Safari Beta 2 Available

pldms writes "Safari Beta 2 is available via Software Update or from the Safari page. This is build 73, for those who've had 'exclusive' access to previous development versions since beta 1 ;-) The blurb: 'Safari Beta 2 introduces tabbed browsing to conveniently see and switch between multiple web pages in a single window, and AutoFill to instantly fill out web forms and password fields. This update also features increased standards compatibility and improved application stability.'" I had to set Lax Certificate Checks in the Debug menu to use it with Slashdot ... and its secure cookie check is still quite broken (either saves secure cookies without the secure flag, or sends out secure cookies to insecure sites, which would violate RFC 2965 where it says "no less than the same level of security").

Comments

The perfect browser?

[CptTripps]

I had my doubts about Safari. After a few days of "testing" it out, I forgot how painful it was to use IE. Sure there are occations that Safari won't open a page or something, but this beta is better than most 5.X brosers that have been around for a while.

The new tabbed interface is VERY well done. I'm very happy with it now. Could be the perfect browser....for me at least.

Re:The perfect browser?

[pldms]

Call me lucky or average, but I've not had any real problems with using the finder to do the FTP stuff

You're lucky. Dunno about average.

I've no idea why it occurs, but it's nasty when it does. (Maybe because I'm using NAT? Other clients work. Alignment of the planets?) I doesn't always happen, but it's been regular enough for me to avoid it like the plague.

I guess it breaks down to the following:

1) Why can't safari browse ftp?
2) Why don't Apple provide Internet Config anymore, so I can punt ftp onto something less nasty (you can use IE for this, bizarrely).
3) Why can't Apple fix the kernel?

So Safari is only a minor factor, but it leads to a catastrophic slide to oblivion on occasions.

Anyway, enough whining. It's still a nice browser.

Serious question

[taeric]

What is it that makes this browser so much better then the others?

I have some friends now that recently switched to the apple side of computing, and I can't help but laugh at them on some of the stuff they applaud Apple for. This browser is one of them.

They claim it is faster, but I just don't see how that is possible. The bottleneck in most all browsing I do is the network. Have they simply found a way to make it seem faster? Have other browsers on the Mac been slow in the past? I don't get it.

As a reference. I use IE at work, and Phoenix (or should that be the browser formerly known as Phoenix) at home. While I do appreciate some of the benefits of Phoenix over IE, I honestly think it is a toss up between them.

I think most of my problems nowdays are with sites that are just ugly. However, I can't tell the difference -- or maybe I just don't care -- between the way any browsers handle fonts and whatnot. I also can't notice most of the differences between how sites render. I do appreciate the fact that most sites appear stable in all browsers now.

So... what is so great about Safari?

Re:Serious question

[HarveyBirdman]

They claim it is faster, but I just don't see how that is possible. The bottleneck in most all browsing I do is the network.

I think it's a case of just an efficient rendering algorithm versus the retarded code inside Internet Explorer for the Mac (or the PC for that matter). It renders much faster, so with a fast site it feels faster overall.

Yeah, with a slow site Safari is slow, but that's not what people are talking about. We know the bottleneck is ultimately the network- that's not a newsflash. Safari makes the user end as quick as possible.

I just wish some browser maker would do better caching. I'm so tired on clicking "Back" and the browsers sits and spins for a long time. It's in the freaking cache, you dimwit pile of crap! It's only one page back! I've seen this stupid behavior in every browser on Macs, PCs and Suns regardless of user settings.

Any news on bookmark searching?

[henele]

One of the things which makes me use iTunes on certain machines is the indiscriminate search feature and how it works so well with both librarys and playlists.

I would really like to see it added in someway to Safari as now it is my main browser my bookmarks, despite attempted organisation are beginning to get out of control.

Swapping the Google search panel for a bookmark search interface (when you flick the bookmark switch, which checked titles and URLs) would be cool, and as a 'power' feature if you could searched cached versions of the bookmark's pages as well it would be excellent (please inform me if another browser already has that functionality)...

Re:New: "Open in Tabs" item in Bookmarks Bar menus

[MidKnight]

The "open in tabs" feature is somewhat buggy. Any existing tabs disappear; and the "back" button after all of the new tabs show up takes the browser back to the previous tabs.

I think this is actually the desired behavior. It allows you to treat a collection of links as a single "location" you can go to, instead of treating each separate tab as a wholly separate instance. While it might take some getting used to, I kinda like it. I can open up my 'News' pages in a single click and, after browsing all the tabs, return back to whatever I was doing beforehand with another single click.

That's something I always appreciate about Apple -- their willingness to push a UI feature to its limits....