While not the launch environment that Google was perhaps looking for, a new version of the Google Chrome Web Browser bounded its way onto the App Store yesterday. The browser, available free of charge, gives yet another alternative to the mobile Safari browser that is included on iOS devices by default. The Chrome browser has a few nifty features, such as the ability to browse the web privately, or ‘incognito’, as well as bookmark and tab syncing between the iOS version and the desktop version for each user.
The downsides, relatively insignificant although they may be, are that Chrome is based on the iOS version of Webkit. While this is the same as Safari, the Chrome browser is actually fractionally slower due to the fact that Safari has access to the Nitro Javascript engine, resulting in faster page display, whereas Chrome does not. This means that Chrome is just as fast as every other browser or app using the UIWebView, but that Safari is boosted by the Nitro engine.
While this restriction is currently in place, it is hoped that Apple is working on a way to give third party app access to Nitro within iOS, otherwise every other browser, be it better designed that Safari, will always be speed limited. However, the difference to the user may only be a second or two longer page display speed.
The other downside is that users are not able to select Chrome as the default browser as Apple does not allow this. Currently, Safari is the only browser enabled as default, meaning that when a link in an email is clicked, Safari, not Chrome, will be the one to open it. Again, Apple needs to reconsider this policy.
Some anecdotal reports suggested that UK based users were having a hard time purchasing Chrome from the iOS App Store yesterday, but this problem seems to have been resolved today.
In other big news for Chrome, this time on OS X devices, Google has admitted (via Gizmodo) that the Mac browser has been the cause of kernel panics and crashes on new versions of the MacBook Air. Apparently, Google has disabled some minor Chrome functionality related to the use of the Intel graphics chip in the new MacBook Air as a temporary fix, and will be issuing a full update in the future to fix the problem.
Speed Is Of The Essence…