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Google and Mozilla test iPhone browsers not based on WebKit

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Google claims Chrome for Mac is now faster than Safari
A major under-the-hood change might be coming to Chrome for iPhone.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Google is tinkering with a version of its Chrome web browser for iPhone that does not use the WebKit rendering engine. The same is true for Mozilla and the Firefox browser.

Releasing these is currently impossible because of Apple’s browser rules, but the iPhone-maker may be forced to drop that restriction soon.

Happy 20th birthday to Safari, Apple’s browser that blossomed late

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The original logo for Apple's Safari web browser with the headline,
The first version of Safari, running on Mac OS X Panther. At launch, Apple's browser was fast but buggy.
Image: Cult of Mac

The Safari browser turns 20 years old today, and I remember excitedly firing it up for the first time.

When Steve Jobs introduced Safari at Macworld 2003, he described the brand-new browser as a speed demon and way easier to use than competitors.

“Buckle up,” he said with a smile. “We have done our own browser and it’s hot … it’s sweet.”

A few weeks later, I deleted it in disgust. Safari wasn’t sweet. It sucked!

Macs with ProMotion displays get Firefox performance boost

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2021 MacBook Pro models should see a performance boost with the newest Firefox browser update.
2021 MacBook Pro models should see a performance boost with the newest Firefox browser update.
Photo: Mozilla

The newest update of the Firefox browser includes a performance boost for computers with displays running at a 120Hz refresh rate or higher. That’s good news for anyone with a 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro model from 2021, which have ProMotion displays.

Those MacBook models feature Liquid Retina XDR displays with ProMotion technology for adaptive refresh rates ranging from 24Hz to 120Hz.

Safari becomes second browser to surpass 1 billion users

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Safari now has more than 1 billion users.
Safari now has more than 1 billion users.
Photo: Apple
WWDC22 - Brought to you by CleanMyMac X

Apple’s Safari web browser recently topped 1 billion users, a new study indicates, making it the second browser to do so. Even so, it still lags well behind Google Chrome in popularity.

“1,006,232,879 internet users (19.16% of all internet users) now use the Safari browser, making it the second browser with over a billion users,” the Atlas VPN report said.

Firefox and Chrome may start breaking websites soon

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Websites may have issues with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox when each one hits version 100.
Websites may have issues with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox when each one hits version 100.
Photo: Google/Apple

Google, which makes Chrome, and Mozilla, which makes Firefox, warn that those web browsers are about to reach version 100. And that could mean major websites stop working properly with them.

Why? Coded to recognize two-digit version numbers, websites may have trouble identifying browsers with three-digit numbers.

Firefox for Mac stops loading websites. Here’s how to fix it.

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Firefox fix for Mac
Firefox is broke. But you can fix it.
Image: Firefox/Cult of Mac

A growing number of Firefox users on Mac (and Windows) are reporting that they are unable to load any websites. The browser hangs indefinitely and shows nothing at all, thanks to what seems like a background server error.

The good news is that there is a relatively simple fix that you can implement yourself until Firefox eliminates the problem for good. We’ll show you how.