“With the release of iOS 5 and Mac OS 10.7.2, Apple has added iCloud features to both operating systems. One of the applications that has benefited is Safari, Apple’s default web browser,” Karl Johnson writes for T-GAAP.
“The big new feature for Safari is bookmarks and reading list syncing. With these features, users can sync bookmarks and reading lists with other Macs and iOS devices,” Johnson writes. “Now that iCloud is here, Safari can now sync bookmarks with any Mac or iOS device. While one can’t sync with Chrome or Firefox yet, it is fast, and happens completely in the background without any user intervention. It only takes a couple of seconds for the new bookmarks to show up in other devices.”
Johnson writes, “With iCloud, Apple has tied the iOS and Mac versions of Safari closer together. Users now can freely move between computer or mobile device, while keeping all the bookmarks in sync with each other seamlessly in the background. Apple has made an already great browser even better. Once users become familiar with the new features, they’ll find it hard to use another browser.”
Read more in the full article here.
Killed my delicious account
Safari is my default browser in all my devices from Macs to iPhone and iPad. Nothing wrong with it as far as I can see. Much prefer it to the abomination that’s Internet Explorer 9. Microsoft thinks taste is Ballmer sticking his tongue out. As for Chrome, I used it just once and that was enough for me. I’m revolted by it. Google’s lack of taste exceeds that of Microsoft by a country mile.
I like Firefox for being the plucky little upstart that could. Besides it boasts antecedents going back to the original Netscape Navigator which gave MS such a jolt that it rushed IE out which remains rooted in Nineties metaphors to this day.
This feature existed with MobileMe. Difference is now more people will be exposed to it since iCloud is free.
Exactly. “I never knew this existed, so it must be completely new!”
Yes, it existed, but in a different, less automatic and convenient form. iCloud changes everything.
No, it doesn’t. This was already done with mm and you can sync automatically.
“Now that iCloud is here, Safari can now sync bookmarks with any Mac or iOS device.”
You missed the comment above that said, “but it’s free”. MobileMe, while it did the same thing (essentially), it was not free.
Remember when safari was a FAIL now because of that one man and his team of committed, devoted extraordinary people it’s just amazing and that’s a program (software) never mind the hardware!
One word for users of pther browsers
Xmarks
The article above does not mention that Safari’s new bookmarks and reading list syncing feature also works on PC. I have Mac at home and PC at work. Having ability to sync bookmarks between these two and my iPhone and iPad has made my life easier.
Thanks for calling attention to that. I’ve read a lot of articles about iCloud and *none* have mentioned the fact that it works cross-platform. This small feature is HUGE in my books.
The idea that bookmarks need to be synchronized instantaneously is ludicrous. Wireless carriers must be laughing all the way to the bank as you waste your high-cost data quota “completely in the background without any user intervention”.
Users already can sync their bookmarks on regular schedule or on demand when docking (wired or wirelessly) very quickly, very painlessly, and totally freely.
The insidious cloud promises such great convenience, but carriers don’t have the bandwidth to deliver it. Hey AT&T, Verizon, how’s that dropped call issue coming along?
Plenty of us have unlimited data, myself included.
Thank you, Confuzed1. You bring forth the brilliant “i don’t personally have a problem, so it’s therefore not a global problem” argument. this argument fails.
you and i do not represent the market, most if not all mobile providers are capping & surcharging data plans for new users, and this isn’t the only background syncing that your phone is going to be doing. we can’t project the future. but we do know Apple doesn’t control the network capacity, and it can’t even keep up with peak demands as it is. to build the network out to offer 99.9% reliability (which mobile telecoms have little incentive to do, because consumers accept dropped calls today and still renew their multi-year contracts), they will continue to charge high prices and demand ever longer contracts, which American consumers bizarrely accept like sheep.
bottom line: Apple can’t guarantee great “cloud” experience because they don’t control data plan, network bandwidth & connectivity, etc. but they are offering features that will pour still more cars onto an already gridlocked freeway.
please show me a cloud service that has significant percentages of users enthusiastic about its reliability and responsiveness. outside of a tightly controlled closed corporate environments, “cloud” value proposition drops like a rock.
How many bookmarks do you add or delete per month? I bookmark is a simple html file and can’t be more than just a kilobyte or two. I can’t imagine this being a data usage problem.
But I don’t want my bookmarks synced automatically, in the background. I have separate bookmarks at work, at home, and on my iPhone for a reason!
So turn off this feature
But no auto syncing of dicuments between Macs like in DropBox. And that is a serious omission.
Seriously?