I’m writing this with the Safari 4 beta for Mac OS X Leopard.
First impressions:
- Whoa, it’s fast.
I’d seen Safari billed as the fastest browser out there, but had never seen anything close to approximating fast on Safari in the past — neither Windows XP nor this Mac. Definitely not the fastest browser on my lap or desktop. But I kept it around anyways, because it has its uses. As long as the final version of Safari 4 stays this fast, this will become the primary browser on the Mac for sure. I haven’t read up on it; I’m not sure if it’s the rendering engine or what, but this program simply feels fast while I’m using it — especially when doing AJAXy stuff. - Tabs across the top
Now why did they do that? For some reason, the tabs are the top-most thing in the program window now, and not the address bar. I guess it doesn’t bother me; Google Chrome does that too. It’ll just take some getting used to. - Keyboard Shortcuts
I had to google this one to figure it out. Cmd+shift+arrow key moves you from tab to tab. This is useful information for us home-row typists. But why don’t they document that in the Safari help files? - Cover Flow
You like that nifty graphical flip-through of songs in your iTunes library? Safari 4 beta gives you that for your browser history. It’s definitely a gimmick, but it’s neat. - Top Sites
This looks like something they stole from Opera (probably the world’s ugliest browser!). But they made it pretty and fun and Apple-y.
So far, I’m enjoying it. Go get your own copy at http://www.apple.com/safari (oh, sorry Linux fans. You’re still outta luck).
