iPhone - FutureTG.com

In those situations, you can turn off the pop-up blocker. From the Home screen,
tap SettingsÆSafari. Where it says Block Pop-ups, tap the On/Off switch.
Cookies
Cookies are something like Web page preference files. Certain Web sites—
particularly commercial ones like Amazon.com—deposit them on your hard
drive like little bookmarks, so they’ll remember you the next time you visit.
Ever notice how Amazon.com greets you “Welcome, Chris” (or whatever your
name is)? It’s reading its own cookie, left behind on your hard drive (or in this
case, on your iPhone).
Most cookies are perfectly innocuous—and, in fact, are extremely useful,
because they help Web sites remember your tastes. Cookies also spare you
the effort of having to type in your name, address, and so on, every time you
visit these Web sites.
But fear is widespread, and the media fans the flames with tales of sinister
cookies that track your movement on the Web. If you’re worried about invasions
of privacy, Safari is ready to protect you.
From the Home screen, tap SettingsÆSafari. The options here are like a paranoia
gauge. If you click Never, you create an acrylic shield around your iPhone.
No cookies can come in, and no cookie information can go out. You’ll probably
find the Web a very inconvenient place; you’ll have to re-enter your information
upon every visit, and some Web sites may not work properly at all. The
Always option means, “oh, what the heck—just gimme all of them.”
A good compromise is From Visited, which accepts cookies from sites you
want to visit, but blocks cookies deposited on your hard drive by sites you’re
not actually visiting—cookies an especially evil banner ad gives you, for
example.
This screen also offers a Clear Cookies button (deletes all the cookies you’ve
accumulated so far), as well as Clear History (page 318) and Clear Cache.
The cache is a little patch of the iPhone’s storage area where bits and pieces
of Web pages you visit—graphics, for example—are retained. The idea is that
the next time you visit the same page, the iPhone won’t have to download
those bits again. It already has them on board, so the page appears much
faster.
If you worry that your cache eats up space, poses a security risk, or is confusing
some page (and preventing the most recent version of the page from
appearing), tap this button to erase it and start over.
142
Chapter 7