Apple releases public beta of Safari 4 browser

[AppleInsider]

Apple on Tuesday announced a public beta of Safari 4, a new version of its share-gaining web browser that packs a powerful new JavaScript engine and support for the latest web standards.

Dubbed "Nitro," the engine in Safari 4 is said to run JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3. Other new features include Top Sites, for a visual preview of frequently visited pages; Full History Search, to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; Cover Flow, to easily flip through web history or bookmarks; and Tabs on Top, to make tabbed browsing easier and more intuitive.

"Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications."

Performance

In terms of performance, Apple claims Safari 4's new Nitro JavaScript engine executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Microsoft's IE 7 and more than three times faster than Firefox 3. It's also said to load HTML web pages three times faster than IE 7 and almost three times faster than Firefox 3.

Safari 4 also represents the latest chapter in Apple's efforts to maintain its leadership role in defining and implementing web standards, with built in support for HTML 5 and CSS 3 -- two technologies critical in supporting an entirely new class of web applications that feature rich media, graphics and fonts.

Safari 4 Beta tracks the sites you browse and ranks your favorites, presenting up to 24 thumbnails on a single page.

Specifically, the Cupertino-based company said the new browser includes HTML 5 support for offline technologies so web-based applications can store information locally without an Internet connection. A recent technology demonstration by Google highlighted the advantages this technology when it showed off a version of Gmail running offline on the iPhone's mobile version of Safari, which already includes support for some HTML 5 standards.

Apple also said that Safari 4 is the first browser to support advanced CSS Effects that enable highly polished web graphics using reflections, gradients and precision masks. Similarly, it's said to be the first browser to pass the Web Standards Project's Acid3 test, which examines how well a browser adheres to CSS, JavaScript, XML and SVG web standards that are specifically designed for dynamic web applications.

Cover Flow offers a highly visual way of reviewing your site history and bookmarked sites, presenting full-page previews.

Safari for Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPod touch are all built on Apple's WebKit, which the company has billed the "world's fastest and most advanced browser engine." Apple developed WebKit as an open source project to create the world's best browser engine and to advance the adoption of modern web standards. Most recently, WebKit led the introduction of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards and is known for its fast, modern code-base. Some of the industry's newest browsers are based on WebKit including Google Chrome, the Google Android browser, the Nokia Series 60 browser and Palm webOS.

Safari 4 relocates the tab bar to the top of the browser window to provide "more room for you to enjoy the sites you’re reading".

New features

Safari 4 also includes a handful of new user interface features, including: Top Sites, a display of frequently visited pages in a wall of previews so users can jump to their favorite sites with a single click; Full History Search, where users search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily return to sites they've seen before; Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks "as fun and easy as paging through album art in iTunes;" Tabs on Top, for better tabbed browsing with easy drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones; Smart Address Field, that automatically completes web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history; Smart Search Field, where users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches; Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site's layout and text; built-in web developer tools to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility; and a new Windows-native look in Safari for Windows, that uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications.
In total, Apple claims over 150 features in Safari 4. The public beta is available for download here.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[saarek]

I've stuck to Firefox so far, perhaps Safari 4 will sway me, we'll have to see.

[darkpaw]

I like Safari as it seems much more useful to me than Firefox. I don't really use extensions. Opera's nice, too, but I've gotten used to Safari.

I'll be trying out this beta. I hope it lives up to the hype

[red_kola]

Can we disable font smoothing in this version? If not, I'm still not using it.


EDIT OOOH YOU CAN!!!! Well, on a PC anyway!

[Tony1]

Originally Posted by saarek

I've stuck to Firefox so far, perhaps Safari 4 will sway me, we'll have to see.

Depending on what I'm doing I switch back and forth. I like Safari for the speed and Private Browsing feature and like the extensions in Firefox. It's hard to give up one or the other even with this upcoming release so far and new features.

Happy Birthday Steve Jobs!!

[kim kap sol]

Wow...Apple has really gone out of its way to fuck up all HI guidelines with Safari 4.

In you want to move a Safari window and you like tabs, good luck clicking part of the titlebar that isn't a "rip a tab out" grab-handle widget or a close widget.

Although the concept is interesting, in practice, this tab UI is horrendous.

Everything else about Safari 4 is excellent though...nice use of Cover Flow and Core Animation for the top sites preview wall. Great history and bookmark search. And full page zoom is finally enabled for the unwashed masses. Google search suggestions. Overall, this version of Safari is the biggest update since version 1.0...too bad about the unconventional tab UI.

[ivan.rnn01]

Best phisher's toolkit on the market

[el3ktro]

Originally Posted by kim kap sol

Wow...Apple has really gone out of its way to fuck up all HI guidelines with Safari 4.

I agree with you. Actually, when you think about it, it makes sense t put the tabs into the title bar, but it's hard to move the window when you have a lot of tabs open.

[Zandros]

Originally Posted by kim kap sol

Wow...Apple has really gone out of its way to fuck up all HI guidelines with Safari 4.

In you want to move a Safari window and you like tabs, good luck clicking part of the titlebar that isn't a "rip a tab out" grab-handle widget or a close widget.

Although the concept is interesting, in practice, this tab UI is horrendous.

Agreed. Even more awful is that I have to hit the ribbed part to reorder the tabs…

What where they thinking?

[kim kap sol]

Originally Posted by el3ktro

I agree with you. Actually, when you think about it, it makes sense t put the tabs into the title bar, but it's hard to move the window when you have a lot of tabs open.

IMO, the concept would work if clicking and dragging right away would drag the window and not count as a click on the widget (like proxy icons in the titlebar in Cocoa apps).

[Crowley]

It's a beta people, if you don't like it send feedback.

[UTisNUM1]

I installed it and couldn't open it. It would bounce in the dock and i would get a error message saying it quit unexpectedly. I understand, it is a Beta but i tired it twice and nothing good would happen. I uninstalled and am using the latest Safari build.

[Outsider]

Originally Posted by el3ktro

I agree with you. Actually, when you think about it, it makes sense t put the tabs into the title bar, but it's hard to move the window when you have a lot of tabs open.

This is true. I like the new tab bar since it makes use of the whole width, but I miss the double click to make a new tab.

[Outsider]

Originally Posted by UTisNUM1

I installed it and couldn't open it. It would bounce in the dock and i would get a error message saying it quit unexpectedly. I understand, it is a Beta but i tired it twice and nothing good would happen. I uninstalled and am using the latest Safari build.

Did you restart after the install?

[SS3 GokouX]

Crashes on launch if you have Glims installed. Also breaks reflections in Bowtie (but they should be able to use Webkit reflections instead of javascript). Kinda digging it overall.

[Ed Pummelon]

I prefer my tabs down the side these days and have been using SafariStand to do it. That's almost guaranteed not to work now so I guess I'll have to have another look at FF til the devs update it...

[SS3 GokouX]

Originally Posted by Ed Pummelon

I prefer my tabs down the side these days and have been using SafariStand to do it. That's almost guaranteed not to work now so I guess I'll have to have another look at FF til the devs update it...

...Or you can just not install the beta and continue using Safari 3.

[ascii]

I don't use tabs, preferring to use Expose to manage my browser windows. Could there be a way to simply disable tabs altogether, and not have a plus button or anything?

[UTisNUM1]

Originally Posted by Outsider

Did you restart after the install?

Yes, after i installed it, it restarted. It did the unexpected crash message, i restarted, i got the same message. I uninstalled, restarted and Safari 3 works.

From the screen shots, it looks like i am missing out. I can always wait for an update.

[Ed Pummelon]

Originally Posted by SS3 GokouX

...Or you can just not install the beta and continue using Safari 3.

...too late

[LemCen]

kinda looks like CHROME but mac-y hehe...

[irchs]

Has the inline address bar progress indicator stopped working for anyone else? I get a little spinny indicator on the right, but the blue progress bar doesn't show at all...

[Sven Siegmund]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

... it's said to be the first browser to pass the Web Standards Project's Acid3 test ...

I really don't know who claims that. Very ignorant. Opera 10 passed Acid3 in December when it was in alpha version, the beta passes aswell, 3 months ago.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by Zandros

Agreed. Even more awful is that I have to hit the ribbed part to reorder the tabs…

What where they thinking?

Clearly, they should have consulted you for it's painfully apparent that change is something you have a hard time swallowing.

[ascii]

No way to disable Google suggestions? So every key I press Google has to know about it now, it's not enough that they know the final search.

[mdriftmeyer]

People are whining about a button here or there being relocated, a tab bar redesign, yet as a developer I'm stoked at the fact the guts are a massive leap forward.

[Abster2core]

Unbelievably fast!

Make sure your computer meets the specs:

Macintosh Requirements

• Any Mac running Security Update 2009-001 and Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6 or Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11
• Mac with an Intel processor or a Power PC G5, G4, or G3 processor and built-in FireWire®
• 256MB of RAM
• Top Sites and Cover Flow on Mac OS X Tiger require a Quartz-Extreme compatible video card.

Click More details while you are on the page (http://www.apple.com/safari/download/)

And it wouldn't be a bad idea to review the 150 Features (http://www.apple.com/safari/features.html) before asking dumb questions or making stupid assumptions.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by ascii

No way to disable Google suggestions? So every key I press Google has to know about it now, it's not enough that they know the final search.

Disable that in preferences from Google.

http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by Abster2core

Unbelievably fast!

Make sure your computer meets the specs:

Macintosh Requirements

• Any Mac running Security Update 2009-001 and Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6 or Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11
• Mac with an Intel processor or a Power PC G5, G4, or G3 processor and built-in FireWire®
• 256MB of RAM
• Top Sites and Cover Flow on Mac OS X Tiger require a Quartz-Extreme compatible video card.

Click More details while you are on the page (http://www.apple.com/safari/download/)

And it wouldn't be a bad idea to review the 150 Features (http://www.apple.com/safari/features.html) before asking dumb questions or making stupid assumptions.

RTFM is lost on most of today's surfers. You as I long for the old days when one got the crap trashed out of them if they didn't bother to RTFM.

[SS3 GokouX]

Originally Posted by Ed Pummelon

...too late

The disk image has an uninstaller.

[ivan.rnn01]

(sure, hangs after a hundred mouse clicks as any regular beta does )

Impressive javascript processing speed, hard to get accustomed to those tabs Not that bad...

[Maury Markowitz]

Safari just became my default, and only, browser on Windows.

Now that the UI is windows-like and the font rendering issues are moot, this version catapulted to the top of the heap. It looks fine, it's very fast, renders everything I can throw at it perfectly, and, best of all, it still has all the Mac keyboard shortcuts.

Yes, I have used Chrome and FireFox, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is better than either. Chrome is not bad overall, but suffers from serious rendering problems.

Maury

[Porchland]

I'll switch as soon as Apple makes the bookmark-syncing feature of Mobile Me free. Foxmarks for Firefox does it for free and works like a dream.

[Ireland]

I don't like the way you can't get rid of the new Tab button. I know the shortcut, and that's what I use.

BUT I'M LOVING THE SPEED!!

[hypercommunist]

It wouldn't run until I did this.

How to uninstall Glims? Just remove the following folders: /Library/InputManagers/Glims and /Library/Application Support/Glims.

[Tauron]

Originally Posted by Tony1

Depending on what I'm doing I switch back and forth. I like Safari for the speed and Private Browsing feature ...

Hey! Stop surfing porn!

[backtomac]

Originally Posted by Abster2core

Unbelievably fast!
.

I'm not seeing that. Seems slower to me.

I really like the top sites feature. Very slick.

[ascii]

Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer

Disable that in preferences from Google.

http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en

Changing that does not seem to effect Safari's toolbar search box, that is what I was referring to.

[Lorre]

The tabs on top look pretty ugly imo, especially if you're looking at the second tab and the top-left buttons are in what appaers to be a recessed area... Other than that I find this new Safari to be "insanely great". The new way of rearranging tabs took like 1 minute to get used to.

[bdkennedy1]

I'm worried that Cover Flow is the beginning of unnecessary feature bloat. Did people really ask for that?