Apple starts using WebKit2 in Mac OS X Lion Safari... Will iOS 5 be next?
Looks like Apple has finally shipped WebKit2 as part of Safari 5 in the recent Mac OS X Lion beta -- so does that mean we can expect it in iOS 5 for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad? Originally announced in April, 2010 just as the first iPad was arriving:
WebKit2 is designed from the ground up to support a split process model, where the web content (JavaScript, HTML, layout, etc) lives in a separate process. This model is similar to what Google Chrome offers, with the major difference being that we have built the process split model directly into the framework, allowing other clients to use it.
WebKit is the open-source browser rendering engine that originated as KHTML/Konquerer on Linux but was taken under Apple’s wing and became the core of Safari on both the desktop and the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. (Google also uses it for Chrome, Android, and Chrome OS, Palm for the webOS browser, and RIM is developing a WebKit browser for BlackBerry).
While a year from announcement to deployment (even in beta) isn't screaming fast, it does make for better, more stable browsing and if anything can benefit from that, it's mobile. Let's hope iOS gets it this year as well.
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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I remember Apple talking about this some time ago ,about the feature that only allows the Tab in Safari to crash rather than the entire application. That would be very useful but what about other applications ? Is it possible for only the area where the hang occurs to quit and restart it self rather than causing the entire application to crash ?
@OmariJames, the split process model works well for a web browser as each tab is separate from the others, meaning if a tab crashes the others can continue to function without it.
However in other applications this may not be the case, and it's up to the application vendor to implement such features if it's possible.
Interesting. I hope apple extends this feature to their other applications especially mail , which next to safari , crashes and hangs the most out of all the native Mac applications.
i have more than 25000 mails of mobileme and some 5000 of gmail and some 1000 of hotmail and some 500 of 2nd mobileme account... mail.app never crashes nor it hangs at all... it is as smooth as the day i've started using... i'm on SL 10.6.6 and i'm using macbook early 2008 model.
Maybe Snow Leopard Mail is more stable than Leopard Mail. I'm using a 2008 iMac. It happens at weird times so it hard to explain exactly what happens that causes it. Although I mainly notice it when I try to restart and Mail is the only application that prevents the restart from happening. Otherwise it doesn't crash if I'm trying to use it normally.
Does it also use more memory as you open more tabs, like Chrome does? That wouldn't be good in memory-constrained mobile devices.
At a guess, i would say yes, there will be some additional overhead per tab.
Not to nit-pick, but Blackberry OS 6 already has a WebKit browser.
Maybe you read the article again. They are talking WebKit2. iOS is also WebKit. Not to pick nits.
Not just the browser, Palm uses webkit for pretty much anything not written in C/C++.
i'd love to see webkit2 on ios 4.3!!!