Safari 4: What’s new in Apple’s trendsetting WebKit-based browser
There are some changes, both visible and not so obvious, and perhaps some incompatibilities. Here are some of the things you’ll find after you download and install Safari 4 for first time.
Amongst all of today’s hubbub, Apple also released Safari 4 final (download; 43.5MB, Leopard; 29.1MB, Tiger), which has been in beta since February of this year “” that’s a very, very long time for the mothership. According to the company, there are some 150 features and a shortlist of notables includes HTML 5 support, Top Sites, improved Coverflow, CSS 3 webfonts and a whole lot more.
“œThe successful beta release helped us fine tune Safari 4 into an even better, faster version that customers are going to love,” said Philip Schiller, senior vice president in a prepared statement. “œSafari is enjoyed by 70 million users worldwide and with its blazing fast speed, innovative features and support for modern web standards, it’s the best browser on any platform.”
Hands on
Upon firing up Safari 4 for the first time, I received a message that the application had crashed likely because of the TastyAppsAVplugin, which is part of VideoBox, a Flash video conversion plugin and application. Fortunately, a quick check of the TastyApps Web site revealed an update is available and, score, it solves the Safari 4 crash on open issue.
With that problem solved, upon running Safari 4 I noticed that Apple moved tabs back below the address bar and that the progress indicator has a new, rather non-visual look. Although it took some getting used, tabs above the address was a space saver.
That said, a quick check of Safari 4′s preferences reveals that there’s no way to toggle tabs position. Here’s hoping some clever lad or lass posts a Terminal command to get this done.
After loading a page or three, you might notice that, yes, Safari 4 is fast. Much of this speed comes courtesy on the Nitro JavaScript engine, which Apple says executes eight times faster than IE 8 and four times faster than Firefox 3.
Another area where Safari 4 surpasses the competition is in standards compatibility as measured by the Acid 3 test (wikipedia) on which Apple’s default Mac browser scores 100/100. Moreover, the PC version also scores 100/100, marking the first a cross-platform browser has delivered perfectly on both Mac and Windows.
One of the banner features in Safari 4 is TopSites, which is also the source of security concerns for some, and it seems unchanged from the beta. However, Coverflow animation seems to be much, much smoother with images sliding across instead of flipping.
Conclusion
Safari 4 includes some changes that I’m not entirely happy with “” progress indicator and tab position. Nevertheless, Apple’s WebKit-based browser is bloody fast and resets the performance and compatibility bar even higher. Considering that WebKit developers are the source of most of the leading edge innovation in the browser space (i.e. Chrome, Stainless, iCab, etc) that’s saying a lot.
What do you like about Safari 4? Anything you’re not so keen on?
Leave us a note with your impressions below…
See also:
“” Safari 4 beta leaves data, privacy trail in its wake
“” How to: Edit, manage Safari 4′s Top Sites
“” Sync your Safari bookmarks without MobileMe
June 9th, 2009
Any word on putting the tabs bank on top would be greatly appreciated, not much of a binary buff but I was also hoping there is a way to change it in the terminal…
June 9th, 2009
Safari is slowly winning me over from Firefox, largely due to it’s speed. Firefox has grown a bit too bloated for my tastes. I am disappointed, however, that Apple moved tabs back below the address bar. I was a big fan of the tabs in the title bar and the space it saved. I, too, hope someone posts a tweak for this.
June 9th, 2009
I, too, miss the tabs-on-top feature… I wish they’d just included a preference setting…
June 9th, 2009
Ditto for me, tabs on top was great. I’m wishing I knew that before upgrading from the beta.
June 9th, 2009
From a security and integrity perspective the top sites mechanism and file storage all over the place is a thing that should not have left the lab. If apple doesnt fix this so that reset of safari actually does that and cleans upp any files generated or saved by top sites function then apple will be looking at a major security issue and possible law suits to follow. No organisation or individual with security awareness should be using safari 4 untill this flaw has been fixed. Safari 4 is otherwise a decent browser and absolutely a option to getting rid of IE once and for all- but top sites function as it works today – stops this from ever being a possible way forward.
June 9th, 2009
I was able to get Videobox to install and Safari 4.0 to open, however Videobox does not capture the videos anymore. I went to Tastyapps website, however I don’t see anything about an update for Safari.
June 9th, 2009
Use something like secrets and the tabs can be put back on top and the standard blue progress bar restored the way it was before. Actually it can be be put back to the previous settings easily.
June 9th, 2009
Nope, I was one of the ones who hated the tabs on top. They were farrrrr too big and a pain in the ^%&# to quickly tab. The tabs below were easy to navigate and easy to get to.
The big reason why I switched was for the refined look of Apple and “it wasn’t Microsoft”.
Actually, I hated the “windows friendly” look they originally went for in the 4 beta, that I un-installed it and went back to safari 3…. until now that is. It seems that a lot of people thought the same and Apple listened (which I also like, not like some other “nameless” companies)
Good on you apple, by far the best looking and fastest browser, very happy with the final Safari 4.
June 11th, 2009
“I was able to get Videobox to install and Safari 4.0 to open, however Videobox does not capture the videos anymore. I went to Tastyapps website, however I don’t see anything about an update for Safari.”
I went back and tested Videobox 2.8.4.1 in Safari 4 final and it identifies and converts movies. Perhaps an uninstall (you do it via the Videobox menu item), restart and fresh install might do the trick?