“Apple today launched the first beta of Safari 4, the new version of its web browser for both Windows and Mac OS X computers. Safari 4 brings a lot of new features, including full history search, a smart address field, and full-page zoom. Apple also claims that Safari 4 runs much faster due to its new JavaScript engine,” Daniel Ionescu reports for PC World.
“The Safari 4 Beta is available for download from Apple’s Web site; it will set you back about 107MB of disk space,” Ionescu reports. “I gave Safari 4 a spin, and while I noticed quite a few elements ‘borrowed’ from Google’s Chrome browser, I was impressed with Apple’s offering.”
MacDailyNews Take: We wouldn’t know. Chrome is still Windows-only. Perhaps Google should “borrow” the Apple’s concept of parallel multi-platform development and simultaneous release schedules.
Ionescu continues, “One of the most noticeable changes is the new Top Sites feature, a page that displays your most visited or favorite sites. It can be configured as either your home page or as a page you see every time you open a new tab. Chrome offers a similar feature, but Apple’s iteration offers more eye candy, with a 3D display and its iPhone-like ability to rearrange sites.”
MacDailyNews Take: Chrome. Isn’t that what Microsoft slopped all over the XP turd, so they could call it Vista and attempt to resell it to the Windows sheep?
Ionescu continues, “Safari 4’s title bar also gets a Chrome-like look, with new tabs displayed there, instead of in a traditional tabs bar under the address field–making better use of your screen real-estate.”
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve been using Safari 4 since its release this morning and the change in the tabs’ position is the toughest thing to get used to. It’s going to take awhile. We’re already addicted to the speed. Even our site seems to load fast. 
Ionescu continues, “Your browsing history is now brought to life with Cover Flow, so you can flick through your recently visited Web pages like you do with your album art in iTunes. The new Full History search feature can prove to be extremely useful, as it goes through all of the pages you have previously browsed and the text they contain. If you know you saw a certain term somewhere, but you can’t remember where, you can simply search for it, and all pages containing it in their body text and name will be displayed.”
“As for speed, Apple claims Safari 4 is the world’s fastest browser. While I can’t verify that claim, I can say that the new browser, running JavaScript 4.2, surely feels faster and page-loading time is indeed shorter,” Ionescu reports. “I really like the new version of Safari. It definitely feels faster–an improvement that alone should give headaches to Microsoft and Mozilla.”
Full article here.
