Apple recently launched the Safari web browser's latest iteration (Version 4) for all the major platforms. It boasts some really nifty new features like much faster web page loading, especially with JavaScript loading, new interface tweaks to suit each OS's native UI and some more under the hood tweaks that normal users will probably find uninteresting.
The Look
Apple are masters (usually) at interface and UI design. And the new Safari shows their new departure from making apps with only the gray-ish interface of Mac OS X Leopard. The Windows XP and Vista versions get interfaces that look like they gel with the OS. A minor gripe however, is the somewhat odd looking title/tab bar on the Windows versions. The other thing I'm not too fond of, is Safari's relentless copying of Chrome's innovative interface ideas and then changing them slightly to make it look original.
- For instance, the title/tab bar. If just one tab is open, the tab header (if I can call it that) takes up the whole of the title bar. But open up a new one, and suddenly both share the real estate space of the title bar equally. This is somewhat different from Chrome's tab handling, wherein each tab header takes up the same space. Chrome's I think, was a more neat design.
- The second instance is the toolbar, which is lifted straight off of Chrome but with the older Safari's "Report Bug" spider icon having some originality.
- The third, is Top Sites. Safari's new feature that mimmicks Chrome's start page featuring most visited websites. Except in true Apple fashion, it's been 3D-ed a little and with neon lights around the boxes showing up on mouse-overs.
Now, it would be wrong of me to rant just to overcompensate for being a hopeless Apple fanboy. The thing I do like about Safari is it's ambition in making Web browsing a richer experience. Top Sites has some nifty animation when you click a page or return from a "Top Site-d" page back to Top Sites. Another nifty animation is when when a page is "peeled" off from the title bar to a new window. But as always, these things are resource hungry. And Apple recommend 64 MB VRAM. Not RAM, VRAM. That's the first time a browser is asking such graphical resources!
The Feel
Apple's Safari page claims the new browser delivers a 100/100 score on Acid Test 3 (On the Mac OS X, of course). Credit where credit is due, well done Apple. But what about Windows? Well, on my machine, a very modest Athlon 64 3500+ with 1 GB RAM and 256 MB VRAM, it didn't feel much faster than Firefox (my browser of choice). But on effect heavy websites, it does feel a tad sharper and quicker. That said, another blog said with 14 or so tabs open, Safari gobbled up 400 MB of RAM! This is nigh unacceptable. I'm sure the optimization for the Mac is better. But wow, Sims 2 feels like less of a strain! Safari also suffers from Chrome's disability of not having customizable add-ons (an area where Firefox wins everybody and their grandma's hearts). Add to that the relative inconsistency in their interface (some parts being really jazzy, the others spartan) and kind of sluggish, un-Apple-ish feel on lower end machines, Safari just doesn't feel as good as it looks.
Oh and the installer is 30+ MB. Tsk tsk. Honestly, Apple. You're capable of better.
Download: Here
