Safari 4 Beta: A Review
The news that has the tech and Mac communities all abuzz this week is Apple's release of the public beta of Safari 4. I'm not one to run beta software on my machine, especially software so critical as a web browser. However, since I'm looking at replacing this computer real soon, I figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and give it a try.
Well, I surely was not disappointed. First, let's see what's new:
Updated Webkit core. Webkit, Safari's engine has seen itself emerge as the first engine to get score a 100/100 in the Web Standards Project's Acid 3 test. In comparison, Firefox 3.0.6 scores a 71/100, Opera 9.51 scores an 84/100, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer fails badly at 12/100.
Faster HTML rendering. Apple claims Safari 4 is 3 times as fast as Firefox on the Mac, 3.25 times as fast as IE7, and 4.71 times as fast as IE8 beta. Though I have no means to do accurate timing, my impressions are that it is indeed faster on this Dual G5.
Faster JavaScript rendering. Using the i-Bench scoring, Apple claims speeds of almost 2 times as fast as Google's Chrome (which also uses Webkit, though an earlier build), 5 times as fast as Firefox 3.0, 5 times faster than IE8 beta, and almost 11 times as fast as IE7. Apple makes similar claims using the SunSpider benchmark, with the exception that IE7 is humiliated even more than in i-Bench. Again, I don't have a means to measure this objectively, but my impressions are that the performance truly is better.
Top Sites. Like Opera, Safari 4 now offers an opening page (accessible at any time) with your most visited sites displayed as a bank of screenshots. The difference between the two, however, is that Safari's pageis arrayed like a bank of screens. Those with stars in the corner have changed since your last visit. Click on one and it will zoom in to fill the window and then automatically be replaced by the live web page. It's a very slick implementation.
History in Cover Flow. Apple gets panned from time to time about their love for Cover Flow, but seriously, it makes perfect sense here. Instead of browsing through a bunch of page titles that may be the same, but represent different web pages (happens a lot), you can flip through your history and choose the page by the screenshot. This makes the browser's history function far more useful than any of its competitors.
Fully History Search (+ Cover Flow). This is another function where Apple added Cover Flow. Again, it works well. Searching your history searches the full text of the pages stored in your history. Again, choose your selection by the screenshot.
Tabs on Top. This is perhaps the most controversial of all of the changes. Apple haters mock them for taking a feature from Google Chrome. Many Apple fans grumble that it's an un-Apple UI. Here, I beg to differ.
The concept behind the Mac UI is that each window should represent a document rather than an application (unless the application has no document). That central concept is what makes the menuing scheme in place since 1984 work so well. The thing that has always bugged me about Safari in the past (as well as other browsers on the Mac) is that the traditional tabbed interface broke this convention. It visually gave the document window the feel of being the application itself with the tabs as the documents in a Microsoft Windows-style MDI interface. Moving the tabs to the top, in my opinion is an elegant and very Mac-like compromise between one window per document and the efficiency that tabs brings, especially for those of us who regularly have 10 or more open at a time.
Windows Native Look and Feel. I won't spend much time on this because I only use Windows because I'm forced to at work. Otherwise, it's been exiled from my home. Well, for you Windows users, Apple slipped Safari into a Windows-native look and feel, which for all its faults, is the right thing to do. I constantly b**** about Microsoft not complying with Apple's UI guidelines in their Mac software, so Windows users' complaints were justified.
Smart Address Field. This is much like Firefox's Awesome Bar, which if there was one draw for me to Firefox, this was it.
Phishing and Malware Protection. Overdue. Long overdue. This will warn you if you are attempting to access a site that is known to be dangerous.
Apple lists more at http://www.apple.com/safari/features.html. One feature, which isn't new, but would make many photographers happy if Safari were used more and more by those who view their work online is the ICC color profile support.
Safari uses advanced color management technology to deliver web images with rich, accurate color. In fact, it was the first browser to support International Color Consortium (ICC) profiles and has done so from day one, so the photos and images you see in your browser stay true to the original.
Now, a word of warning. This is beta software. With that comes the risk of crashes and data loss. However, based on my usage, it's pretty darn solid. I have read reports of people having Apple Mail issues when installing the beta and judging by what I've read, it seems to be related to the Growl plugin for Mail.
If you're comfortable with running beta software, then by all means, give this a try. Apple has raised the bar for browsers and this is good for everyone, even if you don't use Safari.
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