly so, but people (the people who exclusively buy Apple products; in most cases because thsoe are Apple products) do believe they are buying that so called experience and what that experience lacks they explain to themselves as features.
- fredsir 11y ago
  I partially agree. I know that Safari does not support everything say Chrome does, but if you do not need those features, what does it matter? An example: I use Safari without having flash installed. I rarely need flash. If I do need it, I would rather open Chrome and close it when I am done with the flash thing and go back to Safari. Why? Why not use Chrome all the time since it supports (almost) everything Safari does and more? Well, because in my opinion, for what I use a browser for 99% of the time, Safari works better. I think it looks, performs, functions and feels better overall. So I would rather use Safari and switch to Chrome when I need something Safari does not do, or Chrome does better, even though on the paper spec, Chrome is the better browser. It is the same reason I use an iPhone even though Android "has the same and more features".
  - shmerl 11y ago
    Flash is a poor example because Flash really should be gone for good already. The problem is not "features" but Apple holding back technology progress. That's simply bad. There were some recent articles calling Safari "the new IE" because of this.
    - fredsir 11y ago
      Check my comment above to Kequc.
  - 11y ago
lostlogin 11y ago
More or less ridiculous than the App Store? As a side note, I haven't had anyone else's developer notifications for about 3 weeks now. "In review" notifications for other people's products coming to me is a little disconcerting.

Apple need to move Safari to the App Store. A Browser only being updated with the OS in 2016 is ridiculous.

ptomato 11y ago

That hasn't been the case since sometime early 2014 iirc.

cpncrunch 11y ago
Do you have a reference for that? According to wikipedia, iOS safari is updated with iOS updates. Also, Safari isn't in the App Store.
- cmelbye 11y ago
  You're correct about iOS. For OS X, open App Store and then Updates. You'll see individual Safari updates (separate from OS updates) in the update history.
  - masklinn 11y ago
    For the most part these are minor updates, the major stuff with new features comes with the yearly OS release.

ksec 11y ago

When you get 80%+ of your OS updated within 6 months this isn't so much of a problem.

warfangle 11y ago
Safari is so far behind every other browser, it's not even funny.
- coldtea 11y ago
  Really? In anything significant that people (more than 5) actually use?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - andybak 11y ago
    Isn't arguing for adoption as a measure of value rather putting the cart before the horse? People use things when they have utility. They have utility when developers make something cool that uses them. Developers do this if there's a chance of mainstream adoption...
forrestthewoods 11y ago
But it is a problem when you only release 4 or 5 OS updates per year. All the built in apps on iOS require full OS updates to patch. Some iOS minor versions have existed solely to patch Apple Music. It's pretty terrible.
SiVal 11y ago
It's interesting to note the unprecedented success Apple has achieved at keeping millions of its users at the very leading edge of Apple OS technologies along with its "difficulties" keeping up with new Web technologies. And it's amazing how rapidly they are able to invent a whole new programming language, compiler, toolchain, overhaul the OS APIs, add new OS features, and innovate Apple-only "native" technologies on Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even watches, while porting some features from open-source browsers into Safari is so darned "challenging". (I'll bet Apple could get some help from organizations with more resources like, say, Mozilla or Opera, if they just asked.) I might suspect that they were intentionally impeding the progress of the Web, sabotaging all of us while putting on a great show, if it weren't for the fact that they allow other browsers, such as Chrome, on the iPhone. No, if they wanted to slow the progress of the Web platform, they would slow the development of their own browser as much as they dared and simultaneously cut off all detours around it except the one that goes through their own native apps. But no, they aren't doing anything like that, because there's Chrome right there in the App Store. As long as it's not some sort of trick, some sort of imposter, there's no reason for suspicion....
- Hydraulix989 11y ago
  I don't think you realize this, but Chrome on the App Store is actually just a shell with the Chrome UI around the embedded Safari browser, rather than the actual Chrome browser, due to Apple restrictions. Stated more plainly: http://www.howtogeek.com/184283/why-third-party-browsers-will-always-be-inferior-to-safari-on-iphone-and-ipad/ http://www.howtogeek.com/184283/why-third-party-browsers-wil... I must say this fact makes reading your last sentence quite humorous.
  - SiVal 11y ago
    Thank you. ;-)
- inglor 11y ago
  Sorry to be a bummer. Chrome does not run on the iPhone - instead it's a Safari UIWKView (until two weeks ago UIWebView) - the only "Chrome" there is the UI on top of it. Apple does not actually allow running Chrome on iOS so Google worked around it by giving you a handicapped version of Safari with Chrome UI that lets you share tabs between the computer and the box. edit: just saw someone else posted a similar comment - so upvoted his - not deleting this since it has some additional info.
muddi900 11y ago
6 months? Firefox before auto-updates had faster turnaround for the updates. Not only that iOS still doesn't have auto-updates. The user still has to manually agree to the nag. It's ok when your app is the iBooks. Not so when it is a modern browser.

balladeer 11y ago

A lot of things Apple does is ridiculous, or at least they seem ridiculous - they seem so to me at least (or maybe I just find them frustrating). But I think (and I don't have a detailed theory regarding this) it works well for Apple's walled garden business strategy. Good or bad, they seem to be selling well. As it has been said many times - they sell "experience", not merely products. Now, in today's tech market this is up for debate and fairly so, but people (the people who exclusively buy Apple products; in most cases because thsoe are Apple products) do believe they are buying that so called experience and what that experience lacks they explain to themselves as features.

fredsir 11y ago
I partially agree. I know that Safari does not support everything say Chrome does, but if you do not need those features, what does it matter? An example: I use Safari without having flash installed. I rarely need flash. If I do need it, I would rather open Chrome and close it when I am done with the flash thing and go back to Safari. Why? Why not use Chrome all the time since it supports (almost) everything Safari does and more? Well, because in my opinion, for what I use a browser for 99% of the time, Safari works better. I think it looks, performs, functions and feels better overall. So I would rather use Safari and switch to Chrome when I need something Safari does not do, or Chrome does better, even though on the paper spec, Chrome is the better browser. It is the same reason I use an iPhone even though Android "has the same and more features".
- shmerl 11y ago
  Flash is a poor example because Flash really should be gone for good already. The problem is not "features" but Apple holding back technology progress. That's simply bad. There were some recent articles calling Safari "the new IE" because of this.
  - fredsir 11y ago
    Check my comment above to Kequc.
- 11y ago

lostlogin 11y ago

More or less ridiculous than the App Store? As a side note, I haven't had anyone else's developer notifications for about 3 weeks now. "In review" notifications for other people's products coming to me is a little disconcerting.