Tabs The first noticeable thing about iCab is that it actually uses real tabs. The UI borrows heavily from Mobile Safari; the URL bar looks almost identical. However, underneath the URL bar is a bookmarks bar, and underneath that is the tab bar, which seems to function just like the tab bar in any desktop browser. The tab bar does two things to the interface: one, it adds what some might consider “clutter” to the window. When compared to Safari, iCab has more of the “chrome” around the web page because of the additional buttons. The second thing the tab bar does is far more important: it reduces friction.
Hiding tabs as Mobile Safari does puts them out of the thought process, it creates an independent experience for each tab. In iCab, when all the tabs are grouped together in the tab bar, I can see immediately what I have open, what I still have to read, and what I need to close. I can’t count how many times I’ve opened up the tab window in Mobile Safari and found eight tabs that are already open in the background of sites I forgot to read. Keeping all of the tabs visible means that I have one less step to go through to get to the tab that I want. In iCab, it’s simple; just look and touch.
In Mobile Safari, I first have to remember which icon is the tab icon, then find the tab I’m looking for from the collection of website screenshots. It’s pretty, but adds friction. Settings iCab has many more settings than Mobile Safari, allowing your browsing experience to be customized to your liking. My favorite setting is the ability to open links to other domains in a background tab.
IPassword is a simple password management application that enables you to store and organize your accounts credentials and information. Getting to grips with iPassword should not be a challenge for anyone because the app features a streamlined and user-friendly interface. 1Password 4 for iOS has had some pretty big updates in recent months, and only recently we heard that all these great new features would be coming to the Mac. Beta testers for that are being recruited as we speak, but now is a perfect opportunity to get in ahead of its release.
This is by far the best browsing experience on any platform. Have a list of Google search results to check? Just tap each one and it opens in a background tab automatically. Reading through Daring Fireball’s? It’s as simple as scanning Gruber’s summary and tapping the link to open the tab in the background and on to the next one. This is how I’ve browsed for years on the desktop.
Another favorite setting are the filters. ICab comes out of the box with 142 filters to help block annoying ads. The filters are not enabled by default, but can be easily.
Customizing filters is also very easy, assuming you know some basic wildcards. And Twitter are supported via. Modules are similar to Firefox’s extensions, but much simpler. They are more like bookmarklets on steroids. ICab does not have a very large collection of modules right now, but it does have a fairly simple tutorial on how to develop them. The repository has modules for jumping to the bottom of the page or the top of the page, and a handful of others, but if someone whips up a module, I think that will have all the important stuff covered.
ICab may not be for everyone, since not everyone is going to need all of the features. I’ve just touched on some of the features that I’ve found useful, I didn’t even mention ScrollPad (place three fingers on the screen to scroll super fast!), the multiple privacy options, support for downloading files and opening them in another installed app, import and export of bookmarks, or full screen and kiosk mode.
ICab is $1.99 in the App Store for a universal iPad/iPhone app. If you care about your browsing experience on the iPad,.
Aritjahja I love using iCab mobile on my iPod touch & iPad. It allows me to download files and create ePub version of any articles I’d like to read later using an ePub reader like Stanza by utilizing ePub module. Or, by transfer the ePub file later to your desktop/laptop and drag ‘n drop it to iTunes’ Books library, you can read it later on iBooks. I just can’t wait the availability of iCab on the next Apple’s Mac App Store and also supporting modules just like its old brother on the iOS platform.
Shadowself iCab has never been about being the best in a magazine or blogger’s shootout. ICab has always been about the most standards based browser out there. Earlier versions used to allow you to explicitly test any web site for various stages of standards compatibility — and give you a detailed listing of all the deficiencies. While iCab is not my main browser (though it was for a short while about 8 years ago), I have had it for about a decade as one of the tools I keep on hand and up to date.
I love my iOS devices. I try to do as much work on them as possible. One of the ways iOS falls short is the ability to upload files to a website. The only thing you can upload natively on iOS is photos and videos.
That’s great, but we’ve got many other types of files that we’d like to upload. Thankfully, the browser solves this problem for us.
ICab provides desktop class uploading capabilities on your iOS device. When a website calls for a file to be uploaded, iCab allows you to choose files from its internal downloads manager instead of the iOS camera roll.
This allows you to upload PDFs, Word documents, and a lot more. Here’s the basics on getting started:. After purchasing the app, launch it and go to the Settings menu. Then, go to the Network section and tap Uploads.
Change the setting to iCab Mobile. Once you have that changed, you need to get a file into iCab. This is really easy using the “Open In” function of iOS. I typically have files in Dropbox or Google Drive that I need to upload. Once you send it to iCab, it’ll be in the Downloads section. When you come to a website that you need to upload a file to, switch to iCab, and you’ll be able to do it right from iOS. When you reach this menu, choose Downloads.
And, don’t forget to delete the file from the Downloads section once you are done to reclaim that space. We have more Quick Tips.