There’s a nice shout-out from Jen for Resilient Web Design right at the 19:20 mark.
It would be nice if the add-to-homescreen option weren’t buried so deep though.
Never forget:
- The time Apple lied to the UK regulator
- The time when Apple told the EU that Safari is 3 different browsers
- When Apple tried to shut the UK investigation down
- When Apple’s VP of Finance got caught lying under oath
- When Apple tried to wreck all EU Web Apps
Grrr…
Chrome, Edge and Firefox updates usually reach 95% of users within three months. But Safari updates are tied to a new release of the underlying operating system, so they take around 19 months to reach the same usage, and some updates may even need a new device.
This is so shameful. And glad as I am to see new features landing in Safari, as long as they hobble updates like this it’s all just pissing in the wind.
In an earlier era, startups could build on the web and, if one browser didn’t provide the features they needed, they could just recommend that their users try a better one. But that’s not possible on iOS.
I’m extremly concerned about the newest bug in iOS 18:
Whaa? That’s just shockingly dreadful!
The Competition & Markets Authority brings receipts:
The requirement that all browsers on the iOS operating system use a specific version of the WebKit browser engine controlled by Apple, means that there is no competition between browser engines on the platform. Browser vendors cannot switch to an alternative browser engine or make changes to the version of WebKit used on iOS. Similarly, consumers are unable to switch to a browser based on an alternative browser engine. We consider that the lack of competitive pressure is likely to reduce Apple’s incentives to improve WebKit.
It’s a shame that the newest Safari release is overshadowed by Apple’s shenanigans and subsequent U-turn because there’s some great stuff in there.
I really like what they’re doing with web apps added to the dock:
Safari adds support for the
shortcutsmanifest member on macOS Sonoma. This gives you a mechanism in the manifest file for defining custom menu commands that will appear in the File menu and the Dock context menu.
Safari-installed web apps are now broken.
You can launch web apps as standalone apps on Mac now.
Using the CSS trinity of feature queries, logical properties, and unset.
The number one feature request I have for mobile Safari is web notifications (even if I won’t personally use them).
Comparing browsers.