iCab for iPad is so staggeringly superior to mobile safari it’s almost embarrassing, especially when you consider that most of the ways in which it’s superior are obvious and essentially stolen from desktop safari.
First, you can press and hold on a link to download it (e.g. You can download PDFs and view them offline). You can launch downloaded documents in other programs. You can jump from page to page using tabs — remember those.
The Ui is brilliant. By default it uses some real estate fora tab bar, making life sooooo much better, but if you need the space, it offers full screen mode with subtly displayed controls tucked in the corners and edges.
I often wonder how close the iCab guy got to having his browser acquired by Apple in the Bad Days of IE5.1.
Oh, and it has a slightly customized keyboard that doesn’t suck.
$1.99 well spent.