Apple has released an upgrade to their Macintosh and Windows browser Safari for an open beta test, currently going under the - i sincerely hope only tentative - codename Safari 4 (Leo). Leo? The only excuse I managed to find was that July 23 to August 22 is the Leo virgo astrological sign, maybe hinting at a release date? Yeah, i dunno, that's the best i could do. In my opinion it's a terrible name. Apple beta releases are usually only beta in name and are very stable versions of the final product to come, so i suggest everyone give it a try. Downloads have been released for both OSs.

There is a complete features list below, but I highlighted the most interesting ones!

Features:

Official Feature's List (http://www.apple.com/safari/features.html)

- Vista Aero Support - Now it looks like a Vista application.

- Windows font rendering - Safari will now render websites by default according to the Windows font, instead of using Helvetica. Aesthetically, it looks much nicer.

- 100% Acid 3 Test - Finally...

and....

- CSS Animation and CSS Effects (and CSS 3 Web Font)!!! - For those who don't know, this is a very interesting and handy replacement for .js and .gif animations, and you can create a lot of cool website effects with it. It's a feature for nerds.
Also, it supports several html 5.0 features, and something called html/css canvas... :\ No idea what that is, but sounds impressive.

- Top Sites -

Now, the most important change is something called Top Sites. It violates your privacy, examines your surfing habits, probably sends some info to the FBI, and makes you a pretty list of your most frequented sites with previews. Which changes dynamically. Now, a) these sites are prerendered hence open ultra-fast b) if a site has been updated since your last visit, a handy icon will appear next to its picture. Same thing for bookmarks (the coverflow view).

http://i514.photobucket.com/albums/t348/a-lone-trail/Ichigos/th_Picture11.png (http://s514.photobucket.com/albums/t348/a-lone-trail/Ichigos/?action=view&current=Picture11.png)http://i514.photobucket.com/albums/t348/a-lone-trail/Ichigos/th_Picture12.png (http://s514.photobucket.com/albums/t348/a-lone-trail/Ichigos/?action=view&current=Picture12.png)

And when I say it examines your surfing habits, I wasn't kidding. The first time I opened up Top Sites I noticed a...uh...website of ill fame in the lower left corner. Which I haven't been visiting. Absolutely not. :whistle: Thankfully, you can edit the Top Sites. Still, pretty good at analysing your habits. :heh:

Annoying Changes:

- Tabs - have been moved to the top. :/ I get the reason - it frees up more vertical space in the browser for webpages, but honestly it looks ugly. Looks absolutely terrible in XP. Thankfully, you can revert back to the old looks via Terminal. Bottom tabs code: defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop false

Top tabs code: defaults delete com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop

http://i514.photobucket.com/albums/t348/a-lone-trail/Ichigos/th_Picture10.png (http://s514.photobucket.com/albums/t348/a-lone-trail/Ichigos/?action=view&current=Picture10.png) vs. http://i514.photobucket.com/albums/t348/a-lone-trail/Ichigos/th_Picture9.png (http://s514.photobucket.com/albums/t348/a-lone-trail/Ichigos/?action=view&current=Picture9.png)

- NO BLUE PROGRESS BAR - What the hell was Apple smoking when they decided to remove the best Safari feature?!

Impressions:

Thankfully, Apple has tweaked .gif support. It still sucks, but a bit less, Safari no longer stutters like a shy boy at the prom. At the same time, they must have added a nitro boost or something - the speed increase is very noticeable, especially considering the pre-rendered sites. Gmail is definitely loading faster, mind you, even on a slower internet connection! So the speed increase is definitely worth a try. Word of mouth has it that FF still loads faster under normal use, but Safari loads faster if a laptop is using its battery.... :/

Anyway, these are my first impressions. Download links below, give it a run.

Acid 3 Test (http://acid3.acidtests.org/)

CSS Animation/Effects Example (http://webkit.org/blog-files/leaves/index.html)


Download Mac (http://www.apple.com/safari/download/download) Download Win (http://www.apple.com/safari/download/download)

I have to admit, that this release greatly redeems the last release they did for windows, which was simply poop. The fact that it is 100% acid3 test (a test that checks your browser's ability to display information correctly) and HTML 5 support makes it excellent for web developers and users alike and is worth celebrating.

Then again, it feels so much like a chrome-clone with some additional 3d effects, and it preforms a tad bit slower. Time will tell as the brower wars continues. In addition, it preformed excruciatingly slow with cubic javascript and when dealing with string parsing. Seems like the Acid3 test was good, but things under the hood may require a bit more tweaking.

*still waits for the browsers to merge and form one super-browser and wipe out the rest*

Oh yay, let's create a topic for every single new browser version. Where's the IE8 and the Opera 10 topic?

They don't deserve one :P

Chrome needs a topic though...

Edit: wow, they actually exist. I though you were just exaggerating. Okay, I'll add similar posts for IE, Opera, FF, and Chrome. Make this thread the official latest browser thread.

IE 8 Beta Features (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/features/overview.aspx?tabid=1&catid=1)

Opera 10 Alpha (http://www.opera.com/browser/next/)