ios5 iconBack in March, we noted that Safari speed improvements in iOS 4.3 brought about by the addition of a new Nitro JavaScript engine did not extend to web apps launched from the home screen, meaning that webpages launched from convenient home screen icons exhibit significantly slower performance than those exact same pages loaded manually or from bookmarks within Safari.

As noticed by CNET, a thread on Hacker News shares that iOS 5 does in fact provide home screen web apps with access to the Nitro capabilities, making them comparable to their directly-loaded counterparts.

Q: Did they fix the bug from 4.3 where home screen web apps don't use Nitro?

A: This is probably breaking my NDA to say this, but yes, they did. Web.app now has the "dynamic-codesigning" entitlement, which enables Nitro.

The thread goes on to reveal that the Nitro implementation does not extend to web pages loaded within other apps that take advantage of UIWebView to provide browser functionality without redirecting users out of the app and into Safari directly. That omission is reportedly due to restrictions that prevent the Nitro entitlement from being extended to all apps for security reasons.

Top Rated Comments

houdinize Avatar
181 months ago
How many people save bookmarks to their home screen?

Macrumors has been on my home screen since I got the iPhone
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nagromme Avatar
181 months ago
So all the absurd paranoia about how Apple is trying to slowly and sneakily “kill” web apps can evaporate now? :o
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
joseph2166 Avatar
181 months ago
Uh, how would this break NDA? I presume it's in the developer copy everyone has access to? Does the guy answering this have some credentials we don't know about?

The developer copy is theoretically for developers only... Hence the name. And therefore its covered by the NDA. It's so we don't all reveal the secret feature you're not meant to know about yet. You know the one...
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Farplaner Avatar
181 months ago
How many people save bookmarks to their home screen?

Not just bookmarks. HTML5 web apps too.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2 Replies Avatar
181 months ago
I'm really glad that this FIX isn't getting a ton of fanfare.
We shouldn't be patting Apple on it's head and cheering them for fixing their own engineering mistakes.

How many people save bookmarks to their home screen?
m.youtube.com > Apple's native app. BY FAR


Macrumors has been on my home screen since I got the iPhone
To be fair, this means nothing since no one knows when you got your iphone.
It could have been five minutes before posting that post.
:-/
Score: 0 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chrmjenkins Avatar
181 months ago
The developer copy is theoretically for developers only... Hence the name. And therefore its covered by the NDA. It's so we don't all reveal the secret feature you're not meant to know about yet. You know the one...

And by developer you mean any joe blow willing to drop 100 bucks to download iOS 5 early. There's no way Apple would try and hunt down every last person who dropped the 100 and is leaking stuff that is basically public knowledge from using the developer build.
Score: 0 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iphone 16 display

iPhone 17's Scratch Resistant Anti-Reflective Display Coating Canceled

Monday April 28, 2025 12:48 pm PDT by
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors. Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
apple watch ultra yellow

What's Next for the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3

Friday April 25, 2025 2:44 pm PDT by
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too. 2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3 Apple didn't update the...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Reaches Key Milestone Ahead of Mass Production

Monday April 28, 2025 8:44 am PDT by
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report. iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Blue

20th Anniversary iPhone Likely to Be Made in China Due to 'Extraordinarily Complex' Design

Monday April 28, 2025 4:29 am PDT by
Apple will likely manufacture its 20th anniversary iPhone models in China, despite broader efforts to shift production to India, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In 2027, Apple is planning a "major shake-up" for the iPhone lineup to mark two decades since the original model launched. Gurman's previous reporting indicates the company will introduce a foldable iPhone alongside a "bold"...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Air Launching Later This Year With These 16 New Features

Thursday April 24, 2025 8:24 am PDT by
While the so-called "iPhone 17 Air" is not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the ultra-thin device. Overall, the iPhone 17 Air sounds like a mixed bag. While the device is expected to have an impressively thin and light design, rumors indicate it will have some compromises compared to iPhone 17 Pro models, including only a single rear camera, a...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 13 New Features

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iphone 17 air iphone 16 pro

iPhone 17 Air USB-C Port May Have This Unusual Design Quirk

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years. iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack) At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...