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Apple offers Safari beta 4 for Mac and Windows

by Mel Martin Feb 24th 2009 at 9:56AM


Well, it's Tuesday, and that often means a software release from Apple. Today, both Mac and Windows users can scarf up a beta copy of Safari 4, with many new and desirable features. Here's a download link for those who are ready to go.

The new browser features:
  • Cover Flow -- You can browse through your site history or bookmarks the same way you browse album covers in iTunes
  • Top Sites -- look at renderings of your favorite sites, and open any one of them with a single click
  • Full History Search -- A clever way to visit sites you have been to in the past. You can type a word or phrase into the history search field and you'll get a cover flow view of sites that match your criteria
  • Nitro Engine -- Apple claims JavaScript now executes 30 times faster than IE7 and 3 times faster than Firefox
  • Tabs on Top -- Allows Safari to have multiple pages open at the same time in a single browser window, and to switch back and forth with a click. The new Safari beta gives you more room at the top of the sceen when in tabbed mode.
  • Windows Native Look and Feel -- The Windows Safari 4 beta more closely matches the look of other Windows applications and gives access to standard Windows fonts; Apple claims the same performance boost on Windows as in the Mac version
Other features include Full Page Zoom, a 'smart' address field, a 'smart' search field, and more robust phishing and malware protection.

Safari 4 beta also includes some improved developer tools. Details on those options can be found here.

The TUAW team is installing the new beta now, and will have some thoughts & impressions later today. Go get it!

Here's a look at Safari on Windows (from Download Squad)

Safari 4 Beta

  • Safari squished
  • Editing the Top Sites feature
  • Menus on the right
  • Unloaded pages
  • Top Sites small icons


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Well, it's Tuesday, and that often means a software release from Apple. Today, both Mac and Windows users can scarf up a beta copy of...
 

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Doc J

Oh Safari 4 beta? I've been using this on my PC for a LONG time now... It's called Google Chrome...

March 02 2009 at 4:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BuzWeston

Mail hangs as though it is searching for new mail. The little things spins and spins and spins. And it won't quit without a force quit.

I've removed Growl, and everything else I can find.

Any thoughts?

February 26 2009 at 7:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tzohar

I don't know why so many people here are having issues with the beta... I've been using it all day and it's been running perfectly so far. I love it. The "top sites" feature is EXTREMELY useful if you actually take time to organize it yourself instead of letting it create itself automatically. Everything is SO much faster. And I love where the tabs are-- I didn't like using tabs before because I found the bar to be awkwardly placed and a waste of window space. This makes MUCH more sense to me. To everyone complaining about having to drag their mouse a few inches higher:

- Go into preferences and click on "tabs". There you can create a keyboard shortcut so that to open a new tab you simply need to press Command + T. Done. You can also create a shortcut where clicking on a link while holding Command will open that link in a new tab.

- If you have a bunch of tabs open and want to switch from one to the other without using the mouse at all, simply hold Shift + Command and use the left and right arrow keys. It's the simplest way to switch between tabs.

- To CLOSE a tab without using the mouse at all, simple press Command + W while in the tab you wish to close.

Keyboard shortcuts are so easy to find and figure out, I don't understand why so many people nowadays still think it's somehow a hurdle if a feature is placed somewhere farther away for the cursor to reach. I never even use the cursor to perform 80% of the things I do on my computer.

February 25 2009 at 6:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Wojtek

I don't know if it was brought up before, but I had to remove all references to .gmail.com and .google.com from Google Gears in order to get GMail working in Safari4.

February 25 2009 at 4:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andre

One thing I'm wondering - and it applies to 3.x and 4.0, if I have my cookie settings to only allow cookies from sites I visit, howcome I still get tons of banner-site cookies like double-click?

February 25 2009 at 4:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Andre's comment
Haruchai

Uhm, you are visiting those sites. Many sites do click-tracking via link results. The link displayed actually goes to one of those advertising sites which record your click and then pass you through to the site you thought you were originally going to.

February 25 2009 at 9:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andre

Um...Nope. I never click on ads.

I cleared out all my cookies, then surfed around some sites like CNN, here, and a few others. After a couple of hours I had lots of cookies again - several from doubleclick.com, advertising.com, personalmoneystore.com, ads.reason.com and others.

Somehow that setting either doesn't work, or they are getting around it.

February 25 2009 at 9:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andre

Well, I've given the new tabs location a chance, and I can no longer tolerate it. I have reverted them back to the old way.

I don't want to have to move my mouse all the way to the very top right to create a new tab, when I used to just be able to double-click any blank part of the tab bar.

Much better now I've reverted. I kind of like the rest of it though.

February 25 2009 at 4:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tmazon

I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet, but you can resize the URL bar and Search bar by clicking and dragging in between the two. I found this out by accident.

February 25 2009 at 1:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
sena720

I CAN'T install Safari 4.

It says my internal laptop hard drive is not allowed! What's up???

February 25 2009 at 1:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to sena720's comment
p

So far, excellent.
However, Safari still lacks a proper adblocker like Adblock Plus for Firefox. Until that happens, it won't be my main browser. Upgrades to Saft and PithHelmet will help, but it's still not as good as the FF add-on.

February 25 2009 at 1:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
sena720

I figured out my issue - I hadn't installed the latest security update!

All fixed now!

February 25 2009 at 1:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Smivey

The beta killed the ability for Safari to load all the photos. Even after the uninstaller, my photos won't show up on some pages. I have to use Firefox now.

February 25 2009 at 10:40 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Charles

safari 4 is crashing my Msn Messenger... any solutions?

February 25 2009 at 9:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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