Over the past few years, tabs have become one of those must-have features in a web browser. The mobile web is a bit different obviously, because the screen is so small, but some mobile browsers like mobile Safari give you the option to have multiple windows in which to browse. But let’s be honest, multiple windows are a pain, we want tabs. And with Nightglow, a new browser for the iPhone, you can get them.
Nightglow allows you have have up to four tabs open at any given time. They reside in the upper left (or right, if you change the settings) side of the window and each page is distinguished by its favicon. Tapping on that icon will quickly switch you from page to page. The method is a lot faster than using Safari’s page-switching option. But with this speed there’s a downside: Overall system speed — Nightglow is a resource hog.
I’ve been testing the app out today and a number of times I’ve gotten the system resource warning message. The only other apps that have triggered that in my iPhone before have been huge games like SimCity.
Something else which is slightly annoying is that unlike other third-party quasi-browsers on the iPhone (I call them this because they are really just new wrappers for the Safari browser), Nightglow cannot rotate the screen when you rotate your iPhone or iPod touch. Actually, that’s a point of debate right now at the TechCrunch office right now. Some of us love that auto-rotate feature, others of us hate it. I hate it because it makes browsing while lying in bed a pain. And Nightglow actually touts not rotating as a feature.
Nightglow also features an easy way to dim and brighten your screen, has options for finger gestures and has fairly nice way to easily search YouTube, Wikipedia and Google. Another nice feature is that Nightglow remembers the pages you last had opened in the tabs.
If you’re addicted to tabbed browsing, you should definitely check out Nightglow. I suspect that with subsequent releases they’ll fix the performance issues. I’m not a huge fan of the UI either beyond the tabs, but that’s just a matter of taste.
Nightglow, which was made by Synthereal Co., LTD, a Japanese development company, is available now in the App Store for an introductory price of $0.99. After that, it will be $2.99. Find it here. And watch more about it in the video below.
What is wrong with that interface, did they do it in MS paint
“I hate it because it makes browsing while lying in bed a pain”
Clearly MG never stops working, I’d make fun of this if I didn’t do the same.
The perils of the modern man.
so no autorotate… thats fine so I assume that means no manual rotate either? So you cant get a landscape keyboard or a rotated page which I like to use on occasions. Maybe I am wrong but their website uses autorotate as the no we dont do it term but never mentions manual rotate
great idea, but the iphone just can’t handle it yet. hopefully the new iphone will have more power and this would be implimented correctly.
Finally a tab browser!! I’m so use to firefox tabs that using any other browsers with no tabs just brings stress to me. Kudos to the developer for finally making a tab browser! Great app.
Just gave Nightglow a test drive.
The UI can use some improvements and is not as intuitive as it could be (hence the “how to” page).
The open link in a new tab function is a little clunky.
The “screen grabber” doesn’t resize the page for viewing.
No Flash… but that’s Apple’s fault.
Good: Youtube videos don’t close you out of the app.
It’s not perfect, but it’s way better than that joke called Safari.
Since when is “no auto rotate” a feature!? I’m pretty sure that is a selling point for the iPhone. LOL
Ohh so good.