webkit
Latest
Screaming fast Mozilla browser Minefield gives a glimpse of Firefox's future
I was really disappointed when Google released their Chrome web browser for Windows only. When it comes to browsers, I've tried them all. Right now I regularly switch between Firefox and the latest nightly build from Webkit (essentially Safari). Firefox has the extensibility I rely on, while Webkit has the performance I crave. I had hoped that Chrome would magically combine those two crucial traits and become my new go-to browser. Unfortunately, Chrome is not yet nearly as extensible as Firefox, and isn't available for Mac (yet). So imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon the latest experimental Firefox build from Mozilla, called Minefield. This Minefield should not be confused with the unofficial optimized builds of Firefox that Brett wrote about, which are also referred to as Minefield. Minefield is Mozilla's code-name for this generation of Firefox, and the code name is used for unofficial builds to avoid infringing upon the Firefox name. So, what's so special about the Mozilla Minefield build? It's fast... smokin' fast. This is essentially a version of Firefox with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine under the hood, and as Ars Technica reports, it tests even faster than Google's V8 JavaScript engine. As most Mac users have noted, Firefox is kind of pokey on the Mac platform, particularly compared with WebKit or even Safari, and even when compared with Firefox on a similarly spec'd Windows machine. Version 3 of Firefox was supposed to fix the performance problem, and while it's somewhat better, it's still not great. Well, Minefield is great. Using Gmail or even a complex content management system is a breath of fresh air. I feel like my web apps are finally keeping up with me.There's one caveat, and it's a big one: though the current version number is 3.1b2pre (the "b" denoting beta status), this is really alpha software. That means there will be bugs, and you will experience problems. Surprisingly, though, Minefield has been very stable in my testing -- not yet crashing in a full day of testing. I have restarted it a couple of times due to suspicion that something strange was going on, but I can't say for sure if it was. If you use it with your regular Firefox profile rather than creating a new one, Minefield will complain that most of your extensions are not compatible. Using Nightly Tester Tools, I re-enabled all of the extensions that it disabled, and every single one of them appears to be working normally, even the complicated ones like Better Gmail 2 and TabMixPlus. I've only had a problem with one site so far, but unfortunately it's a big one: Google Docs. The page simply won't load. But for now, I'm willing to open WebKit or Camino to edit my Google Docs, because I'm just too smitten with the raw speed that Minefield offers. One last note: being a nightly build, you will likely find that new versions are available, well, nightly. Mozilla makes the process of upgrading to the latest version virtually painless by using the built-in version monitoring process that Firefox uses. [via Ubuntu Unleashed]
OmniWeb 5.8 released
The Omni Group has released version 5.8 of OmniWeb, its venerable browser software. OmniWeb 5.8 is now based on the same version of Webkit as Safari 3.1.x. It also fixes bugs with Spaces, and adds support for non-POSIX file URLs. Users can also choose Google Chrome in the list of user-agent strings. Full release notes are also available. OmniWeb 5.8 is available from Omni's website, and works with Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later. The software is $14.95, with upgrades starting at $4.95 for users of Omniweb 4.
Gears comes to Safari
Even though Google Chrome is still only available for Windows, its WebKit roots mean that Safari for Mac users might still get some extra perks. Gears, Google's web API that lets developers create applications that can run offline, is one of those perks. Previously, Gears was only available for Firefox on the Mac, and it certainly didn't feel like there was any priority in bringing Gears to Safari. Well, with Google's gung-ho dedication to all things WebKit, the Google Mac team has just released Gears for Safari.Even better, for WebKit browsers on the Mac that are not Safari, Google has made it easy to implement Gears without having to use InputManager. Fluid, a site-specific browser (it basically makes it possible to treat a web app like a regular app), implements Gears this way.Gears for Safari requires OS X 10.4.11 or 10.5.3 or higher. You can download it here. After you install Gears, check out Google Docs, Zoho or Remember The Milk offline. It's pretty awesome.
Chrome features are coming to WebKit
Although Google's Chrome browser is currently only available to Windows users (unless you are running an Intel-based Mac and VMWare Fusion or Parallels), its WebKit underpinnings mean that Safari, and other WebKit-based browsers, can benefit from Google's code. One of the larger innovations of Google Chrome, the V8 JavaScript engine, is incredibly fast. The WebKit project has its own new JavaScript engine, SquirrelFish, used in Mobile Safari and the WebKit nightlies. Still, the code base for V8 along with the Skia graphics library are making their way into the main WebKit repository. The Skia graphics library may already be in some of the newest nightly builds.What does this mean for Mac and Safari users? Superficially, it might mean very little for right now, however, the Safari team can choose to implement any of the Chrome features that have been added back to the repository. That's the beauty of open source.
Google creating its own browser based on WebKit
Google is developing a new web browser built from the ground up and based on WebKit, the same rendering engine that Safari uses. The browser, called Chrome, is open-source software built with security, compatibility and speed in mind. Each tab in the browser will be its own separate running process. For example, if JavaScript hangs in one tab, the other tabs will remain unaffected. The approach is similar to the way Mac OS X isolates applications in their own private areas to prevent one crash from taking down the whole system. Google picked an interesting way of announcing the project: They commissioned illustrator Scott McCloud to draw a 38-page comic book about the project, and distribute it under a Creative Commons license. The result is a very readable, fascinating way to learn about the new browser. For web developers, Chrome will include strong Gears integration, and a JavaScript virtual machine that generates super-fast machine code out of JavaScript instructions. For end users, it will include a new start page that lists the last several pages and search terms you've used. It also includes a private browsing mode. Google is planning on formally launching the project on Wednesday, but the Chrome website isn't visible to the public yet. Update: Google is releasing a version for Windows tomorrow, with Mac and Linux versions coming soon, once Chrome is "faster and more robust." (Thanks, Bryan!) [Via Macworld]
Apple seeds developers with Safari 4.0
Apple has seeded developers with a copy of the new Safari 4, which adds some new features and is based on a newer version of WebKit. Apple is also rumored to be using the SquirrelFish JavaScript engine which allows for faster Javascript processing.New to this version of Safari is the ability to save webpages as "Web Applications." This new feature allows Safari to save pages similar to the way Fluid does. You also have the ability to choose how new windows will open (i.e. with your favorite bookmark, blank page, etc.). One of the biggest "features" is the fact that Safari 4 (along with the new version of WebKit) scored a perfect 100/100 on the Acid3 test. If you are inclined to see what the new version looks like, World of Apple has placed some screen grabs on their blog for your viewing pleasure.
Flickr Find: WebKit references Mac OS X 10.6
WebKit, the open source foundation that many Mac apps use to draw HTML, seems to be preparing for some kind of operating system update in the near future. Intrepid Flickr user factoryjoe posted an image of a screenshot showing a recent WebKit nightly build. In the Frameworks folder inside the application package, there's an alias named "10.6." The alias points to the "10.5" folder immediately above it. What could this mean? Most likely, there's a new release of the operating system on the horizon, and WebKit developers are ready to get cracking on it. The fact that the file is a symbolic link and not an actual folder could suggest that development is either very early on at this point, or web services for the next Mac OS X are very similar to Leopard's.Thanks, Chris!
Samsung L870 S60 slider features Webkit-based browser
Yup, you read that right. We're not talking about just any Webkit-based browser, Samsung's long-rumored L870 slider features a full "Safari" browser (which we'll take to mean Webkit). The 13.5-mm thin phone pumps Symbian v9.3 and S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 at its core with a 3 megapixel camera, 2.4-inch QVGA display, FM radio, Stereo Bluetooth, and microSD expansion. Unfortunately, this pup is tri-band GSM with single-band UMTS/HSDPA 3.6Mbps support so it'll be heading to Europe around the August time frame.Update: As per the full press release (posted after the break), Samsung claimed that they'd brought mobile Safari to this device. Technically feasible, we suppose, but far more unlikely than some clueless PR flack screwing up the release. We'll let you know if Samsung HQ has anything differently to say about the matter, but until then we're calling this Webkit, not Safari.Update 2: Yup, it's Webkit all right.
Safari 3 allows styled form controls
This was included in WebKit builds beginning several years ago, apparently, but is something I recently stumbled upon. Historically, Safari has been pretty insistent on making sure web page form fields (like drop-down menus and buttons) retain the Aqua look-and-feel. Web designers, on the other hand, have gotten used to choosing colors and font sizes for those controls, so they fit in with their site's design. Hopefully everyone can now be happy: Safari 3 allows web designers to style form controls with CSS. The results are pictured: instead of a glossy, Aqua-like control, Safari displays a matte-finish control in the color and size of your choosing. You can even apply background images to form controls. If you don't apply styles to your controls, then Safari retains the Aqua look. This shouldn't require any changes to code that's already written for other browsers: Safari 3 should pick right up on the formatting, and display it as the designer intended. It does, however, open up WebKit-specific CSS to your form controls.
Webkit gets a perfect 100 on Acid3
In the rather rarefied atmosphere of web standards compliance, the Acid3 suite of browser tests is like a pro wrestler's chair to the back of the head: if you can take it and keep standing, that's very impressive. The Acid3 suite, first released at the beginning of this month, pushes browsers to the very edges of their rendering, SVG, CSS and DOM scripting capabilities -- all necessary for a consistent and interoperable Web 2.0 experience.As with the earlier Acid2 test, there's been a bit of a horserace among browser development teams to be the first to the finish line with Acid3, including the WebKit squad responsible for Safari's underlying engine; Acid3 dev Ian Hickson gives major props to Apple and the WebKit devs on his blog, including efforts to clear bugs in the test suite itself (he had to work quite hard to find standards compliance issues in WebKit). On Wednesday evening, both the Opera and WebKit teams declared a 100% score -- not a full pass, as there are minor issues to clean up, but nevertheless the test looks like it should. With the Mac nightly build of WebKit available for download, you too can feel the power of this fully operational web standards battle station.[A quick clarification: While both Opera and WebKit have claimed 100% on Acid3, only one of the browsers -- WebKit -- has a publicly downloadable version right now that can make that score. Opera's build won't be released for another week or so.]Thanks Adam
Iris browser brings WebKit to Windows Mobile
The Windows Mobile browser market is getting awful crowded lately, and the latest entrant brings a little Apple to the mix -- the Iris browser, from Torch Mobile, is based on WebKit, the same KHTML-derived rendering engine in Safari. We won't know how it compares to the iPhone's Mobile Safari until we get a chance to play with it, of course, but with support for touch, rotation, tabbed browsing and multiple windows, a customizable interface, and Netscape plugins, it's safe to say that we'll be keeping an eye on this one. If you're feeling brave, the preview release is available just beyond the read link.
SunSpider 0.9
If there is one thing geeks like to do it is benchmark things. From how fast their code runs, to how quickly their Mac renders video, the geek has an insatiable need for metrics. The geeks behind the WebKit project (that's the open source HTML rendering engine that powers Safari) wanted to measure how fast Safari's JavaScript Engine really was. They looked at the existing JavaScript benchmarks and decided none of them did what they needed, so they built SunSpider. At the moment SunSpider is at 0.9 but it has been released so people can fiddle with it and give feedback. Test it out with your favorite browser and see how it stacks up.
iPhone Web Development book debuts
August Trometer's new PDF book, Optimizing Your Website for Mobile Safari" just debuted. I am not much of a web designer myself but I may cough up the ten bucks to pick up a copy of this ebook. Topics according to the web page include Mobile Safari detection, Webkit-specific CSS attributes, and how to use iPhone-specific features via web tweaks. iUI, Joe Hewitt's iPhone-specific webpage design kit, doesn't appear in the write-up, and I'm not sure if Trometer covers using it or not. Full disclosure, I have worked with AW/Pearson and will be doing so again.
ecto3 alpha released
Adriaan Tijsseling has been tweeting about the development progress of ecto3, his powerful Mac blogging app, for some time now. After a sneak peek and more teaser screenshots, Adriaan has generously offered an alpha version for us to play with. In other words: it's pre-beta, which means stuff is very, very likely to go wrong; play with this at your own risk. Speaking of risk, however, there is certainly an upside to testing out this ecto3 alpha: it uses a completely different set of data and storage from the current ecto2, so you don't have to worry about blowing away your old settings or accounts.That said, let's get on to the good stuff: what's new. First of all, ecto3 is apparently a complete rewrite from the bottom up. It has a new rich text editor based on Apple's own Editable WebKit, which offers a number of handy new writing abilities (such as the slick nested list in the ecto3 alpha announcement post). Another major new development which we had previously heard of is a new plug-in architecture for ecto3, allowing anyone to add support for more blogging systems, integrate media and even text formatting such as Markdown. It's a great step towards allowing ecto3 to become a blogging hub that can do just about anything for anyone.Speaking of media, I also noticed that there is a new media browser that has access to all the typical stuff, such as iPhoto and Aperture photos, and even your movies. There are all sorts of new goodies in ecto3, so definitely poke around to see all the hard work Adriaan has put into this so far.If you download the alpha, be sure to read through Adriaan's ecto3 alpha announcement post for a few tips and gotchas with getting the ball rolling. There are a few minor things he hasn't gotten to yet, such as adding all the sites to ping when you publish a post, but a simple 'add defaults' button will get you squared away easily. Once it's finished, ecto3 will surprisingly be a free upgrade for existing registered users (a single license is a mere $17.95). Until then, however, be sure to swing by the support forums to post bugs and discuss ecto3.
Surfin' Safari publishes WebKit Project Goals
Surfin' Safari is the official blog of the team that works on WebKit, the open source rendering engine that powers Safari and just about any other app on Mac OS X that allows you to view web pages, such as NetNewsWire, iSale, RapidWeaver and many, many more. Heck, these days WebKit is going far beyond Mac OS X, as it's used by everything from MobileSafari in the iPhone to Safari on Windows and even some of Nokia's phones and other devices that can browse the web. Unfortunately, as with any increasingly popular project, WebKit seems to be getting pressure from a lot of new angles to implement certain features and optimize for one use or another. Many people want WebKit to do things like support the same rich text editing widgets that Firefox does for sites like MySpace, forums and blogging systems, while others prefer to leave those features on the curb so Safari can remain the lean, mean browsin' machine it's known as. In order to avoid getting drawn and quartered by the very constituencies they serve, the WebKit team has understandably announced a set of WebKit goals the team is aspiring towards. While some of these goals are pretty obvious, such as keeping things secure and easily hackable (after all, it's an open source engine), some of the goals are definitely written to help establish a few boundaries to help keep everyone on track and, ultimately, help people understand what WebKit is (and will be), as well as what it is not. For the sake of cutting down on sleepless nights and answering endless feature requests, I hope these goals make the proper rounds.
Shiira 2.2 updated for Safari 3 beta's WebKit
When Apple makes changes to WebKit - the open source rendering engine that powers Safari - like they just did with the Safari 3 beta, many, many other Mac OS X apps that have anything to do with websites need to do a little catchup so things continue to run smoothly. Shiira, the feature-packed alternative browser, is just such an app that fortunately just made the leap to Safari 3 beta compatibility. Aside from the twelve new localizations introduced in this new v2.2 update, I can't tell what else has changed. Still, if you installed the Safari 3 beta and noticed that Shiira has been misbehaving one way or another, this new version should calm the waters.
Apple posts web developer guide for iPhone
If you're a web developer with a hankerin' to write for the iPhone, this is for you. Apple has posted an informative webpage that the outlines iPhone-specific guidelines you'll want to keep in mind, as we as some more general best practices. Topics include: Integrating Mail, Safari and Maps Understanding what Safari supports in iPhone Optimizing page readability There's more, of course, and you can get the full run-down here. Now get to it![Via What Do I Know?]
Safari 3.0.2 beta released
The Surfin' Safari blog dedicated to the open source WebKit project (which powers Safari on Mac OS X, Windows and even the iPhone) has announced the availability of Safari 3.0.2 beta. This isn't a major release by any means, but it does contain a healthy list of squashed bugs, as well as fixes for mysteriously disappearing text in a variety of situations. The announcement post contains links to specific information for Mac and Windows users, as well as a link to more security issues fixed in this new beta.To snag the new version for either platform you're using, simply head to Apple's Safari beta download page and pick your poison. Of course, we must remind you this is a beta, so it is still not all that uncommon for Safari 3 to crash, hiccup and potentially eat your cat. Besides, one could question whether your cat should be getting very close to your computer to begin with.
Safari 3 for Windows
Sign one more up for the browser war, Apple is shipping the third version of its well received Safari WebKit-based browser over to foreign shores to duke it out with the likes of IE, Firefox and Opera... on Windows. The Mac-only browser has already attained a 5% market share, and it seems the Apple folks plan to use it in much the same way they've used iTunes to grow the Mac fanbase by giving Windows users "a glass of ice water to somebody in hell!" Apple claims their browser is up to twice as fast as the competition, and the public beta of Safari 3 is being released today as a free download for Mac OS X, Windows XP and Windows Vista.
More ecto 3 details, a screenshot and roadmap revealed
Adriaan Tijsseling, developer of the Mac OS X version of the ecto blogging client, has been teasing us with sneak peeks and development details for some time now, but he's just posted another more revealing screenshot of ecto3, along with more details and a basic roadmap. Adriaan has touted ecto3 as a complete rewrite from v2, ushering in a new plug-in architecture that should make the app far more extensible. Also on the notable changes list is the replacement of the rich text editor by Editable WebKit, a new, more WYSIWYG feature of the engine that is used to power Safari, many other browsers on Mac OS X and even HTML rendering in Apple Mail. While Adriaan doesn't have any kind of ETA for a shipping version or even a beta just yet, it does sound like development is wrapping up well. Since support for different blogging platforms has moved to the plug-in format as well, he still has to build support for the latest Blogger (yes, it'll be in ecto3) and WordPress. As a final note, it's always nice to hear a developer using their own product, as Adriaan is using ecto3 "heavily" to try and catch as many bugs and problems as he can before unleashing it in one form or another on the masses.