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Safari 5 Impressions

S

Salacion

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 8, 2010
810
0
I've been using the new Safari 5 for a few hours, and here are my impressions.

> Speed
Noticeable improvement over Safari 4. More than anything, it's much more fluid to use. For me at least, S4 was extremely glitchy and laggy; freezing when I'd do simple things like switching tabs. S5 runs extremely well as compared to the older version. About time. I have yet to notice a significant difference in Internet speed, but as we all know, that mostly relies on your service provider.

> Interface
There are some subtle differences in the interface, some I like and others I don't. They added a blue/black gradient to Top Sites, which I personally think looks bad. The Top Sites/History buttons are now above your top sites, unlike S4 where you had to click on search to access them. The progress bar has a higher saturation of blue. Overall, everything looks much more crisp.

> Automatic Tabs
A HUGE feature, and the only reason I used Firefox over Safari. It's about time they implemented this to Safari.

> Reader
Best feature in my opinion. I'm done with Firefox after this (they do have similar plug-ins, but Apple nails it in design and accessibility). I absolutely hate when websites try to gather more views by spreading a 500 word article into 20 pages. Reader eliminates this hassle beautifully. It seriously is awesome.

> Extensions
Excited to see what arises from this. It's been long overdue.

> Bing, Yahoo or Google
I like that they give you options now. I still prefer Google, because Bing is just all over the place, but they do provide you with cool search results (scroll over video to preview it, a-la Apple's preview.) Google still reigns in specificity.

Now all I want is an option to "ignore website font" like in Firefox, and I'll be completely satisfied.

There are other things I falter to remember. Honestly guys, I have absolutely no reason to use Firefox now. Reader is the selling point for me. Seriously awesome.

Notice other things I miss? Do tell...
 
> Speed
Noticeable improvement over Safari 4. More than anything, it's much more fluid to use. For me at least, S4 was extremely glitchy and laggy; freezing when I'd do simple things like switching tabs. S5 runs extremely well as compared to the older version. About time.
Click to expand...

It does seem less freeze prone. 4 froze a lot for me while loading certain sites like Engadget.

> Automatic Tabs
A HUGE feature, and the only reason I used Firefox over Safari. It's about time they implemented this to Safari.
Click to expand...

I hope that's not the only reason you used FF because the 'open in tabs instead of windows' feature was available via a Terminal command for Safari 4 and maybe even 3.

Now all I want is an option to "ignore website font" like in Firefox, and I'll be completely satisfied.
Click to expand...

I saw an extension earlier that (if I read the bad description correctly) changes all webfonts to Helvetica. So what you want may be possible that way.
 
Salacion said:
> Interface
There are some subtle differences in the interface, some I like and others I don't. They added a blue/black gradient to Top Sites, which I personally think looks bad. The Top Sites/History buttons are now above your top sites, unlike S4 where you had to click on search to access them. The progress bar has a higher saturation of blue. Overall, everything looks much more crisp.
Click to expand...

This changed to the blue/black gradient in the coverflow view as well along with a different style of scroll bar. Personally I like it and hope it is rolled in to 10.6.4 and iTunes 9.2.

Is it me or did they get rid of "space" and "flexible space" in the customize toolbar sheet?
 
Agree with most, especially if you got like 30 tabs open (+ some flash content) it still doesn't slow to a crawl.

Extensions have been available in Safari for awhile now. Not sure why people think it's new.
 
A few little bugs so far, but otherwise pretty ok considering that Safari was starting to fall behind.

Main bug I've noticed--if streaming flash content, especially YouTube, clicking on a different tab will often disable audio on the file. Flipping back to the original tab doesn't restore it, nor does pausing and playing, only jumping to a different spot on the timeline. Not a huge deal, and it happens maybe 10% of the time...
 
Love the improvements, especially the Reader. Only thing keeping me from switching from Chrome now is there not being a unified Address / Search bar (this is a big deal to me; having them separate seems so outdated), and not being able to hide the bookmarks bar.

Btw, where can you get Safari extensions? Is there some centralized database for them?

And is it possible for developers to dramatically reskin Safari? I'd love a Chrome-esque layout, with tabs above the address / search bar.
 
I'm willing to come back home and try Safari 5 in my Macbook.

Reader seems to be the great feature of this new version.
 
Consultant said:
Agree with most, especially if you got like 30 tabs open (+ some flash content) it still doesn't slow to a crawl.

Extensions have been available in Safari for awhile now. Not sure why people think it's new.
Click to expand...

The part that's new is Apple actually has a framework for it now, so extensions don't break with every update.
 
gødspeed said:
Love the improvements, especially the Reader. Only thing keeping me from switching from Chrome now is there not being a unified Address / Search bar (this is a big deal to me; having them separate seems so outdated), and not being able to hide the bookmarks bar.

Btw, where can you get Safari extensions? Is there some centralized database for them?

And is it possible for developers to dramatically reskin Safari? I'd love a Chrome-esque layout, with tabs above the address / search bar.
Click to expand...

Dumbest software move Apple has made with Safari so far--this was a feature of the Safari 4 beta and they took it out in the final, not even an option for it. Bah!
 
disconap said:
Dumbest software move Apple has made with Safari so far--this was a feature of the Safari 4 beta and they took it out in the final, not even an option for it. Bah!
Click to expand...

I'd love an option to put the tabs back on top. The Safari 4 beta was, in my opinion, the best implementation of tabs over any browser. I know I have the minority opinion though.
 
Safari 5 won't load web pages problem and solution

There is a number of people reporting a problem with Safari 5. I'm adding this post so that if someone with the problem is skimming this thread, they can find a possible answer.

Problem: Immediately after updating to Safari 5, no web pages will load. Safari displays a blank page for each tab, and the progress bar is frozen.

Solution: In my case, and for few other people on the Apple support forums, it was to remove CosmoPod. I found my CosmoPod folder in HD>Library>Input Managers and moved it to the desktop. After restarting Safari, it began working as expected.

Hope this helps someone who may have been bitten by this issue. :)
 
I'm liking it so far. Everything seems nice and snazzy. I like the prediction address bar doowhacky, I always miss that when I'm not using Firefox. Yea. This is great!
 
It aint bad. Not keen on the new Top Sites or that blue thing in my address bar, but the Reader thing is cool (when you actually get on a site that it works with).

It's no worse than 4 anyway. But I wouldn't consider anything a vast improvement.
 
Are there any keyboard commands to open or close Reader? Kinda sucks moving my mouse up to the address bar, lazy as I am.
 
Crashed quite a lot for me lately. Finding it pretty unstable - I'm posting on a forum while tabbing between iPhoto and Safari and Safari crashed. Hmm.
 
I also noticed that Top Sites shows you flash (images of flash animations), when it did not before. That's something I'm happy about. But no, Safari is definitely much faster.
 
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