Safari 5.0.1

NUTZZ

It's out a few days now but just in case people didn't know!

Apple has launched an updated version of its Safari internet browser. Safari 5.0.1 now supports “extensions”, small widgets that can be added to the browser by users to customise the web-surfing experience.

Extensions available at launch include widgets that display live web feeds, simplify downloads, or filter web content depending on an individual’s preferences. There’s even an Amazon extension which allows users to add products to their Amazon wish list at the touch of a button. The new Safari Extensions Gallery will showcase the best browser widgets.

“Safari 5 has been a big hit, and user response has been fantastic,” said Brian Croll, a vice president of product marketing at Apple. “We’re thrilled to see so many leading developers creating great extensions and think our users are going to love being able to customise Safari.”

The New York Times has built an extension to make it easier for people to keep up with the latest news while surfing the web.

“We think our Safari extension is a great way for readers to get all of the latest breaking news, stories, blogs and columns they want to see,” said Denise Warren, a senior manager at the newspaper firm. “While you browse other sites in Safari, our extension checks for updates and slides in new headlines and thumbnails so you won’t miss a thing.”

Extensions can be downloaded for free from the Safari gallery, and there is no need to restart the browser after adding an extension. Widgets will be updated automatically, and users can switch individual extensions on and off as they wish.

The extensions are built on the HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards, and Apple certifies each extension to verify the authenticity of the widget.

Extensions support brings Safari's capabilities in to line with other web browsers, such as Firefox, which also enable users to install useful widgets.

Five of the best Apple Safari extensions

:: Turn off the lights: If you’re watching a video online, but can’t increase it to full-screen size, then this handy extension will dim the background of the screen, so you can focus solely on the video.

:: TrueNew: This extension shows the number of unread messages in your Gmail inbox, plus an update of the number of emails received since the last time you checked your inbox.

:: ShortenzLinkz: Choose from 12 different URL-shortening services using this handy widget, which also allows you to tweet a shortened link.

:: Instapaper Article Tools: Instapaper is a great way to organise and keep track of articles you
haven’t got the time to read. This extension brings useful sidebar controls to the web browser, and will be familiar to anyone who uses Instapaper on Apple’s iPad.

:: Twitter for Safari: Twitter’s official Safari extension brings real-time trending topics and personal mentions to the browser. It also allows you to tweet a shortened link to a web page from within that web page.

MACHEAD

Anyone else using Leopard (10.5.8) had a problem trying to install this update.
Initally I tried installing via 'software update' and at the restart prompt it returned an error stating that the package couldn't be verified. So I tried just downloading the .dmg file from the 'Safari' page on Apple.com and install it manually, but again a problem, this time it returns a 'checksum error' while verifying the package.