Software :: Safari 3.1 Sees Improved Form Support In Latest Beta
Mar 4, 2008
Apple this month continues to plug away on a small but significant update to its fledgeling Safari web browser, most recently making improvements to the application's handling of web forms and faulty Javascripts.
The cross-platform browser update presently dubbed Safari 3.1 was first made available to the company's developer community last month. Since then, only one external revision has been spotted, arriving last week in the form of three distinct distributions.
A public beta for versions of the Windows operating system carried build number 31A15 and weighed in at 18.5MB, while versions for Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard arrived as builds 8S3021 and 9B4021, weighing in at 48.6MB and 38.9MB, respectively.
In a set of release notes reported to have accompanied the latest distributions, Apple advocated "significant performance, stability, and compatibility improvements" over the builds released just three weeks earlier.
Specifically, the company said Safari 3.1 accepts large amounts of text pastes into forms much faster than its predecessor and that the browser now logs all nasty and unsafe Javascripts to a system log file for later review. In addition, a pesky bug that prevented earlier builds for uploading photos via web forms to online auction sites has also been fixed.
The Mac maker offered no update on the browser's more compelling enhancements, which include support for downloadable web fonts, HTML5 video and audio tags, CSS transitions and animations, and a new SQL storage API.
Improvements to Javascript performance are also a significant focus of the upcoming release, which uses an unreleased version of Apple's Webkit frame work that has proven to be up to 2.5 times as fast in Javascript operations than that of the current version included with the existing Safari 3.0.4 software. [ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
I like Safari's U.I. very much, but, everytime I load around 5 pages at the same time it starts to freeze and give me the rainbow circle on the mouse pointer. If I open the same sites with Camino everything works great and even faster than Safari.
I do not want to quite switch to Camino, because its UI is ugly, but its really superior to Safari on speed terms and has the same compatibility as Firefox, because its Gecko engine (?). I will miss Top Sites and Safari's UI so much
How your Safari works? Is it fast and freeze free?
Apple on Tuesday afternoon pushed out another private beta of Mac OS X 10.6.3, asking its developer community to test font compatibility and stability alongside a handful of other components that have been in need of evaluation for the past several weeks.
Those other components include iCal, QuickTime and graphics drivers, according to people familiar with the beta software. The last private beta, distributed March 5th and labeled build 10D567, also listed those components as focus areas, in addition to Rosetta and third party printer drivers.
When it's released later this month, Mac OS X 10.6.3 will bundle an update to QuickTime X that improves security and compatibility while also enhancing overall reliability of the media software.
The Snow Leopard update will also include tweaks that enhance the performance of Apple's 64-bit Logic pro audio suite and deliver better compatibility with third-party printers and OpenGL-grounded applications.
Other fixes baked into the release target issues with mail messages displaying the incorrect background color and problems copying files to a shared Windows volume.
The latest beta carries build number 10D571 and weighs in around 700MB.[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
Apple has released a new beta of the Mac OS X 10.6.2 update with fixes for various performance issues dealing with AirPort, graphics drivers, and Apple TV, among others.
Those familiar with the build, titled 10C540 have said that it contains fixes for AirPort performance issues on the newly released iMacs and also resolves a problem which arose when plugging and unplugging a system to an Apple TV. A VMWare fix is also included, presumably for the newly released Fusion version 3.0.
The new build also fixes reported panic issues with USB, Apple Filing Protocol, and some video cards.
In the 10.6.2 update, Apple plans on fixing and tweaking nearly 150 OS X components.
Some components slated for fixes include: AppleBacklight, Battery Menu, Dictionary, Expose, FileSync, Family Controls, Fonts, Front Row, HFS, Inkwell, iPhoto, MobileMe, OpenCL, Parental Controls, QuickTime, Screen Sharing, Spell Checker, Spotlight, Time Machine, and USB.
Mac OS X 10.6.2 is expected to be released sometime in November and will reportedly be around 480 MB in size.[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
1) Improved Speed 2) Improved compatibility 3) Enhanced stability 4) Cover-flow option for bookmarks, history, and downloads 5) Multiple search providers available from drop-down in Search Box (Amazon, Apple Store, IMDB, Wikipedia, Custom) 6) Search Box auto-complete/suggestions 7) "Mute/Volume" button for web audio 8) Downloads in drawer or tab instead of pop-up windows. Ability to search, quick view, and launch downloads within said area. Ideally, it would be contained in the "collections" section with history and bookmarks. 9) Ability to view/use Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Pages, Keynote, Numbers and other files within the browser (similar to current PDF ability) 10) Phishing Filter
I know that an update to Safari will address speed, but what about the other features?
As expected, Apple overnight equipped its vast developer community with a new build of its upcoming Snow Leopard operating system that includes significant changes, such as a redesigned QuickTime Player.
People familiar with the matter confirm the build number to indeed be 10A286, as was predicted by AppleInsider in a software-related news roundup published earlier in the week.
Among the changes developers will see in the latest beta is a completely redesigned QuickTime Player -- believed to be QuickTime X Player -- which sports "a new minimal user interface*focused predominately on playback," those people say.
Also widely distributed outside Apple's walls for the first time is a new Cocoa-based Mac OS X desktop envoirnment featuring updated info windows and contextual menus.
Those people familiar with the software say Apple informed developers about a dozen significant issues which are still plaguing Mac OS X 10.6, and which will need to be ironed out before the software can transition closer to a final candidate stage. Several months of work are believed to remain.
Build 10A286 arrives about four weeks after Apple equipped its developers with build 10A261. Around that time it was reported that Snow Leopard would include Core Location and Multi-Touch frameworks for third-party developers, and also deliver more intuitive printer driver delivery.
Specific to the 10A261 build were a handful of visual tweaks, such as a Put Back option in the Finder and the ability to drill down into stacks via a new grid-view interface, each of which were documented in a series of screenshots.[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
I've been interested in a Safari application/extension for improved Bookmarks management. Features I'm interested in are alphabetization, eliminating duplicates, and improved organization. Has anyone found such an item?
When attempting to transfer money between accounts at my bank I click the Submit button and get the error: "The page must be fully loaded before this form is submitted." There is no error number or code given. The message is apparently generated by my bank's web server. The page is fully loaded. I don't get this error when I use IE on my XP PC unless the page is really not fully loaded.
Over the last week, Safari has been quitting unexpectedly. The warning box states: "Safari quit unexpectedly while using the .ActivitySoftFlatForm.png plugin". I did a Google search for activity soft flat form with no explanation on what it is.
How Can I change my form auto-fill details. I want to change the phone number.my form auto-fill detailsI have only the one I want checked in my address book but it still uses a different one. Using Lion OS if that matters.
My add-ons are all installed, and enabled, but most are not working. The plugins are all just gone, such as flash. I installed flash again, restarted, and it still doesn't have flash.
Seems Glimmerblocker isn't working with the beta release of Safari 4. Anyone have any luck blocking ads? Also, I'd love to block flash. The inability to block flash is probably the main reason I could never use Safari full time. The browser looks amazing and is very snappy, but alas.... I need plugin support.
I do a lot of Mail Contents Of This Page or emailing of webpages to my friends. Mail often crashes now when I try to do this. I sent a bug report to Apple already.
I'm using Safari 4 beta and it keeps crashing after no longer than one minute of use. I have deleted the plist, reset Safari, uninstalled and reinstalled, used multiple users, and no luck. I've been using it since it first came out with no problems until now. I did a search but all the threads I saw were about Safari 3 and none of them had a solution that worked yet.
I'm running 10.4.11, and each time I run the software updater, go through all the stages...download, install, restart etc... I open the software updater again, and the update is there again waiting to be installed! This update is that recent Safari 4 one. I've repaired permissions and tried again, but had the same result. Any ideas for a perplexed mac user?
wondering if anyone has encountered the same problem. Downloaded Safari 4.0 to play around with it and Mail has stopped working. From looking at the crash log see the following
I just downloaded Safari 4 beta from the apple site, installed it, restarted etc and everytime I launch it it crashes instantly. So, I uninstalled it (using the uninstaller), restarted, installed it, restarted again and still have the same problem. I've turned Growl off because I've heard this causes issues with some applications.
I couldn't figure out any obvious way to manually add Top Sites in Safari 4. I tried drag-and-drop, but it wouldn't work. After some digging, I found a TopSites.plist that lets me add sites manually. [URL]
I'm having the "messenger: mac typing issue" and decided to go back to Safari 3. I downloaded it from Apple's site but when trying to install it doesn't allow me to select my HD volume because it says there is a newer version. How should I procede?
how the top sites feature actually works on the new safari. I've been using the new beta for the last week or so and it seems like the websites that appear in the top sites section are almost entirely random ones selected from my history. Some pages that i've visited once for only minutes appear right at the front of the list. I am failing to see any pattern based on popularity.
This just popped up in software update for me. First to post? This update is recommended for all users of the Safari 4 Public Beta and includes the latest security updates. For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this site: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.
I updated safari (and now I did OSX, and its still slow) and performance is slow, unpredictable and randomly dies. The network is perfect though and this issue does not happen in transmission.
Today a new auto-update came up and I ran it - it included a tweak to 10.7.3 as well as Safari and a few others. My Safari (5.2) got completely trashed. Will not even open any more - all it does is crash immediately upon launch. I have a Time Machine backup from about 40 minutes earlier I can recover from if needed. Meanwhile I'm lucky I have a MacBook Pro as well, and am able to get online while I am completely restoring Lion from a patchstick.
I'll post the crash report (I copied and saved it) once I get back up.Incidentally, I've been getting a lot of crashes in Mail as well. Always when the computer is asleep. Anyone else having these problems - or have a solution?
