iLounge

By Charles Starrett

Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Wednesday, January 14, 2009
News Category: iPhone Applications

In a shift away from its prior policy of barring third-party web browsing applications on the basis that they duplicated existing functionality, Apple has allowed a small group of third-party browsing apps to appear in the App Store. Amongst the new apps are Edge Browser (Free), which clears up screen real estate by removing the address and navigation bars, Incognito ($2), which lets users browse without leaving a history of any kind, WebMate:Tabbed Browser ($1), which stores all clicked links in a queue, letting the user read them one-by-one as they’re ready, and Shaking Web ($2), a browser with a vibration-reduction like algorithm designed for use while moving.

With at least one submission date going back to October, it appears that Apple had a special list of such applications for possible future release; these standalone applications all appear to be based upon Apple’s own Safari browser, which has also been incorporated in various ways into other, more complex applications to eliminate the need to switch between an app an a separate browser for certain features. It is unclear what these standalone browser releases mean for full-scale browsers such as Firefox and Opera, which were previously thought to be blocked by the iPhone SDK agreement. [via Mac Rumors]