Safari 4 Public Beta

Sad Professor

Check it out!

http://www.apple.com/safari/

Apple announcement here

From Macrumours:

Apple announced a public beta of Safari 4 today with the "Nitro" engine that runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3.
"Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications."

The new public beta is available as a free download from Apple's website for both Mac and Windows.

New features:

- Top Sites, a display of frequently visited pages in a stunning wall of previews so users can jump to their favorite sites with a single click;
- Full History Search, where users search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily return to sites they've seen before;
- Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks as fun and easy as paging through album art in iTunes;
- Tabs on Top, for better tabbed browsing with easy drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones;
- Smart Address Field, that automatically completes web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history;
- Smart Search Field, where users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches;
- Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site's layout and text;
- Developer Tools - built-in web developer tools to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility; and
- Windows-native look in Safari for Windows, that uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications.

J-blk

Hmmm, must give it a go - been using Safari 3 on Windows at work but it was a disappointment, many pages don't even render correctly which you wouldn't expect from a "modern" browser. On my Macs, I've been using Firefox almost entirely now - can't see Safari 4 pulling me away from it but it's worth a look I guess .

Pixelcraft

J-blk wrote: »

many pages don't even render correctly which you wouldn't expect from a "modern" browser.

True, but blame the websites, not the browser.

unklerosco

Just tried it there... At first I thought it was dog slow. Just been messing around with it, its actually not bad.. Faster than FF3 for me anyway. I like the top sites feature, usual bit of apple slickness... Nice

J-blk

Pixelcraft wrote: »

True, but blame the websites, not the browser.

Yeah, that's true but most browsers these days can cope with poor web development... Oddly enough, Chrome does not have the same issues, even though it is also WebKit based - neither does Safari on Mac OS X. But Safari on Windows was Apple's first attempt to port Safari over, so let's see how this version performs...

Pixelcraft

J-blk wrote: »

Yeah, that's true but most browsers these days can cope with poor web development

That's changing, and about time too. Poorly coded sites have been holding browsers back for quite a while.

babypink

Safari 4 is my new favourite browser!!!!

now I'm normally a bleeding edge WebKit guy.....but this is just lovely!

fjon

Pretty cool - definitely faster.
Finally new pages open in tabs, not on a separate page!

fjon

oops

Type 17

Looking good so far...

ronnie3585

Very smooth and noticeably faster.

Like the tabs a lot.

Kid Nothing

loving it so far, top sites is brilliant. Hotmail's not working too well though!

440Hz

This week (day) I 'as been mostly usin' Safari 4 Beta and... lovin' it!

Skyuser

Bye Bye Firefox, Safari 4 is very nice! Faster and top sites is genius.

ronnie3585

Is anyone else finding that it doesn't like Hotmail?

It will only open my junkmail folder but then it won't open any messages.

dubmick

sorry I don't like it all, particularly where the tabs are positioned

RCNPhotos

I can't get it to install. It says it needs OS X 10.5.6 is it? I'm on 10.5.5. Just got my Macbook Pro (which I love to bits) there last week too. Tried searching for an update or a download or something for 10.5.6 but nothing. Any ideas folks? Really want to try Safari 4.

Type 17

RCNPhotos wrote: »

I can't get it to install. It says it needs OS X 10.5.6 is it? I'm on 10.5.5. Just got my Macbook Pro (which I love to bits) there last week too. Tried searching for an update or a download or something for 10.5.6 but nothing. Any ideas folks? Really want to try Safari 4.

Go to Apple Menu > Software Update... and it should prompt you to update to 10.5.6

440Hz

Anyone else find that the multi-touch trackpad response is particularly sensitive in Safari 4? Every time I try to scroll on web page I end up zooming out, its beginning to annoy me now! No really happening with other browsers/applications.

Sad Professor

I played around with the beta for a few hours and then switched back. I find Safari unusable without Saft and Pithhelmet.

The beta is nice but as usual Apple added a lot of extra bloat while continuing to ignore several basic features present in other browsers, such as single-window-mode, remembering tabs, etc. I know its only a beta but I wish Apple would focus on under the hood improvements instead of new shiny stuff like Top Sites and Cover Flow.

Bah!

big_moe

also, on safari 3 while a page was loading it would how the progress on the address bar by a blue colour filling up the address bar...

has this been taken away or am i just not seeing some pref setting?!

drunkmonkey

it seems a lot quicker than previous safari versions.....one problem my full screen button isn't working anymore, any ideas...? still works in firefox...

J-blk

big_moe wrote: »

also, on safari 3 while a page was loading it would how the progress on the address bar by a blue colour filling up the address bar...

has this been taken away or am i just not seeing some pref setting?!

Nope, it's gone and has been replaced by the swirly circle thing next to the address, which is also used to stop loading the page and refresh...

drunkmonkey

Skyuser wrote: »

Bye Bye Firefox, Safari 4 is very nice! Faster and top sites is genius.

I wouldn't go that far just yet, firefox is pretty good, didn't opera have the top sites thing for the last year or 2....

J-blk

drunkmonkey wrote: »

didn't opera have the top sites thing for the last year or 2....

Yes, it did... Plus, you can always add that functionality to Firefox anyway:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4810

Safari 4 is looking like a solid improvement over 3, but I still wouldn't be able to live without my Firefox extensions...

RCNPhotos

Anyone else having trouble with using gestures to zoom in and out on sites? It's sensitive to the point of not being able to get back to the original size, either too big or too small, annoying. Anyone else notice this? Other then that I'm a fan so far.

440Hz

440Hz wrote: »

Anyone else find that the multi-touch trackpad response is particularly sensitive in Safari 4? Every time I try to scroll on web page I end up zooming out, its beginning to annoy me now! No really happening with other browsers/applications.

RCNPhotos wrote: »

Anyone else having trouble with using gestures to zoom in and out on sites? It's sensitive to the point of not being able to get back to the original size, either too big or too small, annoying. Anyone else notice this? Other then that I'm a fan so far.

Yup, I'm experiencing a lot of hassle with that too.

Stupidly, and sleepily, last night I overwrote Safari 3 when I installed and I just couldn't be bothered rolling back, so I think i'll have to get used to it!

Sad Professor

440Hz wrote: »

Stupidly, and sleepily, last night I overwrote Safari 3 when I installed and I just couldn't be bothered rolling back, so I think i'll have to get used to it!

When I ran the beta uninstaller it automatically restored Safari 3 for me. I was quite impressed.

440Hz

440Hz wrote: »

Anyone else find that the multi-touch trackpad response is particularly sensitive in Safari 4? Every time I try to scroll on web page I end up zooming out, its beginning to annoy me now! No really happening with other browsers/applications.

Sad Professor wrote: »

When I ran the beta uninstaller it automatically restored Safari 3 for me. I was quite impressed.

O RLY! Nice

Breezer

For anyone who likes the speed of Safari 4 but not the new interface, this article gives a few terminal commands for reverting bits of it (or the whole thing) back to the Safari 3 UI.

big_moe

Breezer wrote: »

For anyone who likes the speed of Safari 4 but not the new interface, this article gives a few terminal commands for reverting bits of it (or the whole thing) back to the Safari 3 UI.

excellent! blue progress bar is back!

ronnie3585

big_moe wrote: »

excellent! blue progress bar is back!

How do you get the blue bar back? That's the only thing I miss from Safari 3.

Kid Nothing

blue bar = epic

Ronnie: open terminal and copy and paste
"defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign -bool NO" , hit enter and then do the same with
"defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle -bool NO" and restart Safari

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

toomevara

Been using this today, this is one classy browser...but ferchrissakes bring back the blue bar...

ZENER

I preferred the tabs UNDER the Links. Easier to see. That combined with the new easier method of making a new tab other that Command+T would be really sweet for me.

Can't notice much speed difference as others have mentioned ?! Although I am experiencing the problem with reading hotmail communications, the emails won't open from the inbox but will from the home page ?!

Top Sites is a nice feature too.

Ken

Type 17

Yes, still using it and enjoying the better speed and Top Sites feature but, despite trying to give them a chance, I had to run the commands to restore the tabs below the address bar and the blue progress bar.

The tabs had to go back because all other browsers still have them there, and I just don't need the extra space that badly (20" screen).

The blue progress bar is miles better than the rotating gear as you can see it out of the corner of your eye while you're checking out the page as it loads - I wish other browsers had it...

adox

Miss the blue bar but most everything else seems sweet.

ronnie3585

adox wrote: »

Miss the blue bar but most everything else seems sweet.

As posted above;

open terminal and copy and paste
"defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign -bool NO" , hit enter and then do the same with
"defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle -bool NO" and restart Safari

Kid Nothing

Yep, still very happy with it, think it's a great improve ment now that i've used it for a few days.

The blue bar needs to be brought back in the main release though as well as an option to have the tabs where you want.

Ham'nd'egger

Downloaded 4 last night and it's spots above version 3. Cover flow is brilliant IMO, it seems zippier and and I like how the urls almost spotlight when you manually type them in. Miss the blue bar though but it's a minor thing compared to the improvements.

rogers4815

Hotmail's not working for me either!
In the inbox, when i move the cursor over a new message it turns into the little hand but when i click it doesn't open.

(But that's the point of a beta i suppose, it's not all gonna work straight away!)

Love the top sites and coverflow for the history though! Brilliant!

ethernet

rogers4815 wrote: »

Hotmail's not working for me either!
In the inbox, when i move the cursor over a new message it turns into the little hand but when i click it doesn't open.

(But that's the point of a beta i suppose, it's not all gonna work straight away!)

Love the top sites and coverflow for the history though! Brilliant!

I take it you haven't tried IE8 then :P

jester77

ZENER wrote: »

I preferred the tabs UNDER the Links. Easier to see. That combined with the new easier method of making a new tab other that Command+T would be really sweet for me.

For those that don't like the tabs, open up a terminal window and type in the following command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop -bool FALSE

rogers4815

ethernet wrote: »

I take it you haven't tried IE8 then :P

I have a mac so that's a bit of a no!

likin it so far!

google chrome style for the most visited pages is good since chrome isnt on mac yet

Really liking this.
Love cover flow, really brings out the best with ones bookmarks.
&
Ta for the Blue Bar info.