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Apple Announces Support For WebRTC in Safari 11 (webkit.org)
Youenn Fablet, software engineer at Apple, writes: Today we are thrilled to announce WebKit support for WebRTC, available on Safari on macOS High Sierra, iOS 11, and Safari Technology Preview 32. [...] Currently, Safari supports legacy WebRTC APIs. Web developers can check whether their websites conform to the latest specifications by toggling the STP Experimental Features menu item "Remove Legacy WebRTC API". Legacy WebRTC APIs will be disabled by default on future releases. Websites that need to accommodate older implementations of the WebRTC and Media Capture specifications can take advantage of polyfill libraries like adapter.js. Peer5, a startup that offers serverless CDN for massively-scaled video streaming, writes in a blogpost: This is HUGE news for the computing industry. Since its introduction in 2011, WebRTC has become an incredibly important part of everyone's favorite platforms and applications. It is at the core of a few services that you might have heard of, including Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and Slack. WebRTC is also supported natively by most major web browsers, including Chrome, Firefox and Opera. But there were 2 big holdouts -- Microsoft's Edge browser and Apple's Safari. This meant that people using those browsers couldn't access WebRTC-based services without installing some type of plug-in. Well, those days are over given the WWDC news and Microsoft's announcement back in January regarding WebRTC support in Edge. Developers can now create compelling browser-based applications that incorporate real-time audio and video (and maybe even a peer-to-peer component) and know that 99% of the world's Web surfers will be able to use their services without having to install any plug-ins or additional software. This newfound ubiquity for WebRTC might even make a developer question whether he has to build a native iOS or Android app to deliver his service to end-users.
Apple is rarely the first to introduce something, but they have a better than average track record of being the first ones to do a thing successfully.
Look back through their major products over the decades: the Mac wasn't the first PC, the iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, the iPad wasn't the first tablet, the Apple TV wasn't the first set-top box, and the Apple Watch wasn't the first smartwatch. Some of those succeeded, others not so much, but none were the first. It seems odd to ask when the last time was that they were first, given that they've made their name by not being first.
As for Safari, from what I recall hearing recently (i.e. I have no citation), Safari still commands the majority share of browser usage on the Mac, likely on account of it coming preinstalled. I actually went back to Safari on the Macs we have at home after being on Chrome for years. The experience of using Safari on a Mac has for the last few years, in my opinion, provided the best out-of-box experience out of any browser (which stands in sharp contrast to the experience of using Safari on Windows, which was even worse than using iTunes on Windows). That said, for people who want more out of their browser, Chrome is still the right choice for many of them, especially given the dearth of Safari extensions compared to Chrome extensions. For me, however, I was getting creeped out by Chrome's increased invasiveness, and I didn't care for the way it sucks up power and RAM on the laptop I use at home, so I was willing to trade a little convenience for better efficiency and privacy.
...which I suppose I'm not helping any, given that I just wrote a Chrome extension this last week to scratch an itch I had at work (controlling the browser-based podcast player I use at work via globally-accessible hotkeys).
I guess I'm the weirdo. I've never understood why people choose Chrome over Firefox. I use Firefox on all platforms. Chrome is just butt ugly.
Protect your browser with the Force Safe Search add-on
Every couple years I rotate from Safari to Firefox to chrome. At any given point in time one of these is definitely better. But if you continue to assume that whatever was best when you last checked remains the case you are in for a surprise. Leadership definitley movess around. And it's pretty much always the case that Edge and Safari are better on batteries. Safari is also better on network bandwidth too.
At the moment I'm phasing out chrome as I'm finding the others work better at this point in time. Also I dislike that chrome seems to basically spy on me and link everything to my google account even when I try to keep it separate.
for my residual chrome needs I've also been experimenting with Epic, the chrome like browser that is privacy focused.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Dear Apple,
How long before you fix Safari so that it no longer gets abysmal numbers in html5Test.com? Apple doesn't support many of the HTML5 features that the other browsers do, so to be cross browser compliant (and to work on an iPhone) they cannot be used. Using Safari Technology Preview you guys get 416 out of 555! You are 100 points behind Chrome and 60 behind Edge and Firefox. You do far better on the ECMAScript compatibility table and the Acid3 test, but you don't get 100% there either... but then only Opera passes that.
Please fix this!
I'd suggest that they do that too, just as anyone else with decent marketing does, but don't let your distaste for that aspect of the company obscure the fact that they actually have achieved a great deal of success, whether we're talking critically, technically, or commercially. A company can be both deeply flawed and wildly successful; the two aren't mutually exclusive.
Going back to the topic of their innovations, to me, a lot of their actual innovation seems to come from their bringing things in-house or figuring out how to do things en masse. For instance, their last-gen phones are--by a wide margin--still outpacing current-gen phones from all of their competitors in every side-by-side test I've seen, thanks in large part to them bringing their chip design in-house a few generations back. And while "unibody" designs are commonplace these days, it's easy to forget that precision milling was considered cost prohibitive for consumer electronics at the time Apple started doing it, making those designs groundbreaking at the time. Similarly, they push bounds in other areas, such as using 7000-series aluminum alloys in their watches, rather than the softer but more common 6000-series alloys, and using in-house metallurgists to create a custom 18K gold alloy for their solid gold watch, that way it didn't come with the drawbacks typically associated with 18K gold.
Of course, they do things we nerds don't like, such as removing headphone jacks and using proprietary connectors, as well as a great many other things not to like, but that doesn't change the fact that they've succeeded quite a bit too. Again, the two aren't mutually exclusive.
In fact, I find the insistence by some in this community that it be only one or the other to be rather odd. I know we all join tribes, and that reason goes out the door as soon as we start to get into tribal warfare, but I continue to find it odd how people who are typically quite open to nuanced and subtle arguments on virtually any other topic will suddenly throw that reason out the door as soon as you say something that doesn't align with their tribal affiliation.
As a daily Mac user, I think it's safe to ask...does anyone really still use a Safari on the desktop? Doesn't everyone just use Chrome?
And why exactly would I use Chrome instead of Safari?
So it's easier for Google to track me? Besides, I hate tabs on top.