You’re looking for reasons to jailbreak or are bored and wondering what else there’s to do other than to steal pirate hardworking devs’ apps (please don’t..).
Well look no further. But first let me just say that you have to be prepared to spend 99cents here. unless you’re keen enough to find a way around paying for this as well.
Reason number One, and the only one I’m writing about here is: ridiculously fast Chrome on an iOS device.
Anyone who’s tried Chrome on the iPad of other iOS devices knows it’s slow. Sure you have your usual assortment of tools that comes with Chrome (bookmark sync, tab sync, google connection) but the browsing speed is painfully slow compared Mobile Safari.
If only Safari was like Chrome… Well fat chance.
But what if it was the other way round?
If Chrome was like Safari?
Let’s first have a look at how Chrome fares on a Core2Quad PC. The comparison I’m making is via the Sunspider javascript benchmark.. since we’ll be making changes to the javascript benchmark later.
Sunspider, Core2Quad PC- 294ms
Now Sunspider on the Nexus 7’s Chrome- 1467ms
Sunspider on the iPad Mini’s Mobile Safari- 1448ms
Sunspider on the iPad Mini’s Chrome- 5549ms
So here’s a summary:
| PC | N7 | iOS Safari | iOS Chrome | |
| Sunspider | 294 | 1467 | 1448 | 5449 and WTF |
iOS Chrome performs so poorly because Apple doesn’t allow other apps to access their Nitro javascript engine i.e. iOS Chrome doesn’t get to use it and at the same time Apple would not allow them to employ their own V8 javascript engine. Only their own Mobile Safari and a few other apps are allowed. This isn’t without reason as apparently it’s all to do with security.
Obviously anyone who jailbreaks is already throwing away their keys since Jailbreak itself is already a security exploit. You knew that didn’t you?
So, with security concerns out of the way, here is the way to turbo boost iOS’s Chrome.
On Cydia, search for a mod called “nitrous”. it’s a 99c purchase. Install that then make sure it’s activated in your device’s Settings:
and you’re good to go.
Launch Chrome and prepare to be amazed.
iOS Chrome now scores a healthy 1459ms with Nitrous enabled. that’s 99cents well spent.
