WebProNews

Tag: WebKit

  • iOS 16.4 Brings ‘Web Push,’ Enables Web App Push Notification

    iOS 16.4 Brings ‘Web Push,’ Enables Web App Push Notification

    The first beta of iOS 16.4 has been released, bringing a major new feature in the form of push notifications for web apps.

    Notifications are an everyday occurrence on mobile devices, but they normally require a traditional app to support them. Apple announced “Web Push,” a way for developers to bring push notifications to web apps, at WWDC 2022.

    With the arrival of the first iOS 16.4 beta, Web Push has made an appearance. In a blog post on the WebKit site, Apple highlights the long-time importance of web apps to the iOS ecosystem:

    Since the first iPhone, users could add any website to their Home Screen — whether it’s a brochure site, a blog, a newspaper, an online store, a social media platform, a streaming video site, productivity software, an application for creating artwork, or any other type of website. For the last ten years, users of Safari on iOS and iPadOS could do this by tapping the Share button to open the Share menu, and then tapping “Add to Home Screen”. The icon for that website then appears on their Home Screen, where a quick tap gets them back to the site.

    Apple then goes on to tout the benefits of Web Push:

    Now with iOS and iPadOS 16.4 beta 1, we are adding support for Web Push to Home Screen web apps. Web Push makes it possible for web developers to send push notifications to their users through the use of Push API, Notifications API, and Service Workers all working together.

    A web app that has been added to the Home Screen can request permission to receive push notifications as long as that request is in response to direct user interaction — such as tapping on a ‘subscribe’ button provided by the web app. iOS or iPadOS will prompt the user to give the web app permission to send notifications. The user can then manage those permissions per web app in Notifications Settings — just like any other app on iPhone and iPad.

    The notifications from web apps work exactly like notifications from other apps. They show on the Lock Screen, in Notification Center, and on a paired Apple Watch.

    Web Push comes at a time when Apple is facing increasing pressure to open up iOS and allow third-party app stores and sideloading on its platform. By bringing web apps closer to native apps, in terms of feature parity, the company may be trying to prop them up as a viable alternative to native apps in its bid to fight regulatory attempts to crack open its walled garden.

  • Google Is Prepping an iOS Browser That Uses Chrome’s Engine

    Google Is Prepping an iOS Browser That Uses Chrome’s Engine

    Google’s engineers are reportedly working on an iOS version of Chrome that will use Chrome’s Blink rendering engine instead of iOS WebKit.

    Apple’s current App Store rules dictate that all web browsers must use the same WebKit rendering engine that Safari uses. This means there is very little true choice among iOS web browsers, with the only real difference being the front-end features.

    According to The Register, Google’s engineers are working on a version of Chrome for iOS that uses Blink, not WebKit.

    Despite how it looks, Google insists that it’s not trying to flaunt Apple’s rules and that the new browser is for internal use only.

    “This is an experimental prototype that we are developing as part of an open source project with the goal to understand certain aspects of performance on iOS,” a spokesperson told The Register. “It will not be available to users and we’ll continue to abide by Apple’s policies.”

    Despite Google’s response, it’s also possible the company is preparing for a future where Apple is forced to allow third-party browsing engines. The Open Web Advocacy group is trying to pressure Apple to open up iOS browser options, and regulators have taken note of Apple’s stance as a possible antitrust issue.

    If Apple is ever forced to ease its restrictions, Google will already have a head start on releasing a full-fledged Chrome browser for iOS.

  • PSA: Update to iOS 14.8 Immediately

    PSA: Update to iOS 14.8 Immediately

    Apple has released iOS 14.8, just days before the anticipated release of iOS 15, and the update fixes two serious security issues.

    According to Apple, iOS 14.8 addresses two issues that are both being actively exploited. The first issue revolves around CoreGraphics:

    Processing a maliciously crafted PDF may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.

    The second issue involves WebKit, the browser rendering engine that powers Safari, as well as all other iOS browsers:

    Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.

    With the vulnerabilities being actively exploited, all users should update immediately. To update, go to Settings > General > Software Update.

  • iOS 14.5 Safari Will Mask IP Address From Google

    iOS 14.5 Safari Will Mask IP Address From Google

    Apple is ramping up its efforts to protect user privacy, including a feature in iOS 14.5 that will mask IP addresses in Safari.

    Apple has been making significant changes to iOS and iPadOS, forcing app makers to include privacy labels to disclose what information they track. The company is also preparing to include a feature that will force apps to ask for permission to track users, rather than doing it automatically.

    Now the company is working on its next big privacy upgrade, masking Safari’s IP address. Companies can use a device’s IP address to help build a profile of the individual’s browsing habits. Given that Apple’s default search engine is Google, this is a real concern.

    First noticed by a Reddit user and reported by The 8-Bit, the feature is enabled when Safe Browsing is active. Safe Browsing is activated by turning on the “Fraudulent Website Warning” in Settings > Safari.

    Maciej Stachowiak, Apple’s Head of Webkit Engineering, provided a bit of additional detail about how the feature will work.

    As Stachowiak explains, iOS 14.5 Safari will re-route traffic through an Apple proxy service to hide IP addresses. This should provide a significant level of additional privacy to iOS and iPadOS users.

  • Apple Safari Now Blocking All Third-Party Cookies

    Apple Safari Now Blocking All Third-Party Cookies

    Apple’s Safari web browser joins the Tor browser as one of only two that fully block all third-party cookies.

    The move has been a long time coming, and Safari has been gradually adding more features that limit the overall effectiveness of third-party cookies for tracking. As a result, in a WebKit blog post, the developers downplay the change as not a big deal, although they do highlight some of the significant benefits the move brings.

    One of the biggest advantages is disabling login fingerprinting. Login fingerprinting is a technique that “allows a website to invisibly detect where you are logged in and is viable in any browser without full third-party cookie blocking.”

    Similarly, the move “disables cross-site request forgery attacks against websites through third-party requests,” and “removes the ability to use an auxiliary third-party domain to identify users. Such a setup could otherwise persist IDs even when users delete website data for the first party.”

    There are a number of additional benefits, including paving the way for other browsers to adopt a similar approach, and simplifying things for developers. Overall, this is a good move for customers, helping protect their privacy. It will hopefully motivate site admins to adopt other ways of monetizing their content, such as the Firefox Better Web initiative.

  • The Chromium-Powered Opera Is Finally Here

    Opera made a big stink a few months ago when it was announced it was ditching its own Presto Web rendering engine in favor of Webkit. After Google announced it was ditching Webkit in favor of its own forked version called Blink, Opera followed suit saying it would be using Blink as well. Now the Blink-powered Opera is finally here.

    Opera Software announced today that it has launched what it’s calling Opera Next. You can think of it as a beta release, but this is the version of Opera that everybody’s been talking about. It’s a completely redesigned Opera that’s faster and more feature rich.

    Finally available on desktop, Opera Next comes with a number of new or rethought features. For instance, the shortcuts start page has been transformed into what Opera calls “Speed Dial:”

    Speed Dial shortcuts can now be gathered in folders and easily filtered. Drag and drop one Speed Dial entry on top of another to create a folder, or use the new Speed Dial search field to experience the power of visual Speed Dial entries combined with the flexibility and organization of a classic bookmark folder.

    Another two new features are called Discover and Stash. With Discover, think of it as a smart RSS feed built right into the browser. It will collect news articles from your country of origin and feed you the content without having to navigate to any particular Web site.

    As for Stash, this feature allows users to easily compare Web sites when shopping online:

    Simply hit the heart icon in the address bar to collect the websites you want to compare easily while shopping, or to keep your travel research on hotels, sights and flights at your fingertips. Scan your Stash by resizable page preview, or search what you’ve saved, with keywords.

    On top of all the new features, Opera’s UI has been completely redesigned from the grou up to look “modern and sleek.”

    Of course, the biggest change is the move to the Webkit/Blink Web rendering engine:

    With the Chromium engine, users get a standards-compliant and high-performance browser. Opera’s Off-Road mode, previously called Opera Turbo, now supports SPDY protocol and enables loading webpages faster, even in the toughest of network conditions.

    The new Chromium-powered Opera is available for both desktop and mobile. You can grab Opera 15 for desktop here and Opera 14 for Android here. It may be hard to let Presto go, but a faster, standard-compliant Opera can only be a good thing, right?

  • Google Answers Your Questions About Its New Blink Rendering Engine

    After years of Chrome running on the WebKit rendering engine, Google announced earlier this week that it was moving to its own rendering engine. The new engine, named Blink, is a fork of WebKit, and will apparently not affect Web developers that much as Google transitions to the new engine.

    That being said, developers are going to have questions, and Google welcomed those questions with open arms during a hangout yesterday with engineering leads Darin Fisher and Eric Seidel. Some of the issues addressed during the hangout include the relationship between WebKit’s and Blink’s codebase, Blink’s support of multiple programming languages, and when we can expect to see Blink hit Chrome.

    For more on Blink, check out Google’s exhaustive FAQ.

  • Google Begins Work On Chrome’s New Rendering Engine

    WebKit has been powering Google’s Chrome Web browser since its launch in 2008. Google says that “its flexibility, performance, and thoughtful design” made it an obvious choice for Chrome when it launched, but the modern Web and modern Chrome require something different. That something different is Blink.

    Google announced that it’s developing Blink, a fork of WebKit that will become the rendering engine for Chrome and Chrome OS. Google is moving to its own rendering engine in the hopes that it can reduce the complexity found in both WebKit and Chromium projects.

    There is bound to be some concern from Web developers over Google abandoning WebKit. Google anticipated that concern, and said that Blink won’t bring a lot of change to how developers currently code for the Web. In fact, the initial work on Blink will be strictly focused on “internal architectural improvements and a simplification of the codebase.”

    Of course, the greater implication here is that Google is introducing more competition to the Web. Web developers are already having to optimize Web sites for WebKit, Trident and Gecko. Google says that Blink is only a good thing, however, as it feels “multiple rendering engines… will spur innovation and over time improve the health of the entire open Web ecosystem.”

    The philosophy held by Google seems to be shared by Mozilla as the non-profit announced a new Web rendering engine called Servo yesterday. The engine, being co-developed with Samsung, is being built with the mobile Web in mind.

    It will be interesting to see if Google’s prediction of increased competition comes true. The company says that it will work with other Web vendors to make sure Web standards are observed, and that interoperability is retained. Still, I’ve always been of the opinion that we already have too many rendering engines, but Google and Mozilla may just prove my fears unfounded as we move into this next wave of Web development.

    If you want to follow Blink development, check out Google’s project page.