iOS 4.3 Update Tested

The only concern I had was that the benchmark apps were all iPhone apps, not true iPad apps, but it shouldn’t affect the overall results.  I used GeekBench 2 ($0.99), Gauge Mathematical Tool (free), BenchTest ($0.99), SunSpider (free) and V8 (free) to test the performance of each OS version on the iPad. I performed all the tests on the same device, both before and after the upgrade.

Results for the Wi-Fi iPad

For the most part, the test results showed that performance was slightly better on iOS 4.2.1 than on iOS 4.3 on the iPad.  But overall, the results were close enough to consider the upgrade to iOS 4.3 on the iPad simply worthwhile.  That is, until you look at the JavaScript test results. Mobile Safari on the iPad was significantly faster on iOS 4.3.  The only problem I ran into was that the Google V8 JavaScript tests would not complete on the iPad.  The test would either hang or crash mobile Safari.  I had a similar issue on the iPhone 3G when trying to execute the same tests.

Results for the iPhone 4

While I couldn’t upgrade my iPhone 3G, I could apply the latest update to my iPhone 4 for comparison to prior results and see how it was affected by by the upgrade.  Unlike on the iPad, I’ve been maintaining benchmark results on my iPhone 4 for some time now, so I have some historical data to compare the latest tests to:

Over time, you can see where the performance of iOS on the iPhone 4 has slowly degraded with each release. 4.3 is no exception to this trend.  Keep in mind that this performance degradation is not nearly as dramatic as that which occurred with the iPhone 3G.  Note also the continual increase in performance noted in the JavaScript performance with each release.  The 4.3 update is the most significant yet in that regard on the iPhone 4.

Conclusions

For what you get in the form of features withe the iOS 4.3 update, and for the almost insignificant general performance hit on the iPad, the upgrade is overall a great one.  Any time you get more features for little or no degradation in performance is a good thing.

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The script, which goes by the name of Gordon, was capably developed by Tobias Schneider, a programmer from Munich, Germany. Sadly the small script does not give true fully functional Flash support to the iPhone, as the software only enables Flash files to be displayed within the iPhone’s Safari browser.

However, the hapless and rather weighted shortcomings do not end there, as in order for the script to work correctly, website owners must incorporate Schneider’s code on each and every flash page they want to display correctly on the iPhone. In addition to this, preliminary tests have shown that pages running the new Gordon hack push the iPhone’s central processing unit (CPU) to it’s up-most limits.

Schneider’s freely distributed open-source project, which works thanks to a Flash runtime written in pure JavaScript, unfortunately has its limitations, despite it being admirable and in some ways a successful effort. The restraints in place will stop this nifty piece of code from receiving wide-spread adoption, so don’t expect too many Flash-enabled sites popping up on your iPhone any time soon.

If you want to see Flash in action on your iPhone now, you can. Simply get Safari open and head on over to Paul Irish’s site to give various demos of Gordon a spin. But be warned Adobe’s Flash is one resource-intensive extension which will eat at your iPhone’s battery power in no time.

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In a lengthy post comparing developing using Cocoa Touch for the App Store vs. developing web applications, Gruber goes over the strengths and limitations of both. In the end, he reveals that a new web app framework would bring the experience of using web apps much closer to that of apps which reside natively on the iPhone. The new framework is apparently called PastryKit, and it’s an official Apple endeavor.

PastryKit brings three really important things to the table for web developers:

• Hides the address bar, without the need to create a home screen shortcut first, which currently allows that.
• Allows for static, fixed position toolbars that don’t scroll along with the rest of the page.
• Allows for scrolling momentum, which allows users to “fling” lengthy lists without causing scroll friction, the way web apps generally do now.

PastryKit has already been deployed in its iPhone User Guide web page, though you can only see the effects if you’re visiting the site on an iPhone. They are all JavaScript implementations, and so should be usable by any web developer. MacRumors points out that performance issues attached to the new features could arise on older-generation iPhone models, since these are known to have trouble with JavaScript in mobile Safari.

There’s little doubt that Apple is keeping its eye on the mobile web space, which is poised to explode thanks to recent developments in web tech like HTML5, CSS and others. There are some things that the App Store is no doubt better for, including advanced 3-D games like the kind released by Gameloft, ngmoco and EA, but for other apps, an improved web interface could be just what the doctor ordered.

If Apple can get smaller developers who are creating apps with limited or light functionality to take their business to the web instead of routing through the App Store, it’ll be able to eliminate a lot of the static and chatter that currently gums up the review process and no doubt costs Cupertino a not-insignificant amount of overhead. It may lose revenue, too, but the more lucrative titles will likely remain as dedicated apps, being the aforementioned games from major publishers I mentioned above.

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Regarding security, the update addresses several potential “maliciously crafted” attacks–are there such things as benevolently crafted attacks? One uses a color profile, which is inventive, if evil. Others use XML, shortcut menus, or the user’s desire to visit web pages or FTP sites of questionable virtue.

Sadly, as the Mac gains greater popularity, the mantra of “security through obscurity” becomes less and less reassuring. This is one area where Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer may end up having an actual advantage over OS X and Safari, Windows having been forced to exist in a state of siege for so long.

As for improvements to stability and performance, it’s not just the usual boilerplate text included with the update this time. Besides supposed stability improvements for third-party plug-ins, the search field, and Yahoo! Mail, Safari 4.0.4  has “improved full history search performance for users with a large number of history items.” I’m one of those users, and I would cringe when going to “Show All History” and using the realtime search box. The first few letters would stall Safari every time, not so much now.

Safari 4.0.4 also improves JavaScript performance. Running the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark, Safari 4.0.4 is 1.08 times as fast version 4.0.3 overall, with “significant” increases in many tests.

Finally and most importantly, Safari 4.0.4 does not break ClickToFlash. Upgrade (and restart) away.

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There has been a reasonable amount of speculation surrounding JavaScript speed improvements in iPhone 3.0. Testing carried out on the iPhone Simulator bundled with the SDK didn’t lead to a conclusive outcome, but benchmarking done by Wayne Pan would seem to suggest that iPhone 3.0 handles JavaScript 3x-10x faster than iPhone 2.1.

Last year the WebKit development team released information about a new JavaScript engine, slated to have a dramatic improvement in performance. Originally dubbed SquirrelFish (now called ‘Nitro’), to date it has not been included in any major release of the iPhone OS. Expectations are that the performance enhancements found in iPhone 3.0 are due to the inclusion of the SquirrelFish engine, leading to faster web site browsing and snappier web app performance.

The new Nitro engine has gradually been improved by the WebKit team over the past year, and is included in the latest Safari 4 Beta. This new engine accounts for the dramatic performance improvement in Safari 4, which Apple states as enhancing both JavaScript and HTML rendering:

Using the new Nitro Engine, for example, Safari executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than 3 times faster than Firefox 3 based on performance in leading industry benchmark tests: iBench and SunSpider.

In addition to superior JavaScript performance, Safari offers top-flight HTML performance — the best on any platform — loading pages 3 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and almost 3 times faster than Firefox 3.

While Nitro is certainly responsible for the improved JavaScript performance, better HTML loading times may be due to other browser enhancements. Hopefully these will also make the move to Mobile Safari, increasing performance and page loading speed. This is even more important on a mobile device, where connection speed is far more limited than on most desktop machines.

Moving this new engine across to Mobile Safari on the iPhone is indeed the next logical step, and the 3.0 release of Apple’s iPhone operating system would seem a reasonable point at which to integrate it. John Gruber created a simple script to test whether a browser is likely to be running the Nitro engine — this tests positive in Safari 4, and he confirmed yesterday that the test is also passed on the iPhone 3.0.

All these pieces of an ongoing puzzle would seem to lead to a fairly strong conclusion that Mobile Safari on iPhone 3.0 will receive a completely new JavaScript engine, significant speed improvements, and better web application performance. I’m thoroughly looking forward to experiencing the same speed boost on my iPhone that Safari 4 brought to my desktop, and can’t wait to try out the new software.

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Gears, Google’s “browser improver” (for lack of a better term), has come out of beta and is now officially available for Safari.

Gears is a browser plugin that extends its functionality by allowing it do things like store data locally in a searchable database as well as run JavaScript in the background to improve performance. A common example of its use is to allow web applications to be accessed offline.

Gears requires an applications developer to implement the functionality in to their site, so there aren’t a huge number of sites that make use of Gears.

A few that currently do:

• Google Reader
• Google Docs
• Zoho
• Remember the Milk

If you’re a developer, you can checkout the Gears API and get started on implementing it in to your site.

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It appears to store data in ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Google Gears for Safari, so this would be a good folder to check from time-to-time (remember lsof is your friend) and the database files that are stored use SQLite, so you can peruse them from the command-line or via various GUI’s (one mentioned just recently).

Being a beta release, there are issues and you can add your own newfound bugs to the list as you come across them.

You’ll need Safari 3.1.1 at a minimum (and OS X 10.4.11/10.5.3). I’ve confirmed that it works with Safari 3.1.2. No word on Safari for Windows compatibility (let us know!) and don’t count on Mobile Safari support anytime soon.

If you give the beta a go, let us know your experiences and if you are a developer with a Gears-enabled application, drop the URL in the comments for all the TAB-world to see!

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