Apple Safari 4 Beta


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Looks like Apple has released new version of Safari now with coverflow and chrome like favourites screen..

Features:

Top Sites, a display of frequently visited pages in a stunning wall of previews so users can jump to their favorite sites with a single click;

- Full History Search, where users search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily return to sites they've seen before;

- Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks as fun and easy as paging through album art in iTunes;

- Tabs on Top, for better tabbed browsing with easy drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones;

- Smart Address Field, that automatically completes web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history;

- Smart Search Field, where users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches;

- Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site's layout and text;

- Developer Tools - built-in web developer tools to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility; and

- Windows-native look in Safari for Windows, that uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications.

post-71439-1235485277_thumb.jpg

http://apple.com/safari/download

http://i.gizmodo.com/5159260/apple-safari-...-flow-and-nitro

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The checklist of features seems to read very much like Google Chrome's ;)

It does look very slick though, and not so horrid looking on Windows!

Edit: They finally changed to the Vista style of only showing the menu bar when the alt key is pressed! Very nice. Hopefully iTunes will receive a similar makeover.

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Take some BIIIIIIIIIIG getting used to, thats for sure. I am not a fan of the new home page bit, glad they let you turn that off. Can't have people seeing where I've been now ;)

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Like others have said, it's really hard not to see the similarities with Chrome. Especially the move of the tabs bar stands out IMO. I definitely have to get used to the new interface, compared to the classic look of Safari 3.

Edit: I have no idea how they claim this interface is native, it's littered with OS X widgets still.

It used to have the same Unified look + Aqua elements as the Mac OS X version, so this is definitely a step in the right direction. Next to that - keeping Microsoft applications in mind like Office 2007, Zune Marketplace and Live Messenger - what is a truly Windows-native appearance?

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I looked at more stuff, and I noticed it's only the <input> controls that are non-native, so my point doesn't stand as much.

But (for example) the main toolbar isn't native, it's using it's own gradient and own buttons. Although that could be a good thing since people don't seem to like the actual native toolbar and buttons.

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Damn, I'm pretty happy about this update! I thought Safari 4 developer preview gave us nothing (it was more like something to develop websites for, but not really a good look into Safari 4).

But wow!! I'm so glad for Windows users, I mean, they've asked for native feel in a long time now, maybe it means the next versions of iTunes and QuickTime will also get it ;) I mean, somehow I don't really care about this OS anymore (more or less) but if you want to appeal users to go buy a Mac, you gotta do your work everywhere. If Windows users see that they're finally being treated well, they'll be a whole lot happier and less arrogant towards the company...

Also, it passes Acid tests, has an awesome Javascript engine, even has some tags that aren't yet officiel (unless they keep them in Webkit only). Seriously, congratulations to Apple for this one!

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hmm, i think the native interface on windows looks pretty ugly now, especially with the tabs at the top, i would have preffered them leave it as it was... as for the new features i like them :D

now to test out the mac version :)

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Well I wanted to try this.... but the PC download is 26MB... so obviously I didn't, not because of time and space but I just know Apple will install some nasty stuff on my PC.

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I'm really liking what I've seen of Safari 4 beta on Windows so far... cannot wait to get home and give it a shot on my Mac.

I've not cared much for past versions of Safari, but this might just change everything. ;)

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OMG. I just realised it has Full Page Zoom as pointed in the main post. I mean, even IE had it since IE7 I think?

Man, they really did put everything into this version, and it's just a beta!

Geez, talk about raping Chrome. I really dislike the tabs on the top. Is there a feedback page?

There's always a feedback page with Apple, but right now there isn't one for Safari :|

My hypothesis is, when a product is final, they take all the request, and then they make a roadmap for the product and the roadmap becomes "frozen" and when they roll out a beta like for Safari, they block any more feedback because the roadmap was already frozen. I'm wondering if it's good or not though :s

Tabs at the top, I'll give it a week maybe and if I don't like it and ever find a way to give them feedback, I'll do so. But as of now I could see every product's feedbackpage, but not Safari. I think they saw that people kinda liked Chrome, so they said "we'll give it a try". Or maybe it could AT LEAST be an option in the preferences, a small checkbox or something, to make tabs come back like before, and make them at the top.

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just incase anyone is experiencing crashes, I have found that GLIMS was causing my problems...

remove the following if you want to uninstall GLIMS....

/Library/InputManagers/Glims

&

/Library/Application Support/Glims

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I'm enjoying the new look, especially the new position of tabs. I am aware that it's very similar to Googles Chrome, but that browser isn't available on OS X yet.

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