I have a friend who is a huge MAC fan and he has been nagging me about why I should get a MAC for quite some time now, which I have not done. However, a few days ago he pointed out that Apple had released a beta version of their web browser Safari 4, which he thought that I could try.
I have used Firefox for years, as my daily browser, and Explorer just for exceptional cases, so I thought it could be fun to try something new, for a change. In addition, I love Apple’s slick designs and flawless interfaces, so my expectations for Safari where high, even though it is just a beta version.
Safari 4 comes packed with over 150 features, providing everything and a bit more, to make your surfing experience a comfortable breeze. Many of the features are new to Safari, like the Nitro JavaScript engine, which executes Java scripts up to 6 times faster than Internet Explorer and 4 times faster than Firefox 3.1. Talking about speed, Safari 4 also uses speculative loading, which means that the browser preloads documents, scripts and style, so the web page is ready when you need it, making your surfing faster and more pleasing.
Apple has also made sure that their browser could render any web page, in a correct way. It has HTML 5 Media Support, XML 1.0 Support and is the first and only web browser to pass Acid 3.
Acid 3 is a way to tests a browser’s ability to fully render pages using the web standards used to build dynamic, next-generation websites, including CSS, JavaScript, XML, and SVG. Maybe something, Microsoft should have thought of when they put together Internet Explorer 8.
In the beginning, I said that I loved Apple’s visual appealing designs and Safari comes with a few visual effects, too. Like the use of Cover Flow. This visual effect lets you browse through your bookmarks and site history, the same way you browse through MP3s and videos on your iPhone or iPod, which looks really impressive and cool.
Bookmarks in Safari 4 with Cover Flow
Top Sites is another visual feature that lets you browse through the web sites that you are visiting the most. You can customize the number of Top Sites, as well as the sizes of the previews. In addition to that, you can organize your top sites to your liking. The thing I like most with the feature is that it adds a star, to sites with that as updated its content.
Top Sites view in Safari 4
Now, when I first heard about the visual effects, I thought that it would eat up my computer’s resources and bug down my computer, but it did not. Both the visual effects worked surprisingly well, without any delays, and it looked very nice, too.
Safari 4 handles your bookmarks in an easy and an uncomplicated way. I did not have any problems adding, importing, edit, exporting or organizing my bookmarks. You can also use MobileMe to synchronize your bookmarks between your computer and devices.
Safari’s history search also works very well; finding sites that I had visited, but forgot to bookmark was very easy. Just put in a few words and the sites floats up in front of you in a snap.
The security in Safari 4 comes with all the standard features like, Phishing Protection, Malware Protection, Antivirus Integration (through Windows Attachment Monitor) and Private Browsing, plus a lot more to make you safe on the net.
While I used Safari 4, I could not find any downsides with it. Everything worked fine and I did not encounter a web page that Safari could not render correctly. Therefore, in my opinion, Apple has managed to back up their cocky statement that, Safari 4 is the fastest and most innovative web browser for Mac and PC, by providing a slick, fast and full featured web browser.
Now, can Safari 4 beat the two big players out there, Internet Explorer and Firefox? The short answer is, of course it could!
Safari 4 outperforms Internet Explorer by a huge margin; I do not think that IE8 or IE7 comes close to do what Safari can do. However, compared with Firefox, Safari wins with a much smaller margin, though. Nevertheless, I experience Safari to be much easier and smoother to work with, compared with Firefox, overall.
If you want to try out Safari 4 or read more about its vast amount of features, you can do that here, http://www.apple.com/safari