Last month, Google said that it was testing an iOS implementation of Google Stadia. At one point in the past, we thought we'd never see Stadia come to iOS, as restrictive App Store rules made launching a game streaming service technically possible but realistically challenging. Thankfully, the iOS version of Stadia sidesteps the App Store entirely, launching as a Safari webapp instead.
The Internet has made the world a smaller place but, unless you've taken time to learn multiple languages, chances are you'll come across pages that are incomprehensible to you. Translation tools and browser add-ons do exist, of course, but, in typical Apple fashion, Safari will soon have the ability to translate a page without requiring an extra package or, worse, exposing your data to third parties or even Apple itself.
A few years ago, Spotify suddenly dropped support for the Safari browser, forcing macOS users to either listen to their favorite music using a different browser or the Mac Spotify app. That has quietly changed in recent days, users have noticed, once again giving Safari users the option of streaming music, podcasts, and other content directly through Apple's web browser.
The Web has become a bigger place and, at the same time, has also become more dangerous. Seeing that most users are unlikely to change bad habits, browser makers are taking up the cause to implement secure and private features that are eventually enabled by default. One such feature is called Safe Browsing and has become enabled by default in iOS 13 with every little warning beforehand. Now it turns out that this feature is sending some information, particularly IP addresses to Google and to Chinese Internet giant Tencent.
Web browsers, particularly Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, have lately taken stronger actions against unscrupulous, not to mention potentially illegal, tracking by websites and third parties. Curiously silent is one browser maker who has painted itself as the champion of privacy in the modern digital and tech world. Apple, however, was simply waiting for the right moment to announce its own new policy against the misuse of tracking and cookies. But while it might be the harshest and strictest policy among web browsers, it could also be one of those that breaks the Internet the most for users.
In what might be the biggest Android user-aimed feature of the year, Apple just added Google Docs support to Safari. Safari is Apple's web browser for iOS, and it's just been delivered a slew of new features. For those users that've never taken the time to download the Google web browser Chrome, these features might seem new and amazing.
One of the side effects of promoting yourself as a staunch privacy advocate is that all your actions in that regard will be heavily scrutinized. Apple is indeed facing such attention in light of a major Group FaceTime bug and Facebook's misuse of its enterprise creds, but even the little things are getting some time in the spotlight. Apple is making some changes to the iOS version of Safari and while this removal of the "Do Not Track" setting may sound antithetical at first, it ironically protects users even more.
It has been a little over a week since Apple rolled out the first beta for iOS 12.2 and the upcoming release of the mobile platform is already proving to be a treasure trove of features. But while most of the ones that have surfaced focus on what Apple is adding, a new “feature” that has come to light is talking about what Apple is somewhat taking away. While the iOS version of the Safari web browser will still let websites access data coming from the iPhone or iPad gyroscope and accelerometer, users will have to actually give the app permission to do so. Presuming, of course, they’re even aware it’s disabled by default.
Apple is declaring a new war on tracking in Safari, ramping up its privacy features in the macOS Mojave and iOS 12 browser. The news follows last year's do-not-follow tracking system for cookies, which Apple promised would stop the same adverts from cropping up on every website you visit, just because you looked at a product on one site somewhere.
While Spotify is most commonly associated with its mobile apps, it allows desktop users to stream music through their web browser. Unfortunately that's no longer an option for those who prefer Apple's Safari, as it is no longer supported by Spotify. The abrupt change came about this weekend, surprising and frustrating many users, with the streaming service stating that Safari is now incompatible with its Web Player.
Google is often criticized for its business practices but most of the technology it develops are, more often than not, relatively accepted. Except, perhaps, for AMP. Short for Accelerated Mobile Pages, Google’s mobile-centric open standard for the web has, not so ironically, split the web. But while some platform creators aren’t exactly taking sides, it seems that Apple sneaked in a feature in iOS 11 that at least helps make AMP less intrusive. And that’s by simply stripping out AMP markers from URLs when sharing or copying links from the Safari mobile browser.
Another one of the final nails has been hammered into the coffin of Adobe Flash. The latest version of Apple's Safari browser that will be included in the release of macOS Sierra has been revealed to block plugins like Flash and Java while users navigate the internet. As the newest version of Apple's desktop OS, mac OS Sierra — revealed at WWDC this week — and Safari 10 will instead default to HTML5 whenever it's available.