Life is Better Outside The Safari
June 19, 2010
While Apple’s own Safari for iPad web-browser is built right into each iPad, it does come with some limitations. As such, you might want to try out an alternative: the Life Web Browser app from “It’s About Time Products.”
The Life Web Browser is built on Webkit, just like Safari, but that is where the similarities between the apps end. One of the main complaints about Safari for iPad is its lack of a tabbing feature. In order to go from site to site, for example, a user needs to click on a button at the top of the browser, which then gives you graphical boxes which signify the last nine sites that you have visited. This gets confusing and cumbersome, for example, if you happen to click on a link on one site that opens to another. However, within the Life Web Browser, tabbing as we traditionally know it is taken to an entirely new level. Within this app, users travel from site to site simply with a swipe of the finger. As you visit sites within the app, it remembers them and places them in a similar way as photos are viewed within the iPad photo app. Therefore, instead of going from picture-to-picture from your last vacation, for example, you instead go from site-to-site with a similar finger motion. Best of all, the app recognizes each of your sites to your left and to your right and automatically refreshes those pages in anticipation that you will want to view those sites again as well. Therefore, the site load times in the Life Web Browser actually happens behind the scenes making the entire web surfing experience more enjoyable and less time consuming. Another great feature of this app is the “Q” option. Upon hitting the “Q” button, whatever links or photos that you click on within the Life Web Browser will be remembered for a later look in a nice pull-down menu. Once these links or photos are no longer necessary, you simply click on an “X” key and they are deleted. Best of all, as you are adding links and photos, the app downloads the detail of each for quicker navigation and of course, does this in the background. Much of what makes the Life Web Browser special is that finger swiping performs most of the functions rather than the keyboard. Unless you are visiting a site for the first time, the app remembers where you’ve been, making it very easy to go back and forth between sites without using the keyboard. Finally, there is a one-touch email function. If you find a page that you think would interest someone else, simply hit the Email button and an email box will popup that includes a link to the page. All you need to do is type in the recipient’s name and hit the send button, as simple as that. Unlike in Safari for iPad, you never have to leave the browser to send an email. “It’s About Time Products” has released a very cool video to explain its app and this is certainly something each of you should check out prior to your purchase. I've included it here. The app sells for $1.99 and is available right now in the App Store.
