Safari 4 Beta Released
Safari has come an awfully long way since its conception, and today marks the beta release of the fourth major incarnation of the acclaimed web browser. Version 4 introduces a range of new features and interface improvements, among them speed enhancements, visual history searching and Cover Flow integration.
Safari 4 can be downloaded directly from Apple, and is available for both Mac and Windows. This brief introduction will outline what to expect in the latest version, with a particular focus on new features.
Interface Changes
For better or worse, there are numerous changes to the interface style. Most obvious is the shift of the browser tabs to appear at the very top of the window, above the bookmarks and address bar. It doesn’t appear that there’s an option to change this setting, so it will likely require a little getting used to. The ‘New Tab’ button is located at the very top right of the window. This shift in thinking matches that of Google’s Chrome browser, and seems to continue a new standard in browser interface design.
A second notable change is the removal of the blue progress background in the address bar that used to appear when loading a new page. This has been replaced by a spinner towards the right-hand side. The spinner changes to a ‘Stop Loading’ icon when moused over, and also functions as a ‘Refresh Page’ button once loading is complete. This switch in progress indication is likely due to the speed enhancements with Version 4.
Speed Improvements – The ‘Nitro Engine’
Many browsers make dramatic claims about speed, but browsing on Safari 4 is the first time I’ve ever noticed such a massive improvement. Page loading, JavaScript rendering and general browsing feels far faster than I’ve ever experienced before. A few claims made by Apple (which should probably be taken as slightly exaggerated) are:
Safari executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than 3 times faster than Firefox 3 based on performance in leading industry benchmark tests: iBench and SunSpider.
In addition to superior JavaScript performance, Safari offers top-flight HTML performance — the best on any platform — loading pages 3 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and almost 3 times faster than Firefox 3.
Apple has a speed comparison with other Mac and Windows browsers over at their new features page.
Top Sites
Top Sites is a new feature that shows a dynamic grid display of up to 24 of your favorite web sites. These are generated automatically based on your browsing habits, and as such may take a little time before they offer up an accurate representation of your favorites.
Top Sites can be edited and moved around easily, with a star in the top right-hand area representing a change of content since your last visit. It’s a simple way to see a visual representation of your favorite bookmarks, without needing to visit them if no recent updates have been made.
Cover Flow
In their attempt to integrate Cover Flow into every possible niche of your Mac, bookmarks are now displayed by default in a visual Cover Flow mode. You can flip through them as you’d expect, and click to open. This is very useful if you’re a visual person as it allows you to select the required site based on its look and feel.
History and Searching
Safari takes control of your browser history and makes it more usable than ever before. You’re able to search through all the web sites you’ve previously visited, viewing them in Cover Flow mode. Not only does Safari search for the URL or title of the site, it also indexes all the page content to allow thorough searching of your previously browsed sites.
Searching for new sites is also made easier through an auto-suggestion tool within the browser search bar. Start typing, and Safari will suggest a list of possible phrases for which you may be looking. It provides a ‘recent search’ listing underneath the suggestions, and also offers to convert your web search into a local ‘Find’ command, looking for the phrase anywhere on the current web page.
Full Page Zoom
Taking a page from the iPhone book, Safari now provides better support for zooming into web sites. It scales images and graphics as you zoom in and keeps text sharp while perfectly preserving the page layout. It’s a big step forward in scaling web sites, and removes many of the previous headaches of breaking layouts as you resized text.
Summary
At first glance it would appear that Safari 4 is a great step forwards in terms of usability and function. Some of the interface changes will take a while to become natural, but seem to make more sense in the long term. For me, the most impressive improvement isn’t the flashy Cover Flow implementation or minor changes in design — it’s the speed. I may use Top Sites from time to time, but I’ll benefit from the faster rendering and page loading time on every site I visit.
Head over to the download page and give Safari 4 a try for yourself. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts!
Tweet This (16)
Matthew Bookspan on February 24th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Nice article David. I installed it this AM. My big concern is the lack of tab process management. I was really hoping Apple would copy Google Chrome here by making each tab its own process. Also, Apple still hasn’t addressed the memory issue with Safari. Frankly, it is still a memory pig. We’ll see how this progresses as they release more betas.
Mike N. on February 24th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I’m a bit disappointed with the windows version. I don’t have the the ‘Top sites’ button and cover flow is also missing. I guess it hates my win xp. =(
The speed though, is insane.
Jeffrey on February 24th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Top Sites can also be edited to your liking. There is only one site that didn’t work with this process for me. Remove any sites you don’t want in your top sites. Sticky the rest. Leave the edit button pressed. Now, with top sites open, start typing the url of the site you want to add. If it shows up as a Top Hit already, click that to go to it. Return to your top sites to see it added. If it does not already show up as a Top Hit. Click it to visit the site, then return to Top Sites. Click edit. Start typing the site address, and then click it as it now shows up as a Top Hit. This should add it to your Top Sites now.
Jeffrey on February 24th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Edit: It’s not important to have the Edit button pressed in Top Sites to do this as far as I can tell.
Anthony on February 24th, 2009 at 11:31 am
I’m really disappointed that they choose to remove the snapback button, it is one of those features i really love and used regularly. I keep finding myself going up to go back, now it’s really going to be frustrating having to hit the back button 2 or 3 times to get back to where i started
Bridget on February 24th, 2009 at 11:39 am
I found that the beta was incompatible with GrowlMail (Mail.app would open for a few seconds, then quit itself). Anyone else have this problem or find a fix? Disabling GrowlMail didn’t do anything.
David McDougal on February 24th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I am not a real fan of this beta. I know it is a simple thing, but the tabs on the top are really messing with my head. I am so used to Firefox and the old safari being under the address bar. I have been using omniweb recently, and that sidebar thing is even harder.
Victor on February 24th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
well it’s definitely fast. For those of you who care. I’m sure appleblog or someone else will get to benchmarking safari vs other browsers. But I benchmarked it using sunspider real quick and unscientifically vs the previous webkit build and the most recent one.
Safari 4 got 908.2ms
Webkit previous got something like 1072ms
Webkit most recent got something around 978ms
Safari just got put in my dock over webkit.
Gazoobee on February 24th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
One funny quirk I’ve noticed is that TopSites seems to go around any blocker plug-ins. Some of the pages in TopSites seem to be pop-up windows that I never actually saw in my browsing for instance.
Also, I use an Safari AdBlock, (because why would you want to look at ads when you don’t have to?) It still works fine in Safari 4, but the page thumbnails in TopSites all have still the ads on them. Interesting.
Tom Reestman on February 24th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I’m running the Windows XP version and Top Sites and Cover Flow are working just fine.
Speed is incredible.
I will likely appreciate tabs in the menu bar on my MacBook, since it saves vertical screen space. But on this XP machine with a larger screen I’d just as soon have them where they were. Still, I get I’ll get used to it.
What I will not get used to is the stupid move to Windows’ own anti-aliasing. Apple’s is much better. Luckily, that garbage is the first thing I turned off.
I do not like that I can’t get rid of the page and gear icons on the address bar. Drag them off, they come back. What’s with that?
I miss that I could just double-click the tab bar to get a new tab. Now that the “tab bar” is also the window’s title bar, double-clicking it maximizes the window. Bummer. I’ve settled on Control-T instead.
I also miss just grabbing a tab anywhere to move it. Again, because it’s now the window’s title bar, I must grab a tab by it’s little handle to move it. Definitely gonna take some getting used to.
Having the native Windows look of the window was a wise move. In some ways, I actually think it’s uglier, but it makes sense. Besides, the rest of the interface is just as clean as ever, which I really like.
I’m anxious to try this on my Mac, but I’m pretty impressed with the Windows flavor so far.
Gazoobee on February 24th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Wow. There’s a pingback at the top you might want to delete.
“Pingback by Safari 4 Beta is out for Download and Apple is Over Promoting it” … leads to a “LiveCrunch” blog that is just full of purposeful inaccuracies and venomous anti-Apple bashing.
This guy actually publishes quotes from Apple’s promotional materials THAT HE’S ALTERED and then knocks them down for things they don’t even say. Weird click-whore stuff there and the author is anonymous, the coward.
@ Mathew Bookspan: The memory footprint has been reduced by about half (over Safari 3) on my machine, maybe you should check again.
bluloo on February 24th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Very pretty.
Wake me when the feature-set is on par with Firefox 2.
Jer on February 24th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
I am concerned that the additional rendering potency will just make it easier/more-profitable to include those annoying and distracting video-ads that keep being increasingly placed within web pages. If Apple really wanted to ‘empower’ the user there would be a video object disable feature for user-chosen web pages on the new Safari. Though, i’ll certainly give the new version a spin on my mBookpro17.
Andrew Bednarz on February 24th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Im very impressed so far, though cringed when I realised that my 1Password and keywurl plugins wouldn’t work anymore. Thankfully 1Password already has a beta version out that works with Safari 4. Living without keywurl until it updates is going to be tougher though.
Mark Hines on February 24th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Although claimed by Apple as fastest browser, I dont think its qiute that fast! I have used many other browsers and feel that google crome is the fastest of them all. By the way they have added new features such as “cover flow” which I like very much.
Cody on February 25th, 2009 at 2:59 am
I am also using XP and both the Top Sites button and Cover Flow are missing?
I tried to do a clean install by uninstalling Safari 3 and still the same problem.
Any ideas?
chimpy on February 25th, 2009 at 6:14 am
@Anthony:
SnapBack is still here – do a search with Google search box in the toolbar, and when you click a link, the SnapBack icon appears in the box.
D.W. on February 25th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I hate the tabs on top. It’s extra real estate for the eye and mouse to traverse — un-necessarily. Apple should please restore the tabs on bottom — or make it a user-selectable preference. Please, Apple: tabs on bottom not top of the menu bar.
hmm on February 25th, 2009 at 8:38 am
@Cody
@Mike N.
Top Sites may not work because of certain graphic card requirements (32MB and up, compatibility, etc)
Ion on February 25th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
@#19 hmm
I agree with you. I can’t see where is Top Sites button.
Mike N. on February 25th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
@hmm
Could be, though iTunes can run cover flow perfectly on my machine. Might be an ATI compatibility issue.
Thanks.
Nick on February 25th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
From what I can tell, installing the Safari 4 beta breaks back-to-my-mac. I can’t imagine what the connection could be, but none of my machines can connect properly to the BTTM service after installing the beta.
Tom on February 25th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I downloaded Safari 4 Beta for Mac last night and really liked it. However, this morning I stared to have a problem with my Mail Application. I could not get new mail, even though they were on our email server. I would have to choose the Rebuild command to get my new mail. Tried checking all my settings. Deleted the account and then set it up again. Had all our IT guys looking at the mail server. Could not figure it out. Then I started thinking about how Mail uses part of Safari to render html emails or something like that. Realized that my mail had stopped working last night right when I had installed Safari. So I used the Uninstall APP (thanks for providing that Apple!) and as soon as Safari 4 Beta Mac was uninstalled, my Apple Mail started working again. If anyone has a work around or fix, let me know, because I like the new Safari and would like to keep using it.
Tom Z on February 25th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I downloaded Safari 4 Beta for Mac last night and really liked it. However, this morning I started to have a problem with my Mail Application. I could not get new mail, even though they were on our email server. I would have to choose the Rebuild command in Mail to get my new mail. Tried checking all my settings. Deleted the account and then set it up again. Had all our IT guys looking at the mail server. Could not figure it out. Then I started thinking about how Mail uses part of Safari to render html emails or something like that. I then realized that my mail had stopped working last night right when I had installed Safari. So I used the Uninstall APP (thanks for providing that Apple!) and as soon as Safari 4 Beta Mac was uninstalled, my Apple Mail started working again. If anyone has a work around or fix, let me know, because I like the new Safari and would like to keep using it.
bhakti on February 25th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
safari 4 rocks, especially when i have to use windows. and there are terminal commands for moving the tabs back below the bookmark bar and restoring the blue loading background, if you really want (see macrumors.com). but i have one complaint: where’s the refresh button? sure, i can hit apple-r, but i like the button. it seems to be gone, no?
Malcolm on February 25th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I’m on WinXP SP2, and the top sites button isn’t showing up for me, either. Suxx0rz. :(
fnutnyryu on February 26th, 2009 at 5:49 am
@ #5 Anthony says:
“I’m really disappointed that they choose to remove the snapback button, it is one of those features i really love and used regularly. I keep finding myself going up to go back, now it’s really going to be frustrating having to hit the back button 2 or 3 times to get back to where i started”
And how about just click on SHOW THE PREVIOUS PAGE button and hold it? It will give you whole list of previous pages you’ve visited.
fnutnyryu on February 26th, 2009 at 5:51 am
@ #25 bhakti says:
“safari 4 rocks, especially when i have to use windows. and there are terminal commands for moving the tabs back below the bookmark bar and restoring the blue loading background, if you really want (see macrumors.com). but i have one complaint: where’s the refresh button? sure, i can hit apple-r, but i like the button. it seems to be gone, no?”
Refresh button is still there, just moved to another location. Check the far end of your address bar and look closely. I am assuring you it’s there ;)
Giel on February 26th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I can see the ‘Top sites’ interface coming to Spaces in Snow Leopard.. Anyone agree?
Raju on February 26th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Yes Giel. Even I can’t see my Top Sites Icon next to bookmarks icon & Visual effects for Top Sites & History/Bookmarks. Looks like some limitation with system requirement. Me installed it on my laptop (windows xp pro sp3, Intel Pentium M Processor 1.6GHz, 512MB Ram, Mobility Radeon 9000).
Mike N. on February 27th, 2009 at 7:29 am
@Raju
I have about the same setup:
windows xp home sp3, Intel Pentium M Processor 1.6GHz, 1.2gB Ram, Mobility Radeon 9200 (64mb).
And the top sites and cover flow are disabled on my machine too.
gxg on February 27th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I also don’t see “Top Sites” anywhere! And the history has the same old Safari 3 interface. If there are system limitations for these features, they really should announce them openly!
Leon on March 2nd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Hi, I have just downloaded the new safari 4 beta from apple.com and yeah there seems to be cool new features. I would just like to say that I have not really used a whole lot yet as I just downloaded it but I will mention the differences that I see in my macbook now that I really dont like:
1: in msn messenger when typing in the box where you type and then hit enter or send – i have to aim cursor in type area and click the type area to put the cursor back there after each time i send something when chatting. It really slows chatting down and is very annoying. Aim cursor, click the area, type, send, aim, click, type, send. Very slow vs type, send, type, send.
2: When dragging a picture from a website to a folder usually there is a .jpg at the end of the picture name once its in a file. Now since new safari 4 it does it puts a .jpg.jpg at the end now. Now its impossible to know if I have that picture alreadty as it would normally put a -1 behind the .jpg if the picture i am grabbing from internet – like a sports car etc is already in my file and is therefore a duplicate. Now because its a .jpg.jpg even if its a duplicate I cant know that it is because it normally would be just .jpg and then have a -1 at the end of the pic name. Very frustrating!
3: Certain websites the back arrow wont work and just seems to refresh the page. I have to click the back arrow several times very fast for it to go one page back – also very frustrating.
If anyone can help me out here it would awesome as these 3 points are very annoying. It might just be the set up or maybe its the way it is. I would like to go back to my reg safari that came with my macbook if thats the case.
Thank you
Leon on March 2nd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
My email is ldubois1978@hotmail.com
Thank-you
Leon Dubois
re comment #33 above
Angelmil on March 3rd, 2009 at 8:19 am
Top sites icon is also missing on my laptop – XP SP3 Intel Celeron 512 Ram.
Tough the cover flow in I tunes works perfectly. I can see that there are many
others having the same issue. Hope that will be soon fixed!
Anthony on March 5th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
My Top sites and History coverflow on XP SP2 are missing also. I’ve just found that the preferences.plist is missing but I’m not sure is this the key problem to this. Can anyone confirm this?
Want to love Safari on March 6th, 2009 at 12:15 am
XP SP2 Intel celeron 1.5GHz, 500M Ram, VGA Intel build in Laptop also does not appear Top sites feature…reintall Safari4beta,Directx9.0c and Vedio card driver…Not work!
Rob K. on March 6th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Substituting the spin wheel for the progress bar in the address is a step back. It also takes a lot longer for pages to load than it did in 3.0. Some of the other new features like history cover flow is window dressing. At this point 4.0 is treading water. Apple can do better!
XP USER on March 6th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I have the same problem that the Top Sites button missing. I have Windows XP SP2 running on Pentium M 1.6GHz and 1GB RAM Dell 700m laptop.
Danny on March 9th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Top sites button shows up in my laptop running Windows XP.
But, it does not show up in my desktop running Windows XP.
I already removed and reinstall Safari twice, it did not work.
It will be great if Apple mentions the criteria
needed to have Top sites button.
KentV on March 10th, 2009 at 7:36 am
I’ve been running Safari Beta 4 since it was release and until yesterday I had a “Top Sites” button. Now for some reason it has disappeared. For those you that want a quick way to get to the “Top Sites” display you can press “SHIFT+CTRL+1″ and it will act the same as the button. I know it’s not great but at least it’s a workaround.
gxg on March 14th, 2009 at 10:07 am
maybe ‘Top Sites’ is only available to iTunes users. I don’t have iTunes installed, and Safari doesn’t display the Top Sites or the history cowerflow.
William on March 16th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Anyone seeing slow page loading on some webpages? I am running Growl…
raul on April 1st, 2009 at 5:08 pm
installed in 3 pc’s and they all seem to have the coverflow and topsites working except on my home pc. the button i press on the one working is the add button on top right. i press that on the pc that does not work and it just open an untitled tab instead of topsites
Reagan on April 12th, 2009 at 5:23 am
I too do not see the Top Sites icon. The CTRL+SHFT+1 does not bring it up either. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling. No luck. I am running a Dell Dimension 4600, WXP Home, SP3, P4, 2.8GHz, 1.5GB RAM, Intel 82865G graphics controller.
James on April 25th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
I tried Safari 4 beta on several macs and with different networks and I got really tired of how slow it was to load pages. I love all the new features but waiting over 10 seconds to load a page is frustrating. It almost seems as if page loads work differently in v4. Specifically, it seems as though Safari will keep on displaying the current page after you’ve clicked another link until every element in the new page is loaded in the background. Then it will dump the new page on you as a whole. I quickly uninstalled it on all machines and went back to version 3. Also, v4 does not work on my bank website (etrade). I’m constantly logged out and have to re-log in on every new page I navigate to. I didn’t experience that problem with v3. Now that I’m back on Safari, page loads are screaming fast and I’m no longer frustrated.
Mike Gabriel on May 6th, 2009 at 2:17 am
@James #46 – I experience the same issue and honestly it is pretty frustrating. Anyone else notice this or have a fix?
susan Paradise on May 14th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I don’t understand what has happened to my browser, when I log onto Safari and do a search the return to last page button is now missing? Help!
Eric H on May 22nd, 2009 at 9:21 pm
@James#46 and @Mike#47-I have the same issure. It’s TERRIBLE. I keep reading everyone’s comments on sites about how fast Safari4 is, but on my Macbook Pro it’s turned Broadband speeds into Dial-Up speeds. There’s obviously something on our computers that is conflicting that is not on other’s machines. Some think it’s Grow, but I don’t have Growl, so it must be something else. Keep in mind, for me, the 1st Beta release was fine, but this new Beta release #2 has totally f’ed things up. ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS WHY??? TX
tbrinnand on May 24th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I installed beta 4. It worked ok, but cant see how it’s so great. However, now my printer wont work. I have a Konica Minolta Magicolor 2530DL, and apparently it wont work with Leopard (I use Tiger). Somehow it also doesn’t work with Safari 4 beta. HELP!
Orhanitto on May 26th, 2009 at 10:22 am
I formated my Hp Pavilion from Vista to XP.. and downloaded Safari 4 beta.. there is no TopSites button there.. plz someone help.. i love safari,cannot use anything else cuz it work really fast.. but this TopSites feature is important.. so,plz.. :(
Aroon on May 28th, 2009 at 6:03 am
The rest of the features seem fine – but Safari4 fails to display images on every website – that includes apple.com as well.
I understand that this is a beta release but isn’t this a very irritating behavior? I have tried resetting safari and reinstalling even – but nothing works. Its nice to have a fast browser but wud’ve been good if someone cud tell me what to do.
And does using other browsers interfere at all? I know it doesn’t with other browsers but i’m new to Safari.
I run Win XP sp2 on a 2GB AMDX2 and have installed both Chrome and Firefox.
aman on June 15th, 2009 at 4:23 am
is wondering how to erase everthing in the previously searched (called suggestions) but not the bar it self. (the old one had erase previous searches)
AS on June 27th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Since installing Safari 4, browser is incredibly slow, and Entourage 2008 crashes repeatedly. Have browsed forums where they say to uninstall it, but I can find no uninstall option in the dmg. HELP! I need Entourage for my business, and I’d like a faster browser, too.
RC on July 3rd, 2009 at 6:03 am
@Those not having the Top Sites button. Have you gone into the tools/settings and then to bookmarks? There is a check button to include Top Sites icon on the bookmarks bar.
My Toshiba Lappy is 1.9GHz, 2Gb Ram, 64MB Nvidia GeForce FX Go 5200, and I am having problems with Tops Sites only showing the first 2 sites and half of the next 2, but with lines through the ones showing (in medium size). I large size I get all showing with lines through them and in small size, none showing.