Atomic WQ Browser
Available in both a stripped down ‘Lite’
version and a $2.21 fully featured version (reviewed here), Atomic is similar
to Mercury in that it has a long feature list. The difference is that with
Atomic there are no fancy icons on the settings menu or explanations of what
cryptic features do (‘Display IDN’?). There are no thumbnail previews of
bookmarks either, although you can set up speed dial, which utilizes
thumbnails. Ultimately, though, this is a browser for the man (and it will be a
man) who likes to work through long lists of options to make things just so.
Features include ad blocking, browser
faking (so Atomic appears to sites as a desktop OS), downloading to Dropbox. A
bookmarks toolbar, full-screen browsing, and TV-out, provided you use the right
cable.
Atomic
WQ Browser
Unique features that caught our eye include
the ability to use Google Mobilizer, which strips sites of extraneous nonsense
to make them mobile friendly (including making them low-bandwidth), which,
unlike Opera Mini‘s effort, does actually appear to work but results in
extremely basic websites (imagine a WAP site on your Nokia circa 1998).
Overall, we were a little underwhelmed by
Atomic. Aside from the fact it has a separate URL and search fields, rather
than an Omnibar, we couldn't really fault it. Then again, we couldn't find much
to praise about it either. It does the job. It just isn’t particularly elegant,
and it looks more like an Android app than something that should grace Apple
hardware. At $2.21 for the full range of features, it's also relatively
expensive considering Mercury offers almost the same feature list for free.
Skyfire
Skyfire is the most expensive browser on
test here, not least because its developer pulls the mean trick of producing
separate versions for the iPhone ($2.96) and iPad ($4.44). Other browsers
reviewed here use a single app approach, meaning that you only pay once thanks
to Apple's App Store policies.
Skyfire
Updates iPad Browser
Skyfire’s chief trick is to let you watch
Flash video, which it does by transcoding them in a data warehouse before
sending an i0S-friendly MP4 stream to your device. This has a few drawbacks.
It’s not full Flash compatibility, so you can't watch animations or play games.
Flash videos that require passwords also won't work.
Additionally, transcoding means there’s a
delay of around up to half a minute before you get to see the video, and the
video appears in full-screen mode isolated from the site it's contained on (the
rest of the site is rendered on the device, as with any other browser).
Even taking these caveats into account, the
results of our testing just weren’t acceptable. With exclusive access to a
9Mbit ADSL connection offering sustained download speeds of over 900KB/s, the
videos Skyfire delivered tended to be blurry with a lower frame-rate than most
viewed via something like the YouTube app, making for choppy action. Some
suffered from horrendously out-of-sync audio. These are symptoms of overly
aggressive encoding, and while the blurring was less of an issue on an iPhone
because of the smaller screen, Skyfire claims to detect the best streaming
setup, so we had no way of improving things.
Skyfire
web browser for iPad adds support for multiple accounts with HotSwap feature
Skyfire’s other big trick is Horizon, a scrollable
list of icons at the bottom that allow you to share stuff you’re seeing, or get
quick pop-up access to news sites. It disappears when you scroll, as does the
topmost address bar and toolbar.
Horizon is pretty nifty, but that’s about
it for clever features. We liked that there’s a simple toggle to switch between
desktop and mobile versions of a website, but the developer of Skyfire has
clearly taken the KISS route – there are hardly any settings to tweak, for
example.
Your mileage may vary with Skyfire but,
then again, you won’t be able to test it without buying it. As with all
Flash-equipped browsers for iOS, we get the impression Skyfire works best if
you’re in the country where the transcoding servers are located. Skyfire is
apparently considering buying server space in the UK. If that happens, our
opinion of this app may change dramatically.
