Thanks to its new Reading List feature , Safari has stupefy a lot of tending in Apple ’s PR push button forMac OS X Lion . But the build - in Web web internet browser for OS X , Safari 5.1 , let many other Lion - focused change and improvements that are deserving your attention .
Note that you could also download Safari 5.1 for Snow Leopard and Windows . user with those operating scheme will be capable to take advantage of some feature , such as Reading List and revamped privacy preferences , but other enhancement are strictly Lion - only . In this first look , we ’ll focus on what ’s young and different in the up-to-the-minute version of Safari , for the most part from the point of view of Mac OS X Lion .
Reading List
Safari 5.1 ’s flagship feature is Reading List , which lets you “ economize ” interesting articles for late reading . When you come across an article on the Web that you just do n’t have time to read immediately , or that you want to keep around for later reference , you simply choose Bookmarks : Add To Reading List ( or weightlift Shift - Command - D ) , and that clause is tally to your list .
you could catch your Reading List at any time — it come along as a sidebar on the left - handwriting side of the Safari window — by choosing View - > Show Reading tilt , by clicking the Reading List icon ( which looks like a pair of eyeglass ) in Safari ’s Bookmarks Bar , or by pressing Shift - Command - L. Your deliver article are list here , each displaying the article title , the emcee situation ’s favicon ( World Wide Web icon ) , and a two - occupation preview of the clause ’s content . Click any clause in the leaning to regard it in the main part of the Safari window .
Once Apple ’s new iCloud armed service is up and running in the declivity , and you ’ve set up your iCloud account on all your Macs and iOS gadget , your Reading List will be synchronized between all those gadget in a manner exchangeable to the way Safari bookmarks are presently synced via MobileMe . Add an article to your Reading List on your iPhone in this iCloud - driven future , and it will be waiting in Safari on your Mac once you get back to your desk .
Safari’s Reading List feature lets you save articles for later reading.
Reading List is similar in principle to service such as Instapaper andRead It Later . But Reading List lacks many of the feature film that make these inspection and repair so popular . For example , Reading List does n’t store article for offline viewing — when accessing a saved article in the Reading List , your figurer must be connected to the Internet . Similarly , while Safari ’s Reader feature film LET you look at an clause in a format optimized for reading — bereft of advertising and mussy formatting , similar to the Readability Web service or Instapaper ’s own Mobilizer — you ca n’t deliver this more - readable variation to your Reading List . In other parole , Reading List is in many ways just a prettified list of bookmarks .
Safari ’s Reading List feature lets you save articles for ulterior recitation .
In contrast , Instapaper also let you orchestrate save articles into folder ; share your lists of article with admirer ; add articles to your list via e-mail ; and download clause in formats optimise for dissimilar devices . The Instapaper iOS app even tracks your current reading stance when you exchange between devices , and scores of Mac and iOS apps get you add articles to your Instapaper leaning without make you first open those article in Safari . And , of course , Instapaper works in any browser app , not just Safari .
Safari 5.1 offers improved control of privacy-related settings.
In other words , as with support for RSS provender ( added in Safari 3 ) , Apple has chosen to include a spare - bone , easy - to - consumption “ learn later ” feature that will live up to a dear number of users but will leave more - advance users want . Indeed , it ’s likely that armed service such as Instapaper and Read It Later will actuallygainusers thanks to Reading List , as more citizenry see the utility of a read - this - afterwards feature film but , frustrated with Reading List ’s limitations , await for better options .
iOS-inspired gestures
As with much of Lion , Safari 5.1 adopts a number of touch - base gestures for those with compatible input devices , such as Apple ’s Magic Trackpad , Magic Mouse , and late MacBook trackpads . For good example , if you dual - wiretap on a block of text — alas , with two fingers , rather than one , as on iOS — Safari will zoom in on that column or paragraph ; twofold - tap again to zoom back out . And filch in and out with your thumb and index digit zooms out and in , respectively , on the Web page ; cleverly , unlike when clicking Safari ’s Smaller / Larger button ( or pressing Command - Minus and Command - Plus ) , Safari focuses the zoom on whatever is directly beneath the cursor .
you could also two - fingerbreadth swipe to the left to go back one Sir Frederick Handley Page in the current chit ’s chronicle , or to the rightfield to go to the next Sir Frederick Handley Page in that history . funnily , the entire varlet “ slide ” off the screen , which makes it appear as though you ’re swop between tabs . regrettably , there does n’t seem to be a motion for that legal action .
Full-screen mode
Safari 5.1 also adopts another of Lion ’s flagship features : full - screen modal value . penetrate the full - covert button in the upper - right street corner of the Safari windowpane ( or weight-lift Control - Command - F ) , and the menu bar and Dock disappear , the current Safari window stretches to fill the full silver screen , and the windowpane ’s deed bar and bookmark bar slicing away , give you as much viewable browser app - window area as potential . ( This full - screen prospect is really a new workspace , so you could flip between it and other apps using Lion ’s three - finger crabwise - swipe gesture . ) Move the shiner cursor to the top of the screen and the menu bar and bookmarks prevention slide into opinion .
Full - screen mode is a nice lineament with some apps , especially on smaller screens , but I happen that most modern websites have a maximum width , which means that when in full - screen way , Safari ’s window ends up with flock of empty distance on each side . Similarly , if you ’ve got more than one Safari window open when you activate full - screen modal value , it ’s unmanageable to switch between those windows . That being said , Apple has provided a Full Screen JavaScript API to help developers build full - screen World Wide Web apps , so there may come a time when we have depicted object that ’s actually compelling in full - screen Safari .
Security and privacy changes
Though they wo n’t garner big headlines , a number of changes in Safari 5.1 offer meaning improvements when it comes to security and keeping your personal information private . ( These raw features are approachable to Snow Leopard users , as well . ) For starters , a new secret AutoFill feature film does n’t automatically go in your personal info into Web mannikin until you give the OK . you’re able to even choose the specific info to be sate .
Safari 5.1 offer up improved control of privateness - related options .
But the most revealing change is that Safari ’s preferences windowpane gains a new Privacy CRT screen that consolidate most privacy - related configurations ( removing them from the Security screen ) . This is where you now choose when Safari accepts cookies — interestingly , now phrased as when Safari shouldblockcookies — and where you view , by site , the cookies already stored by Safari . But whereas earlier adaptation of Safari showed only cookies , Safari 5.1 displays , for each site , precisely what data point Safari has store for that site : cookies , caches , database , and other local storage . ( Unfortunately , that ’s all the particular you get — missing is the elaborate view of Safari 5.0 , which shew you the name , path , security measures position , exit date , and content of each cookie . ) you may also now deleteallstored data — for either a particular land site or for all land site — with a click . This action even erase Flash plug - in information . Note that the setting for whether or not sites can store databases on your Mac to set about with , and the size limit for those databases , has been moved to the Advanced screen of Safari preferences .
The new Downloads popover is more streamlined but makes it more difficult to monitor download progress.
Safari 5 debuted a setting ( in Security setting ) to allow or deny access to your physical location when a Website requested it . In Safari 5.1 , you get a bit more controller over that location information : your options ( now in the Privacy screen ) are to abnegate access completely , to be prompted once for each website ( which gives incessant access to those internet site you approve ) , or to be inspire once each daylight for each web site .
lastly , Apple claims Safari 5.1 ( in Lion only ) include bettersandboxing — a technique that isolates each website and WWW app in its own computer storage space so it does n’t have access code to data from any other web site or WWW app ( or to data on your figurer ) . As Apple place it , “ If a website contains malicious code intended to beguile personal datum or meddle with your computer , sandboxing provides a build - in blocking agent that restricts the code from doing harm . ”
New Downloads manager
The new Downloads popover is more aerodynamic but makes it more unmanageable to monitor download forward motion .
One of the features that ’s gotten the biggest aesthetic makeover is Safari ’s Downloads tilt . In older versions of Safari , you watch this list as a separate window ; in Safari 5.1 , it ’s hidden behind the Downloads push button , located ( by default ) at the right - hand edge of Safari ’s toolbar . chatter this push and you see a iOS - like dad - over list all downloads , with the raw at the top . While the clit ’s tiny progress bar is at times utilitarian for monitoring the progress of a download without having a separate windowpane clear , you ca n’t monitor simultaneous downloads without activating the pop music - over , and you ca n’t choose to keep the pop - over seeable — once you come home anywhere else in Safari , the pop - over disappears . It would be great if Apple offer the option to choose between a pappa - over and a separate Safari 5.0 - manner Downloads windowpane .
On the other hand , the new Downloads inclination does put up one often - requested feature : you may now move a download file by plainly get behind it from the lean to the desired position in the Finder — you no longer have to give away it in your Downloads folder first .
When you first log in to certain types of webmail accounts, Safari in Lion offers to set up that account in OS X.
Miscellaneous improvements
Safari 5.1 also includes a raft of minor improvements—“minor ” in that they ’re not publicize or not completely obvious . For instance , when you Command - fall into place a contact to open it in a new chit , the raw tablet opens directly to the right hand of the current chit , rather than at the ripe - manus ending of the tab streak . This is a popular feature of theLinkThing Safari extension , so users of that extension will value that the behavior is now standard .
When you first lumber in to sure types of webmail accounts , Safari in Lion offers to set up that score in OS X.
A variety that will be utilitarian for unexampled - to - Mac masses is that Safari 5.1 extend tight news report integrating with other bone ten apps . When you first access to a Gmail , Yahoo Mail , or AOL email account from within Safari , OS X will offer to mechanically set up that chronicle ( and , thus , data syncing ) in Mail , iCal , Address Book , and iChat .
There ’s also a new button , in the Advanced filmdom of Safari predilection , to change your proxy configurations ( although it simply open connection preferences ) . And Apple now allows extensions that furnish their own toolbar to present iOS - corresponding pop - overs with HTML content . Other under - the - tough change let in improved multiprocessor support and better overall functioning ; salutary computer hardware - nontextual matter performance ; HTML5 medium caching for offline viewing and better low - bandwidth behavior ; sustenance for MathML , the Web Open Font Format ( WOFF ) , and additional CSS features ; and the capableness to look for for text that either starts with or contains your search string .
On the other hand , one option you wo n’t find in Safari 5.1 on Lion is the setting to get a confirmation dialogue when you taste to close a window with multiple tabs , or when you attempt to renounce Safari with multiple windows open . Part of the reason for this is that Lion ’s new resume feature mechanically tracks all clear documents and window when you drop by the wayside Safari , automatically reopening them the next time you launch Safari . The other reason seems to be that Apple feel the Reopen Last Closed Window and Reopen All Windows From Last Session commands ( in the History menu ) , together with the Undo Close Tab control ( in the Edit bill of fare ) , furnish enough safeguards against “ lost tabs . ” ( Though in my experience , many the great unwashed are unaware those commands even be . )
One more thing…
There ’s one more Safari trick hide away in Lion . When you put in Lion onto an internal hard drive , the installer typically partitions your startup crusade to create a hidden , bootablerecovery partitionthat let you repair your Mac ’s startup drive , reinstall Lion , and even bushel your drive from a Time Machine championship , without requiring a freestanding drive or disc . Conveniently , that restore divider allow connection connectivity and includes a edition of Safari , so you’re able to browse Apple ’s support website and other sites while booted from the emergency partition . you could even enter to WWW - base email systems to read and send subject matter . Although being able to get at the Web from your Mac while troubleshooting that same Mac is n’t as big of a mickle these days as it used to be , thanks to the proliferation of Web - range phones and tablets , this is still a welcome and commodious feature .
First impressions
Safari 3 — which added tabs , RSS reading , pop - up blocking , machine - filling , and more — stay the biggest individual Safari update in full term of usability and visible characteristic improvements . But Safari 5.1 continue a concerted effort , take off inSafari 5.0with Reader and extension , to amend the overall Web - browsing experience . While some of the new feature film , such as Reading List , do n’t inhabit up to the ballyhoo , there are enough improvements , both obvious and under - the - tough , to make Safari 5.1 a dainty upgrade from variation 5.0 .
We ’ll have the last Bible on Safari 5.1 , including how it compare to other Mac browsers , in our forthcoming full brushup .
[ Dan Frakes is a senior editor program for Macworld . ]
