Apple Safari 4 Beta Browser: Many Times Faster than Firefox and Internet Explorer
Apple has just recently released a public Beta version of the Safari 4 web browser, and there are several things to be excited about, but the one thing that stands out is the Nitro engine’s speed: 4.2 times faster than Safari 3, 3 times faster than Mozilla Firefox 3, and a staggering 30 times faster than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). Safari is currently taking up the third position in the browser market share, following Internet Explorer and Firefox; with this release we might not see a dramatic change, but it is reason enough to get people to focus on the Apple developed web browser.
Senior Vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing with Apple comments: “Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward. Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications.”
Here are the main features you can expect to get from Apple Safari 4 Beta:
- Top Sites: displays the web pages you visit frequently in a “wall of previews” manner.
- Full History Search
- Cover Flow: makes searching through your web history fun by making it look more like the album art you see in iTunes.
- Tabs on Top
- Smart Address Field: displays a list of suggestions in the address bar, suggestions that originate from Top Sites, your bookmarked web pages and your browsing history.
- Smart Search Field: allows you to customize and fine tune your searches.
- Full Page Zoom: does not negatively impact a web page;s layout or text content.
- Developer Tools: built-in tool to debug, optimize and tweak web pages, thus enhancing their performance and compatibility.
- Windows native look in Safari for Windows
- Phishing and malware protection.
- Nitro Engine
“Using the new Nitro Engine, for example, Safari executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than 3 times faster than Firefox 3 based on performance in leading industry benchmark tests: iBench and SunSpider,” says Apple.
If you would like to get Safari 4 Beta, a download location is available here.
Senior Vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing with Apple comments: “Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward. Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications.”
Here are the main features you can expect to get from Apple Safari 4 Beta:
- Top Sites: displays the web pages you visit frequently in a “wall of previews” manner.
- Full History Search
- Cover Flow: makes searching through your web history fun by making it look more like the album art you see in iTunes.
- Tabs on Top
- Smart Address Field: displays a list of suggestions in the address bar, suggestions that originate from Top Sites, your bookmarked web pages and your browsing history.
- Smart Search Field: allows you to customize and fine tune your searches.
- Full Page Zoom: does not negatively impact a web page;s layout or text content.
- Developer Tools: built-in tool to debug, optimize and tweak web pages, thus enhancing their performance and compatibility.
- Windows native look in Safari for Windows
- Phishing and malware protection.
- Nitro Engine
“Using the new Nitro Engine, for example, Safari executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than 3 times faster than Firefox 3 based on performance in leading industry benchmark tests: iBench and SunSpider,” says Apple.
If you would like to get Safari 4 Beta, a download location is available here.
