Apple's Safari 4 browser beta for Mac OS X and Windows

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 25 February 2009 11:50

IT Industry - Development

The growing use of web-based applications means JavaScript execution speed is more important than ever. All the major browser developers are working in this area, but Apple contends that Safari 4's Nitro JavaScript engine runs scripts up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than three times faster than Safari

Safari 4 delivers several user interface changes, apart from Top Sites and Cover Flow.

The new browser moves tabs into the window's title bar, which was previously largely wasted space apart from the close and related buttons.

This change seems to initially disturb some users, but it does save screen real estate. That's not a big deal given the relatively large pixel dimensions of screens attached to most current desktop and notebook computers, but it would be a useful saving on a netbook.

Even if Apple isn't planning its own netbook, it's a good sign that it recognises the growing popularity of such devices running Windows.

The behaviour of tabs has also changed slightly. Previously, tabs could be rearranged by dragging any part of the tab except the close button. Now you need to drag the hatched area at the top right of the tab.

Still, this change does make it easier to drag a tab out of its current window. In Safari 3, the initial movement had to be downwards to separate a tab from its window, but in the beta version a movement can begin in any direction.

What else is new? Please read on.