Apple iOS 5 Review
by Vivek Gowri, Andrew Cunningham, Saumitra Bhagwat & Brian Klug on October 18, 2011 3:05 AM ESTSafari
Safari, too, has gotten a UI refresh on the iPad side of things. We finally get tabbed browsing, which really makes life easy when you’re browsing - it was the single most useful feature that Honeycomb had over iOS last year. The tab bar is located underneath the URL bar, and the active tab has an “x” on the left side to close. There’s not too much more to say here other than that it’s well integrated, and being able to see all the open tabs at once really makes the multipage browsing experience quicker and more seamless. It’s a seemingly minor detail, but taking out the extra two screen presses really speeds everything up. It almost makes me wonder why Apple took so long to implement it on the iPad.
Reading List ties in very well with the other new browser feature, Reader. Reader basically takes a webpage and renders it in the most readable way possible, stripping all formatting and displaying the text and image content alone. Think of it like iBooks, except for webpages. Getting to it is pretty easy - just wait for your page to load, then hit the Reader button in the URL bar. The cool thing is that for multipage articles like the ones on AnandTech, it’ll load the next page automatically as you finish reading the previous page. It’s a relatively minor feature, but if you read a ton of longer (*cough* AnandTech) articles on your iPad or iPhone, Reader ends up being really, really useful.
Safari Performance Improvements
There's been a trend among mobile browsers recently, and that trend is increasingly fast JavaScript performance. Both iOS and Android have been trading blows for the JavaScript performance crown, and iOS 5 includes the latest set of improvements from Apple's side.
The brief outline version of this story is that each successive release of iOS has improved JavaScript performance. First, iOS 4.3 brought desktop Safari's Nitro JavaScript engine with JIT (Just In Time compilation) to MobileSafari in iOS, which gave a substantial boost to its performance in synthetics and other tests. The latest improvements in iOS are thanks in part to an update which brings MobileSafari back up to parity with Safari 5.1's codebase on the desktop side. For a while now we've been keeping track of iOS performance in SunSpider 0.9 and RightWare's browsermark, and now SunSpider 0.9.1 as well.
Sunspider 0.9.1 we haven't been keeping track of for very long, so we don't have as many results yet, but that will change in time. The other two graphs really tell the story of how Mobile Safari has seen steady improvements to JavaScript performance over a short history going back to iOS 4.0. Again, the 4.3 added Nitro with JIT, and 5.0 updates Nitro to the absolute bleeding edge version of the codebase, same as the desktop Safari. That said, I don't expect things to speed up much beyond this, and though I'm not showing Android results (since the context of this story is all about iOS), I expect Ice Cream Sandwich to bring Android right back up to parity with Mobile Safari's scores on similar hardware.
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willstay - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
Exactly. Few of my friends complain that if they miss that email chirp, and that email notifications do not show upfront, they are going to have to actually run the email app to see if there are new emails (or remember unread counter from previous).LED notification is better suited for this kind of notification. Unfortunately my phone doesn't have one but comes with amoled screen and there I found free app that actually displays contact pic of person I missed call/text/email/yahoo/viber/whatsapp from. A quick glance from afar and I know if I missed anything.
steven75 - Monday, October 31, 2011 - link
While I sympathize with your issue, I've been an iPhone user since 2007 and not even a single time has this been a problem for me.The fact is, my phone lives in my pocket even while at home. If I'm the shower, the phone is on the counter in the bathroom, usually because I'm listening to music or a podcast on it.
sigmatau - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
I for one will never, ever install one more piece of Apple software on my "PC". They can thank itunes (and quicktime) for that. Buggy, almost malware-like acting crap.Stuka87 - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
Go away troll. If you don't care for Apple, don't bother commenting on an Apple article.The0ne - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
I totally agree with you. What we need is segregation, a separation of Windows and Mac users. Screw the Linux users cause really they suck anyways. I'll go as far as to suggest we segregate idiots from average to knowledgeable users as well. All future reviews and articles should specify exactly what type of users should be allow. We all know people don't cross-platform use PCs, less know about them and the apps.Doing it this way it would be way way more fair. I'm serious, lets do it!
sigmatau - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
LOL why? Maybe they will rethink their magic and make it more magical! I'm so glad to get rid of my 3gs for a GS2.I've owned computers for almost 20 years. In all that time, I have never, ever used software that blatently prevented simple common sense functions. I guess it is Apples form of computer DRM.
simi13 - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
I only use iTunes for music, on Windows.Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link
Well... itunes is pretty godawful.Bansaku - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link
Uhm, I have been using iTunes, Safari, Quicktime and Software update in Windows since XP, and have found it to be 100% stable, NO bugs, and works like it does on my iMac. I call BS, Troll!anubis44 - Saturday, October 22, 2011 - link
MobiusStrip, your point is well-taken. It would be nice for Apple to make incessant missed call bitching an option, but I take issue with your attitude. Only an a$$hole needs other people and machines to prod them in the a$$ every 5 minutes to do things. Try taking responsibility and check your godam phone for messages after your shower/bubble bath/whatever. No wonder the Chinese are leaving the West in their dust. With such lazy a$$holes like you being broadly representative of our spoiled, self-entitled civilization. Try being pro-active and less reactive in your life and you'll see amazing things happen before you know it.