I have just downloaded Apples Safari 4 web browser for PC and have given it a good test run to check out the features. The shiny metallic theme has disappeared in favor of a more traditional Windows theme, which is a real shame as I liked the uncluttered interface on Safari 3.
Apple Safari 4 for PC
It’s performance has increased, Apples Safari 4 is amazingly quick, maybe quicker than Google Chrome. Safari 4 has some great new features including clearer tabbed navigation, Show all bookmarks, Show Top Sites and a new Page Zoom feature.
The shiny lights that minimize, maximize and close are probably what attracted me to Safari for the PC initially as well as better security than Internet Explorer. The change of style away from the sexy shiny silver will be missed but is a positive move meaning the Windows user will feel in a more familiar environment, which is just good usability.
Show all Bookmarks
If you love Apples iTunes interface as much as I do your going to love the new Show All Bookmarks section, a quick overview of all your recent bookmarks in a iTunes style carousel. You can view all your RSS subscriptions in here too with a nice clean interface.
Show Top Sites
Another button and another new feature, maybe ripped off of Googles Chrome browser but all very nice anyway. The Top Sites collates your most popular sites you visit and displays them again in a cool iTunes Style carousel, very nice interface indeed.
Text Zoom
All the big browsers now have a zoom feature and Safari 4’s is actually quite tidy, I still hate how all these manufacturers hide the zoom functionality away in a menu and believe this functionality should have its own button, I know the shortcuts but every other normal web surfer I know, doesn’t. This may also signal the end of stretchy layouts, I already use fixed layout for my deigns unless the client states otherwise.
Report a Bug
Again for me, I don’t care, I don’t want to report a bug and it really should not be in a prime place instead of a zoom feature or something more useful for day to day web surfing.
Apple 4 Safari Conclusion
I think I’ll miss the old interface , but I’ll probably get over this and I do like the new Top Sites feature and with Mozilla’s Firefox having a continious crashing problem for me I have made Safari 4 my default browser, for now. So what you waiting for try Safari 4
Tags: Apple
