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Comment by voidfunc | Hacker News Reader

I've been an Android guy for a long time and I briefly switched to an iPhone from 2020-2022 but went back to Android. The reason? Being forced to use Safari or a re-badged Safari because Apple refuses to let other browser engines on the platform.

On Android I can run proper Firefox and get uBlock Origin.

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Does uBlock Origin do a better job than the Ad Blocker extension on iPhone’s Safari? I use uBlock Origin on my desktop and Ad Blocker on my iPhone. Honestly, I can’t tell any difference. They both seem to block everything.

You can’t use ad blocker apps if you use any browser other than Safari. I use Firefox because I want to sync it with my desktop, which is not a Mac, so I have to choose between syncing and ad blocking.

Did you give Firefox Focus a try? I guess it gives you Firefox Sync + ad blocking

You can even install Firefox Focus and use it's ad-blocking in Safari. Focus installs their ad-blocking as a system-level blocker (I assume due to iOS rules/requirements) which allows you to just toggle it on for "all browsers" (aka Safari and the Safari based browsers, which is all of them).

How does Safari's blocking compare with what uBlock Origin can do in full-blooded Firefox? For example, does it support CNAME uncloaking?[1]

[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...

On a technical level I'm unaware of the details on how Safari blocking works, but anecdotally uBlock Origin is way more capable.

For some reason I didn’t realize Focus supports Firefox Sync! I’ll try it out. Thanks!

I just tried it, and it does not appear that Focus supports Firefox Sync at this time.

Doesn't Safari use Manifest v3 that Chrome is getting a lot of flak for switching to? How does Safari's implementation avoid crippling ad-blockers?

It's not precisely manifest v3, but it has similar limitations. Safari went from not supporting ad blockers at all to supporting limited ad blockers, so there wasn't exactly a change to get mad at.

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