Safari 5 brings extensions, Bing search, improved HTML5
Perhaps the biggest Mac-related software release of the 2010 Worldwide Developer Conference pushes Apple’s open standards web agenda and brings browser-specific developer tools to the table, while adding some nifty new features.
Apple has announced, as predicted predicted, a whole number update of its WebKit-based browser. Safari 5 (37.46MB, Safari 4.1 for Tiger) is available via your Mac’s integrated Software Update (Apple menu) and direct from the mothership.
“Safari continues to lead the pack in performance, innovation and standards support,” said Philip Schiller, senior vice president, Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari now runs on over 200 million devices worldwide and its open source WebKit engine runs on over 500 million devices.”
New features include:
- • Safari Reader: Click on the new Reader icon to view articles on the web in a single, clutter-free page.
• Improved Performance: Safari 5 executes JavaScript up to 25 percent faster than Safari 4. Better page caching and DNS prefetching speed up browsing.
• Bing Search Option: New Bing search option for Safari’s Search Field, in addition to Google and Yahoo!.
• Improved HTML5 support: Safari supports over a dozen new HTML5 features, including Geolocation, full screen for HTML5 video, closed captions for HTML5 video, new sectioning elements (article, aside, footer, header, hgroup, nav and section), HTML5 AJAX History, EventSource, WebSocket, HTML5 draggable attribute, HTML5 forms validation, and HTML5 Ruby.
• Safari Developer Tools: A new Timeline Panel in the Web Inspector shows how Safari interacts with a website and identifies areas for optimization. New keyboard shortcuts make it faster to switch between panels.
— Developers can now create secure Safari Extensions
Big, big improvements under the hood vis-a-vis HTML5 and JavaScript functionality, areas where the company has repeatedly said it wants to lead the field. Thereupon, I wonder how long it will take the company to bring the above features to the mobile versions of their WebKit-based browser?
Given iAds reliance on next-gen web technologies, like HTML5, we probably don’t have long to wait.
Further, given the love-hate nature of Apple’s relationship with Microsoft, you’ve gotta wonder what, if anything, Redmond paid or traded for the privilege of getting Bing! listed in Safari? Apple earns a bit from Google for Safari searches — will they earn more from Microsoft? It wouldn’t surprise me in the least…
What’s your take?
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