Besides App Store and Messages, Safari is arguably iOS’s most important app. It’s your window to the Web. iOS 8 brings a number of improvements, like Suggested Sites to save you from search, the addition of the DuckDuckGo search engine, and browser extensions.
To start navigating the new features in iOS 8 Safari (and get a refresher on a few important older features), let’s start with a look at the controls at the top of the Safari window ①.
① The top of an iPad Safari window, from left to right: (A) Back/Forward (hold Back for a list of previous pages), (B) Show Bookmarks (access bookmarks, Reading List, History, and Shared Links), (C) Address/Search, (D) Suggested Sites list (a new Safari feature), (E) Clear Text, (F) Share, (G) New Tab (hold to see recently closed tabs), and (H) Pages (view open tabs).
If you can’t see the controls shown above, flick down from the middle of the screen. To push the controls back up out of the way, reverse the action by flicking up.
The Address/Search box allows you to search in several ways:
http://www.takecontrolbooks.com
, and tap Go on the keyboard.
(Press and hold the Period key to see a popover with common URL suffixes such as .com, .org, and .net ②.)
② When entering a URL, you can hold down the Period key to open a popover that provides common URL suffixes.
ron swanson
into the Address/Search box, Safari suggests the Wikipedia page for the fictional character ③.③ Safari in iOS 8 now suggests specific Web pages, alongside suggested search terms.
On the iPod touch and iPhone, if you don’t see the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, flick up from the middle of the screen to reveal it ④.
④ On smaller screens, Safari automatically hides the toolbar as you scroll. Flick down to reveal it.
⑤ Tap the Pages icon to open a 3D view of all open tabs. Notice the New Tab plus + button. Tap it to open a new tab.
Reader View makes articles easier to read by cutting out many superfluous visual elements (including most ads) and filling the screen with actual article content. If Reader View is available, a multi-line button appears to the left of the URL in the Address/Search box. Tap it to enter and exit Reader View.
Tap the Bookmarks icon to view Bookmarks, Reading List ⑥, and Shared Links:
⑥ Tap the eyeglasses icon to switch to Reading List view and access articles that you’ve saved to read at a later time.
New! To access your “favorite” bookmarks more easily, tap the Address/Search box. And, to bookmark a page and add it as a favorite quickly, tap the Address/Search box, pull down, and tap Add to Favorites ⑦.
⑦ To add a favorite Web site, view it in Safari, tap the Address/Search box, pull down, and tap Add to Favorites.
New! The Shared Links list can include RSS feeds, enabling you to quickly monitor certain Web sites. To subscribe to a site’s RSS feed, visit the site’s home page, tap the Share icon, tap Add to Shared Links, and then tap Add to Shared Links again. (If you don’t see Add to Shared Links, Safari can’t find the RSS feed; however, if you can find the icon or link, you can tap it manually.)
⑨ When available, Scan Credit Card is located just above the onscreen keyboard.
Copyright © 2014, Josh Centers. All rights reserved.