Apple Releases Safari 5

[bill]

Apple Releases Safari 5 [apple.com]

Apple today released Safari 5, the latest version of the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser, featuring the new Safari Reader for reading articles on the web without distraction, a 30 percent performance increase over Safari 4,* and the ability to choose Google, Yahoo! or Bing as the search service powering Safari’s search field. Available for both Mac® and Windows, Safari 5 includes improved developer tools and supports more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies that allow web developers to create rich, dynamic websites. With Safari 5, developers can now create secure Safari Extensions to customize and enhance the browsing experience.

I guess everyone is downloading at the same time...it took forever for me to get the file it seems. It certainly is quick, but as I'm not much of a Safari user I'm not really sure how much better this version is compared to its predecessor.

[albo]

Those of you who diddle with HTML5 should look at the implications of the View==> Enter Reader [uses HTML5 <article> tag]

[dvduval]

Really great to see a real browser war going on again. This is great for everyone. Let there never be a clear winner!

[briggidere]

Anyone else having some problem with it? It is working fine with Yahoo and Bing but when I try to use Google it is overlaying the AdWords ads on the top left of the screen which covers the search box as well.

[briggidere]

It looks like it was a dodgy install - reinstalled and everything is working ok now.

[optik]

Are they still forcing you to use Google search?

I wont be downloading if so.

[StoutFiles]

Really great to see a real browser war going on again. This is great for everyone. Let there never be a clear winner!

And the winner is...

IE6! Hooray!

[weeks]

IE6! Hooray!

LOL!

[iambic9]

Are they still forcing you to use Google search?

Nope, you can choose Bing, Yahoo or Google. Nice.

I use Safari as my main browser and use it for development too, since the addition of the document browser I haven't needed Firefox, and I have to say (only after brief testing) that the new document browser in Safari 5 is fantastic! Being able to view resources in categories, ie; stylesheets, images, scripts, etc., makes for nice clear viewing (seeing it all lumped together in the previous version always bugged me), the new timeline feature is awesome – being able to view both loading and rendering time in detail is very interesting, makes you think about writing styles a little more efficiently and being able to view cookies /sessions etc. is quite nice too! I'm sure there's loads more in there, looking forward to playing with it a bit more. (Looking forward to seeing extensions being developed soon too).

It does *feel* a little faster, not sure about the whole 3% faster than Chrome statement, it'd be hard to spot that one in the real world, but I guess it sounds better than saying "we've just caught up with Chrome". What I found interesting is that in the past Apple have always been quick to say we're x% faster than [insert IE version], this time there's no mention of IE (that I could find) – they benchmark against Chrome, Opera and Firefox – IE is getting killed out there, by the time the IE team have caught up and fully support CSS2!, HTML5 and CSS3 will be the defacto standard, if you think it's irritating to check against IE6 now, imagine how you're gonna feel this time next year.

[ytswy]

Not sure if this has been picked up, but according to El Reg [theregister.co.uk]:

Safari 5 has a nice little button next to the URL that effectively kills the ads, strips off the site's branding and presents the text in nicely-formatted book-style pages.

According to Apple, "Safari Reader removes annoying ads and other visual distractions from online articles... So you get the whole story and nothing but the story."

Sounds good to me, but I'm not sure some of the content, ad-supported, people around here will be thrilled with it...

[UserFriendly]

Browser and search engine providers really are going to get smacked across the chops sooner or later for all this content tampering.

It's one thing if the user decides to install tools that bar ads, but for third-parties to tamper with website content is pushing it.

[trillianjedi]

Sounds good to me, but I'm not sure some of the content, ad-supported, people around here will be thrilled with it..

It works really well. A little too well. I can see a lot of Safari blocking as a result of it.

Folks have to make a living. Stripping all branding and ads isn't conducive to that.

[StoutFiles]

It works really well. A little too well.

Seconded. It's...pretty incredible actually. It's also likely illegal somehow, it strips the information off the website and shows it how Apple chooses instead of how the content provider wants.

Edit: I've noticed sites that have RSS feeds have the RSS button appear instead of the Reader button. So I'm assuming that the Reader button can be avoided for news-heavy sites.

[tangor]

Not everything is going well...

Updated Apple's Safari 5 has been out for just one day, but — as is usual with integer-level upgrades — users are already reporting niggles, nuisances, and no-goes.

Over on Macintouch, for example, we first learned of Safari 5's annoyance with third-party plug-ins, specifically SafariStand. Mike Solomon, the creator of the SIMBL (SIMple Bundle Loader), which some devs have used to add plug-in enhancements to Safari, has yet to respond to our queries about incompatibilities — neither has SafariStand's Japanese developer — but further web-digging turned up specific problems with third-party extensions such as Conduit and CosmoPod.

[theregister.co.uk...]

[g1smd]

has yet to respond to our queries about incompatibilities

They're probably too busy fixing the problem.

What would you rather they do, fix it, or spend time talking to reporters?

[optik]

Nope, you can choose Bing, Yahoo or Google. Nice.

That's good I have been trying to use firefox to get away from google but failing because safari is much nicer for dev work, except maybe for saving logins, firefox asks to save when you can see if the details you gave were correct which is much more sensible.

[incrediBILL]

HOLD THE PRESSES - ANYONE LOOKED AT THAT "SAFARI READER" [apple.com] GARBAGE?

Safari Reader removes annoying ads and other visual distractions from online articles. So you get the whole story and nothing but the story. It works like this: As you browse the web, Safari detects if you’re on a web page with an article. Click the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field, and the article appears instantly in one continuous, clutter-free view. You see every page of the article — whether two or twenty.

IN OTHER WORDS - SAFARI READER REMOVES REVENUE SOURCES FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE ARTICLE!

Why would Apple try to make webmasters want to figure out how to block Safari reader or in the event it's not detectable, just block Safari itself?

Another in a long line of recent boneheaded moves by the makers of iJunk.

[ytswy]

lol Bill, see my post above... I have to admit I was thinking of you when I posted it ;)

[youfoundjake]

Ok, quick side note.
I visited various websites including WebmasterWorld. The Reader icon never displayed for me here and I presumed because of the lack of ads. It also didn't display on Apple's website. I went to matt cutts website, where there are no ads, and the reader icon displayed. I went to adobes website, icon displayed. Why is Apple whitelisting its own site?
I'm curious as to what triggers the icon to be available, maybe a new thread?

[StoutFiles]

Why would Apple try to make webmasters want to figure out how to block Safari reader or in the event it's not detectable, just block Safari itself?

The Reader icon disappears if you have a RSS feed, it replaces the Reader icon with a RSS icon. Making a RSS feed is a viable workaround if the Reader is an issue.

[alt131]

Have any winSafari users experienced the install removing v4?

I don't recall any options - or notice - offered during the install routine (but it was late at night), and didn't realise until trying to test code in v4.

The directory exists, but the contents have been deleted. Attempts to reinstall v4 exit after a "newer version detected" message. Ironically, v3 remains untouched and fully functional.