Editor’s Note: Peter North, one of WorkAwesome’s newest contributors, is at Apple’s WWDC all week. He’ll provide little snippets for our readers to digest over the course of the week – to pass on what Apple and its developer community has to offer in terms of making all of us more productive.
Yesterday at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple introduced Safari 5, an upgrade that introduces some significant changes. It has special accommodations for Windows users, faster page loading, and a new developer program that allows programmers to tailor Safari to suit all of our needs. With its new features, Safari 5 could be the most productive browser ever.
Safari Speed
Safari 5 handily beat the latest versions of Firefox, Opera and Chrome in speed tests. In some extreme cases, it loaded pages over a half-second faster than other browsers. That may not sound like much, but if you’re visiting thousands of web pages with a slower browser, it could add up to a lot of wasted time. Safari 5’s quicker page loading could make you a top speed taskmaster.
Reader
Safari 5’s new “Reader” function allows the visitor to view a page’s main content without having to bother with ads and other visual distractions. It detects the real “body” of the page, and “cuts out” banner ads, navigation elements and page wraps. The result is a clean, streamlined, distraction-free browsing experience that keeps you focused on the content you came for. You no longer have to squint at the desired information while tuning out the ads in your periphery; Safari 5 can tune them out for you.
Safari Developer Program
Safari has finally released a developer program that allows programmers to build their own modifications and additions to Safari. These “add-ons” are part of what made Firefox such a popular browser, and there will soon be hundreds of Safari extensions to help users complete their web-related work much more easily. It’s hard to speculate what they will come up with, but surely there will be some powerful tools to help you get your web work done.
Enhancements Just For Windows
Although Apple and Microsoft are competitors, Apple has taken great care to optimize the PC version of Safari 5 for those who use Windows, particularly for rich media and interactive graphics. It’s not just a good browser for Macintosh computers; Safari 5 has been tailored to work well on Windows.
Future Proofed
Safari 5 is the leader in supporting HTML5, the latest version of hypertext that enables faster browsing with more vibrant experiences. Many major websites are already using HTML5 on their websites, and Safari is ready, ahead of anyone else, to display them optimally. Why let your older browser struggle with the latest hypertext?
Will you give Safari 5 a spin? Does it have what it takes to usurp your current browser? Let us know in the comments.
(Image courtesy of Apple)