Apple Announces Safari 4 Public Beta

Apple announced a public beta of Safari 4 today with the "Nitro" engine that runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3.

"Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications."

The new public beta is available as a free download from Apple's website for both Mac and Windows.

Apple details the new features found in Safari 4:

- Top Sites, a display of frequently visited pages in a stunning wall of previews so users can jump to their favorite sites with a single click;
- Full History Search, where users search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily return to sites they've seen before;
- Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks as fun and easy as paging through album art in iTunes;
- Tabs on Top, for better tabbed browsing with easy drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones;
- Smart Address Field, that automatically completes web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history;
- Smart Search Field, where users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches;
- Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site's layout and text;
- Developer Tools - built-in web developer tools to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility; and
- Windows-native look in Safari for Windows, that uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications.

Notes

- Safari 3.2.1 is available for download (Leopard, Tiger, Windows) if you want to revert back.
- Passes the Acid 3 test (screenshot)