Apple Releases Safari 14 for Mac Ahead of macOS Big Sur Launch

[stol]

Well seeing as how many other companies copy Apple's design aspects and features of their OS and softwares I would say since other browsers don't offer Top Sites it's not a "must have" feature. There's a reason Apple removed it. That's probably the reason.

It's not about being a "must have" feature. It was not extremely special, or unique anyway, it's not even that far from having a row of "Favourites". It was uniquely presented one could say, although it had some glitches and occasionally failed to get a nice thumbnail of a site.

Problem mainly is they just threw it away, without any notice, without some migration/export/save-as-bookmarks prompt or anything at all. We just launched a browser to a completely new 'Start Page' (kinda ripped off from the current Chrome and Firefox btw) which actually had none of the sites I was used to seeing at launch, just some random 'Frequently Visited' thumbnails and some Favourites. My process? => To the garbage. My muscle memory => garbage.

Not the end of the world, obviously. Not a nice move from Apple, either.

 

[warriors2017]

Well seeing as how many other companies copy Apple's design aspects and features of their OS and softwares I would say since other browsers don't offer Top Sites it's not a "must have" feature. There's a reason Apple removed it. That's probably the reason.

Too bad it's not open source. Otherwise, someone could come up with Safari Pro 😅

 

[stol]

By the way, I'm happy they bring back web extensions.

I think they had some good intentions with the native extension system, but besides being a totally snobbish move to the web community (dev or not), I believe it has actually slowed down Safari. Cold starting Safari is slow with lots of extensions - especially content blockers that require multiple extensions. Maybe v14 is just a little a bit faster, but still bothers me to see how slow Safari is to launch initially. If I disable all extensions it's lightning fast, but as I start enabling them, loading the app gets slower and slower, which is quite distressing to see. My only real Safari gripe for the past couple of years.

 

[63W]

Macrumors website has 5 different trackers!
White a torrent website that I visit daily, only has 1 cross tracker.

Get your **** together Macrumors!

 

[DeepIn2U]

It never will be. Apple's not going to update Catalina or Mojave installers anymore.

there are plenty of machines that are not in vintage status that are able to run Catalina and will continue to receive updates or security patches for the upcoming year. It’s been the same since oh, SystemOS 7(?)

Damn, Macrumors uses a lot of trackers!!

goddamn right?!??
It’s crazy! Macrumors needs to do some seriously cleanup.

 

[chrfr]

there are plenty of machines that are not in vintage status that are able to run Catalina and will continue to receive updates or security patches for the upcoming year. It’s been the same since oh, SystemOS 7(?)

Your reply is taking my comment out of context. The poster I was replying to mentioned that they were waiting for Apple to build the Safari 14 installer into the full Catalina installer. Apple isn’t going to do that; the Safari installer will always be a standalone update.

 

[stol]

For those looking for their Top Sites, they are still stored at:
~/Library/Safari/TopSites.plist
You must quit Safari to open it or copy it to Desktop. Could be handy if you don't remember a site or exact url.

 

[dannys1]

I'm guessing they are referring to Quick Links, which can be turned on as part of the New Tab page. Quick Links isn't quite the same as Top Sites but does give the ability to add/rearrange frequently visited pages, and will auto-populate with those sites you most often load.

What's wrong with just putting favourites in the favourite bar so you can click any of them from wherever you are at any time, without even opening a new tab?

 

[dannys1]

It's not about being a "must have" feature. It was not extremely special, or unique anyway, it's not even that far from having a row of "Favourites". It was uniquely presented one could say, although it had some glitches and occasionally failed to get a nice thumbnail of a site.

Problem mainly is they just threw it away, without any notice, without some migration/export/save-as-bookmarks prompt or anything at all. We just launched a browser to a completely new 'Start Page' (kinda ripped off from the current Chrome and Firefox btw) which actually had none of the sites I was used to seeing at launch, just some random 'Frequently Visited' thumbnails and some Favourites. My process? => To the garbage. My muscle memory => garbage.

Not the end of the world, obviously. Not a nice move from Apple, either.

Can you not add your top sites to favourites instead so they appear in a new tab in exactly the same way as before?

 

[dprevett1]

This evening Safari 14 now works without my having done any troubleshooting whatsover.

 

[stol]

Can you not add your top sites to favourites instead so they appear in a new tab in exactly the same way as before?

I can, but I don't want to. The 'Favourites' bar and the 'Top Sites' were different, and served different use cases for me.
The case with the Favourites Bar is that you have to read labels before you click.

I now use another bookmarks folder in my 'New Tab' Favourites, which can be different from the standard Favourites folder which is what appears in the Bar - cause for some reason there can be different Favourites here and other Favourites there (kinda messy, Apple, but at least it works...) They definitely do not appear the same btw. Before, you had big website previews now you get kinda small favicons.

As noted in my comments here before, I opened the browser after the update and I was presented with something completely different and I had to work to get where I was before and I don't think it's quite as good now.

First world problems, I guess. But also some lazy/rushed engineering, I think.

 

[xodbox]

WOW. I guess thanks Apple for letting us prevent 29 trackers from macrumors.com

The irony. 😂😂😂




macOS Big Sur didn't launch alongside iOS 14, iPadOS 14, tvOS 14, and watchOS 7 today, with the update coming later this fall, but Apple did release the Safari 14 update for macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave users.

Safari 14 brings improved performance, customizable start pages, a Privacy Report to see which cross-site trackers are being blocked, and a new tab bar design that provides tab previews so you can see what you have open at a glance. Today's update also removes Adobe Flash. Apple's release notes for Safari 14 are below:The new Safari 14 update can be downloaded by opening up System Preferences and choosing the Software Update option.

Article Link: Apple Releases Safari 14 for Mac Ahead of macOS Big Sur Launch
[/QUOTE]

 

[Maconplasma]

This evening Safari 14 now works without my having done any troubleshooting whatsover.

Interesting some are having issues but my Safari 14 install is 100% perfect. No issues whatsoever.

 

[tomi03]

I am not gonna praise a browser that slow the system while watching a video on YouTube, and can’t reproduce anything on Netflix without issues.

It’s 2020, and any other browser run well everything, and the sad thing there’s no way to downgrade Safari.

Browsers based on chromium, and Firefox are by far better, also last google chrome update improved battery life, it loads any website 10% faster, and let’s be honest there’s different extensions to block trackers, and if you want more you can use containers on Firefox; sorry but Safari 14 on Catalina is just meh.

Btw Safari can’t compete with the others two in terms of updates, and security fixes.

 

[citysnaps]

Installed Safari 14 on my 2010 Mac Pro running Mojave 10.14.6, and now Safari quits immediately upon launch. Restarted and same thing happens.

Same thing here on a 2017 13" MBP running 10.14.6.

Not happy. Is there a way to go back to the previous Safari?

 

[trfjason]

Anyone notice that the discrete GPU would come on when you are using Safari 14? I am on a 2016 MBP 15".

 

[hazemam]

Interesting some are having issues but my Safari 14 install is 100% perfect. No issues whatsoever.

Are you able to watch anything on Netflix without errors?

 

[Maconplasma]

Are you able to watch anything on Netflix without errors?

Well you didn't state which issues you're referring to? But so far I just watched two different Netflix movies of 5 minutes each and there were no issues. I don't know if matters or not but I'm on a 16" MBP.

 

[Maconplasma]

Anyone notice that the discrete GPU would come on when you are using Safari 14? I am on a 2016 MBP 15".

My 16" only uses the Intel Graphics 630 on Safari 14. The dGPU is not activated.

 

[hazemam]

Well you didn't state which issues you're referring to? But so far I just watched two different Netflix movies of 5 minutes each and there were no issues. I don't know if matters or not but I'm on a 16" MBP.

I keep getting "Netflix Error S7706" error now whenever I try watching anything on Safari 14.

 

[Maconplasma]

I keep getting "Netflix Error S7706" error now whenever I try watching anything on Safari 14.

Wow that's odd. All I can is it has something to do with your setup in terms of specific software that's causing a conflict after the Safari update. I'm not getting any errors or unstable playback on Netflix or YouTube.

 

[trfjason]

My 16" only uses the Intel Graphics 630 on Safari 14. The dGPU is not activated.

Hmm.. I guess it could a Mojave problem. I am on 10.14.6

 

[stol]

Hmm.. I guess it could a Mojave problem. I am on 10.14.6

I'm on Mojave as well and Safari does not trigger the dGPU.

gfxCardStatus will tell you which process does. Maybe a restart will help.

 

[dannys1]

I can, but I don't want to. The 'Favourites' bar and the 'Top Sites' were different, and served different use cases for me.
The case with the Favourites Bar is that you have to read labels before you click.

I now use another bookmarks folder in my 'New Tab' Favourites, which can be different from the standard Favourites folder which is what appears in the Bar - cause for some reason there can be different Favourites here and other Favourites there (kinda messy, Apple, but at least it works...) They definitely do not appear the same btw. Before, you had big website previews now you get kinda small favicons.

As noted in my comments here before, I opened the browser after the update and I was presented with something completely different and I had to work to get where I was before and I don't think it's quite as good now.

First world problems, I guess. But also some lazy/rushed engineering, I think.

Fair, I never used this feature so i'm not sure how it worked.

My annoyance is they've changed the way favicons work in tab when you have lots of them, the text just disappears at you're left with a website icon - I hate it - and there's no way to change it back to how it was either. so i've opted to just turn them off all together now, a shame.

 

[nexu]

Is there a way to install safari 14 alongside safari 13 to try it out?