Today Apple Released Safari 4.0 Beta for both the Mac and Windows platform. Of course doing a little digging before downloading this latest browser discovered numerous problems. Being the daring kind I downloaded and installed the browser on my MacBook Pro laptop. This Laptop is really finicky when it comes to software, more so then any of my other Macs.
The issues people where running into where numerous, remember it’s a beta version, expect it. Some of the items where; the progress bar is missing, causing mac messenger to act strangely "I use Adium, no issues."
Others included, that it was very slow, yet I found mine to run much quicker then Safari 3.2.1, there where also issues Apple mail crashing – related to Growl. Safari 4 Beta does not work with Windows Live, "is that really a problem!" Quite a few reports of it crashing and not opening anymore.
My First Impressions
Where is the tab bar, well that was kind of strange they had relocated it to the top of the browser, ok I can live with that yet it does break from the normal conventions previously found in Safari, Firefox, and I.E. 7.
When I first ran the program I found a huge difference in the speed compared to Safari 3.x. It was also noticeably faster then Firefox, and speed is everything these days.
Cover Flow View
The new cover flow, while it looks cool I did not think I would be using it anytime soon. The more I played with it, I found it really useful for is going back and looking at the history of web sites you’ve visited, now that part I could find useful!
When I really think about it, it could really be one of its best features especially if you do online research. If you’re like me, sometimes I know what the page and information looked like, but don’t remember the web url, so this could come in handy.
The Top Sites View
Now this is a really cool feature, up to 24 of your favorite sites that you can pin. Which can be locked into position giving you instant access to these web site.
When you set it to the large view it displays six of your favorite web sites. The medium view displays 12 sites and the small view displays 24 sites for those of you that have numerous favorite sites.
With over 150 features built into the Safari 4.0 Beta it will be interesting to explore all the different features.
The bottom line when it comes to any software, does it make you more efficient with the use of your time, or is it merely cosmetic. It will be interest to see where Apple takes this web browser in the near future. Before you decide to download this browser keep in mind that it is a BETA Version. If you cannot afford to have your browser system giving you problems, then don’t install it.