Apple drops Safari Technology Preview 47 with new APIs, Spectre fixes

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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in General Discussion
A new version of Apple's experimental Safari branch was made available to web professionals late Wednesday, bringing a number of API enhancements and folding in patches for the Spectre vulnerability.




Aside from the Spectre mitigations - which match those rolled out to iOS and High Sierra in recent days - the headline feature from the latest Safari Technology Preview is a new experimental storage access API. The API would allow specific third-party cookies to be accessed when requested by the user.

This proposal is designed to help third-party services embedded on a website - the WebKit team holds up commenting widgets and video services as prime examples - read and write their own cookies in multiple contexts.

WebKit would only allow this following a user interaction, like a tap or a click, to avoid surreptitious tracking without the user's knowledge. It would also respect locally-set rules including whitelists and blacklists.

Other changes include wide-ranging improvements to service workers, which allow websites to run processes in the background without the need for user interaction. Enhancements to picture-in-picture, Web Inspector, and the Clipboard API are also included.

Safari Technology Preview 47 is available now for download from Apple's developer website.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    “Drops” = no longer support?
  • Reply 2 of 6
    bobjohnsonbobjohnson Posts: 154member
    suddenly newton said:
    “Drops” = no longer support?
    The world has been using "drop" to mean "release" for a long time now...
  • Reply 3 of 6
    seanismorrisseanismorris Posts: 1,624member
    “Drops” = no longer support?
    The world has been using "drop" to mean "release" for a long time now...
    Maybe so, but it’s a poor use of the word “drops”.  

    When I read the title it sounds like: Apple is dropping Safari Preview Build 47.  As in making it no longer available available...  then I make the assumption the reason Apple is doing so, is to include a new one that includes the Spectre patch.

    I have enough problems with English, there is no need to bastardize it further.

    Also note I’m not the original person that the question about the title.

    ——
    Using the word “drops” in a complete sentence probably would have made sense.  As is “released” or “added content”..
    But in a truncated title it doesn’t work...
    edited January 2018 cincyteeStrangeDays
  • Reply 4 of 6
    seanismorrisseanismorris Posts: 1,624member
    It sounds like Safari is becoming more powerful/customizable.  Which is a good thing, because it’s very “bare bones”...

    I’ve notice since iOS 11 (that included a new WebKit) some sites don’t render properly.  Specifically, video’s on the page autorun automatically in the bottom right.  Which is annoying considering I’ve already started another video on the page.

    https://www.foxsports.com/nfl



  • Reply 5 of 6
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,948member
    bobjohnson said:
    suddenly newton said:
    “Drops” = no longer support?
    The world has been using "drop" to mean "release" for a long time now...
    I don't really recall this happening. When I hear drops, I immediately think dropped support when it comes to software. Instead of trying to be cute with words, why not just be simple and say Apple releases Technology Preview 47, or Apple has released Technology Preview 47. 
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 6 of 6
    volcanvolcan Posts: 1,799member
    seanismorris said:
    It sounds like Safari is becoming more powerful/customizable.  Which is a good thing, because it’s very “bare bones”...
    It also doesn't work on a lot of sites, at least on macOS. Some embedded videos and many complex forms that are using Ajax will fail. I often need to switch to Chrome to interact with what are generally very professionally designed pages from large organizations.
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