

New iPad browser from Opera - pgsandstrom
http://coastbyopera.com

======
JohnTHaller
It's important to note that, like all browsers on iOS, this is just a UI skin
and added functionality over the Mobile Safari core (the slower one 3rd
parties get access to). This isn't a true Opera browser based on the Blink
core (Chrome/Chromium's now-forked WebKit core) that is/will be used by Opera
on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.

~~~
rplnt
> like all browsers on iOS, this is just a UI skin and added functionality
> over the Mobile Safari core

Not true, for example Opera Mini[1], perhaps others. I wouldn't jump to
conclusions that fast.

1\. [http://www.opera.com/mobile/iphone](http://www.opera.com/mobile/iphone)

~~~
JohnTHaller
Opera Mini represents the ONLY way to get around Apple's onerous restrictions:
render the content entirely on servers and push it to the browser. It's
inefficient and messy and makes for a less than stellar user experience. It
also sets the barrier to entry very high. This is why you won't see Firefox on
iOS. Mozilla would be happy to build it, but they won't live the lie of having
a Firefox name on the Mobile Safari engine (in slower 3rd party mode).

No one is jumping to conclusions here. This is the specific result Apple wants
and is by design of their policies. It's well known and there's no debate over
it. You can have your own browser on iOS, but it can't interpret JavaScript
(no interpreted code on iOS), meaning it's completely useless on the modern
internet. It's the perfect way to enforce a one-browser-to-rule-them-all rule,
locking out all competitors, while couching it in a 'security' guideline.

~~~
peterhunt
Just because you don't have a JIT doesn't mean it's "completely useless on the
modern internet." On the contrary, I rarely (ever?) have run into this as an
actual bottleneck.

~~~
JohnTHaller
You're confusing two different things here:

1\. Not being able to use JIT is just the anti-competitive part that Apple
does to people who ship UIs/skins over Mobile Safari.

2\. The more insidious bit is that you can't run interpreted code in your own
app AT ALL, which prevents Google, Mozilla, Opera, etc from being able to ship
their own full browser engine because it wouldn't be able to implement
JavaScript AT ALL, making it completely useless on the modern internet.

So, you're left with Chrome on iOS which is just a fancy skin/UI over Mobile
Safari (sans JIT so it's forced to be slower so Safari looks better by
comparison). Compare that to Chrome for Android which is the full Blink-based
browser stack tweaked to be as fast and smooth as possible. Or Firefox on
Android which is the full Gecko engine with a custom Android native UI running
over the top. You can't have the Gecko or Blink engines at all on iOS because
Apple says so.

~~~
woah
How is this any different from what MS was doing in the 90's?

~~~
RandallBrown
Apple isn't preventing the use of JIT in a UIWebView to make safari look
better, they're doing it because if the JIT has to break the sandbox and that
screws up their whole app model.

I'm sure it can be done, but that's the biggest reason it hasn't been done.

------
Trufa
A little bit off topic but I really don't like this new trend of breaking the
scrolling of a site.

~~~
glennos
I agree. I intuitively started scrolling and the iPad frame started spinning
while the content moved sidewards. Very disorientating.

~~~
BetaCygni
Yeah, makes me physically ill. It feels like they caged me by disabling the
default action of the scroll wheel.

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crazygringo
Ugh. Do they think everyone has 50" monitors?!

I can only see the top 1/4 of the initial iPad image on my screen... and when
I try to scroll down to see the rest of the image, it moves on to the next
one. Useless.

Are there really people who just never use laptops?

~~~
jlgreco
Considering the next image when you scroll down is the picture of the iPad
rotated so that it _does_ fit onto the screen, I suspect that it hangs off the
screen intentionally at first (perhaps to encourage the user to scroll?)

~~~
rpedroso
On my screen (1366x768), part of the rotated iPad is still below the fold.
There are also bugs when scrolling through the "presentation" on this
resolution that cause the iPad content to overflow:

[http://i.imgur.com/GhsDyzN.png](http://i.imgur.com/GhsDyzN.png)

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umsm
This is a bit off-topic, but these marketing efforts seem to take away from
what the product is doing or trying to do. The first 50s of the video contains
urban scenes with some dramatic music. It doesn't really explain what the
product is, how it's useful or even how it's unique from the current
competition.

The product itself could be really really good, but I wouldn't know it from
their video or website.

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manojlds
Nice clean interface. And despite the iOS limitations, seems pretty fast.

Like how the search shows a preview of the query being typed in Google. Like
how the element you have clicked on glows as the page is loaded. Like the
swipe interface and how smooth it is. Very nicely done Opera!

But where is Opera Link??? I am not using one more browser that won't sync my
existing bookmarks and speed dial.

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skue
This browser is a web security joke.

1\. Unless you prefix URLs with http or https, you are relying on Opera and/or
Google's algorithms to point you to the correct page. Some might say that's a
feature, except...

2\. You cannot see the URL of recommended pages before you select them or
while you are browsing them.

3\. There no indication whether you accessed a page via HTTP or HTTPS.

This browser teaches users to ignore security. It assumes that no one ever
enters a typo, that Google's search results can never be gamed, and that any
anti-phishing functionality they have included (one would hope) is fully up to
date.

All the respect that I had for Opera as a company just vanished.

~~~
mbitca
It's there, just not out in the open.

1\. Go to a web page 2\. Click the "tabs" button in the bottom right corner
3\. Press the "i" icon on the tab 4\. Press the security circle for even more
info

~~~
skue
I know. You can tap on a button to reveal a button to show three more buttons
to get some details. But there's a reason I didn't bother to mention that in
my post: _No one will ever do this._

Edit: changed 'click' to 'tap' (old habits die hard)

~~~
brongondwana
The underlying problem is that nobody checks security indicators anyway.

~~~
samweinberg
True, but hiding them will only make it worse.

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blankenship
That’s one heavy-handed promo video for a web browser.

~~~
jvzr
Sounds like an ad for a Dior perfume or something. Very strange.

~~~
chris_wot
The browser is actually kind cool to use!

~~~
jvzr
I don't like it at all.

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wmeredith
Web sites like this are better for a designer's portfolio than the product
they are pushing.

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sspiff
This promo site is a bit blurry on what it actually does. A browser with a
focus on gestures sounds like it could be very useful, if done right. I
haven't seen that many apps or platforms get gestures "right" though.

I wonder what this browser is built from (Blink? What JS runtime?)

~~~
jvzr
WebKit. Or else it wouldn't have been approved by Apple (or it's using a
server-side engine, which I doubt).

~~~
Facens
Let's keep in mind that opera purchased Skyfire a while ago, which is a lot
about server-side engine browsers.

~~~
rplnt
And Opera has years of experience with server-side rendering, even on iOS.

------
mapleoin
Wow, the website design is so bad that I can only see half of it and there's
no scrollbar.

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maxpert
I am posting it from Coast right now. I have to admit hands down to opera,
there are some rough edges but I can see where they are going with this and
it's awesome.

For haters give them a chance they are the ones who gave the ideas for what
lots of modern browsers are doing and you will see them doing some innovative
stuff again (no fan talk history proves it)

------
goldfeld
Haven't tried it yet, but this looks related to Firefox Junior[1] and the
reason over which the product designer behind the initial idea got sued by
Opera (since he came up with it while consulting on and off for Opera
independently[2].) An interesting story and one that further tainted my
respect for Opera.

[1]:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5HPjhZeLYE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5HPjhZeLYE)

[2]: [http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/04/29/opera-claims-
former...](http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/04/29/opera-claims-former-
employee-gave-away-trade-secrets-to-mozilla-sues-him-for-3-4m/)

------
AaronMT
Here's the user-agent for those curious:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 6_1_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like
Gecko) Coast/1.0.2.62956 Mobile/10B146 Safari/7534.48.3

Interestingly, no 'tablet' token specified.

------
AndreasFrom
Too bad it can't compete with Safari on performance, because the UI is
interesting.

~~~
baskalwabbit
As others have pointed out, it uses the same core as Safari, so the
performance should be nearly identical. So feel free to give it a shot!

~~~
cytzol
Actually, not quite - it uses UIWebView, which doesn't have some of Mobile
Safari's JavaScript improvements, so no matter how hard it tries it won't
quite be able to keep up.

~~~
SG-
you don't actually need insanely fast JS to load most web sites. i agree you'd
need it for something highly interactive and intensive, but again not most
websites.

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beyondcompute
Another poorly designed web-site. Why the product is different? Because it's
site is black and white and has video with boys and girls? Why tiny crumbs of
valuable information are _written_? Is this information not _visual_ in
nature? Can you show me how the thing operates? Screenshots? Animated gifs?
Fancy CSS3 demos (animated gifs are better)? Schematically shown workflow?

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bobsy
Using Coast now.. I really want to like it. Trouble is it is slow.. you click
a link and sometimes nothing happens.

Also, i like tabs. I find a story on HN and just leave it on a tab for later
and open HN in a new tab. Not sure how to do this with coast. Maybe create a
bookmark? It is less simple than having tabs.

------
rangibaby
The gloss baked into the screen of the iPad not moving in relation to the
imaginary light source as it rotated really annoyed me. Well, as much as that
could possibly annoy someone.

It's a major minor thing...

------
spyder
The site is horribly broken for me in Firefox even after multiple reloads and
after disabling AdBlock, cannot even read some text because scrolling stops at
wrong places, some elements remains from previous pages...

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xenophanes
can't navigate with arrow keys, spacebar, pageup/down. have to roll mouse? or
click the little arrows on edge of page. umm, wtf? no thx? bad website.

~~~
ratherhost
Use a touch device, that is the whole point.

There is no mouse. There is no keyboard.

------
chris_wot
Google search results show the Google search bar over the results. At least
the first time.

It's pretty fast though!

~~~
chris_wot
I gotta say, I wish I knew more cool websites. Like truly awesome. There are a
few in the link groupings.

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Grue3
"The requested URL /ru/frontpage was not found on this server."

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Vektorweg
Funny. This website works fine in the old Presto-based opera.

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mholt
I'm getting 502 and 404 errors...

~~~
rplnt
Here's a direct app store link
[https://itunes.apple.com/app/coast/id674024845](https://itunes.apple.com/app/coast/id674024845)

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VeejayRampay
Aaaaannd it's gone.

