13 ms·

Announcing Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android, Microsoft Launcher

152 points by bfred_it 9y ago

planetjones 9y ago
I struggle to get too excited about Edge on iOS because it's not really Edge is it. It will just be like Firefox which uses the built-in iOS WebKit-based rendering. So it's effectively Safari doing the rendering with some wrappers around it like syncing Windows favourites and sharing open windows with your Windows PC? Maybe some corporations which have Windows on the desktop, but where most employees use iOS devices on the go, will find some use for this.
- jmkni 9y ago
  I'm guessing this is the case with Chrome as well?
  - mercer 9y ago
    Indeed it is. Sadly!
  - mtycholaz 9y ago
    Yes, and it's because of an Apple policy. They don't allow other rendering engines.
    - sebazzz 9y ago
      It is not that they do not allow other render engines. It is that APIs to dynamically execute native code are locked down on platforms such as Windows Mobile and iOS. If you cannot dynamically execute code you cannot build a JIT JS engine which makes your webbrowser too slow compared to the competition.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - KirinDave 9y ago
        This is a policy who's primary goal is to ban other browser engines. They make exceptions for lots of other app types like games.
        jmkni 9y ago
        I guess in theory you could build a browser on top of a game engine, or is that just insane?
        stephengillie 9y ago
        Tribes 2 had a full web browser in the game. It was a continuation of having a full IRC client in the first game, Starsiege: Tribes. (Tribes 2 also had the IRC client. The IRC client initially drove players into chat channels to help them find ongoing games, and dropped a link when someone left IRC to join a game. It was decent matchmaking in 1998, and helped build the community as well.) The browser itself wasn't as insane as writing the entire game menu in OpenGL, which at the time was uncommon. Game devs cited this choice (instead of using a simpler menu) as causing a 6-month delay in the project, leading to much less testing and a game that crashed frequently for the first few months after release. The ubiquitous "Unhanded Exception" pop-up became a meme for years after.
      - metajack 9y ago
        Pretty sure they don't allow you to download and execute code even if not using a JIT, unless it is an educational app. There are multiple policy reasons browser engines can't be on iOS.
      - glhaynes 9y ago
        This is true, though they do also explicitly restrict using other engines for web browsing: 2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript.
- Kuraj 9y ago
  I don't really understand how Edge having its own rendering engine would make me any more excited for it.
IvanK_net 9y ago
The performance of Edge is comparable to Chrome or Firefox. It is a really great product. The sad part is, that they were keeping it Win10-only for several years. I think, that if they made Edge available for every platform and every OS earlier, they could have 20 - 50 % of the market by now. The funny part is, that there is NO EDGE FOR WINDOWS. Precisely, Edge is for Windows 10 only, which is the minority of all Windows devices today. There is no Microsoft browser for Windows 7 (by a browser I mean the one that is regularly updated). MS announced the halting of IE development a long time ago.
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  There is Edge for Windows. It's called Edge. Windows 10, is believe it or not, Windows. Any computer running Windows 7 or 8.1 can still (yes, it can) be upgraded to Windows 10 for free. So the only Windows PCs which cannot run Edge were those manufactured prior to 2009. Contrary to popular belief, there is no good reason to be running Windows 7 or 8.1. All of the telemetry anti-features were backported into those versions, Windows 10 is inherently better at security, and trust me, if I can get the legacy software I have running at work running on Windows 10, legacy app issues aren't a problem either.
  - IvanK_net 9y ago
    90 percent of Windows 10 users that I know updated from Windows 7 unintentionally and most of them complained about it. Such updates form Microsoft have quite bad reputation. You can't just say "Hey do this irreversible software change and trust us, that you will be satisfied". I am ready to accept it e.g. from Chrome OS, but not from Microsoft.
    - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
      You can reverse any Windows 10 upgrade for 30 days, whether it was an upgrade from 7, 8.1, or a different version of Windows 10. The revert process works... most of the time.
    - bfred_it 9y ago
merrvk 9y ago
Does it make use edgeHTML or Chakra though?
amaks 9y ago
Powered by Bing?
- NiveaGeForce 9y ago
  It allows custom default search engines.
ekianjo 9y ago
I shall add it's funny they keep saying "Microsoft Loves Linux" but refuses to release any of their major desktop client software for Desktop Linux.
- ygra 9y ago
  “Refuse” is a fairly strong word and suggests there is a Linux version available and just withheld. Software and features don't just appear out of nowhere.
  - SmellyGeekBoy 9y ago
    Indeed. Not to mention that Office Online works just fine in a browser under Linux.
- pjmlp 9y ago
  Which flavour?
  - ekianjo 9y ago
    With flatpaks and Appimages these days, you don't really need to target any distro anymore.
- chrismbarr 9y ago
  This assumes there are Linux users that actually want to use the Edge browser though
  - ekianjo 9y ago
    I know what you mean. For Edge there's probably not many folks who would be interested, but Office, for one, is still something that's desirable for a lot of folks who use Linux just because of numerous compatibility issues with LibreOffice.
    - megaman22 9y ago
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
bfred_it 9y ago
More information about Edge Mobile is available here, however not many technical details (e.g. whether the Android version is just a WebView or if it's the real Edge) https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge-mobile https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge-mobil...
- d2kx 9y ago
  "On iOS, we are using the WebKit engine, as provided by iOS in the WKWebView control. That means that from a compatibility perspective, Microsoft Edge for iOS should match the version of Safari that is currently available for iOS. On Android, we are using the Blink rendering engine from the Chromium browser project."
  - bfred_it 9y ago
    Source of those statements: https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/10/05/microsoft-edge-ios-android-developer/ https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/10/05/microsoft-edg...
  - randomerr 9y ago
    So what you really getting is a UI wrapper around the built-in browsers. The only advantage is synced passwords and bookmarks and some Microsoft specific apps.
    - plopz 9y ago
      This is the case with all of the browsers on iOS since Apple doesn't allow other rendering engines in the app store.
      - niutech 9y ago
        But not on Android. They could port their engine there, like Mozilla Firefox.
  - mtgx 9y ago
    So it's more like Faux-Edge. I guess it still provides a benefit for Edge users who want to sync their data and whatnot. It's just not too interesting beyond that. At least Firefox Focus (based on Chromium, too) is a "private by default" kind of browser, who those who care about that experience and don't want to mess with settings or don't know how to set it up so that it has maximum privacy. Speaking of which, it would be nice if Firefox Focus also provided an easy-to-use option to enable browsing over Tor.
igtztorrero 9y ago
lol
- sctb 9y ago
  Could you please not post if it's not going to be civil and substantive, like the guidelines ask? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
dumbmatter 9y ago
One of the most common requests we hear from people who use Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 PCs is "we want our browser experience to move to our phones". That's funny, my most common request is "IT'S BEEN LIKE 5 YEARS, CAN YOU GUYS FINALLY SUPPORT ALL OF THE INDEXEDDB API? EVEN SAFARI DOES IT NOW!" So sad when poor multinational corporations simply don't have the resources to compete with obscenely wealthy organizations like Mozilla. Maybe they should try open sourcing their browser so the community can pitch in?
- MBCook 9y ago
  It’s been two years. And I bet normal everyday users aren’t asking for that.
  - lostcolony 9y ago
    Yeah, but I'm willing to bet normal everyday users don't use terms like "browser experience" either. In fact, I'm pretty sure that anyone who understands the concept of different browsers (rather than referring to whatever standard browser they have as "the internet"), uses Edge primarily to download Chrome or Firefox.
    - MBCook 9y ago
      I’ve used edge. It’s fine. If MS had lots of people complaining about sites that didn’t work or said ‘Edge not supported’ to people who went there and that was because the site needed IndexDB I’m sure they would have added it. It clearly isn’t a huge issue for them. I can see people saying ‘If I use Edge my phone doesn’t sync bookmarks and stuff like Chrome so I use Chrome.’ I don’t think saying things like ‘people only use it to download Chrome’ is helpful. It’s not IE 7. It’s a perfectly fine browser.
      - lostcolony 9y ago
        Yes, it was partially tongue in cheek. That said, most of those who understand there are multiple browsers likely do so due to a time when, yes, IE was -terrible-...and so all their saved stuff, preferred plugins, etc, are in Firefox or Chrome. So their first act on getting a new computer is to reinstall and sync that stuff. Not "give that new Microsoft browser a spin".
grandpoobah 9y ago
if firefox can't do it, there's no way ms can
- MBCook 9y ago
  It’s no different than Chrome or Firefox on iOS. Standard WebKit rendering with an MS GUI and syncing features to feel more like edge and integrate with the rest of their stuff better. Sounds like it’s the same on Android too (only using Chromium).
  - gsnedders 9y ago
    Chrome on iOS is starting to diverge from Safari, sorta: they inject a bunch of JS to each page to essentially polyfill a bunch of stuff that iOS doesn't provide.
nkg 9y ago
* eyes roll
nailer 9y ago
Alas, visiting the signup page https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge-mobile https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge-mobil... from Edge on Windows 10 asks me to visit the page using Edge on Windows 10: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLYLTmHWsAEnlPF.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLYLTmHWsAEnlPF.jpg Update: they're looking into it: https://twitter.com/MSEdgeDev/status/915934723754516481 https://twitter.com/MSEdgeDev/status/915934723754516481
- AckSyn 9y ago
  I attempted to do this as well, but I don't want to enroll my PC in any "insider edition" of windows. Microsoft, if you're listening "give us a simple signup page so we can use TestFlight without having to move to an insider preview of windows". It's the most ridiculous convoluted way to sign up for testing your app I've EVER seen.
martin_bech 9y ago
Stop trying to make Edge happen.. its not going to happen..
- frou_dh 9y ago
  http://caniuse.com/fetch http://caniuse.com/fetch
bsharitt 9y ago
I wonder if Microsoft will ever pull a Kindle and rollout custom Android device that replaces Google services and and apps with Microsoft equivalents.
- miguelrochefort 9y ago
  They already sell a Samsung Galaxy S8 "Microsoft Edition" in their stores, which comes with their apps pre-installed. I wouldn't be surprised to see them push that even further.
- Nullabillity 9y ago
  They already tried that with Nokia X.
dbg31415 9y ago
"I really want to use Microsoft Edge on my iPhone!" -No One Ever
satysin 9y ago
Had to happen sooner or later. I just wish Microsoft had not tied Edge so deeply into Windows 10 (did they not learn from doing the same with Internet Explorer?) as at the moment it is limited to updates as part of the OS (Windows Update) and not the Microsoft Store.
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  I believe that is actually changing this month with the release of the Fall Creator's Update. This is very similar to Android, where originally core apps had to be upgraded with the OS, and were later spun out into being updated via the app store. https://www.computerworld.com/article/3193871/microsoft-windows/microsoft-to-cut-update-ties-between-edge-and-windows-10.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3193871/microsoft-wind...
- KirinDave 9y ago
  I think part of the reason for this is that you shouldn't be web browsing with old software. It's unsafe for you and others that your hardware could damage.
  - richardknop 9y ago
    But apps should be update-able separately, not as part of an operating system update. That doesn't make much sense. Especially on mobile when you might want to only update single app currently relevant to you without blocking your phone for 40 minutes doing a huge update of everything. Also limited bandwidth.
    - KirinDave 9y ago
      We've not been in a world where the web browser can be separated from the OS for at least 7 years.
- partiallypro 9y ago
  I 100% agree, it does limit releases too...but they are changing this with the next Windows release. They are going to make Windows more modular too in the future.
sergiosgc 9y ago
Installed, got temperature in Farenheit in the weather widget, found no settings to use Celsius, concluded it's not near polished enough. Back to Google Now Launcher.
- kylealden 9y ago
  Per the blog post, we're not localized broadly in the preview, but will be adding more locales/languages as we head towards a stable release. Hope you'll try it again!
- KirinDave 9y ago
  It's a preview, dude.
- rakshithbekal 9y ago
  there is an option to get Celsius. click on the gear icon on the weather app or on it. itll show the options. genius
santoshalper 9y ago
Mobile browsers could use a shakeup, but Edge is not super interesting to me. The Microsoft Launcher (which is implied to just be a re-branded Arrow launcher) on the other hand is fucking great. For me it's been Arrow or Nova for the past few years.
mixedbit 9y ago
Edge is a good browser, people seem to default to criticizing it because of its infamous predecessor. We should root for Edge, it is in the open Web best interest to have several browsers sharing the market.
- jccalhoun 9y ago
  Edge extensions got off to a slow start which hurt it quite a bit for me. Now it has a decent (although still small) number of extensions that cover most of the must-haves for me. It is my number 3 browser behind firefox and chrome.
- AndrewCHM 9y ago
  Its good technology-wise, but out of all the browsers I've touched, its the one that I feel like I have the least control over
  - RKearney 9y ago
    One of the biggest reasons I can't use Edge is I think it's impossible to actually inspect an HTTPS certificate.
- newscracker 9y ago
  I tried Edge on Windows 10 last year for a while, but had some issues with Outlook Web Access. And the way of managing proxies (among other things) is mixed up and confusing in Windows 10 - it has the old way of handling settings and a new Settings application. It’s not bug free and doesn’t satisfy basic conditions (searching for proxy in settings doesn’t work - need to know how to get to it). Anyway, back on topic - I switched back to IE 11. I have to try Edge again and see how it’s improved and changed during this time.
  - nozzlegear 9y ago
    It looks like that's changed in the Insiders build I'm on (the one releasing later this month). I've got Proxy Settings under Edge's Advanced Settings menu: https://i.imgur.com/zPHcYL3.png https://i.imgur.com/zPHcYL3.png And searching for Proxy gives me all of these options: https://i.imgur.com/BDEzNWW.png https://i.imgur.com/BDEzNWW.png
bla2 9y ago
It'd be nice if they made it open source too. And it'd be nice if iOS allowed real browser alternatives instead of requiring everyone to use WKWebView.
exikyut 9y ago
TL;DR: it's NOT using its own engine on Android. It uses Blink there. "On iOS, we are using the WebKit engine, as provided by iOS in the WKWebView control. That means that from a compatibility perspective, Microsoft Edge for iOS should match the version of Safari that is currently available for iOS." "On Android, we are using the Blink rendering engine from the Chromium browser project." Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15408882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15408882 -> https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/10/05/microsoft-edge-ios-android-developer/ https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/10/05/microsoft-edg...
- thrownblown 9y ago
  So Edge is the new Safari which is the new Explorer? /s?
- cptskippy 9y ago
  The reality is that a lot of sites query the UserAgent and deliver platform and browser specific sites. Google Search and Image Search are great examples of a crap experience if you're not using Safari on iOS or Chrome on Android. Microsoft is skirting around this by using each platform's engine and providing the user the best experience they can. \* Also they don't have a choice on iOS because Apple.
  - yahna 9y ago
    They can set the user agent to whatever they want.
    - cptskippy 9y ago
      Yes but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be able to interpret what they get in response.
- niutech 9y ago
  This is a capitulation of Microsoft - instead of porting their engine to Android, they made a yet another Chromium/Blink shell. It is not what I expect from a big corporation.
Sujan 9y ago
Can Edge for iOS be selected as "default browser" in iOS so it is by default used in all the places Safari normally handles? The "send to PC" thing _is_ nice, but only if available everywhere and consistently.
- izacus 9y ago
  No, Apple doesn't allow that.
- stiGGG 9y ago
  No, App developers are able to find out if Edge (or Chrome or Firefox) is installed on your device to give you an option to open links inside it, but most apps don't do that and you still can not change the default browser.
  - Sujan 9y ago
    Shame. Then maybe Microsoft could create a share extension that uses this new Windows feature to "collect" URLs from an iPhone?
arunc 9y ago
When we have Firefox focus for Android, I wonder why would anyone use this. Microsoft can dream about capturing the user base unless they open source it (which won't happen anyway).
israrkhan 9y ago
Why would a user use Edge on iOS/Android when they are using platform native rendering engines (webkit/blink). what is the value add here (Working with a windows 10 PC?)
- jedberg 9y ago
  I assume synchronization with your Windows PC (bookmarks, passwords, etc).
- burkaman 9y ago
  > Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android brings familiar features like your Favorites, Reading List, New Tab Page and Reading View across your PC and phone, so, no matter the device, your browsing goes with you. But what makes Microsoft Edge really stand out is the ability to continue on your PC, which enables you to immediately open the page you’re looking at right on your PC—or save it to work on later. This is for people who use Edge on their PC and want everything to sync with their phone.
niftich 9y ago
Back in the days of the Acid tests and when vendor prefixes for experimental features were the norm, and a visit to caniuse.com was often met with disappointment, discretionary users cared as much about a browser's layout engine as the application's surrounding chrome and features. But as web engines have been moving closer to feature parity (as well as Chrome and Firefox's combined dominance of marketshare), the bonus features of the application are rising in importance. (Some) people want their bookmarks, their synced passwords, their addons, their (sometimes-captive) integrations; this is the space that Edge competes in now. The same applies on iOS, for slightly different reasons. On iOS everything is slightly different, you get the same rendering engine every which way. There, the only way to differentiate yourself is by extra features.
201709User 9y ago
No tiles in launcher? Garbage.

152 points by bfred_it 9y ago

I struggle to get too excited about Edge on iOS because it's not really Edge is it. It will just be like Firefox which uses the built-in iOS WebKit-based rendering. So it's effectively Safari doing the rendering with some wrappers around it like syncing Windows favourites and sharing open windows with your Windows PC? Maybe some corporations which have Windows on the desktop, but where most employees use iOS devices on the go, will find some use for this.

jmkni 9y ago
I'm guessing this is the case with Chrome as well?
- mercer 9y ago
  Indeed it is. Sadly!
- mtycholaz 9y ago
  Yes, and it's because of an Apple policy. They don't allow other rendering engines.
  - sebazzz 9y ago
    It is not that they do not allow other render engines. It is that APIs to dynamically execute native code are locked down on platforms such as Windows Mobile and iOS. If you cannot dynamically execute code you cannot build a JIT JS engine which makes your webbrowser too slow compared to the competition.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - KirinDave 9y ago
      This is a policy who's primary goal is to ban other browser engines. They make exceptions for lots of other app types like games.
      - jmkni 9y ago
        I guess in theory you could build a browser on top of a game engine, or is that just insane?
        stephengillie 9y ago
        Tribes 2 had a full web browser in the game. It was a continuation of having a full IRC client in the first game, Starsiege: Tribes. (Tribes 2 also had the IRC client. The IRC client initially drove players into chat channels to help them find ongoing games, and dropped a link when someone left IRC to join a game. It was decent matchmaking in 1998, and helped build the community as well.) The browser itself wasn't as insane as writing the entire game menu in OpenGL, which at the time was uncommon. Game devs cited this choice (instead of using a simpler menu) as causing a 6-month delay in the project, leading to much less testing and a game that crashed frequently for the first few months after release. The ubiquitous "Unhanded Exception" pop-up became a meme for years after.
    - metajack 9y ago
      Pretty sure they don't allow you to download and execute code even if not using a JIT, unless it is an educational app. There are multiple policy reasons browser engines can't be on iOS.
    - glhaynes 9y ago
      This is true, though they do also explicitly restrict using other engines for web browsing: 2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript.
Kuraj 9y ago
I don't really understand how Edge having its own rendering engine would make me any more excited for it.

IvanK_net 9y ago

The performance of Edge is comparable to Chrome or Firefox. It is a really great product. The sad part is, that they were keeping it Win10-only for several years. I think, that if they made Edge available for every platform and every OS earlier, they could have 20 - 50 % of the market by now. The funny part is, that there is NO EDGE FOR WINDOWS. Precisely, Edge is for Windows 10 only, which is the minority of all Windows devices today. There is no Microsoft browser for Windows 7 (by a browser I mean the one that is regularly updated). MS announced the halting of IE development a long time ago.

ocdtrekkie 9y ago
There is Edge for Windows. It's called Edge. Windows 10, is believe it or not, Windows. Any computer running Windows 7 or 8.1 can still (yes, it can) be upgraded to Windows 10 for free. So the only Windows PCs which cannot run Edge were those manufactured prior to 2009. Contrary to popular belief, there is no good reason to be running Windows 7 or 8.1. All of the telemetry anti-features were backported into those versions, Windows 10 is inherently better at security, and trust me, if I can get the legacy software I have running at work running on Windows 10, legacy app issues aren't a problem either.
- IvanK_net 9y ago
  90 percent of Windows 10 users that I know updated from Windows 7 unintentionally and most of them complained about it. Such updates form Microsoft have quite bad reputation. You can't just say "Hey do this irreversible software change and trust us, that you will be satisfied". I am ready to accept it e.g. from Chrome OS, but not from Microsoft.
  - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    You can reverse any Windows 10 upgrade for 30 days, whether it was an upgrade from 7, 8.1, or a different version of Windows 10. The revert process works... most of the time.
  - bfred_it 9y ago

merrvk 9y ago

Does it make use edgeHTML or Chakra though?

amaks 9y ago

NiveaGeForce 9y ago
It allows custom default search engines.

ekianjo 9y ago

I shall add it's funny they keep saying "Microsoft Loves Linux" but refuses to release any of their major desktop client software for Desktop Linux.

ygra 9y ago
“Refuse” is a fairly strong word and suggests there is a Linux version available and just withheld. Software and features don't just appear out of nowhere.
- SmellyGeekBoy 9y ago
  Indeed. Not to mention that Office Online works just fine in a browser under Linux.
pjmlp 9y ago
Which flavour?
- ekianjo 9y ago
  With flatpaks and Appimages these days, you don't really need to target any distro anymore.
chrismbarr 9y ago
This assumes there are Linux users that actually want to use the Edge browser though
- ekianjo 9y ago
  I know what you mean. For Edge there's probably not many folks who would be interested, but Office, for one, is still something that's desirable for a lot of folks who use Linux just because of numerous compatibility issues with LibreOffice.
  - megaman22 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

bfred_it 9y ago

More information about Edge Mobile is available here, however not many technical details (e.g. whether the Android version is just a WebView or if it's the real Edge) https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge-mobile https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge-mobil...

d2kx 9y ago
"On iOS, we are using the WebKit engine, as provided by iOS in the WKWebView control. That means that from a compatibility perspective, Microsoft Edge for iOS should match the version of Safari that is currently available for iOS. On Android, we are using the Blink rendering engine from the Chromium browser project."
- bfred_it 9y ago
  Source of those statements: https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/10/05/microsoft-edge-ios-android-developer/ https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/10/05/microsoft-edg...
- randomerr 9y ago
  So what you really getting is a UI wrapper around the built-in browsers. The only advantage is synced passwords and bookmarks and some Microsoft specific apps.
  - plopz 9y ago
    This is the case with all of the browsers on iOS since Apple doesn't allow other rendering engines in the app store.
    - niutech 9y ago
      But not on Android. They could port their engine there, like Mozilla Firefox.
- mtgx 9y ago
  So it's more like Faux-Edge. I guess it still provides a benefit for Edge users who want to sync their data and whatnot. It's just not too interesting beyond that. At least Firefox Focus (based on Chromium, too) is a "private by default" kind of browser, who those who care about that experience and don't want to mess with settings or don't know how to set it up so that it has maximum privacy. Speaking of which, it would be nice if Firefox Focus also provided an easy-to-use option to enable browsing over Tor.

igtztorrero 9y ago

lol

sctb 9y ago
Could you please not post if it's not going to be civil and substantive, like the guidelines ask? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

dumbmatter 9y ago

One of the most common requests we hear from people who use Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 PCs is "we want our browser experience to move to our phones". That's funny, my most common request is "IT'S BEEN LIKE 5 YEARS, CAN YOU GUYS FINALLY SUPPORT ALL OF THE INDEXEDDB API? EVEN SAFARI DOES IT NOW!" So sad when poor multinational corporations simply don't have the resources to compete with obscenely wealthy organizations like Mozilla. Maybe they should try open sourcing their browser so the community can pitch in?

MBCook 9y ago
It’s been two years. And I bet normal everyday users aren’t asking for that.
- lostcolony 9y ago
  Yeah, but I'm willing to bet normal everyday users don't use terms like "browser experience" either. In fact, I'm pretty sure that anyone who understands the concept of different browsers (rather than referring to whatever standard browser they have as "the internet"), uses Edge primarily to download Chrome or Firefox.
  - MBCook 9y ago
    I’ve used edge. It’s fine. If MS had lots of people complaining about sites that didn’t work or said ‘Edge not supported’ to people who went there and that was because the site needed IndexDB I’m sure they would have added it. It clearly isn’t a huge issue for them. I can see people saying ‘If I use Edge my phone doesn’t sync bookmarks and stuff like Chrome so I use Chrome.’ I don’t think saying things like ‘people only use it to download Chrome’ is helpful. It’s not IE 7. It’s a perfectly fine browser.
    - lostcolony 9y ago
      Yes, it was partially tongue in cheek. That said, most of those who understand there are multiple browsers likely do so due to a time when, yes, IE was -terrible-...and so all their saved stuff, preferred plugins, etc, are in Firefox or Chrome. So their first act on getting a new computer is to reinstall and sync that stuff. Not "give that new Microsoft browser a spin".

grandpoobah 9y ago

if firefox can't do it, there's no way ms can

MBCook 9y ago
It’s no different than Chrome or Firefox on iOS. Standard WebKit rendering with an MS GUI and syncing features to feel more like edge and integrate with the rest of their stuff better. Sounds like it’s the same on Android too (only using Chromium).
- gsnedders 9y ago
  Chrome on iOS is starting to diverge from Safari, sorta: they inject a bunch of JS to each page to essentially polyfill a bunch of stuff that iOS doesn't provide.

nkg 9y ago

* eyes roll

nailer 9y ago

Alas, visiting the signup page https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge-mobile https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/microsoft-edge-mobil... from Edge on Windows 10 asks me to visit the page using Edge on Windows 10: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLYLTmHWsAEnlPF.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLYLTmHWsAEnlPF.jpg Update: they're looking into it: https://twitter.com/MSEdgeDev/status/915934723754516481 https://twitter.com/MSEdgeDev/status/915934723754516481

AckSyn 9y ago
I attempted to do this as well, but I don't want to enroll my PC in any "insider edition" of windows. Microsoft, if you're listening "give us a simple signup page so we can use TestFlight without having to move to an insider preview of windows". It's the most ridiculous convoluted way to sign up for testing your app I've EVER seen.

martin_bech 9y ago

Stop trying to make Edge happen.. its not going to happen..

frou_dh 9y ago
http://caniuse.com/fetch http://caniuse.com/fetch

bsharitt 9y ago

I wonder if Microsoft will ever pull a Kindle and rollout custom Android device that replaces Google services and and apps with Microsoft equivalents.

miguelrochefort 9y ago
They already sell a Samsung Galaxy S8 "Microsoft Edition" in their stores, which comes with their apps pre-installed. I wouldn't be surprised to see them push that even further.
Nullabillity 9y ago
They already tried that with Nokia X.

dbg31415 9y ago

"I really want to use Microsoft Edge on my iPhone!" -No One Ever

satysin 9y ago

Had to happen sooner or later. I just wish Microsoft had not tied Edge so deeply into Windows 10 (did they not learn from doing the same with Internet Explorer?) as at the moment it is limited to updates as part of the OS (Windows Update) and not the Microsoft Store.

ocdtrekkie 9y ago
I believe that is actually changing this month with the release of the Fall Creator's Update. This is very similar to Android, where originally core apps had to be upgraded with the OS, and were later spun out into being updated via the app store. https://www.computerworld.com/article/3193871/microsoft-windows/microsoft-to-cut-update-ties-between-edge-and-windows-10.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3193871/microsoft-wind...
KirinDave 9y ago
I think part of the reason for this is that you shouldn't be web browsing with old software. It's unsafe for you and others that your hardware could damage.
- richardknop 9y ago
  But apps should be update-able separately, not as part of an operating system update. That doesn't make much sense. Especially on mobile when you might want to only update single app currently relevant to you without blocking your phone for 40 minutes doing a huge update of everything. Also limited bandwidth.
  - KirinDave 9y ago
    We've not been in a world where the web browser can be separated from the OS for at least 7 years.
partiallypro 9y ago
I 100% agree, it does limit releases too...but they are changing this with the next Windows release. They are going to make Windows more modular too in the future.

sergiosgc 9y ago

Installed, got temperature in Farenheit in the weather widget, found no settings to use Celsius, concluded it's not near polished enough. Back to Google Now Launcher.

kylealden 9y ago
Per the blog post, we're not localized broadly in the preview, but will be adding more locales/languages as we head towards a stable release. Hope you'll try it again!
KirinDave 9y ago
It's a preview, dude.
rakshithbekal 9y ago
there is an option to get Celsius. click on the gear icon on the weather app or on it. itll show the options. genius

santoshalper 9y ago

Mobile browsers could use a shakeup, but Edge is not super interesting to me. The Microsoft Launcher (which is implied to just be a re-branded Arrow launcher) on the other hand is fucking great. For me it's been Arrow or Nova for the past few years.

mixedbit 9y ago

Edge is a good browser, people seem to default to criticizing it because of its infamous predecessor. We should root for Edge, it is in the open Web best interest to have several browsers sharing the market.

jccalhoun 9y ago
Edge extensions got off to a slow start which hurt it quite a bit for me. Now it has a decent (although still small) number of extensions that cover most of the must-haves for me. It is my number 3 browser behind firefox and chrome.
AndrewCHM 9y ago
Its good technology-wise, but out of all the browsers I've touched, its the one that I feel like I have the least control over
- RKearney 9y ago
  One of the biggest reasons I can't use Edge is I think it's impossible to actually inspect an HTTPS certificate.
newscracker 9y ago
I tried Edge on Windows 10 last year for a while, but had some issues with Outlook Web Access. And the way of managing proxies (among other things) is mixed up and confusing in Windows 10 - it has the old way of handling settings and a new Settings application. It’s not bug free and doesn’t satisfy basic conditions (searching for proxy in settings doesn’t work - need to know how to get to it). Anyway, back on topic - I switched back to IE 11. I have to try Edge again and see how it’s improved and changed during this time.
- nozzlegear 9y ago
  It looks like that's changed in the Insiders build I'm on (the one releasing later this month). I've got Proxy Settings under Edge's Advanced Settings menu: https://i.imgur.com/zPHcYL3.png https://i.imgur.com/zPHcYL3.png And searching for Proxy gives me all of these options: https://i.imgur.com/BDEzNWW.png https://i.imgur.com/BDEzNWW.png

bla2 9y ago

It'd be nice if they made it open source too. And it'd be nice if iOS allowed real browser alternatives instead of requiring everyone to use WKWebView.

exikyut 9y ago

TL;DR: it's NOT using its own engine on Android. It uses Blink there. "On iOS, we are using the WebKit engine, as provided by iOS in the WKWebView control. That means that from a compatibility perspective, Microsoft Edge for iOS should match the version of Safari that is currently available for iOS." "On Android, we are using the Blink rendering engine from the Chromium browser project." Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15408882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15408882 -> https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/10/05/microsoft-edge-ios-android-developer/ https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/10/05/microsoft-edg...

thrownblown 9y ago
So Edge is the new Safari which is the new Explorer? /s?
cptskippy 9y ago
The reality is that a lot of sites query the UserAgent and deliver platform and browser specific sites. Google Search and Image Search are great examples of a crap experience if you're not using Safari on iOS or Chrome on Android. Microsoft is skirting around this by using each platform's engine and providing the user the best experience they can. \* Also they don't have a choice on iOS because Apple.
- yahna 9y ago
  They can set the user agent to whatever they want.
  - cptskippy 9y ago
    Yes but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be able to interpret what they get in response.
niutech 9y ago
This is a capitulation of Microsoft - instead of porting their engine to Android, they made a yet another Chromium/Blink shell. It is not what I expect from a big corporation.

Sujan 9y ago

Can Edge for iOS be selected as "default browser" in iOS so it is by default used in all the places Safari normally handles? The "send to PC" thing _is_ nice, but only if available everywhere and consistently.

izacus 9y ago
No, Apple doesn't allow that.
stiGGG 9y ago
No, App developers are able to find out if Edge (or Chrome or Firefox) is installed on your device to give you an option to open links inside it, but most apps don't do that and you still can not change the default browser.
- Sujan 9y ago
  Shame. Then maybe Microsoft could create a share extension that uses this new Windows feature to "collect" URLs from an iPhone?

arunc 9y ago

When we have Firefox focus for Android, I wonder why would anyone use this. Microsoft can dream about capturing the user base unless they open source it (which won't happen anyway).

israrkhan 9y ago

Why would a user use Edge on iOS/Android when they are using platform native rendering engines (webkit/blink). what is the value add here (Working with a windows 10 PC?)

jedberg 9y ago
I assume synchronization with your Windows PC (bookmarks, passwords, etc).
burkaman 9y ago
> Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android brings familiar features like your Favorites, Reading List, New Tab Page and Reading View across your PC and phone, so, no matter the device, your browsing goes with you. But what makes Microsoft Edge really stand out is the ability to continue on your PC, which enables you to immediately open the page you’re looking at right on your PC—or save it to work on later. This is for people who use Edge on their PC and want everything to sync with their phone.

niftich 9y ago

Back in the days of the Acid tests and when vendor prefixes for experimental features were the norm, and a visit to caniuse.com was often met with disappointment, discretionary users cared as much about a browser's layout engine as the application's surrounding chrome and features. But as web engines have been moving closer to feature parity (as well as Chrome and Firefox's combined dominance of marketshare), the bonus features of the application are rising in importance. (Some) people want their bookmarks, their synced passwords, their addons, their (sometimes-captive) integrations; this is the space that Edge competes in now. The same applies on iOS, for slightly different reasons. On iOS everything is slightly different, you get the same rendering engine every which way. There, the only way to differentiate yourself is by extra features.

201709User 9y ago

No tiles in launcher? Garbage.