Filed under: Internet Tools, Apple
Safari beta for Windows gets security & feature updates
For those of you running Safari on Windows... yes, we see you there in the back, howzitgoin? The 3.0.4 security update version of SfW is now available, featuring the bundle of new features and stability/performance improvements already available in 3.0.4 (yay for keyboard shortcuts & horizontal mouse wheel scrolling) plus a new fix for one security flaw, a bit of a doozie: a cross-site scripting vulnerability that could have opened the browser and the host machine to attack. See the Apple site for the full feature lists.If you're running Safari on XP or Vista, we'd love to hear about it; in particular, why? Better security and performance? Less trouble than Firefox, less hackable than IE? Testing sites for Mac or iPhone users? Speak up, the Internet is listening.
Update: Clarification, the security update is the new part of Safari, the 3.0.4 feature updates were already in the previous build.
Changes in Safari 3.0.4 for Windows beta via apple.com:
- Latest security updates
- Improved stability
- Improved compatibility
- Improved JavaScript and application launch performance
- Resize windows from any side
- New keyboard shortcuts
- Additional font smoothing option
- International text input methods
- Advanced text (contextual forms, international scripts)
- NTLM support
- PAC file auto-detection
- FTP directory listings
- Link to proxy settings from Safari (Safari respects the proxy settings in the Windows Internet control panel)
- Cookie management
- LiveConnect support
- Tooltips
- Spell checking
- Printing page numbers, titles, margins
- For detailed information on this update, please visit Apple's Safari 3 page
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Peter said 3:10PM on 12-18-2007
I am using Safari for Windows because I can! No one can stop me from running it so I will run it because I can.
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Michael Rose said 3:16PM on 12-18-2007
good answer.
Kevin Rye said 3:20PM on 12-18-2007
I'm running it at work, just to help Apple make a better product for PC. It crashesa a lot, so I'm hoping my bug reports mean something to someone.
I run it for a few reasons: the search highlighting feature is better than IE/firefox. I like the fact that I can bundle my bookmarks in groups and open all the tabs at once, I also like the fact that I can resize text boxes.
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Sherwin said 3:28PM on 12-18-2007
I use Safari on Vista primarily because it makes me think I'm on a Mac! I also think it has better text antialiasing which makes pages look a lot nicer.
On a side note: anyone notice that Safari for Windows is getting more and more Mac like features. For example, many dialog boxes use standard Windows dialogs but if you select Customize Toolbar or Add Bookmark, you get a Mac like dialog box complete with the Genie effect. So... does this mean that Apple has a Cocoa framework for Windows that they use internally? If so... could we expect to see iWork and perhaps even iLife for Windows?... just thinking...
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Johnny said 3:35PM on 12-18-2007
It seems like Safari for Windows has been in beta for a really, really long time for a beta.
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Michael Rose said 3:44PM on 12-18-2007
By what standard? I think Flickr was in beta for several years, Gmail too.
Ed said 5:45PM on 12-18-2007
"I can't believe it's still beta!"
Sean said 3:38PM on 12-18-2007
I use Safari for Windows to test sites for Mac compatibility on my Vista based HTML coding machine (soon to be replaced with a new iMac, I can't wait).
Sadly, the way Safari for Windows displays sites and Mac Safari don't always agree. Sometimes certain elements will look totally broken in Windows Safari, but will be fine in Safari 3 on the other macs in the office. Oh well, hopefully Apple will get it up to speed in the next few months.
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Brian said 3:42PM on 12-18-2007
I love my Mac at home, but my company is less forward-thinking, using Windows PCs. I use Safari at work to help me keep my sanity. It's a little piece of familiar Mac-ness in a cruel PC world.
I've also gone so far as to create my own "poor man's dock" by lining up all the little desktop icons along the bottom. It's a poor substitute, and so is the task bar...
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JoshK said 3:58PM on 12-18-2007
Brian, I felt your pain for so long as well. At work I was stuck with an HP notebook running XP. I soon found a great download here: http://osx.portraitofakite.com/
It makes XP look like OS X (Tiger) and it worked really well for me. It was such a pleasure to have the look of OSX even though in my heart I knew it was XP underneath. This sustained me until a month ago when my computer became so unmanageable it forced my company to get a new computer (my iMac!).
Brian said 4:20PM on 12-18-2007
Thanks JoshK. I never heard of that before, but my initial impression of it is that it seems really cool!
Mark said 3:51PM on 12-18-2007
I use SfW only for testing, however even for that it hasn't been that practical for me as I doesn't work on SSL pages (or at least, it doesn't work on them for me). I haven't tried this latest version though.
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Galley said 3:52PM on 12-18-2007
I use it because it makes my work PC suck a little less.
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Scott said 6:49PM on 12-18-2007
I don't use it at work because the last time I tried it just crashed and crashed, but I'm going to try again now.
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tofu said 4:01PM on 12-18-2007
I wish the bookmarks and passwords would sync with .mac.
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Michael said 4:07PM on 12-18-2007
I have to say - and I should be logging the daily changes... that I moved my parents off of IE and onto Safari.
This is a part of my master plan to get them on Macs. Start out simple... they are nearing 70 and change does not come easily.
However... when they run their daily scans (virus, trojan, adware, ect) since Safari.... NO CRITICALS.
God-bless Safari !!!
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Jimmy Lee Skrufve said 4:15PM on 12-18-2007
Erhm. This is actually quite old news. We reported about this update over a month ago! http://macworld.idg.se/2.1038/1.131331
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Michael Rose said 4:23PM on 12-18-2007
Hi Jimmy -- thanks for the clarification. 3.0.4 has been out for a while, true, but the security update is new -- post revised to clear that up.
JoshK said 4:15PM on 12-18-2007
I'm glad to hear Safari got better. Back when I had an XP it would take so long just to load...well...anything! I couldn't bear it, it really took a half hour. I don't know why mine was so crummy but I'm glad to hear its gotten better. The better the port the more interested regular Windows user will get into Apple Software.
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JoshK said 4:16PM on 12-18-2007
I bet they don't port iLife though
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