**WARNING** This program is BETA software, meaning it still has unimplemented features, unfixed bugs, and the ability to cause major havoc on your system. Take for instance, my personal experience with Safari:
UPDATE: This issue has since been fixed with v51 of Safari.Others have reported problems like mine, along with the inability to print, or burn CDs from the Finder after using Safari. Obviously, this thing needs some major work. Make sure you know what you are getting into if you download this program.
When I first installed Safari, everything seemed fine and dandy. The browser was working well (for a beta version), and my system seemed to be responding nicely. That is, until I tried to launch Classic. Attempting to do so brought no results, Classic would simply never start. I went on to find out Software Update would not properly run, I could not mount my iDisk from the Go menu, some applications were behaving weirdly, and there may have been more I didn't discover. I tried for approximately 4 hours straight to troubleshoot this thing, with no results. Finally, I wiped my hard drive clean, and reinstalled OS 9.2.2 and OS X 10.2.3 from scratch. I proceeded to make sure everything was working properly. After doing so, I brought myself to load Safari one more time. After loading and using Safari for a short time, the exact same symptoms return, resulting in another reinstall of Mac OS X. Safari destroyed a BRAND NEW install, unbelievable.
On January 7, 2003, Steve Jobs introduced Safari to the world. This new browser offering from Apple is touted to be the faster browser for the Mac, with a stylish look (brushed metal, again), and is very simple to use. Apple may well take over the browser market share with this product, if only they can finish it.
The main selling point of Safari is its speed. Apple claims up to 3 times faster at loading web pages than IE, and 40% faster launching time than any browser for Mac OS X. Let me tell you, they aren't lying! This browser simply flies. It renders pages like I have never seen, and loads very quickly. Definitely the fastest browser out there.
The second most touted thing about Safari is its bookmarking system. Safari uses an iTunes like interface for organizing and editing your bookmarks. It's by far the most simple setup on the market, making bookmark juggling a breeze. Also, the bookmark bar at the top of the screen is very cool, allowing the user to have quick and easy access to their bookmarks, without using the menu.
Other features built into Safari include a cool Google search bar next to the address bar. Simply type in what you want to search for, and Safari brings up the search results in a matter of seconds. Another great feature is the pop-up blocker. Apple made an excellent decision by including a simple to use pop-up blocker, to get rid of those annoying ads. Furthermore, a more revolutionary feature is the snap back button. This little orange button will instantly take you back to the top of a website, or your google search results. This is a great new feature that will definitely reduce the back button's usage.
However, this is still beta software, and as such, it is missing features and has its share of bugs. The following items are my most requested features and bug fixes:
- Cache Settings.
Every modern browser uses a certain amount of disk space as website cache, so you can go to previously visited sites without reloading all of the information from the web. However, Apple somehow forgot to add a way to control the amount of disk space you wish to reserve for cache. This should be simple, and shouldn't have been excluded in the first place.
- Autofill Forms.
IE 5.0 brought us a great feature which I have come to almost depend on. When filling out forms, all one has to do is press a single button, and their name, address, phone number, and other information is filled in for them. This is a wonderful time saver that Apple should implement in Safari.
- Longer time-out.
If you run into a website hosted on a slow server, or on an overwhelmed server, you will undoubtedly run into Safari's 30 second time-out. Sometimes, pages just need a little longer to load than 30 seconds (especially on dial-up), which means this 30 second limitation is unrealistic. If the time-out length was increased to 60 or 120 seconds, this message would be seen much less often.
- Get rid of the box around the link.
When a link is clicked on in Safari, a dotted bow is drawn around the text or image. This thing is hideous, and needs to be removed at once.
- The pop-up blocker needs controls.
Every commercial pop-up blocker has controls so that users can set what sites are allowed to pop-up windows, and which aren't. Apple needs to implement some controls, so that Safari users can do the same. Otherwise, you may be missing out on important information from various websites.
- Resumable Downloads.
Everyone has come across a case where a download stops, or your internet connections abruptly ends in the middle of a large download. Luckily, most browsers have the ability to pick up the download where it left off. Not Safari. If your download stops in Safari, you have to start from the beginning. This is unacceptable.
- More Printing Options.
Something Internet Explorer does better than any other browser is print web pages. To get Safari to be a viable product, Apple needs to strive to do the same with Safari. First off, if you print something in Safari, the headers and footers are not displayed (page title, site address, and page number). This is incredibly stupid, as browsers must be able to print out this vital information. Safari could also use a print preview feature akin to Internet Explorer's. IE allows users to see exactly what will be printed, before it gets sent to the printer. That is one awesome feature. Moreover, IE does its best not to cut up images when printing. It would be wonderful if Safari could do the same.
- Memory Management.
When using Safari, I noticed that it took up 50-60 MB of physical RAM, and 140-160 MB of virtual RAM. These numbers are about 3 times what they should be for a good browser. Most machines these days have 128-256 MB of RAM. Using this much fir a browser is unacceptable.
- Window Locations.
If you resize the Safari browser window to the way you like it, be ready to resize it again the next time you launch Safari. It seems as if Safari likes to move around windows, and make them whatever size it wants. Apple really needs to get on the ball here, as iCal and iPhoto did the same thing.
- Animated gifs.
I have noticed that only about 50% of the animated gifs in Safari properly animate. The remaining 50% seem to pick a random frame to be permanently suck in. This is only a cosmetic thing, but still needs attention.
- Undo in text fields.
Sometimes, I will accidentally hit the shift key along with an arrow key while typing, and before I know it, a section of my previous typed text is gone. With most applications, I can just hit undo, but not Safari. Apple definitely needs to add the undo command to text fields in Safari.
- Page loading throbber.
Ever since I can remember, web browsers have had throbbers in the upper right hand corner of the browser window. Safari lacks this, although it does have a progress bar of sorts, that sits behind the website address. In my opinion, this isn't enough, as the throbber is a much better visual indication that the page is still loading.
- Table Rendering.
Many sites that I have visited with Safari that use tables to layout the page are messed up. Images and text appear where they do not belong; overlapping or out of place. Table rendering must be improved in Safari to make it a useful program.
- CSS rendering.
Safari seems to have its fair share of problems when rendering Cascading Style Sheets. I have noticed various sites that just don't look right because the cascading style sheets are all messed up. These little gems are used extensively on many websites, and therefore should be a top priority for the Safari development team.
- Bookmarks Dividers.
IE allows me to create favorites dividers, so that I can separate groups of favorites. I would love it if Apple could do the same, so I can separate certain sets of bookmarks. For example, I have a folder in the bookmarks bar setup with a bunch of school related sites. I would love to be able to separate out the permanent sites from the class-specific sites that I only need for a semester. Should be simple to implement, and great for organization.
- Do not obliterate my machine.
UPDATE: This issue has since been fixed with v51 of Safari.
Two reinstallations of Mac OS X in one day is too much to handle. Apple has to work on this aspect first and foremost. People less computer savvy than I are getting their machines hosed, with nowhere to turn. This is an ugly start to a (possibly) great new browser.
Safari tries to be a top notch browser, but it just has too many problems right now. Apple should not have yet released this browser, as it is still too dangerous for public use. Nevertheless, once the main bugs are fixed, and some of these features are added, I bet many people will drop their browser of choice in favor of Safari.
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