What’s New In iOS 6’s Safari Browser

Nowadays we have web access on everything: smartphones, tables, even in your car. Most devices use a web browser to let your surf the Internet and Apple’s devices are no exception. iOS comes packed with it’s own web browser, just like all major operating systems. In iOS 6, Safari comes with improvements and enhancements that were much needed by the end users. These enhancements provide a better browsing experience and bring a couple of twists to the overall user experience.

Sync Tabs With iCloud

Following the Google Chrome fashion, Safari can now sync tabs with iCloud. It’s all about cloud computing these days and Apple doesn’t want to be left out. You can start browsing the web on one of your devices and continue surfing on another, right where you left off. Sign in with your Apple ID and you can later access your tabs from a menu. On the iPad this menu can be accessed from the top toolbar. On the iPhone you will have to access your Bookmarks menu and find your tabs there. If your tabs are not yet there you must have forgotten to enable tab syncing in Safari. You can do this from the Settings app.

New Interface For Bookmarks

There’s a new interface for Bookmarks in Safari. It now has an integrated history and a reading list presented as separate tabs while talking about the iPad. On the iPhone it looks the same as the old one but with an iCloud Tabs option included.

Read Your Webpages Offline

If you have reading lists they are now available for offline use. If you ever find yourself in such a situation that you don’t have access to neither 3G or WiFi, these might come in handy. If you don’t have any kind of network coverage (say because you’re in the car or on holiday in the mountains) you can read you saved articles via Offline Reading List. With other apps like Pocket or Instapaper or Readability you can integrate them and use them to read articles in iOS 6.
Offline Reading Lists can be synced via iCloud and your webpages will become available on your other iOS-enabled devices.

Image And Video Upload

Safari can now successfully upload image files and video files to the Internet. The upload option is integrated as a new feature directly into the browser and you don’t have to leave the page you’re currently on to do this. When you try to upload an image the browser will display a popup allowing you to choose the image you want from a list on your device (Camera Roll, your albums, Photo Stream). You are not limited to selecting a single file but can upload multiple files at once, should the webpage you are currently browsing allow it. Select the files you wish to upload and press Done to upload them when you are finished. This can be useful if you are using file sharing services to share your video files and images with your friends.

Landscape Mode, Full Screen

Whenever you enter landscape mode in Safari you will be able to browse websites in full screen mode. There’s a new button on the toolbar allowing you to switch landscape mode on and off. More spate on the screen means a better browsing experience. If full scree mode can be used on the iPhone, it’s not yet available on the iPad. Since the screen of the iPad is larger there’s no need yet for a full screen browsing experience.

New Debug Console

There was an old Debug Console feature in iOS 5. It’s now been replaced with Web Inspector. If you are a web developer and are currently developing webpages for Safari, you can inspect elements in these pages by connecting the device to your computer. To use Web Inspector you must enable the Develop menu in the Safari residing on your computer then enable Web Inspector in Safari’s Settings under the Advanced tab.

Sharing Looks New

There’s a new interface for sharing in Safari that makes use of a certain grid of icons. You can find this look all over the new iOS 6 and Safari hasn’t been left out. The old options remained plus there’s Facebook integration for sharing things and you can also share items via iMessage. You can even copy things to the clipboard and later paste them elsewhere.

These are the most important new features in iOS 6’s Safari browser. Enjoy them and leave us a comment with your opinion!