Apple-Google collaboration may deliver new Safari tie-ins
Apple Computer's fledgling partnership with Internet search giant Google may provide some new enhancements to Apple's Safari web browser with next year's the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
People familiar with the matter say the two companies have tossed around the idea of allowing Safari 3.0 to access Google's AntiTrust database through a plug-in or under-the-hood extension.
The tie-in, those people say, would offer Safari users another level of security by automatically detecting "phishy" websites or malicious URLs.
Word of the potential Safari enhancement comes just days after bloggers discovered that Apple may also be working to allow its iPhoto digital photo cataloging application to interact with Google's Maps service.
Previous reports have also suggested that Apple in Leopard would extend its Spotlight search technology to pull search results from Google's search databases. The Mac maker, however, has so far remained relatively mum on its plans for Spotlight in the next-generation operating system.
While unveiling Leopard this past August, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs highlighted 10 major enhancements due in the release but said the company was keeping several other features "top secret" until a later date.
On Thursday, Apple brought the pre-release copy of Leopard available to its developers up to build 9A283. The update delivered "significant user interface changes to iCal," "basic editing in Preview," and "new Parental Controls [...] for content filtering, apps, and curfews."
In a report from earlier this month, AppleInsider also touched on several other features expected in Safari 3.0, including manipulatable browser tabs, in-page lightbox searching, and resizable text areas.
People familiar with the matter say the two companies have tossed around the idea of allowing Safari 3.0 to access Google's AntiTrust database through a plug-in or under-the-hood extension.
The tie-in, those people say, would offer Safari users another level of security by automatically detecting "phishy" websites or malicious URLs.
Word of the potential Safari enhancement comes just days after bloggers discovered that Apple may also be working to allow its iPhoto digital photo cataloging application to interact with Google's Maps service.
Previous reports have also suggested that Apple in Leopard would extend its Spotlight search technology to pull search results from Google's search databases. The Mac maker, however, has so far remained relatively mum on its plans for Spotlight in the next-generation operating system.
While unveiling Leopard this past August, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs highlighted 10 major enhancements due in the release but said the company was keeping several other features "top secret" until a later date.
On Thursday, Apple brought the pre-release copy of Leopard available to its developers up to build 9A283. The update delivered "significant user interface changes to iCal," "basic editing in Preview," and "new Parental Controls [...] for content filtering, apps, and curfews."
In a report from earlier this month, AppleInsider also touched on several other features expected in Safari 3.0, including manipulatable browser tabs, in-page lightbox searching, and resizable text areas.
Comments
They are.
You cannot sync the two at this point. You can import and export, but you can't keep the data in sync properly.
How about linking iCal and Google Calendar as well. That would be pretty nice
Fully two way syncing that would be sweet.
Not sure where that leaves .Mac...
Don't get me wrong, I like Firefox alot but I know a lot of people who don't use safari for some reason. And now they'd be crazy not to, with all these extra perks.
BTW- I'm a big RSS reader and that's why I use Safari, Firefox ain't got nothin on Safari RSS.
I Primarily use Firefox on Mac and PC, but for banking I use IE on Windows and Netscape on mac. Some banking sites still don't work very well with Firefox and Safari.
I think that after this update people who are still using Firefox will be crazy.
Don't get me wrong, I like Firefox alot but I know a lot of people who don't use safari for some reason. And now they'd be crazy not to, with all these extra perks.
The Firefox 2.0 beta has this feature, although I'm not sure where they get their phishing database from.
Don't get me wrong, I like Firefox alot but I know a lot of people who don't use safari for some reason. .
There are still way too many sites that un-Safari friendly.. Banking, utility companies...
Perhaps my biggest gripe is real estate and MLS related sites.. After years of convincing, I finally got my brother to buy a Mac... Little did I know his wife (a real estate agent) would not be able to access and/or login to most of the websites that she needs to use on a daily basis.
Thank God for Boot Camp or I would've never heard the end of it..
I think that after this update people who are still using Firefox will be crazy.
Don't get me wrong, I like Firefox alot but I know a lot of people who don't use safari for some reason. And now they'd be crazy not to, with all these extra perks.
BTW- I'm a big RSS reader and that's why I use Safari, Firefox ain't got nothin on Safari RSS.
Agreed.
There are still way too many sites that un-Safari friendly.. Banking, utility companies...
Perhaps my biggest gripe is real estate and MLS related sites.. After years of convincing, I finally got my brother to buy a Mac... Little did I know his wife (a real estate agent) would not be able to access and/or login to most of the websites that she needs to use on a daily basis.
Thank God for Boot Camp or I would've never heard the end of it..
What? You're saying they restart in Windows so they can use IE? I've *never* come across a site that works in IE but doesn't in Opera, Firefox, Netscap, or Safari on Mac. That's unheard of to me.
The other thing I think is that some sites say that they require IE to run. But in all cases that I've seen that, they don't know what they're talking about because they run fine in other browsers.
Ummm ... rumor has it that Safari absolutely screams in 10.5.
There are indeed features in Webkit that are enormously much faster (about 10-20 times on my own page tests) than in Safari such as writing to innerHTML with javascript, but it only about brings it on par with Camino and Opera in that respect.
What? You're saying they restart in Windows so they can use IE? I've *never* come across a site that works in IE but doesn't in Opera, Firefox, Netscap, or Safari on Mac. That's unheard of to me.
The other thing I think is that some sites say that they require IE to run. But in all cases that I've seen that, they don't know what they're talking about because they run fine in other browsers.
I found one the other day when trying to track my new iMac, which is kind of ironic in a way. But thanks t my hosemates iMac and parrallels it is all fine.
There are still way too many sites that un-Safari friendly.. Banking, utility companies...
Perhaps my biggest gripe is real estate and MLS related sites.. After years of convincing, I finally got my brother to buy a Mac... Little did I know his wife (a real estate agent) would not be able to access and/or login to most of the websites that she needs to use on a daily basis.
Thank God for Boot Camp or I would've never heard the end of it..
I'd never suggest mail-bombing MLS, but some have said they deserve it.
There are indeed features in Webkit that are enormously much faster (about 10-20 times on my own page tests) than in Safari such as writing to innerHTML with javascript, but it only about brings it on par with Camino and Opera in that respect.
No it's not, even Firefox 2.0 is still about 1/9th of the speed of Safari 2.0, let alone 3.0.
Just because the name has "fire" and "fox" in it doesn't mean it actually is fast, cause it's not.
Opera's a bit faster than Firefox, and is a bit faster than Safari for tables and scripts, but is still many times slower at rendering CSS.
http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html
Apple better not make us pay for Leopard just to get decent Safari compatibility...