In real world websites... Ah well.

If you are a Webkit based browser user, I suggest you stick to the webkit optimized SunSpider benchmarks, and everything will look great, you might be able to convince yourself that in the real world, the synthetic benchmarks also apply...

I've spent this afternoon working in the new browser and think it's a great leap forward for Apple - and MS - customers.

It's blazing fast, but - as expected - some of those interface widgets are wonky. The tab controls are clumsy and counter-intuitive and I really wonder why the refresh arrow is so close to the RSS button - a disaster waiting to happen, there!

Nevertheless, Safari 4 should push IE 8 forward, keep Chrome honest and ensure that Macintosh users are first-class citizens on the Internet. Now if I could only properly configure that Cinerama view.

Right, back to the work of the Rocket Group!

"30x faster than Internet Explorer 7, and 3x faster than Firefox 3"

Why does this sound like a typical Apple benchmark? whats the comparison, Safari on a 8 core Mac Pro verses a Celeron 430 with 512MB running Vista with Firefox on it?

*Files this benchmark along with Apples other fictional benchmarks for PCI v AGP, PPC v Intel*

It claims to look more like Vista than the old model, but Safari or IE do not turn off Aero and the transparency that goes with it.

It opens "_blank" links in new windows rather than new tabs by default. It appears you have to hold down CTRL to make a link open in a new tab. What's the point of tabs if you aren't going to use them properly.

It has completely cocked up the minimise and restore buttons. Really cocked them up.

It is currently browsing round the internet for me searching for "Top Sites", all of which appear to be aimed at colonials.

I just crashed it by trying to load a Java program.

It is taking 224MB of memory to display a single static page whereas Firefox 3 is taking 84MB.

It's as crap as the last Safari. IE, Chrome and Firefox are all way better. 0/10.

Great stuff indeed. Now the question remain - with so many excellent browsers out there, why IE6 still lives on?

Paris, because she always follows the latest trends.

Not sure I like the tab bar at the top of the window - double clicking on a tab minimises the window. Some Java games are still broken - so no change there. Not convinced I'm going to change from Firefox 3.0 yet

It's faster on some sites, but actually a heck of a lot slower on others, and spews garbage across the chrome on some sites that work fine for S3.

I'll wait a bit...

"... are based on the firm’s own open source WebKit technology."

Did they mention that WebKit itself is based off KHTML? I didn't think so.

"Apple also took the opportunity today to remind world+dog that the newest browsers, including Google’s Chrome, are based on the firm’s own open source WebKit technology."

I hope they concurrently reminded world+dog that "the firm’s own open source WebKit technology" was based on a fork from KHTML and KJS from the KDE project which they kept proprietary for a year, after which they engaged on a completely unreasonable mass-patch basis with KDE before finally open sourcing the whole thing in a shower of PR bollocks which made it sound like they were doing the world a favour.

Something tells me they didn't though.

On the Mac it'll be a 64 bit application. However, no details are available for the Windows version...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3410

I'm assuming on Windows it's a 32 bit and not a 64 bit application. If 64 bit, I'm guessing Flash won't work.

Yes, yes it is. In typical Apple mode it looks and feels slick, performance is good - but I don't think I can see a real difference on this Intel Macbook Pro. The new History and Top Pages are a delight to use. A definite step in the right direction.

This one deserves Two Thumbs

"IE, Chrome and Firefox are all way better"

Ha ha. IE is "better" than something?

Last time I heard that, someone had just compared IE to a steaming turd - it was a close call. The turd only lost because it couldn't handle javascript. However, the turd was more secure and didn't come bundled with an even bigger smellier piece of excrement.

Well, it certainly is lightning fast. I've installed it on my Thinkpad X61, and am very very impressed. No websites going wonky yet, and no crashes.

I'll reserve judgement on the tabs for now -- I wish I could make the text smaller. The 'top sites' feature and browser history tool are excellent though.

I think this one will replace Firefox 3.0 for me...

I'll install on my MPB as soon as I get home!

<quote> Hehe, I'm getting small joys from dragging my tabs off into new windows...and then back again.</quote>

Cool - I'd been playing with this for about 24 hours and had not run across that yet. Not a huge jump from the old version of Safari but some nice tweaks.