Gadgetory

hello there's John Q here from TechnoBuffalo and welcome to the very first episode of what's the app's a new app review segment here in TechnoBuffalo which has a rather fancy name don't you agree yeah and today we're going to be taking a look at a safari replacement for iOS called maven since the beginning of iOS Apple introduced to the world a revolutionary little application that help fortify the bridge between the desktop experience and the mobile experience this absurd alone and it stood the test of time and made trivial features like pinch to zoom and flick to scroll something as users have not only grown to love but have grown to expect for modern-day devices the app I'm talking about of course would be Safari over the years companies and developers have created and released browser alternatives such as opera mobile for iOS although they had nifty features they've always kind of felt like a complementary application rather than a standalone Safari replacement sort of like a Robin to a Batman this is of course unless you really like Robin then you know good onya now the year is 2011 technology has evolved in today there are many many different Safari alternatives allowing the user to choose how they want to experience their mobile internet one of them is an application oddly named maven to be honest at first I was a little hesitant to download maven mainly because it wasn't free but still the design of the icon wasn't up to the standards of its vibrant competitors but I decided to give it a shot in men I am so glad I did one of the reasons why i started browser hunting was because i wanted to increase the default font size of safari now personally I think it's a little bit small text size and my eyes okay minus a clases bar but still I think it's a little small it would be great if Apple provided an option to increase Afari text size you know it's just like their email application to great features of maven would be the ability to be web pages in full screen and to control font sizes granted these features plus many others such as social sharing and visible tabs are present in other Safari alternatives there are some features unique to this humble browser one of them would be the jog dial that can be swiped out from the side there's a jog dial for brightness and another one for social sharing and custom book marks the brightness one is handy for extended viewing periods but I haven't really found a need for the social sharing one another nifty feature would be reader or readability which simplifies a text on screen giving you a more newspaper or magazine experience it's definitely awesome but it seems to only work well in singular article pages the final feature probably the best thing about maven would be as red joystick thingy called a trackpad at first glance it looks like a ridiculously super tacky feature arm innocent of the track pads from the older IBM laptops but the second I used it the thought that immediately went through my mind was oh my goodness every browser no no no every application should have this thing it eliminates the need to constantly swipe and scroll all you have to do is hold and move the movement it's very smooth and is similar to the control experience you might get from games like minigore the only downside is that it gets a little clunky when you do want to swipe and scroll because you might accidentally move it which happens to me more often than not I think only after experiencing the app can you really understand the design of the icon the red track pad and the jog dials both unique maven features are visible on the icon still I think they could have done a better job but that's just me something else I should point out would be that the UI graphics aren't as slick as a ones found on other browsers like mercury or even Safari I don't know maybe it's that brushed metal look that kind of went away with the older Mac OS versions a possible downside to all Safari alternatives would be that lack of the add to homescreen feature I love this feature and I would love to see it for maven but i understand if it can't be done because of developing limitations overall for just 99 cents for both iPhone and iPad support you really have nothing to lose I give maven a 4.5 out of 5 if it weren't for that red trackpad being a little clunky I would have given it a solid five so if you're looking for a safari alternative seriously check out maven thank you very much for checking out the very first episode of what see apps this with John Q from tech a buffalo thank you very much for watching I'll see you guys next time take care