Safari

Current Version: 1.0.3 (August 16, 2004) / 1.3.2 (January 12, 2006) / 3.2.1 (November 25, 2008) / 4.0.4 (November 12, 2009)

Safari is a browser developed by Apple, and is the default browser for Mac OS X. It is based upon the KHTML rendering engine used in the Konqueror web browser for UNIX systems.

Safari is simple but stable, and its speed and simplicity make it fun to use. Like other modern browsers, it is capable of blocking popup advertisements and it supports "tabbed" browsing that allows you to neatly organize multiple open pages in a single browser window. Apple has created a page of useful AppleScripts that demonstrate the care that Apple is putting into this browser's design.

Of significant note is the fact that Safari's rendering of complex JavaScript is historically quite a bit speedier other Mac browsers. While Safari is speedy at rendering pages, recent versions of Mozilla and Firefox are, however, arguably still a tiny bit faster. Competition is a healthy thing.

Safari's interface is not terribly attractive, but it is functional. My biggest gripe about the user interface still involves tabbed browsing: prior to version 1.2, when closing the last browser tab, the window would shrink in height; all other browsers with tabbed browsing typically increase the page viewing area (back to its prior state) in this instance. In 1.2 and later, while this quirk has been fixed, a new annoyance has cropped up: when you open your first tab, Safari increases the height of your browser window if there is room below it. It's (still) an unpleasant thing to have to keep resizing a browser all day, and I wish Apple would control the window sizing behavior once and for all for everyday browsing.

While power users will still probably prefer Firefox for their browsing needs because of its extensibility, Safari is more than good enough for the average user, easily meriting a "Drew's Pick" rating in the Mac web browser category.

See the development group's weblog for more information.

Safari 4 introduced the following new features:

• Top Sites - Thanks to Top Sites, you can enjoy a stunning, at-a-glance preview of your favorite websites without lifting a finger. Safari 4 Beta tracks the sites you browse and ranks your favorites, presenting up to 24 thumbnails on a single page. You can even customize the display by pinning a favorite site to a specific location in the grid. That locks it into position, so you know just where to find it every time you open Top Sites.
• Cover Flow - New to Safari, Cover Flow offers a highly visual way of reviewing your site history and bookmarked sites, presenting full-page previews of the websites that look exactly as they did when you last visited them.
• Full History Search - With Full History Search and Cover Flow, what you see is where you went. Safari introduces a dramatic new way to revisit sites, letting you flip through full-page previews of the sites you visited in the past. You may not have total recall, but Safari does, automatically storing all the text and a thumbnail of every page in your history. That makes it easy for Safari to get results even if you remember little about the site you're searching for.
• Nitro Engine - Still the world's fastest web browser, Safari outraces Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. On even the most demanding Web 2.0 applications, Safari delivers blazingly fast performance thanks to the industry's most advanced rendering technologies.
• Developer Tools - In Safari, developers will find the best set of development tools ever included in a browser. Just turn them on in Safari preferences and use them to examine the structure of a page, debug JavaScript, optimize performance and compatibility, inspect offline databases, or test experimental pieces of code on the fly. For more specific information about each of the development tools, visit the Safari Dev Center page.
• Full-Page Zoom - Get a close look at even the finest print using Full-Page Zoom. Safari scales images and graphics as you zoom in and keeps text razor sharp while preserving the page layout perfectly.
• Smart Address Field - Just start typing, and the Smart Address Field instantly offers suggestions. You'll see the Top Hit and the best matches from your browsing history and bookmark collections, each in their own easy-to-read section.
• Smart Search Field - Safari offers excellent search suggestions courtesy of Google Suggest and your recent search history, making it even easier to conduct productive searches. You can even search for text on the page you're viewing.
• Phishing and Malware Protection - Land on a suspicious website, and you'll know right away. Safari automatically alerts you and won't open the page. EV Certificate support lets you easily spot legitimate sites.
• ARIA Support - Safari supports Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA). The ARIA standard helps web developers make dynamic web content more accessible for people with disabilities. With ARIA, sites taking advantage of advanced technologies like AJAX and JavaScript can now easily interoperate with assistive technologies.
• Speculative Loading - Safari loads the documents, scripts, and style information required to view a web page ahead of time, so they're ready when you need them.
• CSS Effects - Pioneered by Safari, CSS effects help developers add polish to websites by stylizing images and photos with eye-catching gradients, precise masks, and stunning reflections that require only a few lines of code.
• CSS Canvas - Using CSS Canvas, web designers can position canvas elements anywhere an image can be placed using CSS. Safari is the first web browser to support CSS Canvas.
• Acid 3 Compliance - Safari is the first - and only - web browser to pass Acid 3. Acid 3 tests a browser's ability to fully render pages using the web standards used to build dynamic, next-generation websites, including CSS, JavaScript, XML, and SVG.
• Nitro JavaScript Engine - Safari 4 introduces the Nitro JavaScript engine, an advanced bytecode JavaScript engine that makes web browsing even faster. In fact, Safari 4 executes JavaScript up to 6 times faster than Internet Explorer 8 and up to 4 times faster than Firefox 3.1.
• HTML 5 Offline Support - Web developers can now create applications that you can use even when you don't have access to the Internet. Thanks to HTML 5 offline support, designers can build web applications that store themselves on your computer, where you have immediate access to them. Along with the application, web developers can also choose to store the application's data on your system, so you always have the information you need. Applications and data can be stored in a traditional SQL-like database serving as an application cache or as a "super cookie," which stores data in the familiar cookie format.

Version 4.0.4 makes the following additional changes:

• Improved JavaScript performance
• Improved Full History Search performance for users with a large number of history items
• Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins, the search field and Yahoo! Mail
• Security updates

Version 3.2.1 (available for Mac OS 10.4 Tiger and Mac OS 10.5 Leopard) features protection from fraudulent phishing websites and better identification of online businesses, and includes security updates and stability improvements.

Version 1.3.2 (for Panther) "improves website compatibility, application stability and support for 3rd party web applications," according to Apple. This version is available through the Software Update feature.

Version 1.0.3 (for Jaguar) "improves the Safari rendering engine to expand third party application support and includes the latest security enhancements." This version is available through the Software Update feature.