Chapter 10. The Web

The Web on the iPhone looks like the Web on your computer, and that’s one of Apple’s greatest accomplishments. You see the real deal—the actual fonts, graphics, and layouts—not the stripped-down, bare-bones mini-Web on cellphones of years gone by.

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The iPhone’s Web browser is Safari, a lite version of the same one that comes with every Macintosh and is also available for Windows. It’s fast (at least in a WiFi hot spot), simple to use, and very pretty indeed.

Safari Tour

You get on the Web by tapping Safari on the Home screen (below, left); the very first time you do this, a blank browser window appears (below, right). As noted in the previous chapter, the Web on the iPhone can be either fast (when you’re in a WiFi hot spot), medium (in a 3G coverage area) or excruciating (on the EDGE cellular network). Even so, some Web is usually better than no Web at all.

Tip

You don’t have to wait for a Web page to load entirely. You can zoom in, scroll, and begin reading the text even when only part of the page has appeared.

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Safari has most of the features of a desktop Web browser: bookmarks, autocomplete (for Web addresses), scrolling shortcuts, cookies, a pop-up ad blocker, password ...

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