Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"New browser time -- and unfortunately, time to restart your Mac. Safari has been updated (for 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6 on the Mac side, and Windows XP/Vista/7 on the Win side); it includes the improvements noted: performance improvements for Top Sites, stability improvements for plug-ins, and for sites with SVG graphics and online forms and fixes issues affecting settings changes to some Linksys routers and iWork.com user comments"

Lots of security fixes with this update, all outlined here, and you can get the 31.8 MB download via Software Update or by going to the Safari download page here.

"Apple's Safari Web browser lost its third place market share slot to Google Chrome in December 2009, ending a multi-year run as the third most popular Web browser according to data from Net Applications. Chrome's lead over Safari isn't by much with 4.63 percent of the market compared to Safari's 4.46 percent. If, however, Chrome can continue to outpace Safari's growth, it won't take long for that gap to widen."

The info was from Net Applications, and December 2009 is also the first month that Google has been available for Mac OS X. According to the survey this is only a rough estimate of the actual number of surfers, but even so, Chrome is on the fast track to really give Explorer a run for their money. What browser do you use? I'm still using Safari and am happy with it once I fixed the annoying Adobe Flash problem that was causing me to lock up frequently.

"Web browser aficionados welcomed last week's release of Camino 2.0, a Mac-only browser based on the Firefox codebase. While missing the extensibility of Firefox, Camino is a much more Mac-like browser that some people prefer to Apple's own Safari."

They have Bookit to keep your bookmarks in sync between Safari and Camino (or just use Camino to import them), and now you can transfer those cookies using Cookie Thief. Camino 2.0 requires at least version 1.1 of Cookie Thief to work and it is a freeware program. If you are migrating from Safari, Camino has set up a web page to address just that task.I haven't tried it yet, I'm pretty happy with Safari and the iPhone integration so not sure I will but my curiosity may get the best of me.

"Though the recent iPhone 3.1 update added support for protecting against phishing sites, there were concerns that it didn't catch any."

The problem is they didn't make it clear on how to get this particular feature to work. Apple recommends that you start Safari on a Wi-Fi network with your iPhone/iPod Touch after updating, and then charge it while the screen is dark. The database then loads during this time period in order to "save the user data charges" since you are doing it all on Wi-Fi. One minor detail they forgot to include in any instructions.

"Google has launched a version of its Latitude-a sort of GPS-powered friend finder-for the iPhone. Unfortunately, it seems it was banished to web app-only ghetto by Apple."

This unfortunately is web-based so it won't take advantage of the "push notification", and initially it will only be available in the U.S., New Zealand, UK, Canada and Australia. It would have been really cool if this could have been part of the Maps app that comes on the iPhone. I tried something similar called Loopt, and really never got much out of it, so I don't think this will appeal to me. Anyone out there excited about this? Or do you use something else?

"Compared to other smartphone owners, iPhone users not only go on the Internet more often, but tend to browse for longer periods of time and download more mobile content in the process. According to Roger Entner, a telecom research analyst for Nielsen, AT&T's network still isn't prepared for an onslaught in data consumption. In an interview with the USA Today, Entner points out that the average iPhone user consumes upwards of 400 MB of data every month. In comparison, most smartphone users only consume around 40-80 MB of data every month."

Of course iPhone users use more data. The experience is infinitely better than anything else out there! This is no secret to anyone who's used another smart phone. Would you want to do more than extremely light browsing on a BlackBerry? Or how about using the Pocket IE from Windows Mobile 6? Both are unmitigated disasters for browsing anything but custom-designed web sites.

Is Safari on the iPhone perfect? Nope. I'd still like to see Flash in it just so that the only barricade to the "real web" can be removed, but Safari's speed, rendering accuracy, and overall ease of use put it at the top of the heap. Even derivatives of Webkit on other handhelds (think Palm Pre and Android) are exceptionally good and are likely to put similar strains on Sprint and T-Mobile's network as their marketshare continues to increase.

There's a reason the iPhone is a data consumption machine: it works.

"After being goaded by the online security community last month to respond faster to software vulnerabilities, Apple on Monday finally fixed a longstanding flaw in the Java code that the company ships with its Mac OS X operating system."

This has gone on for about 6 months or so, according to Intego, a company that makes security products for Macs. They say Apple knew about it about five months prior to the May announcement by Intego of it's existence. According to Intego, "the flaw could allow a Java applet to execute malicious code on affected Macs, potentially leading to information theft or a compromised system."

Well, it is fixed now according to a release by Apple. There are two separate updates, one for 10.5 and one for 10.4 so you are covered if you use either Tiger or Leopard. You can also get the patch via the Software Update feature on your Mac.

"The latest news in mobile browsers suggests that Opera has surpassed the iPhone as the current king in the mobile browser space. But sometimes there are lies, there are damn lies, and then there are statistics."

The problem with their news announcing Opera has bested Safari is that they aren't doing valid comparison. For the Opera figures, they include all devices running Opera, yet for Safari are only including the iPhone, not the iPod Touch. When they include the iPod Touch, Safari is clearly the frontrunner. The article said "all devices" and not specifically smartphones, so it seems fair that for comparison sake they should include iPod Touch in the stats.

"Macte! Labs Inc released the Macte! Safari Toolbar on Thursday. This extension is designed to increases the functionality of the Safari web browser."

Kind of a cool toolbar you can add to Safari, and it has nice features like email link, currency checks, stock prices, multi-engine search engine access and to top it off it is free. It is compatible with any Intel or PPC based Mac, OS X versions 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6 operating Safari broswer 2, 3 and the Beta 4 version. I don't normally change my Safari appearance much, but I may try this out due to the linking it does with some of the programs I use frequently.

Net Applications has released its compiled browser use data for the month of April, and the news is pretty good for Apple. Despite an arguable small downtick in market share for the quarter as measured by unit sales, Net Applications shows the share of users using Safari or Mac OS X to surf the Web holding steady for the first month of this quarter. The iPhone OS platform continues to gain share online, while Windows and IE continue a slow but steady decline."

It dropped just a bit from the 8.23% in March to 8.21%, but it still stayed above the February mark of 8.02%. Internet Explorer on the other hand has been steadily declining. Didn't they recently release IE 8?

When it comes to operating systems used to access the Internet, Apple is still below 10%, recording 9.73% share, just down from the March figure of 9.77%. What does all this mean? I guess as far as operating systems, Apple is holding it's own in spite of the economy. Microsoft? Not so much since they are declining in this category as well. The biggest winner? The iPhone OS (including the iPod Touch), which has increased by about 268% over the last year.

"In a repeat performance of last year, security researcher Charlie Miller arrived at the CanSecWest conference this week with a prepared exploit to use in cracking Safari running on Mac OS X. Unsurprisingly, Miller was able to use his exploit to immediately win the event's "Pwn2Own" contest, generating headlines that suggested that Macs are inherently less secure, despite the fact that every browser involved in the contest failed on the first day."

Ouch. Safari falls first again, although this doesn't say how long he worked on his "exploit" of Safari before the competition began. I'd call for an umpires ruling since that seems like cheating, but how can you really call it cheating when it is a hacking competition?

"The Pwn2Own hacking contest, held during the CanSecWest Security Conference in March, will pit hackers against browsers from Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla and Google. The hackers will also have a chance to "pwn" an iPhone as well as other mobile devices."

TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) team is sponsoring the contest for the 3rd consecutive year. They are going to officer $5,000 USD for each browser hack and $10,000 USD for each mobile hack. The contest will be held during the CanSecWest Security Conference from March 16th through March 20th in Vancouver, BC.

Last year it was a Macbook Air that was hacked on day two by exploiting a Safari Browser security flaw, the winner took home $10,000 USD. Guess that isn't such a big deal anymore so they dropped the bounty!

"Apple's release of a public beta version of Safari 4, a new version of their Web browser, has spurred Agile Web Solutions to offer 1Password 2.9.9, an update to their password management software. A free upgrade for all paid 1Password customers, 1Password 2.9.9 costs $40."

Well this didn't take long did it? I use this program and it is very handy, especially since they have the iPhone app that ties in with the desktop version.

"I was wondering how Thurrott was going to counter the incredible speed of the browser engine. Apple's own marketing aside, others have tested it and confirmed it to be the fastest web browser available. I assumed he'd blast the test methodology, or claim that IE 8 would be better (though IE 8 was in the tests), etc. But no, he took a different tack altogether. He simply acknowledged the browser engine is good, and then blasted the UI because he's apparently a manly man who doesn't need no steenking graphics."

Reading through Thurrott's hyper-screed against Safari 4 is like seeking sanity inside an insane asylum. Thurrott is one of those people who, if you read him long enough, you start to realize is one of the dumbest and most hypocritical "journalists" out there. He writes the most vicious anti-Apple garbage you'll ever find on the web and then counters it with "I don't know why the Apple people hate me so much. I have like two Macs and an iPhone!" as if that's supposed to eradicate all his shoddy journalism, logical fallacies, and overall idiocy.

Tom Reestman at The Apple Blog gives him a major butt-whipping across the universe for his rant against Safari. In fact, Reestman so embarasses Thurrott that I fully expect Thurrott to turn on the whinging switch and start crying because some Apple guy attacked him.

It's amazing what passes for journalism these days, and all I can say is I've been accused numerous times of being a "fanboy," the favorite nasty name given to Mac fans by the intellectually devoid. As far as I'm concerned, Thurrott is one hundred times worse than any of the mythical "Mac fanboys" that supposedly pounce on him for his stupidity and had any Mac writer written this load about Internet Explorer or any of the other garbage Thurrott likes so much (he also liked Windows ME at the time; no I'm not kidding) they would immediately be dismissed as fanboys. Go read the article now. It won't take you long to realize how many logical leaps he had to make to get to his conclusions.

"We determined on a PC that Safari was a whopping 42 times faster than Internet Explorer 7, just over six times faster than Internet Explorer 8, 3.5 times faster than Firefox 3, and 1.2 times faster than Google Chrome... On Mac OS X, Safari was four times faster than Firefox 3 and a depressing (for Opera) 7.5 times faster than Opera 9."

Safari 4.0 is pretty darned fast. I've been very impressed with it since I started using it. In fact, it's my default browser both on Mac OS and in Windows. I know some people have reported stability issues, but I haven't had anything of the sort. What made me make it my default browser was the speed, and frankly once you get past the really long startup time (it does take longer than Firefox or IE to startup) it's just blazing fast.

"It's a browser. It's a platform. It's an open invitation to innovate. Whether on a Mac, PC, iPhone, or iPod touch, Safari continuously redefines the browser, providing the most enjoyable way to experience the Internet."

It's hard to describe something as visceral as a web browser to someone, but Safari 4.0 is a great browser. In many ways it reminds me of chrome. Take a look at the screenshot above. If that doesn't remind you of Chrome's home screen, nothing will. Immediately noticeable is the overall speed and snappiness of Safari. For a beta it's pretty stable (except for us Thoughts Media writers; it doesn't really like our publishing system) and I haven't come across any major hiccups so far. If you want to go over the "150 new features" Apple added, you can check them out here.

"Contributing for the Smoking Apples twitter feed there have been so many times where I find a link I want to tweet about, shorten it, and then go to the Twitter.com page (Eventbox doesn't support multiple accounts yet) to post it. Now I know there are special bookmarklets that will allow me to cut down on all of this running around, but I was looking for a more elegant solution."

Sounds like he found it with this add-on for Safari. I installed it on my system and it works perfect for posting links to Twitter. You can either use the file drop-down to "Post to Twitter" or use keyboard combination of Ctrl+T. David Watanabe of XTorrent and NewsFire fame created this plugin, appropriately called "Safari140"

"Apple on Thursday released the first security update of 2009, the aptly named Security Update 2009-001. The update, which is available in versions for Leopard, Leopard Server, Tiger for Intel Macs, Tiger for PowerPC-based Macs, Tiger Server for PowerPC-based Macs, and Server Universal addresses a number of flaws in OS X. Security Update 2009-001 is recommended for all users and is available via Apple's site or Software Update."

This update, the first one of 2009, addresses among other things the Safari RSS vulnerability reported by Brian Mastenbrook in January of this year. There is a detailed list available at the Apple site.

"The free Foxmarks bookmark backup and synchronization service is now available for Safari. It allows users to maintain a single set of bookmarks on multiple computers, which is good news for anyone who juggles multiple devices."

I already sync my bookmarks between computers using MobileMe, but I have to use one of those computers to get access to the bookmarks. This is handy since I can be on ANY computer and get access to my bookmarks since they are synced between your computers AND saved on the Foxmarks website. Free is a very good price, especially when they add convenience.

"For some time, programmers have used CSS Animation for the mobile version of Safari. The routines allow Web developers to present animated graphics and 3D effects, removing the need for complex JavaScript, according to MacRumors. If Apple succeeds in getting animation included in the CSS standard used by developers, the move could threaten Adobe Flash, which currently is the dominate method for Web animation."

Not much to say on this one, but one comment on Cult of Mac really summed it up rather nicely:

"Cute animations are no substitute for being able to watch the vast majority of video on the web."

I couldn't agree more.