Apple releases Safari 5 with Safari Reader, Extensions and Bing search (updated)
By Vlad Savov 
posted June 7th 2010 7:22PM
posted June 7th 2010 7:22PM
P.S. We're hearing the current release might be for devs only, hence the lack of a public download.
Update: Okay, now it's available for public consumption.
Update 2: We've been playing with Safari 5 for a few moments and here's what we've noticed:
- Reader is pretty gorgeous -- think Instapaper on the fly. It's hard to tell when it'll kick in and show the Reader button in the toolbar, though -- it works on Engadget posts, but not in Wikipedia articles.
- Yes, Netflix is broken. It seems like it's doing a browser detect and failing with the new build number, so we'd guess it'll be fixed soon.
- It's much faster at everything from launch to rendering times. We haven't clocked it yet, but it's noticeably snappier on our quad-core i7 iMac.
- We're dying to try out some Extensions and see how they work, but we haven't seen any yet. Same with the new HTML5 features -- hit us up if you see anything!
- Bing Search integration is... Bing search integration. What else is there to say?
SAN FRANCISCO, June 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Apple today released Safari 5, the latest version of the world's fastest and most innovative web browser, featuring the new Safari Reader for reading articles on the web without distraction, a 30 percent performance increase over Safari 4,* and the ability to choose Google, Yahoo! or Bing as the search service powering Safari's search field. Available for both Mac and Windows, Safari 5 includes improved developer tools and supports more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies that allow web developers to create rich, dynamic websites. With Safari 5, developers can now create secure Safari Extensions to customize and enhance the browsing experience.
"Safari continues to lead the pack in performance, innovation and standards support," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Safari now runs on over 200 million devices worldwide and its open source WebKit engine runs on over 500 million devices."
Safari Reader makes it easy to read single and multipage articles on the web by presenting them in a new, scrollable view without any additional content or clutter. When Safari 5 detects an article, users can click on the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field to display the entire article for clear, uninterrupted reading with options to enlarge, print or send via email.
Powered by the Nitro JavaScript engine, Safari 5 on the Mac runs JavaScript 30 percent faster than Safari 4, three percent faster than Chrome 5.0, and over twice as fast as Firefox 3.6.* Safari 5 loads new webpages faster using Domain Name System (DNS) prefetching, and improves the caching of previously viewed pages to return to them more quickly.
Safari 5 adds more than a dozen powerful HTML5 features that allow web developers to create media-rich experiences, including full screen playback and closed captions for HTML5 video. Other new HTML5 features in Safari 5 include HTML5 Geolocation, HTML5 sectioning elements, HTML5 draggable attribute, HTML5 forms validation, HTML5 Ruby, HTML5 AJAX History, EventSource and WebSocket.
The new, free Safari Developer Program allows developers to customize and enhance Safari 5 with extensions based on standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. The Extension Builder, new in Safari 5, simplifies the development, installation and packaging of extensions. For enhanced security and stability, Safari Extensions are sandboxed, signed with a digital certificate from Apple and run solely in the browser.
Pricing & Availability
Safari 5 is available for both Mac OS X and Windows as a free download at www.apple.com/safari. Safari 5 for Mac OS X requires Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 or Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2 or later. Safari 5 for Windows requires Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista or Windows 7, a minimum 256MB of memory and a system with at least a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor. Full system requirements and more information on Safari 5 can be found at www.apple.com/safari. The Safari Developer Program is free to join at developer.apple.com/programs/safari.
*Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. All testing conducted by Apple in May 2010 on an iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Mac OS X 10.6.3, with 4GB of RAM. JavaScript benchmark based on the SunSpider 0.9.1 JavaScript Performance test.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.
2010 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Leopard and iMac are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Google Chrome > Safari.
@LeiTxo Chrome for windows, safari for OS X
@LeiTxo
LOL i love apple haters/lovers
Safari 4 on mac didn't support 3 finger swipe left/right for forward/back navigation. It is the only reason I use Ffirefox instead of Safari or Chrome on mac.
To the guy saying why use an advertising company's web browser...why use Microsoft's browser? The fact that Google is mainly an advertising company has no effect on their browser. Except maybe for delayed or denied ad-block extension creation, otherwise, they have the best browser.
@Fragmented Because people are incredibly stuck in their ways and Microsoft bundled IE in with Windows for years leading to massive market-share (which is why they have to give the options now).
@LeiTxo
Okay... As much as I agree, I am going to downrank you because you are not adding to the discussion of the article at all.
@Fragmented
Everything else in Existence > ie > Jar Jar Binks
@LeiTxo Google Chrome = Safari
Both are webkit. What's different is just what's on the outside.
I think we can all agree: Everything > IE.
@LeiTxo
Agreed..
Side comment: Engadget = in bed with apple.
@Fragmented thats a really silly way to look at it.
@jeff181995
Honest question here, why is Safari better on OS X than on Windows?
(just curious, not trolling)
@LeiTxo "Google Chrome is now 3% slower than Safari."
Fixed that for ya....
@Teerim
and yet, there are 5 adblock extensions in the official chrome extensions repository
@Physicsguy89 Safari just feels like part of the OS on Mac, imo it integrates well, is fast, and works well. Safari on Windows is kinda like iTunes for windows, buggier than the OS X version and the UI doesn't feel right. Its just my personal opinion and there are many better options for Windows.
@Fragmented
IE8 is for those who don't know what they're doing.
Ok, sorry about that extensions thing. And the thing that is NOT natively supported in Safari 4 is 3 finger swipe up and down, not left and right. Firefox has this, and I use it a lot.
Note: Both Safari and Chrome do support 3 finger swiping forward and back, but not top of page and bottom of page.
@Physicsguy89 The same reason all apple software sucks on windows and flys on OSX. APPLE cant program for multiple os's worth a shit while microsoft software on OSX flys.
OR
apple wants you to think you computer is slow because of windows when in reality its because of shoddy coding, and they want to to walk into one of their stores and see how much *faster* itunes runs !!
@jeff181995
Chrome runs on both Windows and Mac. Do your research before you claim things.
@Teslanaut
not exactly the same. they both may be webkit but they have different rendering engines (V8 and Nitro)
@Lord Vader Everything else in Existence > ie > Jar Jar Binks > Death Star
@petebob796 where is it? i am only seeing safari 4????
@LeiTxo Pfft, Opera FTW. Now GET OFF MY LAWN!!
@DefPoet Sorry Microsoft software on OSX flys? Clearly haven't checked out office for mac....
@DefPoet
Microsoft software flies on OS X? Uhhh, yeah.... suuuure. Entourage is dog-slow and crappy. Excel and Word for OS X have frequently been considered better than their Windows counterparts though... Especially because we didn't get that annoying Ribbon interface.
@DefPoet
Microsoft software flies on OS X? Uhhh, yeah.... suuuure. Entourage is dog-slow and crappy. Excel and Word for OS X have frequently been considered better than their Windows counterparts though... Especially because we didn't get that annoying Ribbon interface.
@Teerim
i have safari and just use multiclutch for 3 finger swiping. having all my gestures in multiclutch is better then having to set them for each program separately anyway
@Teerim Safari has 3 finger swiping for forward back. And Chrome has adblock
@jeff181995 I prefer Firefox for Windows. Chrome is a bit unstable. I get the fastest speed/performance from Chrome but I also get the most problems.
@LeiTxo Safari 5 is live!
http://i46.tinypic.com/2cy2was.png
@LeiTxo It has been two years now that Apple has been made aware of the Safari carpet bomb vulnerability, and even the Department of Homeland Defense was on their ass about it.
PLEASE tell me they have finally addressed the issue.
@LeiTxo They're still publishing that mess? Safari is only marginally better than IE. Heck, even Opera is better. Go with Chrome or Firefox.
@Teerim Yeah In reality like with most online companies Google is a software company that learned how to make money selling ad's though their software. No different then Facebook etc. Its not like Google started as Madison Ave ad agency.
@jeff181995 By the way, about that.
I have a MacBook Pro, and I like Safari. But I will never, ever use it until I can switch tabs with command+#. Is the only way to switch tabs in Safari going through them one by one or using the mouse? Someone help me out here. I want to jump around between tabs...
@Teerim Safari 4 absolutely supported three finger swipes for back and forward. At least it did on my buttonless Macbook trackpad.
@Teerim What are you talking about? Safari 4 INVENTED three finger swipe for forward and back on the mac. It's been available from the first day apple released the unibody mbp's with the fancier trackpads.
@LeiTxo Its available on my Mac right now!
@urandom Those aren't really 'Adblockers', as the ads still load, the webpage just hides them from view. A lot of them like to have problems with nice sites like Youtube.
As for Safari, I used it while I was using OS X, and it never gave me any problems whatsoever. Not a bad browser by any means.
@LeiTxo
i wonder if this supports Flash....
useless if my nephews and nieces cant even go to disney.com
@Outsider
In Safari, keyboard command for tab-swiching:
Command + Shift + (left or right) arrow keys
Check it out
@jeff181995 I use Firefox on Mac. Never really liked it. All web browsers look pretty much alike from the outset. I like that I can use the same plug-ins that I use on Windows Firefox, Linux Firefox. Firefox is a good browser. Safari is nice and gets more feature rich all the time, I don't really like it, since I hop around platforms so much and I like consistancy.
@jeff181995 Whoa, whoa, don't let the DoJ hear that!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft
@Funkendoodles I mean that I am not that fond of Safari. I do use now and then, but end up liking Firefox more.
@MastrCake Or better say, for noobs...
@d0mth0ma5 ever heard of windows 7 N (withough IE and WMP)
@jeff181995
Opened Safari on my PC.... waited 5 minutes to try and get somewhere, opened up Firefox and got to apple.com/safari in less than 30 seconds...
@Teerim Ok you need to get your facts right safari 4 did have three finger swipe and I use it everyday all day long. So please don't post when you don't know
@jeff181995 Opera for the win
@LeiTxo
Safari has better support for web standards than any other browser.
...the only thing up for debate is the user interface.
Safari > Opera > Firefox > Chrome > Carrier Pigeons > IE
@Outsider Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab, or Cmd-Shift-Right Arrow and Cmd-Shift-Left Arrow.
But here's the beauty of Mac OS X:
Go to System Preferences | Keyboard | Keyboard Shortcuts. Click + and then add an entry for Safari, Select Next Tab, and tell it which keyboard command you wish to use to invoke that command.
So... Chrome, Opera and Safari are the three fastest browsers on the world, the one who's got the newest build ist the fastest. And which engine are they all using? Apple's open source WebKit. Think Mozilla should change too (and share some of their work with the WebKit Group), would make even better competition and more features and innovation.