Chrome for iOS doesn't use V8 or the Chromium fork of WebKit, just UIWebView. [0] Because it's using WebViews, it's about 3x slower than the OS's Safari browser [1], because WebViews in sandboxed apps don't get the "Nitro" JavaScript JIT from iOS 5 onwards (presumably for mark-executable security reasons).<p>Unless the tab-sharing feature is crucial to more people than I thought, I don't think this app is going to be a runaway hit.<p>0: <a href="https://twitter.com/viviancromwell/status/218402587760795648" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/viviancromwell/status/218402587760795648</a>
1: <a href="https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/218434462751539200" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/21843446275153920...</a>
The bummer here for Google (and anyone else who'd like to provide an alternative to Apple's apps on the iOS platform) is that there's no way to set your default browser. Or email client. Or calendar. It'll be hard to use chrome if Safari opens up every time I click a link in email or any other app.
Add this as a bookmark in Mobile Safari to be able to quickly open pages in Chrome:<p><pre><code> javascript:location.protocol='googlechrome'</code></pre>
I have high hope for Chrome for iOS to be like the Google Search app[1] which is simply fun to use. Instead, on an iPad, what we got is just a desktop UI slab on top of touch interface… and seems to trash old tab faster than Mobile Safari. It's kind of sad.<p>Edit: I was wrong about tab trashing, seems like old tab reloads when you come back from Incognito mode.<p>[1]: <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-search/id284815942?mt=8" rel="nofollow">http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-search/id284815942?mt=...</a>
This could be a nice "trojan horse" into the iOS ecosystem. Get Apple users hooked enough on Chrome, that they will want to switch to Android for the "real Chrome experience". I know a lot of people are not using iPhones because they can't live without the Gmail app for Android.
Autocompletion in the omnibox is way more aggressive than in Safari. You typically only need to type one or two characters to get to the sites you visit most frequently. In a lot of cases, this will more than make up for any JS performance differences between Chrome and Safari.
Chrome now tops the iOS App Store charts<p><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/rss/topfreeapplications/limit=10/xml" rel="nofollow">http://itunes.apple.com/us/rss/topfreeapplications/limit=10/...</a>
On my 3gs Chrome is showing some significant slowdown over Safari, in JS, page loads, and scrolling - all are delayed. The reasons have already been explained, but it is still sad. The omnibar makes it worth it though, gosh I have missed thee.
After a few hours of heavy usage:<p>-I had forgotten how AWESOME omnibox is. You can speak to it!!<p>-Safari habits die hard<p>-The only thing I'm missing is the 'Reader' feature.
Several problems:<p>1. Not very robust - it keeps forgetting the Google passwords I've typed in<p>2. Why do I need to enter two Google passwords - my 'main' password AND an application-specific password?<p>3. Not very easy to use. For example, where's the option to see my browsing history on Chrome for iPhone?
After using it for a while now it's made me realise there's a ton of features I've been missing when using mobile Safari:<p>-New tab with Most Visited and Recently Closed
-Google Sync for bookmarks but more importantly it instantly empowers my Omnibox
-the keyboard has an extra character row at the top that includes hyphens (simple but nice)
-Swipe between tabs
-find in page
-Open in new tab defaults to opening in the background (I've missed this a lot)
-unlimited tabs<p>I realise some of these aren't unique to mobile Chrome but as far as I'm aware they are missing from mobile Safari and they're the reasons I'll be sticking with Chrome.
Can someone please explain Apple and Microsoft's insistence to push Safari and IE respectively? It seems that they have little to gain.<p>In this case, why does Apple mandate the use of UIWebView instead of allowing a native implementation of Webkit+V8? It just seems like Apple is being stubborn as usual.
It doesnt have the reader feature that i like in safari. Fine, I thought - lets get the readability bookmarklet.<p>Turns out Google Chrome doesn't support bookmarklets...
What the hell, Google!
Chrome doesn't support blocking of third party cookies. You either have them, or you don't.<p><a href="http://db.tt/ldZUNuJo" rel="nofollow">http://db.tt/ldZUNuJo</a>
finally a solution to open more than 10 tabs. I was quite excited to have a way to open those 30+ news to read while traveling on the underground.... sad news, when I switch tab the browser reload the page and lose the content... wtf! back to safari :(
Can't imagine the amount of arm twisting that was involved in getting this into the App Store. Must've really come down to the ultimate "No Google for you" argument.
Somewhy I could not find it with the search in the app store on iPad itself.<p>Just installed it. Sweet. Finally I've got the same browsing experience on my iPad as on a desktop.