It's Cool, It's Fast, It's Fun - It's Safari 4.0 Beta!

Today Apple unleashed a new beta version of Safari 4.0 for both Windows and the Mac, which you can download here. So far, I must say that even though it's still in beta form, it still feels pretty dang fast, and definitely, pretty dang spiffy looking.

I love the cool animated views that you can now have when browsing your 'history' via CoverFlow and other visuals such as Safari's new Top Site.

All-in-all, Apple claims that there are now some 150 features to be found in Safari and even though I have yet to check em all out, what I have seen thus far certainly does seem to give Safari some definite oomph!

Just some of Safari's new features:

ARIA Support, which supports Accessible Rich Interactive Application which allows ARIA sites to take full advantage of advanced technologies such as AJAX and JavaScript.

Full-Page Zoom, which enables you to zoom in or out on web pages using keyboard short-cuts and can even allow for multi-touch gestures!

HTML 5 Offline Support, which allows developers to create applications that you can use even when not connected to the web.

Acid 3 Compliance, is the first, Apple claims that is the one and only - web browser to pass the Acid 3 test, and, as well, the Acid 2 test.

Nitro JavaScript Engine, which allows Safari to execute JavaScript up to 6 times faster than Internet Explorer 8, or up to 4 times faster than FireFox 3.1

CoverFlow and the new History View are, as mention earlier, very sleek and cool looking and something that will please the heart of anyone who is into such eye-candy, like myself.

In addition to these, of course, there are many other new features such as, Pin Top Sites and Safari's new Smart Address Field, and, as well, many others, too numerous to list.

So far, in the past 30 or so minutes that I have been using Safari 4.0 beta, I'm very pleased with it's speed, it's overall stability and it's dang-tooting cool visuals. How I will feel come tomorrow, that I can't say, but so far I think that anybody who is not afraid of using beta's should seriously check this one out. Of course, that said, I would still make sure that you have another browser or copy of Safari handy. After all, a beta is a beta, and, at lest this way, if you ever do have any significant problems you can always revert to another browser or copy of Safari. That said, this beta comes with an uninstaller that should return you to Safari's 3 original state. However, being the paranoid that I am, I still would make sure you have other backup options, because you never know, you know, just what might happen when using a beta.

I will say that I'm extremely please that, so far at least, Safari 4.0 seems to be taking up a lot less CP cycles than Safari 3 ever did! This is at least according to iStats menu, a wonderful free menu bar item, which you can download free here. This is a very good thing indeed, because Safari 3 was eating up so many cycles that I was forced to switch to using Fire Fox 3.1 as my main browser, but now, thanks to Safari 4.0, not anymore! As of today, Safari beta 4.0 is now, once again, my main browser of choice! And as a dedicated Mac user, that's the way it should be!

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Tuesday, February 24, 2009