Safari 4 BETA

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I asked if anyone can screenshot the look of Safari 4 BETA on Vista because I have Vista Ultimate...if it looks good on that OS then I might have a go on it. DX

Edited March 11, 2009 by Spicylicious

[Remy]

I would, but at the moment it doesn't launch in Windows 7 for me.

Nice one, Apple.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Apparently it's only available for any PC running Windows XP or Windows Vista in the Windows series. So Windows 7 won't be compatible with the new beta browser. Well for now anyway.

[Spiky Shark]

I can't say I'm sold on the "tabs on top" feature. Although I understand their argument about maximising screen real estate for your page (which Safari had always had the edge over Firefox for Mac, although Camino is similar), it looks rather ugly and unintuitive for me. The Windows XP version looked laughable to me, although it'd probably look decent with Aero Glass on Vista.

Cannot say I'm a Safari user even when using a Mac (like I do at work - Firefox and/or Camino for mine), and this doesn't help the argument much - Cover Flow is not one of my favourite things on a Mac for some reason, and neither are the page thumbnail stuff (inspired both by Chrome and by Opera's Speed-Dial). Call me a fuddy-duddy if you like.

[Foxy]

I have to say, I REALLY like it. I became frustrated with Safari a while ago and switched over to using FireFox almost exclusively - but Safari 4 may just win me back!

The page rendering is lightening quick on all my Macs (which range from a lowly G4 mini right up to a first-generation MacBook) and is a massive improvement on previous versions.

It also improves relations with Outlook Web Access (which I use for work). I could never send messages with older versions of Safari, only read them - which was a big part of me moving over to Firefox - but v4 seems to have rectified this curious issue.

As has been previously mentioned, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Google Chrome but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The implementation of the 'top sites' feature is nicely done, and typically Apple. I immediately liked the new tabs/title bar arrangement too - it may be somewhat Windows-esque, but it saves a little bit of screen real-estate so I really don't mind.

It's shaping up well. I'm also testing out the Windows version thanks to Boot Camp, and I think making it 'blend' more with the UI was the right thing to do. Apple are clearly pushing Safari as a platform, and the better it fits into that world, the more uptake there'll hopefully be from Windows-based iPhone users.

[Mick]

I love Safari. This is the best browser I have ever used. Good to know that there's a good version out there for you Windows users who want an alternative to I.E.

[ShadiWulf]

Just tried the Safari 4 Beta, hate it. Not slow as the last safari but it is still very sluggish. Right now my favorite browser is Google Chrome, Firefox has been acting odd lately.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I can't find any screenshots on the 'net on what Safari 4 looks like on Vista. T~T

Edited March 15, 2009 by Spicylicious

[Kevin]

I can't find any screenshots on the 'net on what Safari 4 looks like on Vista. T~T

This is what it looks like on Vista

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Wow OMG...it looks better on Vista. o.o

Thanks Kev! >w<

[Kevin]

Wow OMG...it looks better on Vista. o.o

Thanks Kev! >w<

You're welcome! I agree it looks a lot better on Vista. I tried out Safari 4 earlier today. While I dislike XP's interface, the rendering speed is pretty fast. I personally like OS X's interface out of all of them due to its consistency though.

[CtW]

Wow, it looks damn sleek on Vista. It's definitely much nicer looking than it is on XP.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I'll give Safari 4 a go when it's off Beta. Can't be bothered to upgrade my current stable Safari to a beta product. XD

[ShadiWulf]

Firefox 3.1 beta 3 is good, using it right now, it's faster then firefox 3.0

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

It's basically the same but faster right? =0

[ShadiWulf]

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.1b3/releasenotes/

Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 9 months. Firefox 3.1 is an incremental release on the previous version with significant changes to improve web compatibility, performance, and ease of use:

* This beta is now available in 64 languages - get your local version.

* Improved the new Private Browsing Mode.

* Improvements to web worker thread support.

* Improved performance and stability with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.

* New native JSON support.

* Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.

* Support for new web technologies such as the <video> and <audio> elements, the W3C Geolocation API, JavaScript query selectors, CSS 2.1 and 3 properties, SVG transforms and offline applications.

Developers can find out about all the changes and new features at the Mozilla Developer Center.

on the 4th beta it will have a name change to version 3.5