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Opera launches Coast for iPad, a tablet-first web browser

opera-coast

Opera has just launched Coast for iPad, a full-screen web browser for tablets. When looking at a web page, there is no onscreen chrome except for a single, thin bar that runs along the bottom of the screen. One button opens tabs (which are metaphorically represented in the UI as pages, similar to Safari on the iPhone) and the other button takes you “home”. Gestures control page navigation, with edge swipes standing in for a traditional back button.

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A screenshot of Coast in action, viewing a 9to5mac article.

In fact, as shown in the above screenshot, Coast opts not to show the URL bar at all. All focus is given to the current web page. The home screen of Coast is similarly barebones, with a discreet URL bar at the top of the screen and app-like buttons below representing the users’ bookmarks.

Coast employs some very nice animations throughout, making the app feel very playful. In particular, the tab closing animation (where the page is ‘eaten’ by the top lip of the app’s background) is stunning to see in motion. In fact, in contrast to the minimalist UI, Coast’s animations are flamboyant, arguably to an unnecessary extreme.

Interestingly, unlike Opera’s other attempts at mobile browsers, Coast relies on iOS’ native WebKit engine to display pages. This is purely an experiment for Opera to improve upon current mobile browsing UI with a chrome-less approach, not the underlying rendering technologies.

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Comments

  1. I don’t know why they even make these. I’ll rather use Safari anyway.

  2. My first impression is that it is very interesting; I might start using it.

  3. griffinjar - 11 years ago

    Does it run flash like the Puffin browser? Very useful for us teachers as there are still great flash based education webapps out there.

    • ifunography - 11 years ago

      Had never heard of Puffin browser before but I just downloaded it and I love it. Thanks!

Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.