The news
The latest beta of Apple's Safari 3.0 web browser is available now - and in a version for Windows, as well as for Macs!
Apple claims that Safari - a free download (28.1MB) - is faster to load and use than the three big-name Windows web browsers (Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2 and Opera 9) and offers a whole bunch of worthwhile features.
These include pop-up blocking; a claimed high level of security; built-in RSS; auto-filling of forms; and tabbed browsing. Note, though, that a click on a mouse wheel does not close a tab as you'll have been led to expect from using other tabbed browsers.
It's hard to second-guess Apple's thinking but we have come up with a number of reasons why it might have decided to introduce a Windows version.
The first is simply that it can. The program's creation is relatively trivial since all new software the company produces for Macs is now written to run on the same X86 architecture used for Windows PCs.
Next, Safari will increase the use (or at least the installed base) of Windows PCs running Apple QuickTime. The default installer will add QuickTime if the PC doesn't have it already and this may lead to an increase in the use of iTunes, the iTunes store and iPod portable media players.
However, Apple does offer - and not hide from view - a Safari-only download (just 8MB), so perhaps we're just being overly cynical.
Then, of course, Apple may believe that the program is so good that it will encourage Windows users to considering switching to Macs.
Most likely of all, though, is that the introduction of Safari under Windows is a pre-cursor to Apple's launch this month (in the USA, at least) of its own mobile phone - the iPhone - that runs a version of Safari.
Any positive reaction from users of the computer-based beta is likely to help sell Apple phones. And, since Windows users massively outnumber Mac users, a Windows version of Safari is the best way to do this.
We've only used Safari in anger for a few hours but that's been long enough to confirm that it is fast - surprisingly so given that what you can download and what we are running is a beta. We won't be seeing a final version until October, though this will still be a freebie.
Those few hours with Safari have also been long enough for us to suffer a few crashes and come to regret the fact that, unlike Firefox (but just like IE7), there is as yet no build-in session-recovery.
You can get back to the sites you were visiting prior to a crash by using Safari's history option but you're not given the chance to reopen the complete browser session you were running beforehand
There are also some quirks that Windows users will have to get used.
We don't like the fact that Safari under Windows - just like iTunes and other Apple Windows apps - doesn't have a blue bar at the top to show when a window is active and provide a distinct target for dragging windows around.
More irritating still is the different way that folders and program windows are drag-resized.
Unlike most Windows apps, with Safari (and with Apple programs and Macs generally), you can't just click on any border or corner and drag in or out to get the size you want. Instead, you have to do it all from the bottom right corner and we find that a pain.
Some HEXUS.community members have also discovered issues with the beta - check out this forum thread in HEXUS.binaries.
Nonetheless, Safari's arrival on the Windows web-browser scene can only be a good thing. It puts pressure on Microsoft to make Internet Explorer better and faster (and who wouldn't drink to that?) and also gives a further incentive to the creators of Firefox and Opera to improve their products.
Check out Apple's press release on page two, try Safari for yourself - it's a worthwhile experience - and feel free to share your thoughts in the HEXUS.community.
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External.links
Apple - Safari beta home pageApple UK - home page
Apple USA - home page
