Safari becomes a platform
Out of all the news from Apple’s latest keynote (short version: Leopard shiny, new toys, iPhone not late, Safari moving to windows) the announcement that Apple will release a Windows version of its web browser Safari struck me as an important one (public beta is already available at Apple’s homepage).
At first glance, non-Mac users would be hard pressed to move to Safari - Firefox and Opera works well for most, and those still using IE probably don’t want to move to anything.
However, the following announcement made Apple’s intentions clear: iPhone apps will work in Safari. The idea, obviously, is for Safari to become a platform which would work hand in hand with the iPhone, with the popularity of one driving the other. It will also make it easier for developers, who will now be able to test-drive their apps without actually having the iPhone (many developers might not be rich enough or be in a position to buy one).
How will Safari fare as far as web browsing goes? Well, it’s supposedly a lot faster than IE, although I’d like to see some comparisons with Firefox. I will be testing it out and writing my thoughts on it later today.
*update: Safari is totally unstable for me at this stage. I tried it out, but clicking on anything bookmark-related makes it crash. I’ll try it out on another box tomorrow.
June 11th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Right on Stan, good call. With the 3rd part iPhone apps all to be geared around Safari, they need Safari to be on Windows. Not sure how I missed that, other than the fact I was listening in live on an distorted radio stream
June 11th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
[…] And there are strange glitches. For instance, when I switch between code view and visual view here in WordPress, it munges all my formatting, making everything into one paragraph. Okay. I can’t use this version of Safari to update this blog. Back to Firefox…Meanwhile, Frantic Industries says the Windows version of Safari is unstable (and I couldn’t add this link in Safari 3.0, either). Sigh. […]
June 11th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
[…] I must admit that when I saw the news about Apple releasing a version of its Safari browser for Windows, I wondered why the hell anyone would care, unless they happened to be Apple devotees who wanted a familiar browser to use on a Windows box. After all, if you want an alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Exploder 7 (and who doesn’t), there’s always Firefox, and it does lots of things that Safari doesn’t, such as supporting plugins. And then after reading more about it, I realized — like Stan Schroeder and Scott Karp — that it is a kind of Trojan Horse, designed to enable developers to work on apps for the iPhone, etc. and thereby become a kind of platform for future Apple widgets and software. Smart. […]
June 11th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
I for one was happy to try it out. But alas, it doesn’t work properly at all on my Win XP Pro. All text is invisible - from toolbar to bookmarks to even web pages. We’ll see what happens when beta testing is over.
June 12th, 2007 at 2:21 am
Yes, it doesn’t work very well at all. I gave up on making a review simply because it crashes all the time. It probably has to do with me using Blackbox as Windows shell, but it’s unstable even with the standard shell. Apple, more polishing, please.
June 15th, 2007 at 6:18 am
Safari always had consistent looking aqua form elements on mac. Now with the new Mac beta if a site has applied styles to certain form elements they override the aqua design. Makes for a terrible looking inconsistent page.
I am really hoping this is a bug and not the new direction for Safari on a mac.
June 16th, 2007 at 5:22 am
[…] I noticed it (although I don’t think it’s ultimately going to work out to be a big deal since safari itself isn’t currently an overly compelling product), frantic industries sure noted it. I can remember in the furor after the wwdc several other bloggers who noted it with greater or lesser interest. […]
June 26th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
[…] Along with that smarter folks than me have weighed in on the reasoning of Apple releasing a windows version of Safari and while it can make for an interesting afternoon of reading and speculation I am more interested in how the browser works. So I have spent the last while on and off using Safari as my main browser. […]
May 28th, 2008 at 10:16 am
vpzgnab czbjdt nxmh sgeiybrt amcfj ljwrpmody rjbyozs
February 8th, 2009 at 7:05 am
You are a very smart person!
March 10th, 2009 at 5:07 am
This blog is great, good job
I just wanna ask a random question, has anyone ever tried making money with Google and their new cash thing they do? Supposedly, so I have been told , there are guys making hundreds of $ a day! The address is here, just dont know if you guys thought it is legit? http://www.googlecash09.blogspot.com
April 7th, 2009 at 2:32 am
Hi there I like your post
April 7th, 2009 at 4:55 am
Making money via Cash Gifting seems to be the only thing making money these days.
April 14th, 2009 at 2:26 am
What is captcha code?, pls provide me captcha code codes or plugin, Thanks in advance.
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:02 am
Wow! what an idea ! What a concept ! Beautiful .. Amazing ?
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:10 am
Come on dude, these facts* and proof* i mean who is posting* lol
May 28th, 2009 at 7:31 am
amazing stuff thanx
June 8th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Great information, I will be linking back to you and going to look around at your other posts.
June 28th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Hi, I can?t understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Can you Help me, please