Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 24, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
New features that make browsing the web even more intuitive and enjoyable include Top Sites, an excellent visual preview of frequently visited websites; Full History Search, for searching the titles, web addresses or complete text of recently visited websites; Cover Flow, for browsing quickly and easily through history and bookmarks; and Tabs on Top, which makes tabbed browsing even easier and more intuitive.
“Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back to web browsers, and today we are taking another major step forward,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Safari is the most efficient and fastest browser for Mac and Windows, with outstanding integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enable the next generation of interactive web applications.”
Safari 4 is based on the world’s most advanced browser technologies, including the new Nitro JavaScript engine, which executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to three times faster than Firefox 3. Safari renders HTML web pages up to seven times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to three times faster than Firefox 3.*
By defining and using innovative web standards such as HTML 5 and CSS 3 for an entirely new kind of web application featuring extremely appealing graphics and typography, Apple is taking a leading role in the industry. Safari 4 supports HTML 5 and its associated offline technologies, enabling web-based applications to store information locally without an internet connection. Safari 4 is also the first browser to support advanced CSS effects, allowing highly professional graphical effects using reflections, gradients and precision masks on the internet. Safari 4 is the first browser to pass the Acid3 test, a standardized procedure that measures how well a browser supports the CSS, JavaScript, XML and SVG web standards—technologies developed specifically for dynamic web applications.
Safari for Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPod touch are all based on Apple’s WebKit, the world’s fastest and most advanced browser engine. Apple developed WebKit as an open-source project to create the best possible browser engine and accelerate adoption of modern web standards. Known for its fast, modern code base, WebKit recently played a major role in the introduction of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards. The latest browsers, including Google Chrome and the browsers for Google Android, Nokia Series 60 and Palm’s webOS, are all based on Apple’s WebKit.
Innovative new features in Safari 4 include:
- Top Sites, an overview of frequently visited websites presented as a visual grid of previews, allowing users to jump to a favorite website with one click;
-
Full History Search, for searching the titles, web addresses or complete text of recently visited websites and returning to them quickly and easily;
-
Cover Flow, which makes searching history or bookmarks as enjoyable as browsing album covers in iTunes;
-
Tabs on Top, for improved tabbed browsing with simple drag-and-drop management and an intuitive button for creating new tabs;
-
Smart Address Field, which automatically completes URLs by displaying suggestions from the list of Top Sites, bookmarks and history;
-
Smart Search Field, which allows users to refine searches using Google Suggest or recently searched terms;
-
Full Page Zoom, for enlarging web pages without losing resolution quality;
-
Integrated web-development tools for inspecting and optimizing websites to achieve the fastest possible page loading and best compatibility;
-
A new native Windows design in Safari for Windows that uses Windows-standard font rendering as well as the appearance of toolbars, rulers and headings, allowing Safari to fit perfectly into the look of Windows XP or Windows Vista applications.
Pricing & Availability
The free public beta of Safari 4 for Mac OS X and Windows is available for download now at http://www.apple.com/safari.
System Requirements
Safari 4 for Mac OS X requires Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6 and Security Update 2009-001, or Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11, as well as at least 256 MB of memory, and runs on any Mac with an Intel or PowerPC G5, G4 or G3 processor and built-in FireWire. Safari 4 for Windows requires Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, at least 256 MB of memory and a system with at least a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor.
