Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser that debuted on March 30. Release 2 includes a long list of feature tweaks and updates to JavaScript, CSS, Web APIs, Web Inspector, Accessibility, Rendering, Media, and Networking, plus bug fixes. Release notes are available on Apple's Safari Technology Preview website.
The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser.
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Apple's goal with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development ahead of launch. Safari Technology Preview can be run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while aimed at developers, it does not require a developer account to download.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Will this auto update?
Downloaded and use it now. But can it find a difference between normal safari and this one. Can someone summarize the most important benefits of the new safari technology ?
The most important part of this browser is that it implements the latest spec of JavaScript, ES6, and upcoming web technologies such as ES7 (not yet released version of JavaScript coming this year). It goes without saying this version of Safari will become the standard version of Safari once the next macOS is released so think of this browser as Apple's way of saying: "Hey devs, take Safari seriously again because we're about to bring it up to date with even more features than what Chrome has at the moment."Why do they need to do this? Well the features of ES6/7 are not completely native to current browsers (namely Chrome, Firefox and Safari)... Well, I say that... actually the big browsers at the moment do have support for the new ES features but not to the extent where developers can feel free to run native ES6/7. At the moment, developers have to transpile code written in the newest, fastest, latest spec of JavaScript to an older version that has a much better coverage on all browsers. Safari (along with many other browsers) didn't have any of the new JS features so developers couldn't use any of said features unless they were prepared to transpile their code. Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge are all slowly updating but Safari hasn't. The Technology Preview finally both evidence that Apple will definitely include ES6 in the next version of Safari and it's also a way for developers to start testing out their code on an official development branch of Safari.
So just like Chrome has stable Chrome, beta Chrome and Chrome Canary, Safari now has stable Safari, Safari Technology Preview and WebKit.
Excuse me if my explanation was off but that's the way I see it. I'm not Apple so I don't have the official story.
I've been using this the last couple of days and have found that it's definitely zippier, no crashes, no hangs. Regular Safari got meet the point where I was ready to go 100% chrome. My faith in Safari has been renewed with this release!
I don't get it, Safari is by far the best browser and has been since Mavericks, no crashes, fast and reliable.I have about >20 open tabs and have no problems.