Want to block disruptive ads in Safari in iOS 5?
AdBlockPlus is a very well-known and popular add-on for the Firefox Web Browser. It blocks all kinds of annoying ads that plague your Web browsing experience. But what if I told you that there was an iOS version? Well.. you'd probably say, "well yeah, there's been one for a long time." Okay, you're right. There have been numerous AdBlockPlus copycats for iOS. But one of them for sure stands out, and it's the one that works fully and absolutely with iOS 5! AdBlocker is the iOS version of AdBlockPlus developed by Yllier and it works like a charm. Below is a before and after shot of before AdBlocker was installed and after it was installed:
Why is something like this useful? Well, for one, blocking those annoying ads that have to load every time you go to a Web Page can save data costs. Why else? Because it eliminates the annoying clutter that ruins your beautiful Web browsing experience. In iOS 5, Apple did a pretty good job adding the Reader function to Safari to allow you to pull the text out of a Web Page to ignore the clutter surrounding it. But with this tweak, you don't even have to do that, you can simply browse Ad-free. It's as easy as flicking a button in settings into the on position and then browsing away! Let's take a look at the settings of AdBlocker:
General:
Here you can enable or disable AdBlocker on your device. It's as simple as that.
Rules:
In this section, you can customize your AdBlocker lists. AdBlocker comes with some pre-built-in lists that will help get you started in blocking ads; AdBlockPlus for Firefox does the same thing when you subscribe to the fanboy's list when you first install it. If you tap on that setting, you get a window that looks like this:
German and English is selected by default; you can enable them all if you want, but since the Internet is predominantly English, it makes sense to turn on simply English since those are mostly the sites you visit around here; unless you are from a foreign country, then you can enable your own language. It's not recommended that you enable all of them because then AdBlocker has to check around for Ads of all of those languages which can dramatically slow down your browsing. Using one or two language filters will not slow you down. You can also input your own custom lists. So if you have a list of things you like to block, you can add them in yourself. You could import what you have in AdBlockPlus into AdBlocker for iOS. Then there's also the whitelist which are the Ads that you want to see, and the blacklist which are the Ads that you don't want to see.
Other Apps:
AdBlocker will not block iAds or Lite version Ads. AdBlocker only has the power to block Web-based Ads. Some applications run from the Web, and those can have their Ads blocked. But remember that this will not block Ads in the free version of an App Store app that you normally have to pay to remove them, and it will not block iAds.
That's really it. It's an excellent AdBlocker application. Kudos to you Yllier! The key to is app is saving money on data usage and increasing Web Page loading times. You can pick up AdBlocker in Cydia from the BigBoss repo today!
Price: $2.19
Developer: Yllier
Version: 1.30
iOS 5 Compatibility: Full
Editor's Rating: 5/5
I was able to speak to Yllier via email and ask some questions regarding AdBlocker.
Anthony: What was the major motivation behind creating this tweak and how does it work in comparison to other Ad-Blockers?
Yllier: I don't hate ads, but they're pretty annoying if you are on a limited data plan. There's already was a tweak in Cydia called AdBlocker for Safari (without 'er' at the end), but it hasn't been updated since iOS 3.x and is not compatible with newer iOS versions. I created my own application with a superior technique; blocking ads at a lower level. It not only works with Safari but works with all browser-like apps which are using UIWebViews to display content (browsers). However, it doesn't block ads from services like iAd or AdMob, simply because those are using a totally different system.
Anthony: Is AdBlocker compatible with Apple's new iOS 5?
Yllier: Yes, it's fully compatible with iOS 5.
Anthony: Are you planning any major updates for AdBlocker in the future?
Yllier: No, but I'm constantly tweaking the code.
Sources: Yllier
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