A few months back, we looked into the problems that iPhone users were having when launching web apps – or just loading web pages in general – when started up from a home screen shortcut, rather than by going in through Safari first. Sites loaded via the former method seemed sluggish when compared to the latter. While there were several issues all contributing to the problem, the big one seemed to be that Safari’s Nitro javascript engine wasn’t employed when going to a page right from the home screen. Along with all the other goodies Apple has in store, iOS 5 will finally put a stop to this disparity, allowing Nitro in all cases.

Developers with access to iOS 5 noticed the change, thanks to the addition of the “dynamic-codesigning” privilege for pages loaded outside of Safari. Nitro helps speed things up by compiling javascript into native ARM code, which raises security concerns, hence the reason Apple likely restricted its use in the first place.

Once iOS 5 is released, you should see increased speed from these web apps you’ve created shortcuts for, without having to take any extra steps yourself. Sounds pretty sweet to us, even if it has taken a while.

Source: Hacker News

Via: Electronista