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Ask Slashdot: Gaining Control of My Mobile Browser? 223

An anonymous reader writes: I run Firefox with NoScript and FlashBlock at home. Browsing is easy, and I only have to enable scripts on a few sites. If they have 20+ scripts, I just surf somewhere else. Fast forward to the mobile experience. I had an Android device, but now I have an iPhone. In addition to the popup problem, and the fake "X" on ads, the iPhone browsers (Safari, Chrome, Opera) will start to show a site, then they will lock up for 10-30 seconds before finally becoming responsive. If I switch back to another app and then return to the browser, Safari and Chrome have a little delay, but Opera delays 20+ seconds before becoming responsive again.

Firefox is not available on the iPhone, so I can't simply run NoScript. Chrome does not appear to have a NoScript equivalent for mobile. What solutions are you using to make mobile browsing work?
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Ask Slashdot: Gaining Control of My Mobile Browser?

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  • It is, sorta (Score:5, Informative)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:11PM (#48981431)

    "Firefox is not available on the iPhone"
    There's an app called virtualBrowser, which runs firefox, but you'll better have LTE.
    You can try it out for free, but if you want to save installed extensions like noscript and adblock, you'll have to pay a monthly fee, 2 bucks if I remember.

    There are also standalone adblocker apps. (weblock etc) I pasted my custom filters copied from adblock into mine and it works OK.

    • "Firefox is not available on the iPhone"

      Even if it was available, what you're getting (if it's the same as Android) is some crappy third-rate copy of desktop Firefox with a fraction of the functionality and an inability to run most of the extensions you're used to. Tried it on my Android phone and it lasted about 15 minutes before I removed it again. So for all the iDevice users waiting for Firefox, don't bother.

      After trying seemingly one of every mobile browser out there, the least sucky one I've found is UC Browser [ucweb.com], which is available for iDe

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:15PM (#48981489)

    Instead of dealing with malware in the Play store, you get to deal with no freedom in the App store. You knew the sword cut both ways when you switched, and now you're complaining?

    • Instead of dealing with malware in the Play store, you get to deal with no freedom in the App store. You knew the sword cut both ways when you switched, and now you're complaining?

      Better yet, use the iPhone for the apps experience, which they do better. Most sites are not mobile friendly, so use it only when I have to, such as refer to a website for address to a place, et al. I never do my normal browsing on my iPhone. Most of it is either on my laptop, and sometimes, on my tablet.

      There are apps that work better on phones and tablets. Web browsers ain't one of them.

    • Why not discuss the technical fucking merits of his question, rather than break out the edgelord fedora and go off the rails on why he should or should not have switched? It adds literally zero to the discussion and is not even remotely of interest.

  • by rrohbeck ( 944847 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:16PM (#48981497)

    Accept the walled garden. Even if you find a fix now Apple will probably break it with the next release.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

      Or just switch back to Android after realizing that you fell for all the FUD about Play store malware and paid 2x as much for an Apple phone as a result, while getting a worse experience. Firefox for Android does what you want.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Serious question: But how do I totally block Google? My objection isn't so much with the advertising as with the tracking. I don't want Google to know much of ANYTHING about me and I don't want them to track ANYTHING about me. I imagine I can jail break the phone, but that seems a bit extreme. Give me a good solution to my problem -- which is far bigger than mere advertising, imo -- and I would probably be interested in your solution. Until then (and aware that this may change) I don't see Apple sharin

        • by oodaloop ( 1229816 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:34PM (#48981777)
          Root the phone, remove Google apps, use alternative apps. Not terribly hard, and pretty much what I've done to my LG Google Nexus 5, but I choose to use a few Google apps. Why you trust Apple to track you appropriately but not Google would be a better question though.
          • On iOS you've got a few alternatives.
            1) Set up a VPN, and run that VPN through privoxy to strip the junk.
            2) Jailbreak and install Adblocker 2, Firewall iP, PrivaCy and if you want, Tor.

          • by josquin9 ( 458669 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @04:47PM (#48983211)

            Given a choice between trusting my data to a hipster company motivated by profit, but convinced that it is a still a trendsetter, and a company whose entire business model is based on the collection and distribution of information that it collects by looking over people's shoulders, I actaually feel safer with the deluded hipsters. Even if they are no more trustworthy, their reach is not as great, so I'm willing to bet the fallout will be (marginally) easier to contain.

            On some level, to Apple, I'm a customer. To Google, I'm just a product.

          • Root the phone, remove Google apps, use alternative apps.

            Is that sufficient? Can you be sure that the vendor's build of Android doesn't phone home?

            Unfortunately, installing the alternative, Cyanogen, requires your phone be supported.

        • by Andy Dodd ( 701 )

          Don't log into a Google account?

          Pretty damned easy...

          • Well, sort of ... you'll never get updates, and good luck confirming that just because you don't log into a Google account you don't hit Google servers.

            On a stock Nexus tablet, for instance, Google is pretty much baked into EVERYTHING.

            You want to keep an Android device from calling home to Google (or whoever made it), remove its battery. Otherwise, I'd not be so sure it's not.

            • You want to keep an Android device from calling home to Google (or whoever made it), remove its battery. Otherwise, I'd not be so sure it's not.

              on newer versions of android, the google-ness of the device is factored out into the "google services" APK, by design. this allows them to update critical code without requiring a vendor-blessed OTA. if you don't have that installed, your device isn't phoning home.

              lots of companies take AOSP and build solutions on top of it that have no connection at all to google.

        • by Parafilmus ( 107866 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @03:18PM (#48982249) Homepage

          Serious question: But how do I totally block Google?

          Using Apple devices is a pretty good solution for that. Another option is Cyanogenmod.

          It's an open-source Android fork with better privacy: http://cyanogenmod.org/ [cyanogenmod.org]

          Installing it is usually simple, but can be difficult or impossible on certain phones. If you're after a turnkey solution, your best bet is the OnePlus One, which ships with Cyanogen preinstalled. List price is $299, but they're going for about $400 on amazon right now, due to limited availability.

        • Serious question: But how do I totally block Google?

          The same way you block Google from desktop computers: install and use a firewall. You'll have to root the phone first, of course.

        • by narcc ( 412956 )

          Switch to FireFoxOS, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone. Hundreds of users, myself included (BB10 & FFOS), couldn't be happier.

        • Serious question: But how do I totally block Google?

          don't use google apps or search (on iOS)? what's the confusion here? or are you asking how to take advantage of the incredible web and mobile ecosystem google has created without compensating them?

          while you are at it, ask yourself how to drive a BMW without paying, and to enjoy your favorite food without buying it. there are ways to do so right?

        • Try getting a phone that has Replicant. In fact, start from the Replicant site, and see what phones can you get that ain't tethered. Then you will end up w/ a phone w/o any of the Google baggage
      • Except that the play store is loaded with malware. And advertisers take advantage of mobile websites and android to do all sorts of crap.

        Personally I have tried Adblock for android it is crap that doesn't work right. I shouldn't have to have a daemon tuning a local proxy loop to stop malware(seperate advertising is malware).

        • by vux984 ( 928602 )

          Except that the play store is loaded with malware.

          Its really not "loaded" with malware.

          If you are that worried that what you are about to download is malware, check the ios store first, if its there with the same name, same icon, and same publisher, its not going to be "malware".

          If its not on ios (and really the only things that aren't going to be there that a normal person would want would be things that ios actively doesn't allow) -- so a handful of technical utilities, arcade emulators, 3rd party browser

          • There is malware in the Apple garden too, it is just that the reality distortion field prevents people from seeing it.

            http://www.cnet.com/news/resea... [cnet.com]
            http://www.zdnet.com/article/d... [zdnet.com]

            Granted, there has not been much of it, but according to the second link, they don't allow security software either (I stopped supporting Apple 3 years ago, so it could have changed though), so if something gets through the app store, or the browser, or however else, there is nothing out there to protect you.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

          If you really don't trust the Play store just install F-Droid, or the Amazon store, or don't install any apps at all... You can't have the freedom to use Firefox and a walled garden.

      • by Karlt1 ( 231423 )

        Or just switch back to Android after realizing that you fell for all the FUD about Play store malware

        So this is FUD?
        http://www.bbc.com/news/techno... [bbc.com]

        "Android users are being warned that several popular apps that were on the official Google Play store appear to have contained hidden code that made malicious ads pop up.

        Security firm Avast said that one of the apps involved - a free version of the card game Durak - had been downloaded up to 10 million times, according to Google Play's own counter."

        • Perhaps the majority of Android users don't consider advertising as equivalent to malware?

          • by Karlt1 ( 231423 )

            From the article....

            "You get re-directed to harmful threats on fake pages, like dubious app stores and apps that attempt to send premium SMS behind your back or to apps that simply collect too much of your data for comfort while offering you no additional value," wrote Avast's malware analyst Filip Chytry."

            You don't consider that to be malware?

            • I don't consider an advertisement for that crap to be malware. Are we gonna start calling Google Search malware because you might be directed to a malware site?

              Who installs apps from advertisements in apps anyways?

              • by Karlt1 ( 231423 )

                So you really think all of these companies are advertising in other apps (not just the malware apps) and on Facebook if advertising wasn't effective?

    • by frisket ( 149522 )
      I have Android, rest of the family have iPhones. No-one seems to have any problem browsing, so WTF kind of websites is the OP visiting? no, wait, don't tell me...pr0n
  • Easy solution. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:19PM (#48981533)

    Buy an Android phone (or Jolla), run Firefox, be happy.

    If you buy closed junk, you get closed junk, deal with it.

  • Ditch iPhone (Score:4, Informative)

    by Carewolf ( 581105 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:24PM (#48981637) Homepage

    Read subject. You can not get an alternative browser on iPhones, it is not allowed, all the "alternative" browsers on iPhones are just reskinned Safari because Apple does not allow alternative browsers. So if you are wondering how to get control over you phone again: Ditch iPhone!

    • Used all my mod points yesterday, elsewise you'd get them for upvotes

    • Re:Ditch iPhone (Score:4, Interesting)

      by TheGratefulNet ( 143330 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:31PM (#48981739)

      perhaps a proxy (outside the phone) would help? yes, its another box and its not going to work for cell data; you'd have to wifi thru that proxy box and that would connect to cellular or some other net connection.

      I would like to know how apple people deal with the 'locked browser' stuff and if anyone has figured out a way to get the same level of adblocking as, say, a rooted android with the right apps installed.

      (almost funny to think about it: but a cheap old used android that is rooted could be the REAL cellular-to-wifi gateway, it can proxy and block ads and then your phone would only run wifi, at least for browsing. yes, you'd carry 2 phones but you'd USE the iphone and the other android phone would just be in your pocket, hidden).

      the 'raw internet' is unusable (for me) unless there are good blockers, so if there is really no good way to do this natively on an iphone, I guess any hopes I had of someday buying an iphone will have disappeared. I refuse to be FORCED into the raw internet. its not worth using if that's the case.

      • by mlts ( 1038732 )

        That is one idea. There is also getting a virtual machine and running one's own VPN with ad blocking functionality (transparant proxy.) The downside of this is that it can get slow if the VPN server is a number of hops away.

        If jailbreaking is an option, that is another route. There are adblockers on the Cydia store which are useful, as well as utilities like PMP (Protect My Privacy.) Without jailbreaking, a lot of sites you will go to will let you view the site for 15 seconds... then kick you to the App

    • Re:Ditch iPhone (Score:5, Informative)

      by halivar ( 535827 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `reglefb'> on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:52PM (#48981977)

      You can not get an alternative browser on iPhones, it is not allowed,

      Yes, you can.

      all the "alternative" browsers on iPhones are just reskinned Safari because Apple does not allow alternative browsers

      All iOS browsers use WebKit. That's completely orthogonal to the original question: are there iOS browsers that block ads and pop-ups? The answer is yes, there are.

    • by Demena ( 966987 )
      This may be informative but the information appears to be false. I have a number of different browsers on my iPad and they function in very different ways. I seriously doubt they are simply skins. Currently have Safari, Opera, Mercury, Chrome installed.
  • by halivar ( 535827 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `reglefb'> on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:24PM (#48981639)

    All you'll get on Slashdot is "neener-neener" posts from Android fan boys telling you you deserve it for buy the Phone That Shall Not Be Named. What you should have done was ask Google, and it would have taken you to a number of browsers available for iOS that block banner ads. Question answered, no psychopathic schadenfreude.

    • by halivar ( 535827 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `reglefb'> on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:29PM (#48981707)

      In an attempt to actually answer the question, try the Mercury browser. Basically Safari + AdBlock. The others are usually crapware/adware. https://itunes.apple.com/us/ap... [apple.com]

      • by MagicM ( 85041 )

        URL filtering engine to block most ad banners

        That's cool.

        You can open up to 10 tabs.

        That's not.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • AdAway is more convenient, but you can also copy your Hosts file from your Windows box to block ads in Android, you do have to convert appropriate LFs for *nix obviously. I have custom items in my Hosts file, so this is what I did.

      A side benefit is it functions in all the browsers on my 'droid, Firefox, and any of the others that I never use.

    • Cue APK hosts file post in 3...2...1...

    • by Lumpy ( 12016 )

      I DONT reccomend HTC. Get Samsung or better yet, buy a nexus phone.

      I have an HTC ONE M8 biggest POS ever. and their damned "S-ON" security bullshit is so bad that never buying HTC anything forever is worth it.

      Quit being a poor person and buy a Nexus outright and get a REAL Android phone that does not fight you.

      • The HTC One M8 works fine, and is an excellent phone other than a minor issue with Spotify dropping offline, requiring that mobile data be turned off and back on. I've never run into any weird security problem on the device, but I haven't tried to root it.

        It looks like this "S-On" can be disabled to allow rooting of the phone.
        http://www.android.gs/gain-s-o... [android.gs]
      • Welp, I don't have the M8. M7 was painless to get S-Off. Heck, 5 seconds on XDA and Vomer's guide to get S-OFF for the M8 has the steps.
    • From there install https://fdroid.org/ [fdroid.org] [fdroid.org] as your repository and download adaway

      the same fdroid that has a self-signed (or otherwise invalid, i'm not sure) certificate on their https website?
      awesome idea.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:25PM (#48981649)

    Run DD-WRT on router, put hosts.txt on USB drive, add this script to "firewall" commands:

    #!/bin/sh

    if test -s /tmp/mnt/sda1/hosts.txt
    then
            cat /tmp/mnt/sda1/hosts.txt |
            sed 's/[[:space:]]*#.*$//g;' |
            grep -v localhost | tr ' ' '\t' |
            tr -s '\t' | tr -d '\015' | sort -u >/tmp/hosts0
            grep addn-hosts /tmp/dnsmasq.conf ||
            echo "addn-hosts=/tmp/hosts0" >>/tmp/dnsmasq.conf
            killall dnsmasq
            dnsmasq -u root -g root --conf-file=/tmp/dnsmasq.conf
    fi

    This blocks almost all ads in mobile Safari, but only works at home of course. The hosts.txt can be updated by sharing the USB or ssh to router, then reboot. This script is a bit different from the one on dd-wrt site that downloads hosts.txt on boot, but that script doesn't actually work.

  • Your iPhone can't lock up for 10-30 seconds, as that would activate the watchdog and kill the app. What's really happening?

    • The watchdog only fires if a single runloop takes that long. The poster is talking about the delay whilst a web-page is being loaded, during which time he can't interact with the web-app. But the browser is performing runloops properly.

  • There is no hope. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:27PM (#48981685) Journal
    "Mobile" is basically a trailer for the cryptographically sealed dystopia after the demise of the general purpose computer. Your options are basically 'consume that content, just the way its creator intended you to' or 'walk away'.

    Android is slightly better, in that (while it is peddled by a massive surveillance-and-advertising vendor) it is fairly easy to buy a handset that will accept substantial modification without the blessing of the creator. iOS starts from an incrementally less user-hostile place; but Apple's dedication to lockdown is very, very, thorough and relatively competent. Short of using the phone as a VNC/RDP/ICA client and connecting to a real computer, you are mostly SOL.
    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by rudy_wayne ( 414635 )

      "Mobile" is basically a trailer for the cryptographically sealed dystopia after the demise of the general purpose computer. Your options are basically 'consume that content, just the way its creator intended you to' or 'walk away'..

      Yes, that is correct. And 'walk away' is exactly what people need to do. .The ADD/OCD stare-at-your-phone-every-minute-of-the-day crowd doesn't want to hear it, but if you're having problems surfing the web on your phone, it's because you're doing it wrong.

      Browsing the Internet on a phone is a perfect example of the old saying: "Just because you *CAN* do something, doesn't mean you *SHOULD*." Other than the occasional "I need to look up directions to somewhere" I leave my Internet use to comfortably bro

    • You just wrote one of the best descriptions of "smart phones" I've yet to read on /.
      Well done.

      On a side note I've read that many people here don't browse on their devices, whether Android or iPhone.
      I thought I was only one.

      I rooted my Galaxy a while back, etc; to gain a little control over it, but to be honest, the "browsing of websites" is utter dreck on any smart phone. Just annoying as hell, and not just because of ads. Also because of how the sites look in the different browsers is just real
  • by aaarrrgggh ( 9205 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:28PM (#48981691)

    I use Atomic Browser for ad-heavy sites. It has some nice features and could do several things Safari couldn't. You can also download pages if you are going to fly or want a ready reference.

    • by cve ( 181337 )
      It's the best option I've used. Unfortunately it hasn't been updated in over 2 years and cookies seem to be getting through now with iOS8.
    • by mlts ( 1038732 )

      I used to like Atomic, but it no longer is updated (last update was in 2012), and does not work with tap-and-hold gestures since iOS 7, so I have wound up using the Mercury browser for similar functionality.

      I wish the author would update it, so it works fully with iOS 8.x.

  • Just, like, don't visit sites with intrusive ads on your mobile phone. Otherwise you're just contributing to the arms race.

    I only frequent a few sites on my mobile during my commute... fark, arstechnica, classic.slashdot.org, maybe a little ttac.com . facebook.com now works much better than it used to (uninstalled the facebook app once they started uploading my address book).

    Rarely visit the linked news articles at sources with terribad ads, can glean enough of the interesting tidbits and analysis throug

  • ... moving your browsing elsewhere if your favourite sites require NoScript to be readable?
    This is free, platform independent advice.

  • by briancox2 ( 2417470 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @03:09PM (#48982139) Homepage Journal
    The concepts of an iPhone and user freedom/control are mutually exclusive.
  • by RandCraw ( 1047302 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @03:20PM (#48982273)

    Both browsers are cheap and will block most ads. I've used Atomic for the past several years as my primary browser on my iPhone 4 and 5s, iPad 3, and iPad Mini retina, and it has worked very well on all. The browser is very configurable and makes much better use of small real estate than Safari. It's very rare that Atomic has let me down or that I have to fall back to using Safari or Chrome (maybe twice a year?).

    I've used Mercury less than Atomic, but only because Atomic has worked well. The little I have used Mercury, I've had no complaints.

    Alas there's precious little company support or user community for Atomic. If Mercury turns out to be better for this, I might be willing to switch.

  • Closest I've come is the above... basically, use an automated app with root privileges to add the main ad-servers to your hosts file.

    Other than that, you're pretty much fucked.

  • I have been carrying an 8" windows tablet since they came out (just got a 7" one). ITs the best way to say 'fuck mobile phones and their toy OS.'. Before that i would jsut remote into my desktop at home. Mobile browsers suck, not only performance, but the monetization is so strong they ruin the experience with crap. Mobile OS's are basically shady fucks trying to get your grandma to buy stuff.
  • by cerberusss ( 660701 ) on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @03:41PM (#48982499) Journal

    The amount of misinformation in this topic is staggering.

    There's enough cool stuff in the App Store that take a lot of the hurt away. I'm using iCab Mobile [icab-mobile.de], an alternative to Safari that has many options, ad blocking one amongst them.

    As for the comments that all browsers are just reskinned versions of an older Safari version, as far as I know the new WKWebView component makes it possible for alternative browsers to have equal speed compared to Safari.

    • No one said that they were reskinned versions of an older Safari version (at least that I can see).

      What they said is that the other browsers are reskinned Safari, which is true. You can play around with the menus and how bookmarks are stored and stuff like that, but if you try to submit code that renders HTML apple will reject it as duplicated core functionality. What you are left with is using the Safari engine to render your the HTML/Javascript then.. Of course it's going to be just as fast.. It will alw

  • I use a Javascript-free browser on my iPhone called "Narrow". I highly recommend it.

  • phones are designed and marketed for exactly the opposite of what you are asking for. all of them. also, phones are today the most used devices for browsing, and counting. that should give you a rough idea of where the internet is heading, and why you are asking the wrong question.

  • Chrome has ScriptSafe. I don't like it as much as NoScript, but it's the closest I've found. AdBlock, Ghostery, and LastPass are on Chrome as well. I'm not sure which ones work with the mobile browser though.

    There's also one called ScriptBlock, but I haven't tried it.
  • Just use Tumblr for your iPhone porn.

  • All the mobile browsers are absolutely fucking horrible. Firefox mobile is the best, but it also sucks.

    On Android, I use XServer-XSDL, an Ubuntu chroot (Debian doesn't build chromium for armhf anymore), and desktop Firefox + Grab-and-Drag, or Chromium+umatrix. This also sucks, but it sucks less than anything native. YMMV.

  • What if you created a WEP that uses a domain blocking proxy or is that too simplistic a solution?

  • My dream mobile browser would be elinks. What better way to reduce bandwidth for phone-based news reading than to never download any of the images, ever? Also, elinks has no Javascript support, and it does a nice job of controlling layouts (for the most part; some canvas-heavy websites will look "flattened", where you can see canvases for status updates that haven't actually occurred, because some Javascript code segment normally doesn't reveal it until the proper time).

    For when you do need to view an ima

BLISS is ignorance.

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