Chapter  6

Browsing the Internet with Safari

When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, Steve Jobs said it was like having the Web in your pocket. The Safari web browser on the iPhone was revolutionary. It allowed you to literally touch the Web like never before. Take the iPhone Safari experience, magnify it by ten, and you'll have some idea of what browsing the Web is like on the iPad. Web pages on the iPad's screen are large and show you more than ever before with a clarity you've never imagined. It's like the iPad turns the Web into an interactive magazine in the palm of your hands.

In this chapter, you'll discover how to get the most from Safari and all its awesome powers. You'll learn how to navigate web pages, manage bookmarks, and use both Portrait and Landscape orientations. You'll also discover some great finger-tap shortcuts, bookmarking tips, and Safari's handy Reader and Reading List functions. Read on to learn about all this and more.

Getting Started with Safari

Tap the Safari application icon to launch the program. By default, Apple places it in the bottom left of the Dock. It's marked with a white compass on a blue background (see Figure 6–1). Once tapped, the Safari application opens a new window.

Figure 6–1. The Safari icon

Safari's Browser Window

Many elements on the Safari window may look familiar, especially to anyone experienced in using web browsers or Safari on the iPhone or iPod touch. Familiar elements include the Address bar, the Reload button, and the History navigation arrows. Figure 6–2 shows a typical Safari browser window.

Figure 6–2. The Safari window displays many familiar features, including the Address bar and the Back, Forward, and Bookmarks buttons.

Let's look more closely at the top of a Safari page. Atop every Safari window, you'll see the Navigation bar (see Figure 6–3). The Navigation bar contains common buttons and tools found on any modern web browser. From left to right, they are as follows:

Figure 6–3. The Safari Navigation bar

The Back button: This takes you back one page in your browsing history.

The Forward button: If you've gone back one page, the Forward button will move you one page forward in your history.

The Bookmarks button: Tap the book-shaped icon to open your Bookmarks screen. The Bookmarks screen also contains your complete browsing history for Safari as well as your Reading List. We discuss Reading List later in this chapter.

The Share button: This button looks like an arrow breaking out of a box. Tapping it displays a menu that allows you to add a bookmark of the current page, add the current page to your Reading List, add a shortcut to the page on your Home screen, mail a link to the page, tweet the page, and print the web page displayed. We'll talk more about this button later in this chapter.

The Address bar: Use the Address bar at the top center of the Safari window to enter a new web address (web addresses are uniform resource locators, also known as a URLs).

The Reload button: The arrow bent in a semicircle in the Address bar is the Reload button. Tap it to refresh the current screen.

The Stop button: As a page loads, Safari replaces the Reload button with a small X. If you change your mind after navigating to a page, tap this. It stops the current page from loading any further.

The Search bar: Tapping this gives you quick access to Google search.

Tabs: Below the menu bar you'll find tabs. If you're used to using a modern web browser, you'll be familiar with tabs. Tabs are a way to have multiple web pages open in the same window. You can quickly switch between web pages by tapping the page's tab. To the right of the last tab is a plus (+) button. Tapping this allows you quickly create a new tab. We'll talk more about tabbed browsing later in the chapter.

Navigation Basics

iPad's Safari lets you do all the normal things you expect to do in a browser. You can tap links and buttons. You can enter text into forms and so forth. In addition, Safari offers iPad-specific features you won't find on your home computer: tilting the iPad on its side moves it from Landscape to Portrait view and back. The following sections guide you through Safari's basic features.

Entering URLs

Tap the Address bar to open the URL-entry window (see Figure 6–3). The Navigation section appears at the top of your screen, and a keyboard opens from below. Between these, the screen dims, and you can still see part of the page you were on (see Figure 6–4).

Figure 6–4. The Safari window you see when operating in the URL or search fields

You'll also see a Bookmarks bar appear below the URL field and above your tabs (see Figure 6–5). These aren't all of your bookmarks but a select few you've decided to add to the Bookmarks Bar folder that's located in your collection of bookmarks. Bookmarks are generally used for quick access to your most frequently visited web sites. To activate a bookmark in the Bookmarks bar, simply tap it, and you'll be taken to its web page.

Figure 6–5. The Bookmarks bar gives you quick access to some of your bookmarks.

If the current URL field is empty, simply tap it and begin typing. You'll briefly see a contextual menu saying Paste, but don't worry about that. Just start typing, and the contextual menu will disappear (or hit the Paste button if you want to paste a URL that you've copied previously).

If the current URL field is populated (e.g., if you are already on a site and not a blank page), simply tap it. You'll see a small gray X appear where the Refresh button normally appears (see Figure 6–5). Tapping this X will clear the contents of the URL field. Additionally, if you'd like to copy the current URL, tap anywhere in the URL field, and you'll get a pop-up menu that says Select, Select All, and Paste. Tap Select All, and then tap Copy in the pop-up field that appears.

Don't worry about typing http:// or even www; Safari is smart enough to know that those are required and will add them automatically. A handy feature on the iPad's keyboard in Safari is the dedicated .com button (see Figure 6–6). This single button makes your fingers perform four keystrokes less work. What's even cooler is that, when you press and hold the .com button, you'll be presented with a pop-up field allowing you to select .edu, .org, .us, and .net.

Figure 6–6. Safari's keyboard, complete with .com, .edu, .org, .us, and .net buttons

As you type, Safari matches your keystrokes to its existing collection of bookmarks. A pop-up field will appear and display a list of possible matches from both your bookmarks and your history (see Figure 6–7). To select one, just tap it. Safari automatically navigates to the selected URL.

When you are done typing in a URL, tap Go, and Safari will navigate to the address you've entered. To return to the browser screen without entering a new URL, tap anywhere between the keyboard and the Navigation bar.

Figure 6–7. The URL entry window allows you to enter the address that you want Safari to visit.

Entering Text

Many times you'll have to fill in user names or passwords on a web page to log in, or you may be on a page that asks you to fill in other forms. To edit the contents of any text-entry field, simply tap it, and Safari will open a new text-entry keyboard.

Although this keyboard is superficially similar to the one shown in Figure 6–5, it presents a few differences. These differences include the Previous and Next buttons atop the keyboard that search for other text fields on your web page (see Figure 6–8). These buttons let you fill out forms without having to go through tedious tap/edit/done cycles. Simply enter text, tap Next, enter more text, and so forth.

Figure 6–8. The text-entry keyboard for web page forms. Notice the Previous, Next, and AutoFill buttons at the top.

Another difference from the text-entry features in Safari is the AutoFill button. Tapping the AutoFill button will automatically populate the text fields with information from your personal contact card in your address book. It will also enter stored user names and passwords. We'll talk about setting up AutoFill features later in this chapter.

To submit a form after you've entered all the text, tap Go or Search. This is like pressing the Enter or Return key on a regular computer.

Searching the Web

From any Safari window, you'll just be a tap away from a web search. As shown in Figure 6–5, a Google search field lies just to the right of the URL field. Tap this search field to bring up the keyboard and enter a term you want to search for in Google.

The search field elongates while the URL field shortens, and the Go button on the keyboard switches to a Search button. Type a word or two, and you'll see a pop-up box appear with Google-suggested search terms based on what you've typed (see Figure 6–9). To select one of the Google-suggested terms, you can simply tap it in the list or just finish typing what you are looking for and tap Search on the keyboard. Safari will navigate to www.google.com (no matter what page is currently displayed) and search for your queried term.

Figure 6–9. The search field, complete with suggested keywords

If you'd rather use Bing or Yahoo! search than Google search, you can navigate to SettingsSafari to change your default search engine (we'll go through all of Safari's settings later in this chapter).

Searching for Text on a Web Page

Safari also allows you to search for specific text on a web page. You can search for text in two ways. First is via the Google (or Yahoo! or Bing) search field. Tap inside the Google search field and enter the word or words on the web page that you are looking for. Tap where it says Find; next, tap the text you entered in the bottom of the search suggestion pop-up field (see Figure 6–10).

Figure 6–10. Searching for text on a web page

After you tap the Find command, Safari will zoom into the section of the web page with the first occurrence of the text you are looking for and highlight it in yellow (see Figure 6–11). Then, using the Search text bar at the bottom of the page, you can tap the previous or next arrow buttons to find more instances of the text on the web page. You can also refine your keyword search using the search field in the Search text bar at the bottom of the page. Tap Done or anywhere on the web page to exit text search.

Figure 6–11. Text search results displayed in Safari

The second way to search for text on a web page is just to tap Safari's search field and then enter the text you are looking for in the Find on Page search field above the keyboard that appears on screen (Figure 6–9).

Following Links

Hypertext links are used throughout the World Wide Web. Text links are marked with underlines and usually involve a color change from the main text. Image links are subtler, but they can also move you to a new location.

Tap these links to navigate to new web pages or, for certain special links, to open a new e-mail or view a map. When a link leads to an audio or video file that the iPad understands, it will play back that file. Special links include mailto: (to create Mail messages), tel: (for phone calls, if you have Skype installed on your iPad), and automatic recognition of Google Maps URLs (which will take you to the iPad's Maps app).

You have other options than simply tapping a link to get to a new page. To preview a link's address, touch and hold the link for a second or two. An address pop-up field will appear next to the link (see Figure 6–12). Below the link's full address, you'll see three buttons, which behave as follows:

The Open button: Takes you to the link as if you simply tapped it instead of touching and holding it

The Open inNew Tab button: Takes you to the link in a new Safari tab

The Add to Reading List button: Adds the current link to your Reading List

The Copy button: Copies the link so you can paste it later into an e-mail message or URL field

To cancel any of these options and stay on your current page, simply tap your finger anywhere on the screen.

Figure 6–12. Options when touching and holding a link: Open, Open in New Page, Add to Reading List, and Copy

Changing Orientation

One of the iPad's standout features is its flexible orientation support. When you turn your unit on its side, the iPad flips its display to match, as you can see in Figure 6–13. A built-in sensor detects the iPad's tilt and adjusts the display to Landscape orientation. Tilt back to vertical, and the iPad returns to Portrait orientation. It takes just a second for the iPad to detect the orientation change and to update the display. Don't forget you can always lock your screen's orientation by sliding the screen Orientation Lock button on the side of the iPad; however, you should sure you have the button set to lock the orientation and not to mute the iPad. To do this, go to SettingsGeneral and then set the Use Side Switch to: option to Lock Rotation.

Figure 6–13. Safari can display web pages using both Portrait and Landscape orientations.

The iPad's Landscape view offers a significantly wider display. This is particularly good for side-to-side tasks such as reading book-width text. The wider screen allows you to use bigger fonts and view wider columns without scrolling sideways. The Portrait view provides a longer presentation. This is great for reading web content with more narrow columns, like news feeds. You don't have to scroll quite as much in Portrait view as you do in Landscape view.

Whether in Landscape or Portrait view, Safari features work the same, including the same buttons in the same positions. In Landscape view, you enter text using a wider, sideways keyboard.

Scrolling, Zooming, and Other Viewing Skills

Safari responds to the complete vocabulary of taps, flicks, and drags discussed in Chapter 2. You can zoom in on pictures, squeeze on columns, and more. Here's a quick review of the essential ways to interact with your screen:

Drag: Touch the screen and drag your finger to reposition web pages. If you think of your iPad as a window onto a web page, dragging allows you to move the window around the web page.

Flick: When dealing with long pages, you can flick the display up and down to scroll rapidly. This is especially helpful when navigating through search engine results and news sites.

Double-tap: Double-tap any column or image to zoom in, auto-sizing it to the width of your display. Double-tap again to zoom back out. Use this option to instantly zoom into a web page's text. The iPad recognizes how wide the text is and perfectly matches that width.

Pinch: Use pinching to manually zoom in or out. This allows you to make fine zoom adjustments as needed.

Tap: Tap buttons and links to select them. Tapping allows you to move from site to site and to submit forms.

Page down: When zoomed in onto a column, double-tap toward the bottom of the screen while staying within the column. The page recenters around your tap. Make sure not to tap a link!

Jump to the top: Tap the very top of the screen (just below the time display) to pop instantly back to the top of the page.

Stop a scroll: After flicking a page to get it to scroll, you can tap the page at any time to stop that movement. Don't forget that you can also manually drag the screen display to reset the part you're viewing.

Tabbed Browsing

Safari offers tabbed browsing, allowing you to keep multiple web pages open in the same window and quickly switch between them. Tabbed browsing is a godsend if you often browse multiple web sites at the same time.

By default, Safari always has one tab open. It's the current web page you are on. You can see what one tab looks like in Figure 6–13. It's the long bar beneath the URL field with the name or header of the web site in the tab. You can have a maximum of nine tabs open at one time. If you create a new tab with nine tabs already open, it will replace the oldest tab. To see what Safari looks like with multiple tabs open, check out Figure 6–14.

You can interact with tabs in several ways:

Opening a new blank tab:To open another blank tab, tap the plus (+) button below Safari's search field. Doing so will bring up a new tab in the tab bar. You can then enter in the web address in the URL field.

Open a link in a new tab:Tap and hold on any web link on a web page. The pop-up menu will appear as shown in Figure 6–12. Tap Open in New Tab, and the link will open in a new tab.

Rearrange tabs:You can move tabs around to arrange them in the order you want. To do this, simply tap and hold a tab with your finger and then drag it to the left or right of the next tab to move it.

Close a tab:Tap the small x button that appears to the left of a web site's name or header on the currently selected tab.

View recently closed tabs:Tap and hold the plus (+) button below Safari's search field as if you were going to create a new tab. But hold it instead of letting go. A pop-up menu will appear with the history of your recently closed tabs. Tap a page from the list to open it in a new tab.

Figure 6–14. Multiple open tabs in Safari

Working with Bookmarks

One of the great features of the iPad is that it lets you take your world with you: contacts, calendars, e-mail accounts, and bookmarks. You don't have to reenter URLs for all your favorite pages on the iPad. It loads these bookmarks whenever it syncs, provided you have enabled this feature in the iTunes iPad Preferences window (see Chapter 2).

Selecting Bookmarks

A bookmarks collection can contain hundreds of individual URLs, which is why people really appreciate the iPad's simple bookmarks browser (see Figure 6–15). When you tap the Bookmarks button in the Navigation bar, a simple Bookmarks pop-up window appears. It uses the same folder structure that you've set up on your personal computer. You can tap folders to open them and tap the Back button (top-left corner) to return to the parent folder.

Figure 6–15. Use iPhone Safari's interactive Bookmarks navigation menu to locate and open your favorite bookmarks.

Identifying bookmarks is easy. Folders look like folders, and each bookmark is marked with a small open book symbol. Tap one of these, and Safari will take you directly to the page in question. If your list of bookmarks is long, simply flick or scroll through the list.

When you are on the first level of your bookmarks, you'll notice a History folder at the top. Tap it, and you'll be taken to all the pages you've visited in Safari since you last cleared the history. To clear the history, tap the Clear History button, and you'll be asked to confirm. Tap the red Clear History button to confirm (Figure 6–16).

You'll also see a folder labeled Bookmarks Bar. Any bookmarks placed in this folder will appear in the Bookmarks bar that shows below the bottom of Safari's Navigation bar when you are entering a URL (shown earlier in Figure 6–5).

Figure 6–16. Safari's History folders and the Clear History deletion confirmation

Editing Bookmarks

As Figure 6–15 shows, an Edit button appears at the top right of the bookmark's pop-up field. Tap this to enter Edit mode (see Figure 6–17).

Figure 6–17. Safari contains a built-in bookmark-management system that allows you to edit and reorder your bookmarks.

Edit mode allows you to manage your bookmarks on your iPad just as you would on your personal computer:

Delete bookmarks: Tap the red Delete circle icon to the left of a bookmark to delete it. Tap Delete to confirm or tap elsewhere on the screen to cancel.

Reorder bookmarks: Use the gray grab handles (the three lines on the far right) to move folders and bookmarks into new positions. Grab, drag, and then release.

Edit names: Tap the gray Reveal arrow (the sideways V symbol to the right of each name) to open the Edit Bookmark or Edit Folder screen. Use the keyboard to make your changes and tap the Back button to return to the Bookmarks editor.

Re-parent items: You can move items from one folder to another by tapping the parent folder field below the Name edit field. Select a folder, and then tap the Back button to return to the Bookmarks editor. Unfortunately, you don't get the same wild animation that you do in Mail when you send an item to a new folder, but at least it works reliably.

Add folders: Tap New Folder to create a folder in the currently displayed bookmarks. The iPad automatically opens the Edit Folder screen. Here, you can edit the name and, if needed, reparent your new folder. Tap Back to return to the editor.

Finish: Return to the top-level Bookmarks list (tap the Back button until you reach it), and then tap Done. This closes the editor and returns to your bookmarks list.

Saving Bookmarks and Sharing Web Pages

To save a new bookmark, tap the Share button in the Navigation bar of any Safari web page. It's just to the left of the Address field. A sharing pop-up menu appears, giving you six choices (see Figure 6–18):

Figure 6–18. Tap the Share button to see all the ways you can share a web page.

Add Bookmark: Tapping this lets you enter a title for the bookmark and then optionally select a folder to save it to (see Figure 6–19). Tap the currently displayed folder to view a list of all available folders. The root of the bookmark tree is called Bookmarks. After making your selection, tap Save. Safari adds the new bookmark to your collection. If you want to return to Safari without saving, tap Cancel.

Add to Reading List: Tapping this adds the current page to your Reading List. We'll talk about Reading List in a moment.

Figure 6–19. Add Bookmark allows you to rename the bookmark before you save it.

Add to Home Screen: This is a cool feature. Tapping this adds an icon of the web page to your iPad Home screen. Apple calls these web page icons Web Clips. Before you save a Web Clip, you have the option of renaming it. Keep the names short, so you can see the entire name under the Web Clip icon on the Home screen.

Web Clips look just like app icons and allow you to simply tap to open Safari and automatically be taken to the web page. We keep a Home screen on the iPad full of our favorite Web Clips so we can quickly navigate to our most frequently visited sites (see Figure 6–20). We find this much quicker than using the Bookmarks feature in Safari.

Figure 6–20. A series of Web Clips on the iPad Home screen. You can see which sites have dedicated Web Clip icons and which ones make iPad use a thumbnail of the web page.

In iTunes the Web Clips will appear in the virtual iPad screen on the Apps tab (see Chapter 2). Note that you canonly rearrange Web Clips within iTunes, not delete them. To delete a Web Clip icon on the iPad, press and hold it until it jiggles, and then tap the X in the upper-left corner.

Mail Link to this Page: Tapping this button opens a new Mail message window in Safari and automatically inserts the link into the body of the message.

Tweet: Tapping this button will compose a Twitter message that you can send out to all your followers (Figure 6–21). You must have a Twitter account to use this feature.

Figure 6–21. Tweeting a link from Safari to your Twitter account

Print: Tap this button to bring up the Print menu (Figure 6–22). The Print menu allows you to select which wireless AirPrint printer you want to print to, as well as the number of copies you want to print. After you have made your choices, click the Print button.

Figure 6–22. Printing a web page from Safari

Eliminating Clutter with Reader

Safari has an awesome built-in feature that all other mobile web browsers lack. It's called Reader (not to be confused with Reading List, another awesome feature that we'll talk about shortly). Reader allows you to eliminate all the clutter on web pages, such as the ads, the comments, and the banners, and read the content of that page as if you were reading it from a piece of paper. You can see Reader in action in Figure 6–23.

Figure 6–23. Safari's Reader feature. Left: a web page as it normally appears. Right: the same web page when viewed through Reader.

As you can see in Figure 6–23, viewing the text on a web page through Reader is much easier because all the distractions are eliminated. To activate Reader, click the gray Reader button that appears in the Address bar. The Reader document will slide up onto screen. To exit Reader mode, click the now purple Reader button in the URL field. Notice that the Reader button appears only when you are on a web page that has a single article. You will not see a Reader button on the front page of the New York Times web site, for example; you'll see it only when you view single articles on the site.

Building Up Your Reading List

Reading List is another new feature of Safari in iOS 5. It allows you to save web pages to read when you have the time. I know, that sounds a lot like adding a bookmark, right? It's similar, but Reading List is more of a temporary bookmark. It's for that cool article we find about a small town in Andorra, which we want to read but don't have time right now. It's not a bookmark we want to keep forever; it's just something we want to make sure we return to read. You can think of reading list almost as tearing an article out of a newspaper you want to read later.

To add a page to your Reading List, tap the Share button at the bottom Safari's window. The Sharingmenu appears (see Figure 6–18). Tap Add to Reading List. Your web page has now been added to your Reading List.

To access your Reading List, tap the Bookmarks button in Safari. In the bookmarks screen you'll see a folder labeled Reading List with a pair of eyeglasses as an icon at the top (Figure 6–15). Tap it to view your Reading List. The Reading List panel (Figure 6–24) contains all the web articles you've added to it. If the Reading List menu is open and you are on a web page that has not been saved to it, you can tap the plus (+) button that appears in the upper-right corner of the Reading List menu.

Figure 6–24. Safari's Reading List

In the Reading List menu you can tap a tab to see all the articles you've ever added or just the ones you haven't read yet. Simply select an article in the Reading List to load it in Safari and read the saved web page.

Any saved page will disappear from the Unread section of Reading List after you have scrolled through its entirety; however, it will always show in the All section until you manually remove it. To remove pages from Reading List, simply swipe right over the article and tap the red Delete button that appears.

One of the best features about Reading List is that is synced across all your computers and iOS devices (like the iPad and iPhone) that use Safari. This allows you to find an interesting article on Safari on your iPad, save it to Reading List, and then read it on your Mac or iPhone. Just open up Safari, and the article will appear in Reading List no matter what device you are on. Safari accomplishes this by syncing Reading List via your iCloud account.

Safari Settings

Like many apps on the iPad, Safari can be customized to a degree. Customize your Safari settings by navigating to the Settings app on your iPad Home screen and tapping Safari. This screen, shown in Figure 6–25, allows you to control a number of features, mostly security related. Here's a quick rundown of those features and what they mean:

Figure 6–25. The Safari Settings window is primarily concerned with security features.

Search Engine: This setting determines which search engine is used for the search field you saw in Figure 6–3. Choose from Google, Bing, or Yahoo!

AutoFill: This allows you to turn on AutoFill for use in filling out forms on web pages. In the My Info box, select your address book card to take the AutoFill information from. Here you can also choose to turn on Names & Passwords. With this feature on, Safari will remember login names and passwords to web sites you visit. Tap Clear All to wipe all saved names and passwords from your iPad.

Open New Tabs in Background: When this is set to On, any links opened in new tabs will open in the background. This means you'll remain on the page from where you opened the link in a new tab. You won't be automatically taken to that page unless you turn this option Off.

Always Show Bookmarks Bar: Turn this on, and you'll always see the Bookmarks bar below Safari's Navigation bar; otherwise, this bar appears only when you select the URL field (see Figure 6–5).

Private Browsing: When private browsing is enabled, your web history will not be saved, nor will any of the user names, passwords, web searches, or text you enter on a web page.

Accept Cookies: Cookies refer to data stored on your iPad by the web sites you visit. Cookies allow web sites to remember you and to store information about your visit. You can choose to always accept cookies, never accept cookies, or accept cookies only “From visited” web sites.

Clear History: Tap and confirm to empty your page Navigation history from your iPad. This keeps your personal browsing habits private to some extent, although other people can still scan though your bookmarks.

Clear Cookies and Data: Tap and confirm to clear all existing cookies and cache from your iPad. Your iPad's browser cache stores data from many of the web sites you visit. It uses this to speed up page loading the next time you visit. As with cookies and history, your cache may reveal personal information that you'd rather not share. Tap Clear Cache and Confirm to clear your cache.

Fraud Warning: Turn this preference on, and you'll be presented with a warning before navigating to a potentially fraudulent web sites. Unfortunately, fraudulent sites are rampant on the Internet (like bogus PayPal sites). This feature helps you recognize and avoid those sites.

JavaScript: JavaScript allows web pages to run programs when you visit them. Disabling JavaScript means you increase overall surfing safety, but you also lose many cool and worthy web features. Most pages are safe to visit, but some, sadly, are not. To disable JavaScript, switch this from On to Off.

Block Pop-ups: Many web sites use pop-up windows for advertising. It's an annoying reality of surfing the Web. By default, Safari pop-up blocking is On. Switch this setting to Off to allow pop-up window creation.

Advanced: This preference gives you control over databases and debugging. Most people will never need to use it. Some sites like Gmail use databases. These databases store local information on your iPad for offline browsing. Emptying databases can clear up problems you may be having on certain web sites. The debug consol helps developers optimizing their web sites for the iPad.

The iPad and Flash Videos

If you've ever watched a video on the Web, chances are it was encoded using Flash. Ever since Apple unveiled the iPhone to the world, there has been growing tension between Apple and Adobe. The reason for this: Apple does not allow Adobe's proprietary Flash plug-in to run on the iPhone—or the more recent iPad.

Flash, in Apple's estimation, is a slow, buggy, and archaic technology. Steve Jobs himself even posted a letter on Apple's web site effectively telling the world the same thing (www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/). His letter was the final word for anyone hoping to see Flash on the iPad or iPhone. It's just not going to happen.

What many people misunderstand when they hear “no Flash on the iPad” is that they think the iPad can't play web videos. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, if a video is encoded in Flash, you can't view it on the iPad. And while most videos on the Web (about 75 percent of them, Steve Jobs said) are encoded in Flash, most are also available in a new, universal web standard called HTML5. HTML5 videos don't require a plug-in to play. HTML5 is also much less power hungry than Flash—an important feature when dealing with mobile devices that consume battery power.

The world is moving to HTML5, and Apple chose to support it—and open standards—instead of Adobe's aging and proprietary Flash. Most of YouTube's videos have already been re-encoded to support HTML5, and many other major web sites have chosen to drop Flash in favor of the new HTML5 web standard.

Summary

The iPad turns browsing the Internet from something you did at your desk to something you can do in the comfort of your lap as leisurely as if you were flipping through a magazine. In a way, browsing the Internet on the iPad gives web pages a tangibility they've never been capable of before—you can just reach out and touch them. It's very likely that, after using Safari on iPad to surf, you'll never want to explore the Web any other way.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you move on from this chapter:

• iPads work in more ways than the traditional vertical, or Portrait, orientation. Go ahead and flip your iPad on its side to view web pages in Landscape mode. Your Safari pages will adjust.
• Nope, there's no Flash support. There never will be. And you don't need it.
• Web Clips are a great way to access your favorite web sites right from your iPad's Home screen.
• Tap the top of any Safari page (right below the clock in the Status bar) to quickly return to the top of the web page.
• Safari's tabbed browsing lets you navigate back and forth between multiple web pages at once, just like you can on desktop web browsers.
• Don't confuse Reader and Reading List. Reader lets you strip away ads and read a web page's text as if you were reading a newspaper. Reading List allows you to save interesting articles to come back to at your leisure.