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Apple Releases the Safari Browser for Windows
Apple today released the public beta of its’ Safari Web browser. The unique aspect of today’s release, as you might have guessed from this post’s title, is that a Windows version of the beta was released as well. With the exception of the Quicktime/iTunes combo, this, as far as I can recall, is the only other software application that Apple has released for the Windows platform in recent history.
Safari, of course, is just the latest in a long, long, long line of Windows-based Web browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Flock. So, why does Apple think you should use it on your XP/Vista machine? Speed. As far as I can tell, this seems to be the only major difference between Safari and its’ many other competitors. As an example, Apple claims that Safari “loads pages up to 2 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2.“ We did a test here and noticed that some of the pages we were pulling up in Safari were, in fact, coming up faster than they were in Firefox.
However, being able to pull up cnn.com 200 milliseconds faster (that’s 0.2 seconds, people) doesn’t seem to be worth giving up the plethora of Firefox extensions that are available to me. Nor do I feel that it’s worth giving up my beloved Ctrl+Enter, Shift+Enter and Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcuts for entering addresses.* Other than the speed factor, Safari also includes everything we’ve come to expect from a modern browser including tabbed browsing, a pop-up blocker, and even something Microsoft has YET to comprehend: inline search. Again, Firefox has it covered there as well.
I might also add that this beta release includes some graphic display issues (ironic, huh?) that one might not expect from a public beta; perhaps an alpha release, but not a beta, and certainly not from Apple - a company known for smooth graphics in its’ apps and OS. Of course, this is a very minor issue and shouldn’t prevent you from giving the browser a test if you’ve been wanting to.
*While in Firefox, type in “google” in the address bar. Instead of hitting “enter,” try the combinations I referred to instead. Hitting “Ctrl+Enter” will automatically add the “http://” and “.com” to your address and take you to the page. “Shift+Enter” adds the same prefix but takes you to the “.net” TLD. And, as you might presume, “Ctrl+Shift+Enter” would take you to Google’s philanthropic site located at the “.org” TLD.
Update: Apple also previewed the latest version of the Mac OS X OS, Leopard at WWDC which boasts over 300 new features including:
“…a new Desktop and Dock with Stacks, an intuitive new way to organize files; an updated Finder featuring Cover Flow™ and a new way to easily browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to rapidly preview most files without opening an application; Time Machine, a new way to easily and automatically back up and restore lost files or a complete Mac®; Spaces, a powerful new feature to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; and enhanced iChat and Mail applications, which easily allow users to communicate even more creatively.”
Check out the complete press release at Apple.com: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/11leopard.html.
