I’ve flirted with Apple’s latest browser offering on and off for a couple of months now. The first time I had downloaded the Safari 4 beta was after hearing about all the cool features such as coverflow in bookmarks and history and the top sites menu. That same time I uninstalled it about ten minutes later, hopped on to the Apple web site (where would I be without Chrome – it’s my workhorse) and reverted back to version 3.2.2. Since then I’ve tried it a few times, hoping Apple had fixed it, but as yet they haven’t.
The main problem I see with it is the Windows native design. It looks okay-ish in Vista, but then Vista can’t support running a browser and you don’t get to see much of it. For those of us who stuck with XP, Safari 4 looks absolutely hideous. The tabs bar is horrid XP blue (or oliver or silver) and the close buttons are far too big. I don’t know about anybody else, but the reason I swapped to Safari in the first place is because of the Cocoa style interface and a slight passion of mine for hating everything Windows. Safari 4 does continue to use Apple fonts – such as Lucida Grande, but if you’ve already got them installed then you’re going to be welcomed with a Times New Roman interface … nice. A button to turn off the XP sillyness and force the Safari 3 interface would be a very welcome addition.
Even worse is Safari’s copy and paste job on the “Page” and “Settings” menus that have been in Internet Explorer since version 7. I would have been happy with them if I could have dragged them out of the menu bar and back in to the customize menu, but to date you’re forced to live with them. I know why, a user needs their functionality, but when I’ve turned on the traditional menu system (File, Edit…) then I really don’t need the repetition. It’s the same in IE, but I had credited Apple with a bit more intuition than that.
Finally, there’s work needed on the rendering engines. It’s not good when even Apple’s own web site doesn’t function properly. It probably looks lovely on a Mac, but why produce something for Windows if it’s going to be a half-hearted attempt. Safari 4 hasn’t moved on that much since 3 either. Sure, Apple have thrown in all your favorite iTunes functions and upgraded the Web-Kit and JavaScript libraries used but where’s the amazing new Apple features we’ve come to expect. With increased competition from Chrome and Firefox, as well as the launch of Windows 7 (unless that doesn’t work either), Apple had better get their thinking caps on.
Then again, Steve’s back.