The iPhone's name may suggest it is primarily for making calls, but all of the most compelling features involve retrieving information from, or sending data across, the Internet. Sometimes this is done using a plain email client, and at other times using highly customised applications that access just a single website and wrap it up in an intuitive interface such as the Maps and YouTube applications.
It is only right, then, that the iPhone should also include a first-class browser that works just as well as a desktop or laptop equivalent. And there is good reason for this. The iPhone uses Safari, Apple's default browser, which is bundled with its operating system, Mac OS X. This is the full-blown business-grade edition of the portable operating system that underpins the iPhone.
If you are a PC user, there is a fair chance you will not have come across Safari before, although it has been available as a Windows application since mid summer 2007. Many saw this as an important move in the development of the iPhone, as it meant that website developers no longer had to buy a Mac to test their creations using the iPhone's default browser. Why is this important? Because when Apple explained how developers could write their own applications for the handset, it initially restricted them to writing online applications optimised for use in a browser running on a 3.5in screen.
However, Safari's history is long and colourful. Although it is best known for its appearance on the Mac, its core engine, which decodes the pages and assembles the words, images and styling on your screen, is based on the open-source Konqueror browser, which is one of the most popular options for Linux users. As such, it is well supported, and although there was some hesitation from online banks, many of which took a long time to get around to recoding their sites so that they would not reject the browser out of hand, there arc now very few websites that it doesn't render as well as, say, Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, whether on Windows, the Mac or an iPhone.
Basic concepts
Safari works just the same as any other browser. Fire it up (it is found on the toolbar at the bottom of the iPhone's screen) and you will find that it comprises two main parts: the page area, in which the sites you visit will be rendered, and an address bar, into which you will type the URLs of the websites you visit.
Because your iPhone comes preconfigured for a mobile network, all of the necessary access details for using the Internet on the move will have been entered already, so you don't need to worry about setup. However, if you also want to access the Internet when in your home or office by using your wireless network, then you will need to set up the iPhone for wifi access. In a business environment, this may involve talking to your system administrator to ensure that Internet access is not blocked by a corporate firewall, to obtain any passwords necessary for gaining access to the wireless access point, and to have your iPhone unblocked if the network uses MAC address filtering.
Bear in mind that while the only noticeable difference may be that your localised, wifi-based Internet browsing may be faster than browsing over the mobile phone network when you are our and about, you will incur service charges for any data downloaded online that exceeds the amount bundled with your service contract.
Visiting pages
Now that you understand the difference between wifi and mobile phone-based browsing, it is time to start using the browser. Tap in the address bar at the top of the screen and you will see that the iPhone keyboard pops up, ready for you to enter an address. The numbers and some punctuation marks arc hidden on a second keyboard, which sits behind the main character-based keyboard and is accessed using the special key at the bottom.
If you already have an address entered and you want to type a new one, tap inside the box and tap the X button to the right of the existing address, which wipes it out and lets you start afresh. If you only need to amend what is already in place, hold down your finger in the box and you will sec that a magnifier appears above it. As you move your finger to the left and right inside the box, you will see that this shows you precisely where you are positioning the cursor, allowing you to visit a specific point in the address without having to clumsily use a finger that is several times larger than the letters beneath it.
Once you have reached the point you need, lift your finger off the screen and the cursor will be left in place, ready for you to amend the address using the keyboard.
Navigating pages
I low quickly pages load will depend on several factors. These include the speed of your network, the wireless connection between your iPhone and the access point (802.11b networks are older and slower than 802.1 lg networks and will make a big difference to the speed at which websites appear), the size of the page, including its number of graphics, as well as how many other people are accessing the website and your connection at the same time as you.
However, performance should be roughly comparable to a desktop browser as the networking hardware is, to all intents and purposes, the same. The actual speed of the Internet connection will, therefore, be determined more by the amount of data being downloaded, the number of people with whom you are sharing the network connection and the load on the remote server hosting the site.
You may be surprised at how legible pages are at the default zoom level {right), regardless of whether you are holding the iPhone in either portrait or widescreen orientation. However, reading long tracts of text at this size is not ideal, and with many designers now expecting us all to use larger and larger screens, you will probably want to zoom in.
You could use the regular spreading-finger gesture to zoom in the same way that you would with a photo or map in other applications, but because Apple has made the iPhone browser aware of the way in which pages have been styled and where the text boundaries lie, you can simply double-tap a text column and it will zoom in so just that column exactly fills the screen from left to right. The same is true for photos, which, when double-tapped, are zoomed in to fill the whole of the browser window.
Although you sometimes can't help it, try not to do your double-tap on top of a link, as you may find yourself navigating to a new page, which usually only requires a single tap. However, if you do, then use the left-pointing arrow at the bottom of the screen to skip backwards and, at a later point, the right-facing arrow to move forwards again through the chain of previously visited pages.
Should a link open a page in a new browser window, you will see that the page you are viewing shrinks slightly and moves to the left to make way for a new window, which will then assume full screen. An indicator in the bottom-right corner will then show you how many windows arc open. Tapping this will make the windows shrink once more so that you can scroll through the various pages by sliding them to left and right using your finger, finally tapping on the centre of your chosen page when you want to use it.
As you do this, you will notice that each page has a red button with an X at its centre, on its upper-left corner. This is the close tab, and tapping it will close the page. If you had only two pages loaded before doing this, the one remaining page will be loaded full screen. If you had more than one page open, you will be left in the scrolling mode to carry out further page selection tasks. This sounds radically different to a desktop browser, but if you liken the individual pages in the single Safari application to several pages opened in tabs inside a single instance of Internet Explorer or Firefox (or even Safari) on your desktop machine, then you will see that the two are broadly comparable.
If you have found a page that you like, you will want to save it, which is done by tapping the picture of the open book at the bottom of the Safari window.
To return to it later, tap inside the address input bar and make sure it is empty by pressing the X on its right-hand edge. You will then see that the same open book icon appears in blue on the right-most end of the bar, which, when tapped, will bring up your list of saved favourites so you can tap the one you want.
Bookmarks can be organised into folders (above) to make them easier to find, but you do need to set up your folders before you try to use them. Do this by tapping the open book icon on Safari's bottom bar, followed by the Edit button at the top of the screen. You will now see a New Folder button, whose function is fairly self-explanatory. Once you have created and saved a new folder, tap Done twice to return to your web page, then tap the + button to bookmark that page. You can now navigate to the folder you have just created to find your bookmark. You will also have the chance to give it a more descriptive name and to edit the specific link used. Tap Return to switch between each one, and then tap the Bookmarks bar and select the new folder you just created. This will return you to the Add Bookmark dialog, where you tap Save to complete the operation.
RSS
Of course, web pages are only half the story, as the web is about content as much as it is design, and the best way of presenting standard text- and image-based content is RSS. Standing for either Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, depending on who you choose to believe, this is , a method of stripping out the raw data in a page and presenting it in a single, unified interface, along with content from other sites (Jeff). It is a great way of keeping up with the news and monitoring changes on several websites at once without having to visit each one individually.
RSS feeds can be syndicated and incorporated within other websites, but by far the easiest way to access them is using a so-called aggregator. Unfortunately, the iPhone does not have a built-in RSS aggregator, but Apple has implemented one as part of its MobileMe service. Don't bother visiting it using a regular browser, as the only thing you will see is an error message telling you it was designed for use on an iPhone.
However, the implementation is very simplistic. It presents you with a stripped-down list of headlines and summaries, which you click on to view the complete article, but it does not keep track of the stories you have read, which would be done by a software-based aggregator.
Our top tip would be to use the RSS reader as an access point for commonly scanned news sites, and to add RSS-parsed pages to your bookmarks so you can skip straight to them, but all the time bear in mind that, even on an iPhone, visiting the web page itself will always deliver a far superior experience. Alternatively, if you prefer a software-based solution, download NetNewsWire from the App Store.
Browsing safely
The iPhone browser is a fully featured window on the Internet, and so it suffers from many of the same problems as regular full-sized browsers. One of the most annoying, although least dangerous, is pop-up windows opened by the pages you visit. These can sometimes be useful, but are usually simply a means of delivering advertising that you would really rather not see.
Fortunately, these pop-up windows are easy to block, along with a whole range of live media that use plug-ins and scripts. This is accessed through the Home screen by tapping Settings > Safari (be/on). Here, you will see sliders for switching on and off pop-up windows, JavaScript rendering and plug-ins. Use these settings with care, and be aware that by disabling plug-ins you will be unable to access some online audio and video (although this will not affect the YouTube application).
Turning off JavaScript could be more problematic, as it is key to many features on Web 2.0 sites. Web 2.0 is a catch-all term coined to describe the kind of information-sharing, application driven websites of which we are now seeing more and more. Prime examples include Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook and Wikipedia. While the last of those websites will not suffer from an absence of JavaScript, the others may, and some of the best, most intuitive features may disappear.
More importanty , JavaScript makes possible a wide range of applications written specifically for the iPhone as it was initially the only way to develop for the device. Fortunately, with the advent of the App Store, this is no longer true, but by disabling JavaScript you will still be denying yourself access to an extensive library of phonic-specific online applications. The most pressing concern online today, however, is privacy, and despite the efforts of legislators around the world, there remains a whole range of perfectly legal ways in which various companies and individuals can keep tabs on your online activities. The most common of these is the use of cookies.
Cookies arc small data files that help to uniquely identify your browser. Mostly, they are harmless, and on the whole they are very helpful. You would not, for example, be able to use an online bank without cookies, as the site would be unable to verify that you are authorised and logged in to its system. Cookies also handle the contents of online shopping baskets and can remember passwords. On the whole, they are a very good thing indeed.
However, cookies can also be used for less-noble purposes. Because they stay resident in your browser and can be read by all websites, they can inform site owners where you have come from, where you are going, and where you have been in the past. Advertisers often set cookies on your system so that they can more accurately tailor the ads they are showing you. Through their use, advertisers can build up an accurate representation of the websites you visit by using them to track on which sites you saw their advert over the life of the cookie. If this bothers you — and for some it is a real concern - then you should periodically remove cookies from your system by tapping Clear All Cookies within the Safari settings application.
The truly paranoid can disable cookies altogether from here, too. Although in the same way that we would urge you to think carefully before disabling JavaScript, we would recommend that you continue allowing Safari to accept them at least by using the setting, From Visited, meaning that only the websites you load in your browser can set cookies, but the advertisers shown on them can't.
Finally, consider regularly clearing out the cache. This is where Safari saves snippets of useful information, such as images that it thinks it may have to render again, or the addresses of websites you have visited in the past. Why? Two reasons. First, it will free up valuable memory. Second, you may not want your more embarrassing online hotspots popping up when someone else uses your phone.
Now that you know all about how the iPhone browser works and how to save your bookmarks, put your new-found knowledge to use by visiting our pick of the best iPhone-related sites in the following section.
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