safari

Apple signs up for WebGL graphics in iAds

Microsoft has declared WebGL too risky to use, but it turns out Apple is an ally of the 3D Web graphics technology.

Apple hasn't said whether it plans to ship WebGL, though nightly builds of the WebKit open-source browser on which Safari is based include support. But an Apple employee said this week it will be an option on iOS 5--for iAds only.

"WebGL will not be publicly available in iOS 5. It will only be available to iAd developers," said Apple's Chris Marrin on a WebGL mailing list.

That's right--all you folks who relished … Read more

iOS 5 could fix some slow Web apps

It looks likely that Apple's iOS 5 will will address an issue that deprived some Web apps from a speed boost that came to the mobile version of Safari.

On iOS, Web sites and Web apps can be launched from an icon that the user places on the home screen from Safari. Those apps didn't benefit from a speed-up that came with Safari in iOS 4.3, though: the Nitro engine that runs Web-based code is written in the ever-more-important JavaScript language.

It appears iOS 5 could address this issue, though.

"Did they fix the bug from … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1488: Sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads (Podcast)

On today's show, it's the Summer of Hackers: Anonymous hits the Spanish police website and threatens the Federal Reserve (which, frankly, we find to be a target that's probably worthy of a little DDoS action). Plus, a nation-state may have hacked IMF, but they're not saying much, and the Bitcoin market crashes (buy low!). Plus, scientists create jellyfish that can shoot tiny, weak lasers ... a stepping stone to the scariest sharks ever.

Tabs, Reading List land in mobile Safari

The version of the Safari browser that will ship in iOS 5 in July will come with some enhanced features, Apple announced today at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. The most visible change is the introduction of tabbed browsing, long a staple of the desktop version of Safari and other browsers. However, other significant changes have been made as well.

The feature for saving stories to be read at a later time, popularized by the Read It Later and Instapaper browser add-ons, will now come as a standard feature in Safari mobile. Reading List provides a more modern, … Read more

How to clear your iOS browser history

If you recently ordered a present for a loved one on your iPad or iPhone and don't want him or her to stumble across the site you used to place the order, clearing your browser history will eliminate that possibility. Clearing Mobile Safari's history is a great way to cover your tracks on the Internet, as well as free up some memory (although the amount of memory is minimal). We are going to show you how to erase your browser history, cookies, and cache on your iOS device of choice in two simple steps.

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers. This week there were questions about reconfiguration requirements after cloning OS X, how to access iPhoto library contents in the Finder, how to change font sizes in Safari, and the benefits of using a Combo updater in OS X. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present a few answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: Reconfiguration requirements after cloning MacFixIt reader "Ron" asks:

I want to [upgrade … Read more

Amazon Cloud Drive: Now streaming to iOS

There's no denying that Amazon's new Cloud Drive is pretty awesome--especially if you routinely buy music from Amazon's MP3 store. Among other things, you can get 20GB of online storage (for a year) for the price of one dirt-cheap album.

Alas, until now, only Android users could listen to their Cloud Drive tunes on the go. The iOS camp has yet to see an Amazon MP3 app.

But as reported by Lifehacker today, Amazon just updated the service to support streaming over Safari. In other words, iOS users can now use the Amazon Cloud Player. They just … Read more

Hackers working on Safari-based app installer

Not content with Apple's App Store as a software distribution mechanism, a group of iOS developers is taking matters into its own hands by working on a tool to let iPhone users browse and install applications and system tweaks through Safari.

Spotted by the iPhone Download Blog, the new project dubbed "Lima" is the creation of the Infini Dev Team and aims to complement, and perhaps one day replace, third-party application installers already available to those with jailbroken iOS devices. The hack lets users install applications from third-party software repositories, hosted on the Web and accessed through … Read more

New MacDefender malware discovered for OS X

Mac antivirus and security developer Intego has issued a blog report on a new malware threat for OS X systems called "MacDefender" that has surfaced. The threat is a Trojan horse that is being targeted to Mac systems through "Search Engine Optimization (SEO) poisoning" efforts, and uses Safari's "Open Safe Files" feature to run the installer for the malware.

SEO Poisoning takes advantage of common search terms that Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines use to present results, and forces a malicious Web page to the top of the search provider's … Read more

IE9 passes Opera in browser usage

Microsoft's browser continues to lose share of worldwide usage, but its new IE9 version managed to gain enough usage that new statistics show it surpassing one smaller rival, Opera.

Internet Explorer 9 accounted for 2.41 percent of browser usage in April, its first full month on the market, according to Net Applications. Opera accounted for 2.14 percent. And IE overall dropped from 55.9 percent in March to 55.1 percent in April.

Two browsers, Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari, outpaced the overall growth in Web usage. Chrome rose from 11.6 percent to 11.… Read more