Safari is an app that’s been around for a long, long time, having been on iPhones since the original one! It’s easy then to get into a rut where you use it and don’t consider what else it can do. Well, let’s go through Safari’s section in Settings to poke through some of the options that can tweak your Safari experience to be much better.

Search Engine allows you to set Bing or Yahoo as your search engine. Sorry, AltaVista fans and Pawnee residents.

AutoFill makes it easy to enter passwords and personal info in website forms. Enable Use Contact Info with your contact card, set as the iOS default but something that can be changed from here, to have names and addresses in forms filled automatically with your data. Names & Passwords will fill in usernames, passwords, and other info from your contacts in forms as appropriate. Tapping Clear All will reset this data.

Private Browsing changes a Safari session to not store any history or browsing data once completed. Open tabs can be saved or closed when switching back and forth. If anyone gets suspicious as to why you’re using private browsing, just tell them it’s for the sleek dark interfaced that indicates you’re in private mode.

Clear History will clear your list of previously-visited sites. Clear Cookies and Data will delete any tracking cookies stored on your device, and also clear out any logins. Reading List’s Use Cellular Data toggle will allow for you to save on data usage by only letting Reading List sync over wi-fi. Fraud Warning will warn when you’re on a suspicious website. JavaScript allows you to disable this for any sites that may be slowed down by this. Block Pop-ups allows you to let pop-ups open as new tabs.

Finally in Advanced, the Website Data section allows you to clear up some storage space by deleting saved data from websites. Web Inspector is a feature for developers who are working to optimize their sites for Safari on iOS.

 Hopefully this guide has shown you some useful features for Safari that you never even knew existed or had no idea how to use!

It’s difficult to overstate just how important our eyesight is to every day activities. While the likes of iOS devices will be incredibly restrictive to those who are blind, apps like Voice Reader Web ensures that the partially sighted have a much needed tool to help them read web sites.

Voice Reader Web is a regular web browser with a very important feature: it can read all text displayed aloud in up to 21 languages with 32 different voices. It means that users can understand what’s on a website without reading it themselves, making it incredibly useful for the partially sighted as well as those who just want to listen in rather than read.

An added benefit comes from Voice Reader Web‘s ability to save sites for offline viewing/listening at a touch of a button. As part of the browser’s text mode, images and advertising can be faded out to ensure the focus is on the text helping those trying to read the information displayed.

As a disability aid, Voice Reader Web looks to be fantastically useful. There are other benefits to for the likes of car drivers or people who just want to relax and listen to a website rather than read huge amounts of text. Audio segments can be saved in a variety of different formats too for later consultation. It’s an all round useful app indeed.

Voice Reader Web is out now priced at $1.99. In-app purchases are available for those wanting to buy different voices. Each is priced at $0.99 per voice.

$1.99

Voice Reader Web

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-08-19 :: Category: Productivity

There’s a new web browser vying for everyone’s attention and rightfully so considering Dolphin Browser‘s previous success on the Android platform. 8 million Android users can’t be wrong after all.

Having tried out Dolphin Browser for a time, the app feels like a much more fully fledged browser than Safari. There’s ‘proper’ tabbed browsing just like on a desktop, a bookmark folder that’s as easy to access as on any PC or Mac. Auto-completing of URLs is fast and efficient too. For even faster access, a speed dial system ensures that users can consult their favorite websites at the tap of one button for maximum ease.

The real killer feature is the Gestures system though. This allows users to draw a sign or add their own gestures so that websites respond accordingly. For example, drawing a v gesture scrolls the site to the bottom of the page. Users can create their own gestures too such as an F for Facebook or M for their webmail.

As another time saver, social networking sharing facilities have been added on screen at all times making it simple to share content with others.

Give Dolphin Browser a shot today. In just my brief time of using it, I’ve found it to be a real timesaver once set up, with some very useful features.

FREE!

Dolphin Browser

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-08-30 :: Category: Productivity

Unlike the iPhone, the iPad is used in many households as a mobile computer that is used by many, if not all, members of a family. While many households have an iPhone per family member, it doesn’t seem nearly as common to have each person with a personal iPad. I don’t know whether it’s because of price, size, or a combination of both, but the iPad seems to be used as much more of a family device.

One thing that the iPad is sorely lacking is multiple user accounts. Having a family unit is great and all, but many want to have their own pictures in their photo collection, their own apps on their home screens, and their own websites in their favorites. Nobody has figured out solutions to the first two problems, but the third may have been solved by an innovative new app called Switch.

Switch, from Mechanical Teeth, offers users a browsing experience that lets each user their own password protected account. Each account gets its own history, bookmarks, and tabs, allowing each user to browse the web without everyone in the house knowing what they are doing. Of course, the inclusion of multiple accounts also allows personal iPad owners to switch between their own interests, giving you access to a work only account, a school only account, and a casual account for your few free moments.

Hopefully Switch will spark some interest into multiple user account development… enough to make Apple take notice. All the apps in the world are great, but if Apple would add some multi-user functionality to their next iOS update, the world would be a much better place (well… maybe just slightly better). In the meantime, be sure to pick up Switch from the App Store today.

[Source: Macgasm]

$4.99

Switch ~ multi-user web browser

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2010-11-25 :: Category: Productivity