Sleipnir for OS X arrives in beta, touts group tab management and sync

If you're the kind of person that loves to live on the wilder side of internet browsing, today you're in luck. Sleipnir is a new OS X web browser that has a few twists, particularly when it comes to tab management. Developed by Japanese outfit Fenrir, Sleipnir first arrived on the iPhone (which we covered here) and then the iPad, and now it's arrived in beta form for Mac OS X.

Like any other browser, Sleipnir does the standard job of visiting websites fine, but where it shines most is through group tab management. In Sleipnir the address bar takes a step back and tabs take center stage. All tabs are thumbnail previewed. And similar to Safari's Show Top Sites tiled preview of you most visited webpages, Sleipnir does the same, but takes it a step further. By clicking and dragging tiles of your favorite websites, you can arrange them into groups specific to context and category for later reference and easy access. For instance, a collection of tiles relevant for News or Social Networking. It's like creating bookmarks, but with tabs and tiles instead of text and website addresses. It's all very visual. And don't worry, bookmarks aren't replaced, they're enhanced with colored labels, or what Sleipnir calls Smart Bookmark Management.

If you use Sleipnir on your iPhone and iPad too, all your bookmarks and tile groups are synced up to Sleipnir for Mac using Fenrir's free Fenrir Pass.

Sleipnir beta for Mac is compatible with OS X 10.6 and 10.7 (though Lion's full-screen mode is not supported yet) and is available as a free download now (and even though it's in beta form, it runs remarkably smoothly).

So if you're a little bored of the usual suspects (Chrome, Safari, Firefox), you may want to try something a little different and give Sleipnir a spin.

[Via MacStories]