The following is an excerpt from our Barkings! blog.
Apple has released the fourth version of its Safari web browser as a public beta for both Macs and PCs. This impressive new version of Safari builds on its previous core features (speed, clean interface, integration with Apple’s other OS X-native services and programs).
It also adds a bunch of new features, many of which are both fun and useful.
Notable Features:
- Extremely fast (Cnet independently benchmarked Safari 4 and found it was the fastest mainstream browser on Mac or PC)
- Top Sites preview page (automatically identifies your favorite sites and displays them as “a wall of stunning graphical previews”)
- New ways for managing and navigating bookmarks (including the addition of Cover Flow to the bookmarks window)
- HTML 5 offline support (web developers can now create applications that can be used even when there is no access to the internet.)
- Location of Tabs (a somewhat controversial feature—Tabs have now moved from under the bookmarks bar to the top of the window)
I’ve been using Safari 4 for a few days, and so far I absolutely love it. It actually makes the act of browsing the web fun again.
The other great new features (and speed) make up for the odd change of Tabs. (It’s worth noting that Google’s Chrome browser also has tabs placed at the top of the browsing window.)
Obviously, I’m smitten with Safari. Between this new version of Safari and iLife ’09, I feel like I have a speedy new computer.
Read more and download the Safari 4 beta by clicking here.
Note: Click here to read the article in its entirety.