iWish

Dear Apple Claus,

I’ve been a very good boy this year so I hope you don’t me asking for a little present. What I’d really like for Christmas is for you to fix that strange orientation scaling bug in Mobile Safari.

Just in case you’ve forgotten about it, my friend Scott—who has been a very, very good boy this year (what with that whole Boston Globe thing)—put together a test page quite a while back to demonstrate the problem.

Basically, if I set meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" then it means a pixel should be equal to a pixel: in portrait view, the width should be 320 pixels; in landscape view the width should be 480 pixels. But in Mobile Safari, if I move from portrait to landscape, the width jumps to a value larger than 480 pixels, which means the hapless user must double tap to bring the scale down to 1:1.

Now, admittedly, I could just set meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" and leave it at that (or I could additionally declare minimum-scale=1.0). But then when the user changes from portrait to landscape, although it doesn’t have the same over-zooming behaviour, it does scale up. That means I’m not getting the full 480 pixels (it’s effectively still a 320 pixel wide display, even in landscape).

I could make the bug disappear by adding maximum-scale=1.0 or user-scaleable=no but that’s the cure that kills the patient. I also did some hacking with Shi Chuan but what we come up with still feels fairly clunky.

So that’s why I’m writing to you, Father Applemas. Won’t you fix this bug for me?

My friend PPK thinks you won’t fix this bug because it would trigger a reflow (and repaint) of the page …but I know that can’t be the reason because the bug doesn’t occur when going from landscape to portrait!

Also—and this is the really strange part—If I’m looking at a web page on my iPhone/Pod in a custom browser (like the Twitter app), rather than using Mobile Safari, then the bug doesn’t occur.

I don’t get, Apple Claus. Why have one behaviour for webviews in other people’s apps and a different behaviour for your own app?

Anyway, if you could see your way to granting this boy’s wish, it would make for a webby Christmas.

Hugs and kisses,

Jeremy

P.S. By this time next year, it would be lovely to have access to the camera (and other device APIs) from the browser …but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Update: the bug has been fixed in iOS 6.

WP2 - The requirement for browsers operating on iOS devices to use Apple’s WebKit browser engine [PDF]

The Competition & Markets Authority brings receipts:

The requirement that all browsers on the iOS operating system use a specific version of the WebKit browser engine controlled by Apple, means that there is no competition between browser engines on the platform. Browser vendors cannot switch to an alternative browser engine or make changes to the version of WebKit used on iOS. Similarly, consumers are unable to switch to a browser based on an alternative browser engine. We consider that the lack of competitive pressure is likely to reduce Apple’s incentives to improve WebKit.

WebKit Features in Safari 17.4 | WebKit

It’s a shame that the newest Safari release is overshadowed by Apple’s shenanigans and subsequent U-turn because there’s some great stuff in there.

I really like what they’re doing with web apps added to the dock:

Safari adds support for the shortcuts manifest member on macOS Sonoma. This gives you a mechanism in the manifest file for defining custom menu commands that will appear in the File menu and the Dock context menu.

Apple backs off killing web apps, but the fight continues - Open Web Advocacy

Hallelujah! Apple have backed down on their petulant plan to sabatoge homescreen apps.

I’m very grateful to the Open Web Advocacy group for standing up to this bullying.

Home Screen Advantage - Infrequently Noted

This is exactly what it looks like: a single-fingered salute to the web and web developers.

Read Alex’s thorough explanation of the current situation and then sign this open letter.

Cupertino’s not just trying to vandalise PWAs and critical re-engagement features for Safari; it’s working to prevent any browser from ever offering them on iOS. If Apple succeeds in the next two weeks, it will cement a future in which the mobile web will never be permitted to grow beyond marketing pages for native apps.

Also, remember this and don’t fall for it:

Apple apparently hopes it can convince users to blame regulators for its own choices.

Manton Reece - Apple is twisting the truth

When it benefits Apple, they take the DMA requirements much further than intended. When it doesn’t benefit them, they lean back on the “integrity” of iOS and barely comply at all.