PC Utilities - Issue 90

Page 43

COVERDISCINTERNET ▲

Safari for Windows

●Sleek, minimalistic browser ●Fast page rendering

●SnapBack feature ●Reports of instability

Safari 3 Public Beta is Apple’s second

attempt at putting a foot inside

Windows, the first one being iTunes,

which united iPod users across

platforms. The release of Safari for

Windows was timed to precede the

launch of Apple’s iPhone, which uses the

Safari browser, but it seems difficult to

predict Windows users abandoning their

old favourites just yet.

For a new browser to really make PC

users sit up, it would need to be quite

revolutionary and offer some

compelling features – far more than

compatibility with the much-hyped

iPhone. For between themselves,

Internet Explorer 7, Firefox and even

Opera cover all there is in the

browsing department – tabs, RSS,

privacy, skinning, voice browsing,

extensions, standards compliance, and

even ‘speed dial’!

So, while Safari gives those who had

coveted the Mac experience a lick of the

real thing, it also provides a lot of

ammunition for sceptics. Especially

given its claims of being the most

secure browser ever, and then having to

release security patches within days.

Safari in action The program installs smoothly, and the

browser is certainly stunning to look at

with its sleek metallic look, rounded

corners, and the fluid ‘aqua’ buttons,

scroll bars and progress bars. Thanks

to its slimline window borders, the

space available for displaying your

webpages is maximised too. The

browser’s rendering engine uses the

font anti-aliasing mechanism of Mac

OS, rather than Windows’ ClearType

though, which makes the text look

rather ‘soft’, even fuzzy – something

that may not appeal to all.

Safari automatically imports Internet

Explorer as well as Firefox bookmarks.

In addition, it offers tabbed browsing;

the ability to clear cache and history

files; the option to browse privately

whereby no data is saved locally; built

▲Safari’s font antialiasing makes the text a little too fuzzy for comfort

Like any self-respecting browser, Safari lets you control a number of browsing preferences ▲

The built-in newsreader has a nifty slider to adjust the length of each article ▲

in RSS functions; inline search; and all

the little frills one expects from a

browser. There’s a one-touch bug

report button on the toolbar, and a

SnapBack feature lets users mark a

page to “snap” back to after having

navigated many clicks away, such as

during a search.

Apple’s claims of Safari being the

fastest browser in the business could

perhaps be accurate, but its reliability in

displaying pages is suspect. Its

resizeable text fields will be seen as a

mixed bag by Web designers and users.

Of course, this is only a beta, and in

future releases Apple intends to add a

whole lot of other features, such as

international text input, tooltips, spell

checking, FTP directory listings,

localised menus, and more.

The bottom line is that Safari is an

adequate browser, but there’s no

compelling reason yet to turn away from

IE, Firefox or Opera.

Location \internet\SafariSetup.exe System XP/Vista Licence Freeware Contact www.appl.com/uk/safari

MAKE SAFARI SAFE

1

▲Safari comes with a number of security and privacy options. To completely wipe out all browsing traces in one go, the best thing to do is go to Edit/ Reset Safari. This deletes all history, cache, cookies, icons, searches, form information, and so on, and even closes open windows.

2

▲ To turn on private browsing, go to Edit/ PrivateBrowsing. A prompt will pop up telling you that browsing information will not be saved locally, including form data, searches, download history and so on. Even though history is not saved, you may still go back and forward until the window is closed.

3

▲ Go to Edit/ Preferences/ Security. From hereyou can enable or disable plug-ins and pop-ups, and set cookie behaviour. To empty the browser cache at any point during surfing, click on Edit and then select Empty Cache. Similarly, history can be emptied by choosing Clear History from the History menu.

issue 90 www.pc-utilities.co.uk 43

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