Safari 4

Ham'nd'egger

Downloaded the non Beta version of this onto my iMac last night (was it released just this weekend?) and I must say, it's a lot speedier than it's trial version. Is there anybody else using it yet?

pvik00

It's speedy all right, but there are a number of things I miss:

1) The option of having the tabs on the top of the window, a la Safari 4 Beta.

2) The option of being able to switch back to the old progress bar, that didn't take up any useful space yet was better at indicating page download/rendering progress.

3) The option of disabling the Top Sites junk factory. The implementation is stupid, useless and users really should be given an option to switch it off. I'm not going to store zillions of jpegs/pngs (two on each site I visit) on my system for no obvious reason. At the minimum there should be a way to limit the space this 'feature' can occupy.

Sad Professor

Yeah I'm finding it pretty fast too. I don't care for the interface changes either.

And I can't believe we are on v4.0 and Apple still hasn't added single-window mode and saved tabs. If it wasn't for Saft I'd find Safari unusable.

Gerard_Smith

I'm very impressed by it. Definite speed improvement over the beta and flash performance is spectacular.

As for the top sights feature, I've just pinned the sites I actually care about and am using in much the same way as Operas speed dial. The implantation could be better but having my twelve most visited sites right there when I open a new tab has saved me some time.

Ham'nd'egger

pvik00 wrote: »

It's speedy all right, but there are a number of things I miss:

1) The option of having the tabs on the top of the window, a la Safari 4 Beta.

2) The option of being able to switch back to the old progress bar, that didn't take up any useful space yet was better at indicating page download/rendering progress.

3) The option of disabling the Top Sites junk factory. The implementation is stupid, useless and users really should be given an option to switch it off. I'm not going to store zillions of jpegs/pngs (two on each site I visit) on my system for no obvious reason. At the minimum there should be a way to limit the space this 'feature' can occupy.

I actually love Top Sites as it saves having to enter into pages like here or into web mails in a mere glance; you can edit it to take less pages if you like. Granted it is a tad heavy on resource but new applications tend to be over their predecessors.

I miss the progress bar; didn't somebody here post a code to reinstall it on the Beta?

Lastly, which tabs are you referring to; short cuts or something else which I can't think of right now?

ZENER

Ditto on the tabs along the top of the window - preferred them there.

Another thing is the absence of the "+" for new tabs at the top right of the Safari Window - it was there in the Beta but missing in the V4 release.
The "+" symbol now only shows once there are more than one tab open ! You still need to use Command + T to create a new Tab first though !

Ken

pvik00

Hamndegger wrote: »

I actually love Top Sites as it saves having to enter into pages like here or into web mails in a mere glance; you can edit it to take less pages if you like. Granted it is a tad heavy on resource but new applications tend to be over their predecessors.

In my case 350Megs of uncontrolled growth per day is obnoxious. In the background it takes two snaps of each site you visit, and stores the for eternity. It's happening to you, too, even if you don't yet realize, just check out the size of ~Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Webpage Previews and you'll see how bad this is.

Hamndegger wrote: »

I miss the progress bar; didn't somebody here post a code to reinstall it on the Beta?

Yeah, but you cannot do this in the 'release'. Beta is not meant for everyday use.

Hamndegger wrote: »

Lastly, which tabs are you referring to; short cuts or something else which I can't think of right now?

None of these. The standard browser tabs. Hit Cmd+T in Safari to bring up a new one to confirm what I am talking about.

pvik00

Whoever thinks top sites is cool as it is should check the size/growth of their ~Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Webpage Previews

Now I have a scheduled job to thrash it every day, but I'd prefer a way to simply switch it off or at least define an upper limit to it.

Sad Professor

I've changed "New tabs open with:" to Empty in preferences. Doesn't this basically turn off Top Sites?

faceman

Safari 4 is far superior to 4 beta. Thank feck!

pvik00

Sad Professor wrote: »

I've changed "New tabs open with:" to Empty in preferences. Doesn't this basically turn off Top Sites?

No. The underlying infrastructure still captures every page you visit and transforms it into an image.
In the final version there is no clean method of disabling this.

flazio

I think the look of it is too similar to FF and IE. The grey interface was very iTunes and therefore very Apple looking. This with it's Windows top bar looks too generic on Windows.

PoleStar

I found it has crashed a good few times.

Anyone else have this problem?

Breezer

ZENER wrote: »

Another thing is the absence of the "+" for new tabs at the top right of the Safari Window - it was there in the Beta but missing in the V4 release.
The "+" symbol now only shows once there are more than one tab open ! You still need to use Command + T to create a new Tab first though !

Right click on the toolbar -> Customize Toolbar -> Add a 'New Tab' button

PoleStar wrote:

I found it has crashed a good few times.

Anyone else have this problem?

Nope, in fact I've found it incredibly stable compared to both the beta and Safari 3.

ronnie3585

Is there any way to get the blue progress bar back and move the tabs to the top of the page as they were in Beta?

pvik00

ronnie3585 wrote: »

Is there any way to get the blue progress bar back and move the tabs to the top of the page as they were in Beta?

Unfortunately there's no way to achieve this in the 'release' version. If you need more space there is a way to get rid of the 'add bookmark' button that integrates with the address bar and takes up some, but most of the UI elements are far less customizable than in the beta.

chrislad

Is there a way to make new windows open in a tab in the existing window, rather than opening a new window? I know I can hold down the CMD button but that's a pain.

Sad Professor

chrislad wrote: »

Is there a way to make new windows open in a tab in the existing window, rather than opening a new window? I know I can hold down the CMD button but that's a pain.

Afraid not. I use Saft for this - but it's not free.

http://haoli.dnsalias.com/Saft/index.html

Breezer

Sad Professor wrote: »

Afraid not.

Afraid so Prof

Open up Terminal and type

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Then restart Safari. To change it back, type the same thing but with 'false' at the end instead of 'true.'

Of course Saft does a lot of other things, but if that's all you want it for you're better off with the Terminal. Safari Stand can do a fair bit of what Saft does for free too

pvik00

chrislad wrote: »

Is there a way to make new windows open in a tab in the existing window, rather than opening a new window? I know I can hold down the CMD button but that's a pain.

If you mean those links that would otherwise force to your browser to open a new window, then yes there is.

Here's how:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2008032109273043

silvine

I like it but I really miss the Firefox awesome bar. Type Google Maps into Firefox and you get straight there, alas not with Safari.

Sad Professor

Breezer wrote:

Afraid so Prof

Open up Terminal and type
Code:
defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Now you would think Apple would put an essential feature like that in the preferences where everyone could, you know, actually see it and make use of it. But nah instead they've left it invisible while they're screwing around with the tabs and the toolbar. Grrrrr!

I still like Saft for the restore tabs feature. Although I see Glims - which is freeware - has become quite popular for doing this and other things. Although Saft also lets you chose which tabs you want to restore on launch which is handy for when Safari crashes (as it does) and I don't have the patience to wait while it opens all my tabs again.

pvik00

And this is how you can disable those annoying Webpage Previews in the 'final' version:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSnapshotsUpdatePolicy -int 2

You'll need to restart Safari in order for this to become effective.
You still will be able to use Top Sites, but no new Website snaps will get generated (so that's really in theory).
If you used Cover Flow to browse History, that's affected, too.
Please note that any old snaps will have to be removed by hand, they won't get cleaned up. If you drop the whole '~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Webpage Previews' directory, Safari will recreate it, but it won't use it for storing the trash any more.

silvine

Anyone having problems with Safari?

I have to click reload on certain sites for them to open. For example I typed boards.ie into my address field and nothing happened. I had to click cancel and then reload for the site to appear.

I don't have the same problem with Firefox so it's not my internet connection.

Sad Professor

silvine wrote: »

Anyone having problems with Safari?

I have to click reload on certain sites for them to open. For example I typed boards.ie into my address field and nothing happened. I had to click cancel and then reload for the site to appear.

I don't have the same problem with Firefox so it's not my internet connection.

Any Safari add-ons installed? Or maybe an uncommon plugin?

You could try temporarily moving all the plugins in HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins/ and see if it makes any difference.

silvine

I've installed Glims. I will try that and see thanks.

Sad Professor

That's probably it alright. The devs say they're working on an update:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Glims-for-Safari/93636796317

Gerard_Smith

Any opinions on whether saft is actually "better" than glims? I've been thinking about laying down the cash but glims is serving me well at the moment.

As for the lack of the awesome bar you could try Quicksliver, Butler or the new Google Quick Search Bar. All offer pretty much the same fictionality in addition to there app launching abilities.

Sad Professor

Gerard_Smith wrote: »

Any opinions on whether saft is actually "better" than glims? I've been thinking about laying down the cash but glims is serving me well at the moment.

Nah, stick with Glims for now. I bought Saft back before there was any alternative. Glims development seems to be more active.

As for the lack of the awesome bar you could try Quicksliver, Butler or the new Google Quick Search Bar. All offer pretty much the same fictionality in addition to there app launching abilities.

Or Launchbar. It's come a long way. I've been giving it a test run the last few days and really like it. Quicksilver is great too (and free) but starting to show its age. Blacktree are no longer developing it and more or less told everyone to switch to Launchbar.

adox

4.0.1 already out!

silvine

Cheers for that.

Actually the guy behind Quicksilver is now developing the Google Quick Search box.

Gerard_Smith

Google Quick Search Box isn't bad either. I can't dispute the quality of Launchbar but there is just no justification for buying a product when there are so many free alternatives that do pretty much the same thing.

drzhivago

Hangs
Have had a number of system crashes (big ones none of the usual workarounds allow force quit)
Hate where the reload button is make it difficult to access
websites load very slowly (Boards and politics being obvious ones)

looks like a mistake to upgrade

Twee.

I thought the Top Sites was cool for a while, but it's just kind of slow and annoying now. Don't really get it, all my tops sites are in my bookmarks under the address bar.

I miss the loading blue bar, I liked that.

The Black Oil

Hmm, it's crashing a bit for me, predominantly on boards, actually - usually when I try to open a few forums or threads in separate tabs. I don't recall it doing this on the beta version.

Sad Professor

drzhivago wrote: »

Hangs
Have had a number of system crashes (big ones none of the usual workarounds allow force quit)
Hate where the reload button is make it difficult to access
websites load very slowly (Boards and politics being obvious ones)

looks like a mistake to upgrade

The Black Oil wrote: »

Hmm, it's crashing a bit for me, predominantly on boards, actually - usually when I try to open a few forums or threads in separate tabs. I don't recall it doing this on the beta version.

Do either of you have any add-ons installed? Glims, etc?

ronnie3585

It's crashing for me a lot too. I've no add ons installed either. I seems to happen when I try to open the most basic and simple websites that dont require very much cpu use. Don't think I recall the beta version crashing once on me.

The Black Oil

Not that I recall, though I can't remember where I would check for them, oops. All I installed recently was Main Menu and system updates. If memory serves the crashes start before I installed Main Menu.

drzhivago

Sad Professor wrote: »

Do either of you have any add-ons installed? Glims, etc?

no add ons for me

Sad Professor

Anyone experiencing slowdowns/crashes might try following the advice here:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090622144614397

If this doesn't work you could also try temporarily removing all the plug-ins from HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins/.

crosstownk

How do I switch off the Top Sites function and the Google Recent Search function - is it possible? That sort of stuff could be incriminating...................

Breezer

If you're worried about "incriminating evidence" you can just use the Private Browsing function. Safari -> Private Browsing (in the menu bar).

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Twee.

Very irritating problem! Sometimes the blue scroll bar on the side doesn't load! Can't use arrow keys or space bar to scroll either. Refreshing a few times usually works, but i've had to restart the application once or twice.

Sad Professor

Twee. wrote: »

Very irritating problem! Sometimes the blue scroll bar on the side doesn't load! Can't use arrow keys or space bar to scroll either. Refreshing a few times usually works, but i've had to restart the application once or twice.

Does this tend happen on certain sites? Or everywhere?

Twee.

Oh jeez, when I clicked "reply" it crashed. But anyway, it's only happened on Boards and Myspace...so far!

The Black Oil

Just crashed on boards. I wasn't logged in, but was about to go the Science category.

As for internet plug-ins, I have:

AdobePDFViewer.plugin
DRM Plugin.bundle
Flash Player.plugin
flashplayer.xpt
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.webplugin
iPhotoPhotocast.plugin
JavaPluginCocoa.bundle
NP-PPC-Dir-Shockwave
nsIQTScriptablePlugin.xpt
Quartz Composer.webplugin
QuickTime Plugin.plugin
QuickTime Plugin.webplugin
RealPlayer Plugin.plugin
Silverlight.plugin
VerifiedDownloadPlugin.plugin

lalee17

pvik00 wrote: »

Whoever thinks top sites is cool as it is should check the size/growth of their ~Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Webpage Previews

Now I have a scheduled job to thrash it every day, but I'd prefer a way to simply switch it off or at least define an upper limit to it.

Sorry but how did you schedule your system to trash it every day?

conchubhar1

can you change the skin

the grey color doesnt fit in with the aqua and my blue backround, folders etc etc

pvik00

conchubhar1 wrote: »

can you change the skin

the grey color doesnt fit in with the aqua and my blue backround, folders etc etc

In practice you can't.
The UI elements are part of the application package so there's no easy way to do it.
In theory you can try, but you need to do this every time you update to a newer version and you are on your own to do it all manually.
(With similar hacks it's possible to bring back the tabs on top from Safari 4 beta)

Sad Professor

conchubhar1 wrote: »

can you change the skin

the grey color doesnt fit in with the aqua and my blue backround, folders etc etc

Are you still using Tiger? Aqua is pretty much gone in Leopard (except for the scroll-bars).