Web browser for MacOS
iCab
|
iCab 6.2.1 in dark mode on macOS Sonoma
|
Developer(s)
| Alexander Clauss
|
---|
Initial release
| February 17, 1999
; 25 years ago
(
1999-02-17
)
|
---|
|
Stable release
| 6.2.1
[1]
/ 5 May 2023
; 12 months ago
(
5 May 2023
)
|
---|
|
Operating system
| Mac
OS,
iOS
(active),
Classic Mac OS
7.5?9.2.2 (discontinued)
|
---|
Available in
| English, German, French, Danish, Spanish, Russian, Norwegian, Chinese and Japanese
|
---|
Type
| Web browser
Feed reader
|
---|
License
| Shareware
|
---|
Website
| icab
.de
|
---|
iCab
is a
web browser
for
MacOS
and
Classic Mac OS
by Alexander Clauss, derived from Crystal
Atari
Browser (CAB) for
Atari TOS
compatible computers.
[2]
It was one of the few browsers still updated for the classic Mac OS prior to that version being discontinued after version 3.0.5 in 2008;
[3]
Classilla
was the last browser that was maintained for that OS
[4]
but it was discontinued in 2021.
[5]
The downloadable product is fully functional, but is
nagware
?periodically displaying a
dialog box
asking the user to register the product, and upgrade to the "Pro" version.
[6]
Versions
[
edit
]
iCab 2.9.9 supports both
68k
and
PowerPC
Macintosh systems running
System 7.5
through Mac OS 9.2.2. While no longer maintained, iCab 2.9.9 is still available for download and registration.
iCab 2.9.8 runs natively on early versions of
Mac OS X
, but Mac OS X compatible versions of iCab 2.x are no longer officially available for download.
iCab 3.x can run on PowerPC systems running
Mac OS 8.5
through Mac OS 9.2.2, or PowerPC or
Intel
systems running Mac OS X 10.1 or later. iCab 3 was last updated in January 2008.
iCab 4 was rewritten to use the
Cocoa
API and the
WebKit
rendering engine
. It can run on PowerPC or Intel systems running Mac OS 10.3.9 or later.
iCab 5 was released on June 12, 2012. It runs on Mac OS 10.5 or later.
iCab 6 was rewritten using the new technologies in macOS Big Sur and released on October 31, 2020. It runs on macOS 10.13 or later.
History
[
edit
]
iCab was introduced in 1999. The first versions of iCab were criticized for not supporting
CSS
and
DOM
,
[7]
but were given praise for making it easier to navigate to links listed on pages.
[8]
iCab 3 introduced improved rendering capabilities, including support for CSS2 and
Unicode
(via the
ATSUI
toolkit). iCab 4 switched to WebKit for its
rendering engine
, giving it the same rendering abilities as Apple's
Safari
browser.
[9]
On 7 June 2009, iCab 4.6, using the WebKit rendering engine, became the first desktop browser released to display a score of 100/100 and pass the
Acid3
test.
[
citation needed
]
Apple's Safari 4 browser was released one day later and has been officially credited as being the first official release browser to pass the Acid3 test with a score of 100/100.
Features
[
edit
]
iCab features a filter manager which allows users to avoid downloading advertisements and other content. Currently iCab comes with two filters (advertisements and video). Other kinds of filters add features, such as the
YouTube
video filter
which adds a download link on all
YouTube
page views.
iCab has features for
website
developers, including an
HTML
validity checker, an automatic page refresh option, a Web Inspector, DOM Inspector,
JavaScript
debugger, and a Console. iCab's "Automatic Update" option, for any page it is rendering directly from the local hard disk, will automatically reload the page when changes are saved to disk. The HTML syntax validity checker displays a
smiley
face in the Status Bar and also, optionally, in the Toolbar. Clicking on the smiley will bring up a list of any errors on the page, as will "Error Report" from the Tools menu. Double clicking on an error will display the page source, with the offending syntax highlighted. The HTML syntax validator was first seen in the same author's earlier web browser, CAB.
iCab's Download manager allows the user to start, stop, resume and review downloads. It maintains a download history, and supports downloading of an individual page, or a whole site (crawling) with many user-selectable crawl-constraint options. It can save as portable web archives (a
ZIP
archive containing HTML, images and other files), or as individual files on the local hard drive.
iCab also contains the following features:
[10]
- Tabbed browsing
.
- Javascript and
CSS2
support.
- Multiple language support, including Arabic on older Macs (cannot display
UTF-16
pages).
- Filtering:
- Filtering out of images and plugin content (e.g. ads).
- Adjust rendering, network, JavaScript, and cookies settings for individual sites or types of pages.
- Kiosk mode: full-screen display and access controls.
- Acid2
test compliance.
- Configurable print dialog.
- History window which can sort by title, last access date, or URL.
- Hotlist (bookmark) mechanism which can automatically or manually check for updates to bookmarked sites.
- Reload a single image on a page without needing to reload the whole page.
- Disable web "annoyances" such as animated
GIFs
and embedded sound files.
- User agent spoofing
(i.e. pretending to be another browser).
- Support for sessions (i.e. saving and then loading all open windows and tabs).
- Add any query (e.g., search engine,
Wikipedia
) to the toolbar search widget by point-and-click.
iCab Mobile
[
edit
]
iCab Mobile is the mobile version of the iCab Web Browser for
iOS
and
iPadOS
. It is one of the oldest third-party web browsers for iOS,
[11]
being released in 2009.
[12]
The app is available on the app store for $1.99. iCab Mobile includes custom gestures, quick links for sharing, a drop down window that provides previews of tabs, a customizable user interface,
Apple Watch
integration, quick form filling, customizable filters for CSS pages, URLs, and cookies.
[13]
[14]
It also has a file downloader and manager and integration with the
Files
app.
[15]
Some reviewers have criticized it for its cluttered user interface.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"iCab 6.2.1 (2023/05/05)"
. 5 May 2023
. Retrieved
5 November
2023
.
- ^
Patting, Sebastian (2011-11-22).
"Interview with Alexander Clauss, iCab's Creator"
. Low End Mac
. Retrieved
2016-09-07
.
- ^
"iCab Download"
.
- ^
Smykil, Jeff (2009-07-13).
"Browse the Web in style with Classilla for Mac OS 9"
.
Ars Technica
. Retrieved
2016-09-07
.
- ^
Kaiser, Cameron (2021-03-29).
"The final official release of Classilla"
.
Old Vintage Computing Research
. Retrieved
2021-09-27
.
- ^
"Purchase/Register iCab"
. 2016-08-03
. Retrieved
2016-09-07
.
- ^
Savetz, Kevin (September 1999).
"Browser Brawl"
.
MacAddict
. No. 37. pp. 32?38.
The author mentions the lack of CSS2 and JavaScript support
- ^
Nielsen, Jakob (1999-02-23).
"iCab: New Browser With Structural Navigation"
.
Nielsen Norman Group
. Retrieved
2024-01-21
.
- ^
"iCab 4.0.1"
.
Australian Macworld
. No. 123. May 2008. p. 72-72.
- ^
Gilberstone, Scott (2008-01-03).
"iCab 4.0: A feature-packed reincarnation of the venerable mac browser"
.
Wired
. Retrieved
2016-09-07
.
- ^
Viticci, Frederico (2013-07-23).
"Launch URL Schemes with Gestures in iCab Mobile"
.
MacStories
. Retrieved
2024-01-21
.
- ^
"iCab Mobile - The Internet Taxi for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad"
.
icab-mobile.de
. Retrieved
2024-01-21
.
- ^
Writtenhouse, Sandy (2018-11-09).
"iCab Mobile review: a different web browser for your iOS device"
.
iDownloadBlog.com
. Retrieved
2024-01-21
.
- ^
Chavanu, Bakari (2014-04-12).
"iCab: Another Powerful Alternative to Safari on the iPad"
.
Make Use Of
. Retrieved
2024-01-21
.
- ^
Viticci, Frederico (2018-01-20).
"Installing tvOS Betas Over-the-Air from iOS with iCab and Dropbox"
. Retrieved
2024-01-21
.
External links
[
edit
]
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