iCab: Readers Views

Feb 25, 1999

From Stephen Ickes (25 Feb 1999)

I noticed that none of your reviews mentioned a 68k version of iCab. So I asked the developers when that would be available. Their answer (ref email below) is next week.

This is good news for those of us still using 68k machines. Right now Netscape 2.02 is about the only choice for a "modern" browser (although I've never tried CyberDog) that isn't overly slow on these older but still useful machines.

Subject: Re: iCab 68k?
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 99 15:29:42 +0100
From:Alexander Clauss

>Wann ist die Version 68k vorhanden?

A 68K version will be available soon
(probably next week).

Regards,
Alexander Clauss

(While it was evident from the offical iCab website that a 68K version was in the pipeline, I thought not to mention it till it was ready for release. Well, now we all know for sure, thanks to Alexander and Steve.)

From Jim Andrews (25 Feb 1999)

As a professional journalist for over 40 years, and who broke into computing on a Univac 1004 in the mid 1960s, the advent of the Linux OS now followed by the iCab browser is like a breath of fresh air to this tired old maven.

I presently use two macs and one pee cee for my work and keep office spreadsheet chores on a Trash 80 4p, 1984 vintage, driving 3 printers, thank you very much. I think this melange of machinery qualifies me to observe that the whole cyberworld is not headed for perdition in a handbasket.

I have been a staunch advocate for a single OS to be used as a STANDARD on everything smaller than a mainframe. I know this is about as likely to happen as for Microsoft to ship a new bug free program, but I can dream can't I?

My compliments to your editorial staff for your continued presentation of events and happenings that are of wide and very diverse interests to your readers.

Regards, Jim Andrews.

(Ed: Thank you Jim for the wonderful compliment. It means a lot coming from a professional journalist like yourself.)

From Liam Gray (22 Feb 1999)

I downloaded iCab Saturday night and so far it's just great! There seems to be a definite speed increase in loading pages and especially in diplaying a page already stored in cache. The bugs I've found so far are a problem displaying HTML that differs from the norm even a LITTLE bit, and that it does not highlight the text in the URL window when selected. I was able to import my bookmarks from Communicator 4.5 with no problem, and the support of themes within OS 8.5 is great!!! I'm currently running the "Drawing Board" theme (shhhh!! Don't tell...) and it looks just great. I'm also writing this message in iCab, and it seems good, although it doesn't appear to textwrap at the end of the window. Just so ya know my system is a Beige G3 233 clocked to 266 with 96 megs of ram. I can't wait for an official release, and if they just incorporate email I'll give Communicator the boot!

From Ken Mingis (22 Feb 1999)

I have a quick question about iCab that maybe you can help me figure out. First, I agree with you. It is a sweet little browser, with a few caveats. However, I'm having one little annoying problem that I can't solve. I regularly read the New York Times on the web. when I try to read stories using iCab, I can't. Clicking on a link to a specific story brings up a blank page with ASCII as the title. Any thoughts? (If I spoke German, I'd write the iCab folks.) Maybe my system's just misconfigured somehow. But I doubt it. Cheers, Ken Mingis.

(Ed: Anyone have a similar problem? Let me know.)

From Corey Reid (22 Feb 1999)

iCab does indeed reflect the currently chosen Theme in OS 8.5. I have run it under Drawing Board and the result is quite appealing.

Fast and sleek. Gotta love it.

From Porsupah (23 Feb 1999)

Just one tiny nitpick with the iCab (p)review: it *is* indeed possible to have the contextual menu appear by keeping the button pressed. You need to turn the option on, however - it's the top part of the preferences, bottom option. (And note that you can even specify the time period after which the menu will appear!)

A very good, intelligent review, nonetheless. And I agree with the sentiments: it's a *very* fast critter indeed, and as configurable as anyone could possibly want, down to the name of the browser that it'll send to servers. I'm *very* impressed, the rendering glitches notwithstanding.

What with iCab now, Opera sometime later in the year, and Mozilla in the wings - does this mean M$ might actually be compelled to write.. compact, elegant code?

I have hopes for iCab. Certainly, the MacOS market's not *as* large as Windoze, but they could nonetheless make quite an impact upon the browser scene. One would hope the newspapers and other "mainstream" media sources will notice their work before too long.

In that spirit: I noticed a message on the EvangeList last night, from someone wanting to use 2,500 iMacs for kiosk browser purposes. Unfortunately, neither of the Big Boys offer that kind of intentionally limited functionality. I suggested that iCab might be willing to twiddle their wares for his purposes, especially for such a sizeable order. It's another of those cases where an M$ solution is out there, but the person would *prefer* to use something Mac - and I'd have to agree, the iMac does make an awfully nice kiosk solution - no need for an extra cabinet, after all!

From Dave Sopchak (23 Feb 1999)

Read your review of iCab, and I can tell you it read my Netscape bookmarks fine, and there is an option to time delay click in the window to popup menus rather than control click.

It does have drag and drop support for urls (and all text) in an open window, which Netscape 4.0.8 doesn't have, that's for sure...

Pretty awesome preview release! It's already my default browser.

From George Mcclelland (23 Feb 1999)

Tried, played with and was impressed with its size. Didn't always load all the articles on MacSurfer and so I went back to IE. I did like the smaller type of the favorites or whatever they call it and the history as IE's list is big and clunky.

Wannabee, a very small browser that only loads text is really fast but for high-speed, mind-blowing loads of text and graphics there is the one and only Linux. http://pluto.njcc.com/~dtp/wb2/wannabe.html

From Eolake (23 Feb 1999)

Nice article on iCab.

You wrote: (Personally, I hope none of you would do that because websites like this one depend solely on banner ad impressions to keep running. Believe me when I say that the revenue from banner ads is peanuts.)

This seems self-contradictory to me. Shouldn't you be more worried of losing banner revenue if it was big?

Further, aren't people who are so irritated over banner ads that they will go to lengths to turn them off, rather unlikely to click on them anyway?

From Greg Valyer (23 Feb 1999)

iCab seems to be a great little browser. However, I don't know if iCab has what it takes right now to take a big chunk of the browser market. What I feel iCab needs is something that makes it stand out in a crowd... and that I feel would be Skins support. Imagine customizing your browser like you do MacAmp... now that would be revolutionary.

From Chris Meiering (24 Feb 1999)

I just read your article on iCab and was wondering if you have any specs to back up your statements addressing the speed of iCab. Although I have not done any formal benchmarking, on my 7200/90 as well as on a G3/300, iCab seems undeniably slower than Comm4.5. The page layout clearly displays faster, but images load excruciatingly slow. Both of my test machines are on a LAN, connected via a T3 to the net. I tried fiddling with the number of connections to no avail. If you have any benchmarks, please display them on your site, I and many others would be interested in seeing them.

(Ed: Sorry, no specs — not yet anyway. I'm just telling it like it is. One thing's for sure though — iCab doesn't discriminate against slower memory-challenged Macs.)

Got a comment to add? Send it over.

---

More Articles:

Upgraded Twice Over — And Grateful [Oct 10, 2001]

Welcome To The Future [Mar 21, 2001]

iM2 — Incredible Milestones of The iMac NewsPage [Jun 1, 2000]

What's to like about Netscape 6? Quite a bit [Apr 17, 2000]

Dealing with IE5's font and resolution settings [Mar 28, 2000]

Free Internet Arrives in Singapore [Dec 12, 1999]

Mac sales in Japan (Dec 1999) [Dec 9, 1999]

Mac sales in Japan (Nov 8-14) - iMac DV SE, iBook still #1 [Nov 23, 1999]

Adding Movies To QuickTime Favorites [Nov 23, 1999]

Black Magix: Try saying hocus-bogus [Nov 19, 1999]

Mac sales in Japan (Oct 25-31) [Nov 11, 1999]

QuickTime Live! Conference Keynote Highlights [Nov 10, 1999]

Update on Mac sales in Japan — All iMacs, iBooks among Top 10 [Nov 10, 1999]

Apple tops October PC sales in Japan [Nov 7, 1999]

About that mysterious Magix freeze [Nov 7, 1999]

Magix Miscellany [Nov 7, 1999]

Make Kihei while the Sun shines [Nov 3, 1999]

Apples in Eden — The Singapore iBook Launch [Nov 1, 1999]

One Country, Two Systems — The Apple Store (Hongkong) Opens [Oct 28, 1999]

Apple Store Singapore Opens — Right On Time [Oct 20, 1999]

Mac sales in Japan remain strong [Oct 26, 1999]

Magix For The Mac — The Unofficial FAQ [Oct 25, 1999]

Macs outsell all other computers in Japan [Oct 21, 1999]

Asia Apple Stores to open in Singapore and Hongkong [Oct 20, 1999]

Magix Broadband for Macintosh — for just $48! [Oct 20, 1999]

Asia Apple Store Update [Oct 18, 1999]

New iMacs as quiet as Jobs claims [Oct 12, 1999]

New iMacs quieter than Jobs claims? [Oct 10, 1999]

Asia Apple Store Seeks Tech Support Temp [Sep 23, 1999]

G4 — the Real Story? [Sep 17, 1999]

Sorenson Broadcaster™ Press Release [Sep 15, 1999]

Magix for iMac Update [Sep 10, 1999]

Magix for iMac Update [Aug 30, 1999]

PC Fairy Tales: Jobs And The Binstock [Aug 20, 1999]

AirPort Delays: More Revelations [Aug 12, 1999]

Stand Up For Macintosh [Aug 12, 1999]

AirPort Delays: What's Not Causing It [Aug 11, 1999]

Dumb iBook Remarks [Aug 9, 1999]

The Avon Lady's Back [Aug 9, 1999]

The IEEE 802.11 Standard — in English [Jul 29, 1999]

Everybody's Free (To Buy iBook) [Jul 26, 1999]

AirPort Fallacies [Jul 24, 1999]

iBook and iMac: Sibling Rivalry? [Jul 23, 1999]

Just The FAQs, Man [Jul 22, 1999]

Hooray for AirPort — But Remember the McPiper? [Jul 21, 1999]

Additional Notes on Magix ADSL [Jul 20, 1999]

Apple, SingTel Magix team up to bring ADSL to iMacs [Jul 20, 1999]

DuoPen & e-Pad coming to the Mac [Jul 9, 1999]

Macworld is out, Publish! World is in [Jul 5, 1999]

Discovery Channel giving away iMacs [Jun 28, 1999]

TIME Asia giving away Apple computers [Jun 28, 1999]

Diamond Rio makes a play for iMac [Jun 26, 1999]

Magix for iMac [Jun 25, 1999]

Why would Apple want 30,000 McPipers? [Jun 24, 1999]

Singapore Macworld Expo Cancelled [Jun 20, 1999]

The Sunscreen Song [Jun 20, 1999]

Coming Soon: A USB Cordless Phone For Your iMac [Jun 19, 1999]

Third Voice: Boon or Bane? [Jun 14, 1999]

I2: The Internet Of The Future [Jun 5, 1999]

Taming Your Round Mouse: What The Manual Doesn't Say [Jun 4, 1999]

UniTrap: Contour Enhancement for the iMac Mouse [Jun 1, 1999]

iMacs to ship in Taiwan with free Chinese software [May 31, 1999]

Where The Truth Lies [May 23, 1999]

QuickTime 4: New Features Added [May 8, 1999]

QuickTime 4: The Beta Just Got Better [May 5, 1999]

Rev A or B, Your iMac's Still Good [Apr 30, 1999]

Griffin Revs Up iMate, iPort, and gPort [Apr 26, 1999]

Quick! Time 4 A Movie! [Apr 23, 1999]

Message in a Bottle: A Present for the Future [Apr 22, 1999]

Start a Hand-Me-Down Program For iMacs [Apr 13, 1999]

First Signs Of Y2K Bug May Appear Tomorrow [Apr 8, 1999]

Langa's Cruisin' For A Bruisin' [Apr 1, 1999]

Tales From The Dark Side [Mar 31, 1999]

Has The Age of Disposable Computers Arrived? [Mar 30, 1999]

A Solution For The iMac's Mouse: Simple As A Dimple [Mar 24, 1999]

Steve Jobs Interview on Channel NewsAsia [Mar 14, 1999]

Good-Buy, Bondi [Mar 6, 1999]

Tokyo Tidbits: Carbon iMacs and Cool Colored Speakers [Feb 27, 1999]

The iMac Book [Feb 26, 1999]

iCab: Readers Views [Feb 25, 1999]

Review: iCab Preview 1.1 (US) [Feb 24, 1999]

iCab: Why Bloat When You Can Float? [Feb 22, 1999]

Disney Rumor Echoes Blast From The Past [Feb 19, 1999]

Disney Blast and the iMac's Circular Mouse [Feb 18, 1999]

HAL Freezes Over [Feb 1, 1999]

Another Look at Internet Explorer 4.5 [Jan 19, 1999]

Old Wine In New Bottles? [Jan 16, 1999]

The Unofficial iMac Web Ads [Jan 15, 1999]

AroMac Therapy [Jan 12, 1999]

Theft of an iMac: A Victim's Story [Jan 8, 1999]

Multi-Colored iMacs A Reality [Jan 2, 1999]

Yosemites spotted [Dec 25, 1998]

Time's Man Of The Year? [Dec 15, 1998]

Another Reset Button Solution for iMac Owners [Dec 9, 1998]

2,000 in 2 days - and then what? [Nov 1, 1998]

Product Review: iMacFloppy.com [Oct 24, 1998]

Brace Yourself! [Oct 16, 1998]

Singapore's iMac Pre-Launch Bash [Oct 15, 1998]

iMac to launch with Mac OS 8.5 in Singapore [Oct 15, 1998]

Steve Jobs October 14 Event [Oct 14, 1998]

Dances With Wolves in Sheep's Clothing [Oct 4, 1998]

iMac: Thinking Different in Asia [Sep 22, 1998]

An Open Letter to Steve Jobs [Sep 17, 1998]

Mac-bashing: An American sport? [Sep 10, 1998]

Steve Jobs Seybold Keynote '98 [Sep 1, 1998]

One day more! [Aug 28, 1998]

iMac to be released in Singapore in October [Aug 22, 1998]

Reality, not rumors! [Aug 8, 1998]

iMac says G'day Australia: 31 days and counting! [Aug 5, 1998]

Famous Myths Revisited [Aug 3, 1998]

The Countdown Begins! [Aug 1, 1998]

If not now, when? [July 26, 1998]

Four Great Programs? [July 26, 1998]

MacWorld Expo Singapore - Day 2 Report [Jul 25, 1998]

MacWorld Expo Singapore - Day 1 Report [Jul 24, 1998]

Enter The iMacGotcha [Jul 16, 1998]

iMac's for the rest of us, not just US [Jul 1, 1998]

---