Safari
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Apple's Safari browser was broken
iOS and OS X users around the world are experiencing serious issues with Apple's Safari. Many are reporting that typing into the browser's search box crashes the browser instantly. The issue was highlighted by developer Steve Troughton-Smith, who worked out it has something to do with Apple's search suggestions feature. It seems likely a server somewhere is down and that's ruining things for people. Problems have been reported over three continents, and we've confirmed the bug ourselves.
Web link crashes Safari on your iPhone or Mac
You've probably run into websites (or buggy browsers) that have inadvertently bogged down your devices, but there's one lurking out there that causes very intentional grief. If you visit crashsafari.com (we're not going to link it, for obvious reasons), the site will generate an ever-larger character string that creates a lot of problems. As the name implies, it'll reliably crash Apple's Safari browser on Macs -- and on iOS devices, you'll probably need to reboot. The code also appears to affect Chrome on Android and PCs, although not to such a severe and predictable degree.
EFF is building a stronger 'Do Not Track' browser setting
Despite "Do Not Track" being a standard option on Firefox, Chrome and Safari (but not Microsoft Edge), many unscrupulous advertisers are still secretly tracking the browsing habits of internet users. That's why the Electronic Frontier Foundation has teamed with Adblock, Medium, Mixpanel and DuckDuckGo to create a stronger standard.
Use Skitch on iOS to annotate pages without leaving Safari
Skitch is one of the most popular productivity apps, both on mobile and the desktop, for a reason: it makes it easy to snap, mark up and share just about anything, like PDFs. If you've been using it on iOS, there's now a reason to like the application even more. Thanks to a new version, released earlier today, you can use Skitch to annotate web pages within Safari, eliminating the need to manually capture a screenshot and then having to open up the app. To install you simply have to tap the Share button while in the browser and add Skitch as part of your actions, which will then let you see it next to Copy, Print and others. It's basically an extension, so think of it as a way to save you a few taps whenever you're trying to express something important -- as shown by the example above.
iOS 9's web browser can block annoying ads
Don't like having to wrestle with pop-up ads and similar intrusions when you're browsing the web on your iPhone? You might not have to when iOS 9 rolls around. Apple has quietly let slip that the operating system's version of Safari includes support for content blocking extensions, much like its Mac counterpart -- in other words, it can block ads. You only have to install an app with the right Safari extensions to make cookies, images, scripts and other unwanted material disappear. It's not certain how Apple will police apps with these add-ons, but it's feasible that at least some ad blockers will get approval.
Websites can use Apple's pressure-aware trackpad in OS X El Capitan
Apple's pressure-sensitive Force Touch trackpad isn't tremendously useful in typical Mac software, but it might just get a new lease on life in OS X El Capitan. The new operating system's development tools let websites define what happens when you make that extra-strong click. You could favorite that adorable cat photo instead of zooming into it, for instance. There are some big gotchas associated with this, however. You'll need a circa-2015 Mac laptop to start with, but you'll also have to surf the web in Safari -- this won't help much if you're using an iMac, or prefer browsers like Chrome and Firefox. As clever as pressure-aware pages might be, you might not run into them that often without wider app and device support.
Google loses bid to block Safari privacy lawsuit in the UK
Back in February 2012, the Wall Street Journal revealed how Google was able to quietly bypass privacy settings in Safari and track the sites people were browsing. The company eventually paid a $22.5 million penalty to the FTC, and now a group of Brits is seeking similar compensation. Google has been trying to appeal a High Court decision that means their case can be heard in the UK, but today the bid was effectively thrown out.
Security flaw from the '90s leaves Apple and Android users vulnerable
A team of cryptographers have discovered that a security flaw from way back in the '90s still leaves users today vulnerable to cyberattacks. They've dubbed it "Factoring attack on RSA-EXPORT Key" or FREAK, and it renders everyone who uses Safari on Mac and iOS devices or Android's stock browser susceptible to hacking when they visit certain "secure" websites. The researchers listed these affected websites on the study's official page, and notable entries include government-owned ones, such as Whitehouse.gov, NSA.gov and FBI.gov. To understand what FREAK is, we need to go back to the early 1990s when SSL was in the midst of being developed.
Happy 12th Birthday, Safari!
Kids just grow up so quickly... On January 7, 2003, Steve Jobs announced at Macworld San Francisco that Apple had developed its own web browser called Safari. On that day, the first beta version was released. Apple based Safari 1 on its internal fork of the KHTML rendering engine known as WebKit. Four years later, almost to the day on January 9, 2007, Jobs announced the iPhone and noted that it would use a mobile version of the Safari browser. Six months later, at the 2007 WorldWide Developers Conference, Jobs announced Safari 3 for Mac OS X v10.5, Windows XP and Windows Vista. At the time, Safari 3 was the fastest web browser for Windows. Of course, the company has since dropped support for Windows. The latest iteration of OS X Safari is version 8, released with OS X 10.10 Yosemite. It includes WebGL support for native 3D browser experiences; IndexedDB, which allows structured data to be cached client side and store data for web applications; JavaScript Promises, which lets JavaScript authors to work with asynchronous programming patterns more easily; CSS Shapes and Compositing, which means that websites can flow text around images and geometry shapes; SPDY, an open protocol websites can adopt for speeding up page loads and improving security; and HTML5 Premium Video, to deliver encrypted and energy-efficient video to the browser. We can't wait to see what happens to Safari when it becomes a teenager next year... Meanwhile, here's the announcement of Safari at Macworld in 2003.
Microsoft and Yahoo vie for control of Safari's search
Mozilla is making the switch to Yahoo search from Google for its default option in the US, and Apple's browser deal will soon be up for renewal, too. The Information reports that Mayer & Co. are in play there as well, and of course, Microsoft is pitching Bing to the folks in Cupertino -- mainly senior VP of internet software and services Eddy Cue. The latter search engine already sorts Siri's questions, and Apple made the move to swap in local query option Baidu in China for Safari's default method of scanning the web. Yahoo search is powered by Bing, so coupling that with the fact that it's already the go-to option for some of Apple's services wouldn't make it too much of a stretch for Redmond's effort to replace Google. And there's Cupertino's continued efforts to tamp down on its reliance on Mountain View, too. [Photo credit: Lester Cohen/Getty Images for City Of Hope]
Skype for Web (beta): App-free calls coming soon to Safari
With as many issues as I've had with Skype over the years, it really rubs me the wrong way that I have to install the Skype for Mac app on my trusty iMac and MacBook Pro for those occasional face-to-face calls. Thanks to a beta announced today by the folks at Microsoft, er... Skype, those of us who have often wanted to dump Skype into the OS X trash can may soon have our wish. Skype for Web will soon available so that you can just sign into Skype.com and make your group video calls from there. When everything is given the big thumbs-up by the Skype team, you'll be able to log into Skype for Web after logging into the Skype website. At this time, chances are probably good that logging into Skype from your web browser will just launch the Skype app on your Mac. Speaking of Mac, the only browsers initially supporting Skype for Web on OS X will be Apple's very own Safari and the widely-used Firefox. Eventually, you'll be able to use Chrome for Mac as well. As you'd expect from a Microsoft product, Skype for Web will initially require the installation of a small plug-in. Let's just hope it's not the dreaded Silverlight plug-in... But hey, "In the future, using Skype on the web will become even easier and convenient." The known issue list for Skype for Web (beta) also shows one little gotcha -- an "issue with battery consumption when running Skype for Web on a Mac." I'm sure that the team has top men working on that issue... top men.
Mobile Safari in iOS 8 supports Animated PNGs
MacRumors is reporting that mobile Safari in iOS 8 includes support for Animated PNGs (APNG). What's that you say? You thought animated GIFs were the only game in town? Well, they really are, but who's to say how animated PNGs might fare in the future given that they offer richer color and greater transparency support. The Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) file format is a non-standard extension to the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) specification. It allows for animated PNG files that work similarly to animated GIF files, while supporting 24-bit images and 8-bit transparency not available for GIFs. Animated GIFs, in contrast, can only support 256 colors per frame -- though there are workarounds for this limitation, the resulting file size is not ideal. As it stands today, animated PNGs, with respect to web browsers, still aren't widely supported. Currently, they only work on Firefox and mobile Safari on iOS 8. The format, however, will be supported by Safari 8 once OS X Yosemite ships. If your browser supports animated PNGs, you should see a bouncing ball below. Browsers that don't support animated PNGs will nonetheless show the first frame of the file.
Developer warns against using in-app browsers due to keylogging potential
Well-known Iconfactory developer Craig Hockenberry is warning iOS device owners about the risks of using in-app browsers to enter sensitive information such as account login credentials. Users commonly encounter these browsers in social media apps that require them to login into a website in order to give an app permission to access their account. According to Hockenberry, these apps could be exploiting a vulnerability within the in-app browser system to eavesdrop on typing and steal sensitive username and password information. Hockenberry demonstrates this vulnerability in the video embedded below and points out this hole is not easy to fix because it involves the interaction of web page JavaScript with UIWebview in iOS. The only practical way to protect users from this keylogging is to stop using the in-app browser for authentication and instead launch iOS mobile Safari when the entry of sensitive information is required by an app. Unfortunately, Apple is rejecting apps that redirect users to Safari for authentication because the company believes it is too cumbersome and confusing to switch a user to Safari. Iconfactory's own Twitterrific app was forced to removed the safer Safari authentication scheme and replace it with the in-app browser method due to Apple's App Store review guidelines. Twitterrific developers said they won't collect private information from these in-app browser session, but there is no guarantee other apps will adhere to this same policy and little chance Apple's already overloaded review process will detect these rogue apps. Consequently, iOS users need to be aware of this vulnerability as nefarious apps potentially can gather login information for more than just authentication purposes.
How iOS 8 Safari makes it simple to view the desktop version of a mobile website
Safari in iOS 8 has a nifty -- and dare I say, amazing -- new feature which makes it much easier to a) add a site to your list of favorites and b) more easily access the desktop version of a mobile site. The latter is a godsend for websites whose mobile websites are more clunky and less functional than their desktop counterparts. Here's how it works. When you're on a webpage, simply tap the URL bar once to bring up Safari's "favorites" view. You should now be on a page that looks something like this. Next, simply swipe downwards from anywhere below the URL bar and two new options will appear: "Add to Favorites" and "Request Desktop site." Simple as pie. Thanks to Chris for the tip!
Kill no-close-em Safari pages with AppleScript
I hate those pop-ups that hijack Safari even when I've enabled Settings > Security > Block Pop-up windows. Sure, I've edited my hosts file with Someonewhocare's updates to avoid them in the first place but even so, bad pages still happen. With a simple web search, you'll find a variety of conventional solutions for these situations. I prefer to close them automatically without interacting with pop-ups directly or force-quitting Safari. Here's where a simple AppleScript application can help. I use AppleScript to tell Safari to "close window 1", i.e. the frontmost window. This dismisses the problematic window on my behalf. I have this script saved to an application (File > Export > File Format > Application) and have docked it for easy access. When bad windows open, my solution is just a click away. Got another fix or an improvement to this one? Drop a note in the comments and share.
Hands on with Voice Dream's ebook narration
As the school year heads back into session, many students have a lot of new reading on their plate. Parents whose children struggle with assigned books might be considering ways to augment that material. Over the summer, Amazon regularly offered to add Audible narrations to assigned reading titles for my kids. For example, I purchased E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime for US$9.99 (pre-tax) and picked up its companion audio track for just $4.99. The normal price is $9.95 on iTunes. The audio cassettes, incidentally, sell from $138.45, not including shipping. I needed to lend her my iPad 2 to access the Kindle app/voice integration (it is not available for releases that run on the original iPad), but on the whole it was a successful experiment. With that experience in mind, I decided to investigate more automated solutions. Voice Dream Reader ($9.99, additional voices available with in-app purchases) represents one of the better-reviewed text-to-speech apps currently available in the App Store. I obtained a promo copy and tested out excerpts from several books. At the suggestion of the developer, I tried both the default built-in voice and a purchased upgrade, the $4.99 Salli voice from Ivona. The upgraded voice was clearly superior to the default, with better intonation and inflection. And yet, despite that, each of the testers had difficulty listening to long-form reading material. No matter how excellent the synthesis, a lack of human performance really impacted the comprehension and enjoyment of text. I suspect this is a learning process, and one that our short testing framework could not accommodate, as visually impaired readers do quite well with synthesized material. However, for augmenting reading for learning, my real-world trials had me more focused on the synthesis of the speech than its content. My testers agreed. For them, the mechanical dictation became a distraction rather than a supplement. I found the app very well made. It easily imported the non-DRM ebooks I downloaded from Safari and added through Dropbox integration. Support for each book's table of contents made it simple to navigate to the portion I wanted to read, and word-by-word highlighting helped reinforce the content / audio integration. I suspect Voice Dream would work best for short material and for those who have trained themselves to efficiently process automated speech. As for my commute and my children's reading, the Audible tracks remain the winners, but I'm glad I was able to give the app a good try. For those who can best take advantage of automated text-to-voice, it seems to offer a solid choice.
How to see the names, passwords, and credit cards Safari saves
Safari makes it very easy for you to store usernames, passwords, and credit cards that you've entered into websites on your Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks or iOS 7 device. If you use iCloud Keychain syncing, you can even share that information between your different Apple devices. Personally, I don't store credit card info or important passwords there because I am one paranoid person, but I do use Safari and iCloud Keychain to keep track of usernames and passwords for non-critical sites and services. Here's how to review what you've asked Safari to store for you. On a Mac running OS X 10.9 Mavericks On the Mac, launch Safari and then select Preferences from the Safari menu. Click on the Autofill button -- unsurprisingly, that button looks like a pencil hovering over an empty form. Click on the Edit button next to User names and passwords, and a long list of passwords that you've let Safari store for you appears. The list shows the website you visited, the User Name you used to log in, and the password is shown as a series of dots. You can also go directly to this list from the Passwords button (looks like a key). If you've forgotten a password and want to see what it is, click on a website to select it, then check the "Show passwords for selected websites" box at the bottom of the Passwords pane. You'll be asked to enter your admin password, after which the password will be displayed. If you've stored a credit card number and other information, you'll need to go back to that Autofill button and then click the Edit button next to Credit Cards. You can add credit cards in this dialog -- simply click the Add button and type in the card name, number, cardholder name, and the expiration date. It doesn't save the CVV number ... yet. On an iOS 7 device iOS 7 does this a bit differently. Tap Settings > Safari > Passwords & Autofill, and a screen similar to the one seen below appears: To look at saved passwords and credit cards, you'll be asked to enter your passcode. This is one place where Touch ID does not come in handy. Once the passcode is entered, you'll see a list of website addresses and the username used to log into each site. Tap the arrow on the right side of the listed website, and the detailed information including the password is displayed. For credit cards, you can not only enter new cards into the stored list, but actually have your iOS device capture the cardholder name and card number by using the camera. You'll still have to enter the expiration date and a description, but most of the hard work is done for you as it automatically enters the name and number.
iPhone 101: How to view your Safari browsing history on your iPhone or iPad
Like most modern web browsers, Safari for iOS stores your browsing history so you can call up web pages that you previously visited on your iPhone or iPad. The feature is easy to access and works with any open Safari page on your device. Open Safari for iOS on your iPhone or iPad. Press and hold the back arrow button on the far left hand side of the bottom tool bar. Your browser history menu will appear on the screen. From here, you can tap on a link to open it. If you use iOS 7 and have multiple windows/tabs open, you can view each window's browser history by tapping the "multiple pages" icon in the bottom right of the tool bar and then selecting the target page to open it. When it is open, you can press and hold the back bottom to view the history of that particular session. This only works for open tabs that originate on your device. If you use iCloud, you may be able to see pages that are open on another iOS device or Mac. Opening an iPad window from your iPhone, for example, does not allow you to view the history of that iPad browsing session.
How to reorder Safari pages on iPhone or iPad
Apple's iOS 7 changed the way mobile Safari manages multiple open pages. The current version presents the list as a "fan." Scroll through it with a swipe of your finger to quickly browse all open pages. Did you know you can also reorder those pages? You can, and here's how. Simply tap and hold on the page you'd like to move for about a second. It will become slightly more pronounced in appearance while the others fade into the background bit. Now you can drag that page to any position on the list that you want. While we're at it, there are two ways to close a page. Either tap the "x" in its upper left-hand corner, or simply swipe it to the left.
Teenager builds browser plugin to show you where politicians get their funding
The murky world of lobby groups bankrolling politicians is garnering more attention, but is there a way to find out which representatives are in the pocket without a lot of tedious research? A 16-year-old programmer has developed a browser plugin that, when you mouse-over the name of a US lawmaker, will serve up a list of which parties have donated to their campaign funds, and the quantities. Greenhouse (geddit?) is currently available for Chrome, Firefox and Safari -- although our lawyers have (probably) asked us to point out that the data is from the 2012 elections, so they may not be entirely up to date.
