Andre Yoskowitz
13 Jun 2009 19:49
According to Philip Schiller, Apple senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, has announced this week that in three days since its public launch Apple's Safari 4 has been downloaded 11 million times, a blistering pace for the popular browser.
"Safari 4 is an incredible success on Mac and Windows with more than 11 million downloads in the first three days," says Schiller. "Safari users love the incredible speed and innovative features like Top Sites, Full History Search and Cover Flow."
The most hyped of the new features in Safari 4 is the Nitro JavaScript engine that runs JavaScript at up to 4 times faster than Firefox 3.1.
A few of the new additions, taken from the full updates page are as follows:
Full-Page Zoom
Zoom in or out on web content using keyboard shortcuts, Multi-Touch gestures, or the Zoom toolbar button for more comfortable reading. Images and graphics scale up while your text remains razor sharp, keeping the web page layout consistent as you zoom. To add the Zoom button to your toolbar, simply choose Customize toolbar from the View menu and drag the button onto your toolbar.
Speculative Loading
Safari loads the documents, scripts, and style information required to view a web page ahead of time, so they’re ready when you need them.
Nitro JavaScript Engine
Safari 4 introduces the Nitro JavaScript engine, an advanced bytecode JavaScript engine that makes web browsing even faster. In fact, Safari 4 executes JavaScript up to 6 times faster than Internet Explorer 8 and up to 4 times faster than Firefox 3.1.
Cover Flow
Using Cover Flow, you can flip through websites as easily as you flip through album art in iTunes. Cover Flow displays your bookmarks and history as large graphical previews, so you can pick out a website instantly.
History View
Take a closer look at your browsing history in the History view. Search for previously visited sites, drag web pages to your bookmarks, and clear individual items. Safari displays your history using Cover Flow, so you can flip through your search results as easily as you flip through iTunes album art.
Smart Address Field
Enter web addresses quickly and easily. As you begin to type an address in the address field, Safari automatically completes it with the most likely match — called the Top Hit — and highlights it. Simply press the Enter key to connect to the site. If the Top Hit is not the site you intended to visit, check the list of relevant suggestions, drawn from your bookmarks and browsing history, that Safari displays. Click to select the site you want to visit.
Smart Search Field
Find what you’re looking for instantly. As you enter text in its search field, Safari recommends relevant searches courtesy of Google Suggest and lists your most recent searches, presenting them in an easy-to-read list.
View the whole list here: Apple Safari 4
You can download Safari 4 here at AfterDawn: Apple Safari 4