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- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Mac OS X 10.6/10.4 PPC/Intel/10.5 PPC/Intel
- Date added: November 11, 2009
- Total Downloads: 63,203
- Downloads last week: 542
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- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 28 votes
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CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: Jason Parker on June 08, 2009
Apple's latest iteration of Safari has a lot to offer, putting it among the top browsers in its category, but those who like to customize their surfing experience may need to look elsewhere. Version 4 features the Nitro engine, which runs JavaScript up to 4.5 times faster than Safari 3 (according to Apple) and it was certainly blindingly fast in all of our testing. The browser supports all modern Web standards, like HTML 5 and advanced CSS effects so you don't need to worry about whether Safari will work correctly on your favorite sites. Though Safari 4 doesn't have the extensibility and numerous add-ons and themes found in Mozilla's Firefox, there is something to be said for running lean and mean on the Web.
However, a lack of extra add-ons doesn't mean Safari comes without its fair share of cool features. The Top Sites feature is a welcome addition, displaying your most-used Web sites in an easy-to-read grid format--simply click on a thumbnail view of your favorite page and go. But what makes Top Sites particularly useful is in the way it indicates (with a white-on-blue star icon) that sites have been updated since your last visit. Also, searching through your Web history has never been easier, with a Cover Flow-like interface letting you flip through Web pages so you can quickly find the site you want.
Legacy perks from previous versions of Safari, like the Snapback feature, make it easy to return to your original page when you're surfing through a lot of links. It also lets you collect and browse through RSS feeds right from the bookmarks panel. We like the clean interface and layout of browser controls, but wonder why Apple decided to switch its tab layout in the final version; tabs used to be on top of the browser during the beta period, but have moved back down below the address bar and toolbars in this version.
Overall, Safari is an extremely fast browser with plenty of useful features that users will appreciate, but choosing a browser is also a question of personal taste. If you're used to more add-ons or like to have more customization options, you should probably try another browser.
Watch the CNET video review of Apple Safari:
Publisher's description
From Apple :Safari offers you a superior Web experience with outstanding performance. Even the most complex of pages load at breakneck speed. In fact, Safari loads pages more quickly than any other Mac Web browser. But that's not all. Safari uses the advanced interface technologies underlying Mac OS X to offer you an all-new view of the Web, one that's much easier to use.
What's new in this version:
- Improved JavaScript performance
- Improved Full History Search performance for users with a large number of history items
- Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins, the search field and Yahoo! Mail
More popular Web Browsers downloads
- 7,952 downloads 1. Mozilla Firefox
- 752 downloads 2. Opera
- 542 downloads 3. Apple Safari
- 526 downloads 4. Google Chrome dev
- 395 downloads 5. Adobe Shockwave Player
- See all Web Browsers downloads
User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.8 stars out of 28 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 4 of 4 user reviewsSee all 4 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Apple Safari 4.0.4
Pros: 1. Loads most of the pages pretty fast except ones with heavy java.
2. Clean and minimalistic interfaceCons: 1. Crashed too often.
2. Odd placement of the refresh/stop buttonSummary: Safari 3 was stable and fast and had a unique interface like one refresh/stop button and progress bar in the URL bar. Since Safari 4 I have been searching for my default browser, but no luck. Firefox is a memory hog, Chrome spikes cpu usage when pla... read more >>
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Version: Apple Safari 4.0.4
Pros: - Very fast loading pages.
- Elegant
- SmoothCons: What I don't like about it is it doesn't have a homepage button like Firefox does.
Summary: Overall, I loved the Safari as it is faster than any browsers I've tried.
It doesn't crash for me. The graphics looked smooth in Safari. -
Version: Apple Safari 4.0.4
"Major Bug(s) cause crashes and instability in MS Vista"
Pros: User Interface
Cons: When accessing many sites the browser crashes and the loading speed is slow as it compares to the last version or the Firefox (perhaps because of the issue(s) ).
Summary: It is not very usable at this point. The software should have not been released with these major issues.
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Version: Apple Safari 4.0.4
Pros: It's Safari. It's usually smooth and easy to use. I like the speed with which it loads things.
Cons: Whenever I have 10+ tabs open, it ends up crashing. I lose too much info when it crashes, as it does not return to the same sites I was on before the crash, like Firefox does. I don't really care for Firefox, but I'll use that until Safari is fixed!
Summary: I won't be using Safari until the crash issue is resolved. This doesn't happen with my other apps, so I don't get why this keeps happening in Safari.
If there's going to be tabbed browsing, Apple, either tell us there's a tab limit or mak... read more >> - See all 4 user reviews Write review
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