I think defeating ad-blocking and enhanced ad management are one of the primary reasons for the fork.
The first thing Google lists for architectural changes is support for out-of-process iframes
Yep, they were sending login information over plain http.
The author of the original article was very careful with what he did and didn't say. He didn't say that Apple sent login information over plain http. And if you read the support document where Elie Bursztein gets his 15 seconds of Apple fame, you will see that Apple says the update now encrypts "active content". In short, login information was never sent over plain text.
I can't remotely log in to my Linux machines and do programming on my iPad. I can't create presentations on it. I can't do photo editing or drawing. I can write papers for grad school.
No. wait. I can do all of those thing on my 1st gen iPad.
Nevermind.
When it costs a small developer millions of dollars to patent search and licence obvious designs, we have killed innovation.
What we need is a company that stands up for small developers. Someone that frees them from credit card merchant companies. Someone that will go to court and defend small developers against patent trolls!
Oh wait. That's Apple.
Never mind.
You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred. -- Superchicken