Safari for Mac 16.6 / 17.0 Technology Preview 178

Overview

Safari is a powerful web browser designed to provide a simplified, enhanced, and personalized web browsing experience to Mac and PC users. The software is also available in iPad, iPhone, and iPod versions, allowing you to view webpages as they were originally designed to appear, instead of in miniature mobile versions.

Installation

Installation can be completed within minutes with a few mouse clicks. After deciding whether you want to install desktop shortcuts and make Safari your default browser, you'll be asked for to choose an installation file path. If you're installing Safari on a Windows machine, you'll be asked if you want to install Bonjour (a network device sharing application).

Interface

The Safari interface is simple, yet diverse, with an aesthetic appearance that is similar to that of QuickTime and other Apple applications. The browser is equipped by default with tabs that let you the access the most popular web sites online, and accessing or modifying your favorites or any browser preferences is as simple as navigating through the self-explanatory menus in the top left corner of the main window.

Pros

• Recent sites (history) and top sites (your favorites) can be viewed in an interactive three-dimensional wall of pages, instead of the simple text list seen in most browsers.

• Simplistic and familiar Apple-looking interface.

• Performs automatic spell checks on text inputted into any form within the browser.

• Compatible with a plethora of extensions that can enhance and expand features and functionality.

• Multiple zoom options let you zoom in on text only, or view a webpage in full-screen.

• Supports custom stylesheets that let you control every aesthetic aspect of displayed webpages, including color, font size, default font, and contrast.

• Multitouch gestures like pinch to zoom, two finger scroll, tap to zoom, and swipe to navigate add a new dynamic to browser control.

• Integrated sandbox keeps all data that is accessed through the Safari browser quarantined in a safe zone on your hard drive to prevent malicious code from damaging your computer.

• Supports HTML 5 Canvas with hardware acceleration for smooth, seamless graphics.

• Lets you set a minimum font size to keep webpages from displaying text that is too small for you to read.

Cons

• Performs more optimally on Mac OS X, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, as some users have complained of slower browsing in Windows XP.

What's New in Safari 5.1?

This version has implemented several new features, the most notable of which are:

Reading List - lets you store interesting pages and come back to them. Useful for busy browsing sessions, multitasking, and research.

Privacy Pane - shows you which types of tracking cookies are currently being stored, and by which websites.

Resume Session - in the General preferences pane you can now set Safari to automatically restore Windows from the previous browsing session.

Reader – highlights content blocks in a cinematic fashion to make reading easier on the eyes.

Alternatives

The most notable alternatives to Safari are Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Maxthon. Tests have shown Safari to be equal or greater to all of the aforementioned browsers in speed and performance.

Conclusion

Safari provides a compact, diverse, easy-to-use browser with classic Apple appeal. Interactive 3D walls that display your top sites/history, speedy page loads, sandboxed browsing that provides protection from viruses, and tabbed browsing using the Reader List are amongst the features that make this browser unique and beloved.