The big news of the day ( well the month really ) is todays release of Safari 4. The release is actually a Beta so not currently included in Software Updates and has to be downloaded separately from this link. The download includes an installer package and an uninstaller package ( just in case ). The installer replaces the current Safari install so this isn’t something you can try alongside your working setup and as such some people may shy away for a while until the more adventurous types have given it a run in.
Having said that the initial reported impressions appear to be good, certainly Twitter has been buzzing with conversations throughout the day and as yet the only negative comments seem to be revolving around the decision to move the Tab bar to the top of the window ( ala Googles Chrome ). Some seem to like this whilst others are shouting heresy from the roof tops. Personally I think it is fine and certainly will enable a slighter larger browser window on machines with more restricted pixel counts ( Macbooks for example ).
The complete feature list of this release is fairly extensive and I won’t attempt to reproduce it here, you should instead head over to Apples Safari page and read it in full. The highlights on initial inspection are integration of Coverflow for browsing through History and Bookmarks, a replica of the Google Chrome home page here renamed as Top Sites and increased Javascript performance through the new Nitro engine.
Interestingly the Windows version has now dropped the Apple look and feel in favour of a Windows native look. This presumably is to make it more acceptable to Corporates where it won’t stick out like a sore thumb as the previous version did.
A more complete review will be posted here in due course, in the meantime run, don’t walk and download your copy and let me know what you think !
