App Review: Chromie

Chrome has been my primary browser for nearly three years. I love the omni box, lightening load times, and the tabbed browsing. On my iOS devices, however, I have been forced to use Safari-- until now.

On May 26 the social bookmarking website Diigo announced that they were launching a Chrome-inspired browser for the iPad. Chromy looks and feels a lot like the Chrome browser including tabbed browsing and an omni box.

The announcement by Diigo highlighted some of the key features of Chromy, but did not offer any technical specifications. It is unclear if Chromy simply looks like Chrome or if it is built upon the Chromium open source code.

One of the neat features of Chromy is the ease with which links can be shared through Twitter, Facebook, Diigo, etc. You can also do some basic but previously impossible things such as open a link in a new tab, see what tabs you have open at all times, and save pages for offline use.

Chromy is a free app available from the iTunes App Store.

One of the downsides to using a browser other than Safari on an iOS devices is that all non-browser links (in an email for example) automatically launch in Safari. There is currently now way to remove Safari as the default browser, unless you jailbreak your device.

I am now using Chromy as my primary browser on my iPad. What's your favorite iOS browser?