Apple today introduced Safari 3, the world’s fastest and easiest-to-use web browser for Macs and Windows PCs. Safari is the fastest browser running on Windows, based on the industry standard iBench tests, rendering web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2. Safari joins iTunes in delivering Apple’s legendary user experience to both Windows and Mac users as well as full support of open Internet standards. Safari 3 features easy-to-manage bookmarks, effortless browsing with easy-to-organize tabs and a built-in RSS reader to quickly scan the latest news and information. Safari 3 public beta is available today as a free download at http://www.apple.com/safari
“We think Windows users are going to be really impressed when they see how fast and intuitive web browsing can be with Safari,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “Hundreds of millions of Windows users already use iTunes, and we look forward to turning them on to Safari’s superior browsing experience too.”
Safari loads and draws web pages up to twice as fast as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Mozilla Firefox 2. The speed of Safari combined with its intuitive user interface lets users spend more time surfing the web and less time waiting for pages to load. Other Safari features now available to Windows users include SnapBack, one-click access to an initial search query; resizable text fields; and private browsing to ensure that information about an individual’s browsing history isn’t stored.
Safari 3 supports all modern Internet standards so users can view websites as they were meant to be seen, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SVG and Java. Safari software updates are delivered seamlessly through Apple’s Software Update application, which automatically checks for updates.
The free public beta of Safari 3 is available immediately as a download at http://www.apple.com/safari and is preview software licensed for use on a trial basis for a limited time. The final version of Safari 3 will be available as a feature in the upcoming Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard, and will be available as a free download to Mac OS X Tiger and Windows users in October.
Safari 3 for Mac OS X requires Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.9 or later, a minimum of 256MB of memory and is designed to run on any Intel-based Mac or a Mac with a PowerPC G5, G4 or G3 processor and built-in FireWire. Safari 3 for Windows requires Windows XP or Windows Vista, a minimum of 256 MB of memory and a system with at least a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple offers another glass of ice water to people in hell.
MacDailyNews Note: It will be very interesting to see what this does to Safari’s market share. Net Applications’ Browser Market Share for May, 2007: Microsoft IE – 78.67% , Firefox – 14.54% , Safari – 4.82% , Netscape – 0.83% , Opera – 0.74%
just some info. i downloaded the beta on both my macs and then it seemed like nothing would open up. i disabled ‘safaristand’ and now it loads pages again.
just in case some one else was having this problem.
i will say that the search is cool; and being able to rearrage tabs.
oh but mdn is loading WAY slow. not sure if it’s my connection. traffic. or the new safari?
I also got crash after crash after installing Safari 3. That’s why they’re calling it a beta. Back to 2.04 — the new version’s uninstaller works as advertised.
Now I have tried it and I am very disappointed.
Safari for Windows is really really slow compared to IE.
Apple is stepping on thin ice now.
So far (15 minutes), S3 is working well and I appreciate the additions and improvements in it…which, apparently, others have not yet discovered.
Everytime I launched 3.0 on my MacBook Pro it froze. Had to uninstall it.
Ooh. Mac Safari 3. Bad.
Took forever to load. Had to kill it the first time. Died on it’s own the second time.
Uninstalled it, BUT after restarting, Safari b3 KILLED all my bookmark icons! FUCKER!
I am PISSED. Now I’ve got to poke around through my backup to restore them…….. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
we have the tab drag in it and most bits just not the look
i h8 brushed steel and i thought i could get rid of it now grrrr o well have to w8 till october
abelara, it’s MDN, not Safari. It’s loading slow in Opera, too.
v3.0 works well on Windows. Using it now…..Ditching Firefox, now…..
I don’t use Safari on my Mac, why would I want to use it on Windows? Developers may install it, but Firefox is the defacto standard for Web development. There are just too many extensions that help out developers.
It’s very slow in Tiger. And I love how when I resize this input field, the ad that was once next to it is now in it.
hm, i installed it and everything is garbled. The menus, bookmarks, even the webpages 🙁 anyone know how to fix this?
People who mention the need for Safari for Windows due to the iPhone are right IMHO. Just as iTunes was needed for Windows compatibility the iPod, Safari for Windows is needed for full integration (bookmarks, future plug-ins/apps) of the iPhone for windows users.
Nice residuals from the move should be more market share, which SHOULD result in:
– WAY more plug-ins for Safari
– More of an outcry to stop the development of PROPRIETARY (IE-only) websites
Next : Windows Media and Real Media
Just installed on work XP machine. Safari is a quality beta and appears pretty stable. The final version I am sure will close some performance gaps.
It would be nice to see the red * yellow * green dots in the upper left. It was weird going to the upper right to close a window.
Am running Safari 3.0 beta. A slow initial start up, but does render pages much faster.
Very nice.
I downloaded the Windows version as well as the Mac version and put it on a spare Windows machine.
Now I almost feel at home there.
Oh, and it now does GMail’s full GUI … almost–still can’t do the GMail chat functionality.
But very nice. Quibbles aside and judged in the round–quality of rendering, GUI design, etc.–Safari was obviously _already_ the best browser on any platform. Now it’s the best Windows browser, too.
I just can’t stop chuckling – Pretty soon the only thing that will be left that looks like Windows when running Windows will be the startup screen.
In a couple more years it will be stupid to keep using Windows because it’ll all be Mac software anyway.
On the reports of flying chairs – As an official, licensed developer for MS Windows I think Apple was probably already on MS’s radar – or could it really have been a secret even to MS?
Mr. Ballmer, I feel your pain. It feels like an ice cream freeze on the roof of my mouth but you know what …mine will be over in about 15 seconds …yours is a little like the story of the flying dutchman. good luck you bald-headed dancer.
Safari Rocks on Windows, This will bw my default brower Mac and Windows. PERIOD!!!!!!
If anything, it’s not only not faster than Firefox on my MacBook, it’s slower than Safari 2.0 and that has always been the slowest.
The beta disk image had an uninstall program. Guess I’ll have to use that to get Safari 2.0’s “speed” back.
If anything, it’s not only not faster than Firefox on my MacBook, it’s slower than Safari 2.0 and that has always been the slowest.
Check if you’re comparing cached vs. uncached speed…
I’m glad the next version of Safari will work with Tiger. Version 2 was released with Tiger and Panther users were not able to upgrade. Apple should have a preference to remove the brushed metal look in Tiger (maybe there’s one in there somewhere). The Windows version has the smooth grey look, which I think is more attractive. And tt’s in line with the new look for apple.com.
The folks posting that Apple will tie-in this new Safari to the iPhone to promote adoption are right. But ultimately, there is no direct profit from Safari for Windows. Apple must have some plans for Safari for Windows that will promote sales of iPods, Macs, and iPhones.
If anything, it’s not only not faster than Firefox on my MacBook, it’s slower than Safari 2.0 and that has always been the slowest.
The beta disk image had an uninstall program. Guess I’ll have to use that to get Safari 2.0’s “speed” back.
The only thing loading slower than Safari 2.0 is MDN, and that ALWAYS loads slower than anything else. I’ve tried about 9 sites so far, and all of them load faster than they did with Safari 2.0.
Non event. Would have been much better if Apple had released iChatAV for Windows.
Not surprised by this at all. I had mentioned this possibility to a co-worker last week. I’m glad to see Safari get revised, I hope it is much improved it needed updating. I’m glad Windows users get a taste of Safari too, as it’s better than IE. I’m going to load Safari on my PC for sure and certainly on my Macs.