safaripreviewiconApple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced four years ago in March 2016. Apple designed the ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

‌Safari Technology Preview‌ release 109 is the first version built on the new Safari 14 update included in macOS Big Sur. It supports Safari Web Extensions imported from Chrome, Firefox, and Edge and converted using Xcode 12, plus it adds the Privacy Report feature that shows the trackers that Intelligent Tracking Prevention is blocking.

Tab previews are available so you can preview tabs to find the one you're looking for, and tabs also support favicons by default. In Safari 14, Adobe Flash is no longer supported.

‌Safari Technology Preview‌ will also now notify users when a saved password in iCloud Keychain has been in a data breach, and Web Authentication using Touch ID has been implemented, as has support for PIN entry and account selection on external FIDO2 security keys.

Along with these major new features, the update introduces bug fixes and feature improvements for Web API, CSS, Web Animations, SVG, IndexedDB, Scrolling, Layout, Media, WebRTC, Back-forward Cache, JavaScript, Editing, Accessibility, Apple Pay, Web Inspector, and Web Driver.

The new ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ update is available for macOS Catalina and macOS Big Sur, the newest version of the Mac operating system that's set to be released this fall.

The ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple's aim with ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

Top Rated Comments

FNH15 Avatar
49 months ago

<Downloads New Safari Technology Preview>
<Checks Out New Features>
<Smiles appropriately>
<Checks out YouTube>
<Sees that Safari Technology Preview still can't play 4K videos on YT>
<Uninstalls Safari Technology Preview>

Seriously, when I heard that AppleTV was gaining the ability to play YT videos in full 4K, I hoped that Safari would also finally gain that ability as well.

Better luck next year kid.
It's Google’s problem, not Apple’s. If YouTube doesn’t want to use standards compliant codecs for 4K video, that’s not Apple’s problem...
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pujones1 Avatar
49 months ago
39 trackers prevented on Mac Rumors. I’m liking the preview.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bokito Avatar
49 months ago

Took about 5 minutes for CPU to spike and the browser to freeze

If you disable website icons in tabs they go back to their old behavior of hiding behind one another (which is the worst thing about safari imo). Apple.. just copy google with regards to tabs. It shouldn't take a decade for you to get tabs right. Maybe your engineers only have 5 tabs open but in the real world we have 30 tabs open.

There is no obvious way to see what tab is causing the CPU spiking (again... JUST COPY GOOGLE).
It's easy to see in Activity Monitor as every tab is running in it's own process. So you should actually see what process (website) is causing the issue. Copying Google is the worst thing they can do imho. They do certain things right, but they do a whole lot wrong (eat your memory and battery for example).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dhoughal Avatar
49 months ago
Wow, page loading and rendering is obscenely fast.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nutmac Avatar
49 months ago

<Downloads New Safari Technology Preview>
<Checks Out New Features>
<Smiles appropriately>
<Checks out YouTube>
<Sees that Safari Technology Preview still can't play 4K videos on YT>
<Uninstalls Safari Technology Preview>

Seriously, when I heard that AppleTV was gaining the ability to play YT videos in full 4K, I hoped that Safari would also finally gain that ability as well.

Better luck next year kid.
Apple typically adds new codec to operating system, not Safari. For what it's worth macOS Big Sur is adding VP9 codec.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tekguy0 Avatar
49 months ago
Dang, that purple logo looks nice.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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