Annoying SAFARI's "Auto Page Refresh!!"

The iPad 1 only has 256 MB of RAM so cannot hold lots of Safari tabs open in memory. If Safari starts running out of memory it will flush the contents of older tabs meaning they have to re-load when you switch back to them.

I have read somewhere that iOS 4.3 may help to alleviate this issue a little bit, but obviously it can't add extra RAM for Safari's use, so you may not notice any difference depending on how memory hungry the pages you visit are, and how many tabs you have open.

It is also reported that the iPad 2 has double the amount of RAM of the iPad 1, so it would not be unreasonable to assume it is not affected by this issue (as much).

I agree, it is very annoying - especially when you are posting replies in a forum, switch to another tab to copy and paste something, switch back and the tab refreshes, losing everything you've already typed.

This is probably the one main reason that I plan to get an iPad 2!

I don't know for a fact that it is solved, but I am making the assumption that more RAM available to Safari should, in theory, allow it to keep more tabs open without having to flush and refresh.

Atomic Web Broswer works good for that. I've had at most four tab a open without refreshing.

It is NOT solved with iPad2, as I have it and it still does the refresh thing. I also wish Apple would make real tabs which would enable faster page switching. My husband has the xoom which has tabs and I'm a little jealous of that. Come to think of it, I don't think the xoom does the refresh thing, though I'm not sure about that - I'll have to check on it.

Use another browser like Atomic or iCab and get 'real' tabs and lots more functionality than Safari offers.

igmackenzie wrote:
Use another browser like Atomic or iCab and get 'real' tabs and lots more functionality than Safari offers.

Agreed. iCab is great. I have several tabs open and switch between with no refresh needed on iPad1 running 4.3.1. And it has features galore as well. I highly recommend it - for $1.99 - it was a no brainer for me.

OK, so which one is better, Atomic or iCab?

Actually, I was just looking in the App store, and Mercury looks pretty good.

I would say iCab. It has a bit more functionality than Atomic, but both are excellent.

IMHO - I really like iCab more. It has features (Modules) similar to extensions/add ons like the Firefox web browser. It has more settings to tweak than I know what to do with. It has Quick Starter similar to Safari's Top Sites feature, full screen browsing, gestures capability (2 finger swipe, etc,) A downloads feature with the ability to email, open in an external app, rename files, and upload to DropBox.

I almost sound like a pitchman for iCab, but I can only suggest that you check it out, read the reviews and see what you think.

Does iCab work in landscape mode? And do you have any critique of Mercury?

Even as we communicate on this site I am using iCab in landscape view. I had the Atomic Lite version of the browser and I was not all that fond of it. I also bought Mercury which I prefer to Safari, but I still like iCab so much better than any of the three. Honestly, once I downloaded and started using iCab about three weeks ago, I
quit using Mercury because I liked iCab so much more. I wish I could critique it for you in more detail but I sort of forget what it is like to use it. It does have tabs, the top sites feature and considerably more to offer than Safari.

Check them both out, read the reviews and see which has the features that you desire most. The DropBox support was a deciding factor for me in choosing iCab.