Sleipnir 3.3 Web Browser For OS X and Sleipnir Mobile for iOS 1.8.2 – ‘Book Mystique Review
Along with my core production suite of OS X Web browser tools — Opera, Chrome, and Firefox, I like to keep up to speed on developments in alternative browsers, so I usually keep a recent update of Stainless, Raven or Roccat up and running to experiment with. All of these apps have their strong points, but I haven’t found any of them quite adequate for the workaday production browsing I do with the big-name programs.
A recent newcomer to the OS X Web browser “B-team,” with aspirations to move up, is Sleipnir, which is also available in an iOS version that I’ll get to in a bit, but first to the OS X version. I’ve been using the Sleipnir Premium Black Edition over the past couple of weeks for tasks that usually go to one or another of my usual production browsers, and the more I use it, the more I like it. It takes more getting used to than is usual with a different browser, but some (although not all) of it’s unique features make good sense. The odd name, incidentally, refers to Odin’s eight-legged horse in Old Norse mythology.
A note about that Premium Black Edition, which is available from the Sleipnir Website, but not at the Mac App Store. Why? Because, Sleipnir’s developers explain, they have unfortunately been obliged to remove some basic functions in the Mac App Store version of the browser due to restrictions imposed by Apple. Donning my editorialist’s hat for a moment, I would like to say that this is a prima facie example of why I am not a fan if the App Store modus of software distribution, which cannot help but lead to a general dumbing-down and lowest-common-denominator homogenization of the Mac OS software experience.
Happily, you can download the unexpurgated premium Black Edition that has no restrictions, and includes special web creation tools from the developer’s Website. I wish all third-party software developers offered similar flexibility, at least for free software like browsers.
Off soapbox.
Moving along, if you’re like me, one of the first things you’ll notice about Sleipnir is that it has no visible URL address field. Press Command > T to summon a new tab and you get your homepage, in my case Google Search. In order to type or paste in a URL, you have to bring up Sleipnir’s hidden address field by pressing Command > L. Seems gratuitously clumsy and cumbersome to me for a function I use a lot, and it’s the Sleipnir idiosyncrasy I like least. It doesn’t really even save much screen real estate.
I also find the thumbnail tabs in Sleipnir more difficult to identify and distinguish from one another than in, say, Opera, Firefox, or Chrome tabs. It can be tricky to tell various open tabs apart, and to quickly identify just which tab corresponds to the page you’re looking at, although there is an arrow pointer to help you with the latter. I’m also not a fan of the tab Close (x) button only appearing on mouse-over, as opposed to being constantly visible as they are with Opera — the mode I prefer for quick efficiency.
Speaking of efficiency, there’s no progress bar for page loads or stop/reload button. You have to use a circular motion gestures (two fingers) to toggle page reloads, which is I guess OK if you like gesture control. I don’t, and unless you have a laptop with a multitouch trackpad or a Magic Mouse, you’re stuck with the awkward body-English of holding the right mouse button down while you make the gesture motion. It works, but I find it annoying.
Not annoying are using the pinch gesture for the “Tiled Tabs” feature to display all open tab windows and groups (see below) Expose-style, and swipe-navigating through open tabs, once you get in the habit, and several other gestures are supported for other functions.
Interface response (in OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard on a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook with 4 GB of RAM) can be sluggish when executing tasks like for example opening or closing tabs and switching among open tabs, especially if the application has been running for a while. Perhaps memory optimization could still use some work.
So, what do I like about Sleipnir? Well, it’s gratifyingly speedy loading Web pages (it’s based on Apple’s Safari WebKit), and at least at first after it’s started up, it’s one of the fastest Web browsers I’ve used. Unfortunately, extended uptime seems to take its toll on page load liveliness as well.
However, Sleipnir is quite stable, and and it hasn’t crashed even under moderately heavy tasking stress like many open tabs simultaneously loading in the background.
Another Sleipnir innovation is Tab Groups, of which you can configure up to six. You can name these groups and clicking on a thumbnail will select that tab group, where you can create new tabs, view currently open tabs in browser mode, or click and drag a tab to a different group. Because of this facility, Sleipnir doesn’t support opening multiple browser windows, which takes some getting used to, but makes logical sense. You’re limited six tab groups, but Indon’t recall ever routinely keeping more than three browser windows open at a time anyway.
Another Sleipnir benefit is Fenrir Pass, a free cloud service that lets you sync bookmarks automatically with Sleipnir Mobile for iPhone / iPad and Sleipnir Mobile for Android. You can access to your Bookmarks anytime from outside and/or home, and sync Sleipnir Bookmarks with iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows.
I know my criticisms must make it sound like I’m not much off fan of Sleipnir for OS X, but actually I’m both intrigued and impressed by this browser. It really is different, and in a good way in many respects. The developers seems to be genuinely interested in innovating to improve the browser experience and incorporating fresh ideas. In some instances they’re a bit wide of the mark, but this is going to be a fascinating browser to watch as the early rough edges get polished off. It’s also a bit addictive, and while I’m not generally much of a fan of touch/gesture input, I figure I’m going to be obliged to make my peace with it going forward, and at least Sleipnir impresses as an intelligent and thoughtful attempt at making the touch computing experience better and less-frustrating for foot-dragging skeptics like me.
New in Version 3.3
• Share pages (Twitter, Facebook, E-mail)
• Use multiple accounts for AutoFill Passwords
• Improvements to operations when downloading
• Bookmarks management method switched to Folders / Labels
• Certifications display support added
• Manage cookies
• Export bookmarks
• Italian language support added: Thanks! Alessio Moiso
• Swedish and Norwegian language support added: Thanks! Einar Mostad
• Performance improved
• Operational reliability improved
System requirements:
Compatible with OS X 10.6 / 10.7
Sleipnir is freeware.
Mac App Store:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id475299388?&mt=12
For more information, and to download the Sleipnir Premium Black Edition visit:
http://www.fenrir-inc.com/us/mac/sleipnir
Sleipnir Mobile for iOS 1.8.2
While I’m not completely convinced about Sleipnir for OS X yet, I have no such equivocation about the Mobile variant which almost immediately became my favorite iPad browser upon exposure.
For one thing, it’s very fast – easily the fastest browser I’ve tried yet on the iPad on a news portal Website I visit frequently and use as a good measure of browser speed comparison. Sleipnir blows both of my previous iOS browser speedster faves, Safari and Dolphin HD, into the proverbial weeds.
I am somewhat ambivalent about the Sleipnir for OS X interface, and I’m usually not a particular fan of thumbnail tabs, but Sleipnir Mobile’s implementation of thumbnails is a particularly good and functional one. The tabs are arrayed along the bottom of the screen, and feature several innovations. One I especially like is that you can lock a tab so it can’t be closed without activating a warning slider. Just triple-tap the tab thumbnail. To dismiss tabs, FlickWipe lets you close tabs immediately just by flicking them down off the tab bar, which can also be minimized with a swipe in order to increase window size. Sleipnir Mobile’s TouchPaging lets you switch among open tabs easily just by flick-gesturing over them in the Tab Bar. In landscape mode you can scroll up and down quickly even on a long page by using a right-hand scrolling gesture.
You can navigate through open tabs by swiping laterally, as in Sleipnir for OS X, and Tab Groups as described in the Sleipnir 3.3 review above are supported.
To add a bookmark to the Bookmarks Folder, just tap the star at the left end of the address field, then tap “Save” on the registration screen. You can also opt to have frequently accessed bookmarks appear in Sleipnir’s Bookmarks Bar, which also supports folders. Enable “Most Visited Pages” in the settings to display most accessed webpages in your browsing history.
Sleipnir Mobile also allows you to synch your bookmarks among your various devices for free with developer Fenrir’s http://www.fenrir-inc.com/us/fenrirpass/ Fenrir Pass service. The browser’s “Hold And Go” feature opens links in new tabs without closing the referral page, and likewise with tabs from bookmarks, simply by tapping and holding on a link is not unique to Sleipnir, but it’s certainly nice to have and works very slickly. You can also hold down on an image to save it to the iOS “Photos” app, and transfer viewed tabs to and from nearby devices via Bluetooth.
As with Sleipnir for OS X, Sleipnir Mobile opened tabs can be sorted into six tab groups that can be edited and configured on their own dedicated manager page.
The “Automatically Insert Passwords” command lets you save user names and passwords when logging in to Websites such as Twitter or Facebook, and then have them automatically inserted from next time. Tap “Save password” for the confirmation message that is displayed on the first time you log in which will automatically insert user names and passwords into the form of the same site next time.
Multiple accounts are also supported. If you fill in the user name column and proceed to the next column, the password connected with that user name can be filled in. Even if you want to, say, have separate accounts for private and business use, you can easily set separate passwords.Saved user names and passwords can be managed from the “Automatically insert passwords” screen in the settings where you can also delete fields you no longer require.
Sleipnir isn’t without some rough edges. Unlike the OS X variant, Sleipnir Mobile crashes frequently compared with other iOS browsers I use,, although these crashes are relatively painless because open tabs from your browsing session at the time of the crash are automatically restored upon restart, which is mercifully quick. Another shortcoming is that you can’t import bookmarks from Safari or other browsers into Sleipnir Mobile.
System Requirements:
• Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
• Requires iOS 4.0 or later
For more information, visit:
http://www.fenrir-inc.com/us/iphone/apps/sleipnir-mobile.html
and
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id404732112?mt=8