AfterDawn: News

Apple updates Safari browser, supports Windows

Apple has announced the release of the 3.1 version of its Safari web browser and it is sporting several key improvements including Windows support.

The company has said the new version "loads Web pages 1.9 times faster than Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 and 1.7 times faster than the open-source Firefox 2 browser." Apple also claims that Safari now runs JavaScript almost 6 times faster than any other browser.



The benchmark stats come from using VeriTest's iBench Version 5.0 on default settings. The company said the specs of the computer used was an iMac 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system with Windows XP and 1GB of memory.

Apple Senior Vice President Philip Schiller added that Safari 3.1 is "blazingly fast, easy to use" and has an "elegant user interface." More importantly, the browser "supports audio, video and animation standards needed for the next generation of Web 2.0 experiences."

Safari 3.1 is now available for free for Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11, Leopard and Windows XP and Vista.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Mar 2008 15:41

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• 13 comments

• dsgtrain

  I thought Safari has had a Windows version for a while. I'm Firefox through and through!

  18.3.2008 15:53 #1

• 21Q

  Speed isn't everything. I.E. is legacy to me so I don't even bother with it. Firefox is very expandable and is why I prefer it. Oprah is meh. Now Safari is good, but on my windows machine the look and feel just pails in comparison to Firefox.

  18.3.2008 16:03 #2

• SProdigy

  Indeed, Firefox is my cup of tea as well. The customization is the best part. I could never live without Foxmarks, DownloadThemAll, or countless other plugins that I have. Firefox just needs to fix the memory leak bug, which is why they are working on the version 3 beta.
  
  As for Safari, I feel really left out with some of the software Apple puts out for Mac, as the highest OS X I can run is 10.2 Jaguar which Safari doesn't support. As for Windows, I really don't need another Apple service running in the background, and like iTunes, I hate having Quicktime shoved down my throat because it's the least intuitive format out there.

  18.3.2008 16:42 #3

• tripplite

  HA HA HA, thats lie saysing: "hey its legally to drink piss now!, ya wanna join me?"
  
  when i have firefox what else would i need!
  
  -tripplite

  18.3.2008 17:27 #4

• tripplite

  HA HA HA, thats lie saying: "hey its legally to drink piss now!, ya wanna join me?"
  
  when i have firefox what else would i need!
  
  -tripplite

  18.3.2008 17:27 #5

• Xian

  I pretty much use them all, though IE only for Windows Update. I prefer Opera, I have been using it for years, even before it was a free download. I use Safari on my iMac and Firefox at work but when I have a choice I end up with Opera.

  18.3.2008 20:01 #6

• Gradical

  IE has become to me only a last resort whenever for some crazy reason firefox wont open certai webpage (the most common reason being that some webmaster decided to restrict acces to only IE)

  18.3.2008 20:58 #7

• logan1957

  Originally posted by Gradical: IE has become to me only a last resort whenever for some crazy reason firefox wont open certain webpage (the most common reason being that some webmaster decided to restrict access to only IE)
  There's an easy way to solve that one, just download the add on called IE TAB and you can get it for the new version of Firefox as well as the current build by going to:http://downloads.mozdev.org/ietab/ietab-1.3.3.20070528-fx+fl+mz-windows.xpi
  Logan1957

  18.3.2008 21:31 #8

• vinny13

  I'll take Safari any day :)
  
  I find Mozilla lame, I don't know why... I guess I just don't like the feel...

  18.3.2008 22:03 #9

• bobiroc

  Safari came on the iMacs at the school I work for and the incompatibility with websites was terrible. Teachers complained so much about web pages not loading properly and features not working we ended up putting FireFox on them and it was a 1000 times better. FireFox and IE are still the best in my book. I use both and they work just fine. Not a big fan of Safari or Opera.

  18.3.2008 22:25 #10

• vinny13

  Originally posted by bobiroc: Safari came on the iMacs at the school I work for and the incompatibility with websites was terrible. Teachers complained so much about web pages not loading properly and features not working we ended up putting FireFox on them and it was a 1000 times better. FireFox and IE are still the best in my book. I use both and they work just fine. Not a big fan of Safari or Opera.I have no problems whatsoever...

  18.3.2008 22:47 #11

• bobiroc

  Quote:I have no problems whatsoever...Well lucky you. All I know is that many of the sites my teachers that support gave lots of problems. Some of them were internal intranet sites but most of them were outside educational sites. Parts of the page ran together to the point where some of them were unreadable and unrecognizable. It could be that they were designed to work with IE. We adjusted our intranet sites and now they work perfectly with IE and Firefox but could not get them to work with Safari. I am sure Safari is fine for most users but it would appear that there are enough sites out there that we use on a daily basis could not consider it a good alternative to IE like FireFox is.

  18.3.2008 23:36 #12

• vinny13

  Did you ever try reseting Safari? Clearing the cache? That works for most people...

  18.3.2008 23:46 #13