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I’ve been using iCab as my main browser since 1998, and have gone through every consumer beta release since the days when iCab was available in German only, as well as literally dozens of non-public beta builds. Developed by Alexander Clauss and the iCab Company, a small, private software development firm founded by Oliver Joppisch, 34, and based in Braunschweig, Germany. iCab is currently available as a public beta. I particularly like the way iCab handles bookmarks (“Hotlist”) and history, and its forgiving flexibility and configurability, as well as its amazing compactness (just 2.3 MB download and 4 MB for the application file size) and low memory demands. Oliver Joppisch has noted that the motivating factor for iCab development was that both Netscape (pre Mozilla) and Internet Explorer were based on older programming concepts and evolutionary development, and are thus very bulky. He noted that Internet Explorer for the Mac is quite attractive, but it still seems excessive. iCab is intended to be a "slim," fast, smooth browser. In happy contrast to Explorer, iCab does not dump a ton of shared libraries and other junk into your System folder -- just a modest Preferences folder. Speaking of Preferences, iCab has a comprehensive range of preference settings, and is as configurable as Netscape and IE -- in some respects more so. I especially like iCab's Download Manager. It only takes a few minutes to download the iCab beta, and each new version accesses preferences and the "Hotlist" (ie: bookmarks) from the previous version, so there is no configuration hassle upgrading from version to version. However, it is probably wise to trash the preferences from previous builds of iCab and start afresh once in a while (make sure to save your Hotlist.html file from the preferences first if you want to retain your URL database). iCab also gives you the option on first startup of assimilating either Favorites from MSIE or Bookmarks from Netscape for its "Hotlist" menu. However you can also just make a copy of your Favorites file from MSIE, rename it "Hotlist.html" and drag it into the iCab preferences folder. Version 2.8, released this week, is the most comprehensive upgrade of this fast, stable, reliable browser yet. iCab Features: Major New Features In Version 2.8 New Icons under Mac OS X 
The Crystal icons are the new default icons under Mac OS X. 
Another build-in icon set are the Blueberry icons. 
You can also choose among other alternative icons sets which can be downloaded from the iCab home page. 
(gumdrop shown) Java under Mac OS X 
Support for the mouse wheel under Mac OS X If USB Overdrive for MacOSX is installed, the scrolling speed is even faster if you move the wheel faster. This is also supported by iCab, but you may which to set a lower scrolling speed in the iCab preferences in this case to make this feature work much better. Mac OS X itself doesn’t evaluate the speed when moving the mouse wheel, so without USB Overdrive installed you may which to configure a higher scrolling speed in the iCab preferences. Tools Menu 
Cookie Manager Link Manager Download Manager Filter Manager Error Report Script Debugger Console Kiosk Mode Cookie Manager Filter Manager The Filter Manager has two modes. A simple mode and an extended mode. Simple mode 
By default iCab uses the simple mode. The simple mode doesn’t allow changes to configurations. It is only possible to import, export and delete predefined configurations. It is also possible to change the order of the configurations (important ones should come first). To bottom part of the filter manager window will show some informations about the configuration. The toolbar contains several buttons: - Import imports a configuration file with site-specific settings Extended Mode 
The extended mode allows to create new configurations or to modify existing ones. The window will show three lists. The left one contains all configurations. Selecting a configuration will activate the list in the middle which then contains a list of preference sets that can be configured. Selecting one of the preference set items will activate the last list to the right which contains the URL filters for the selected configuration and preferences. The bottom part of the window contains informations about the configuration or the preferences itself. File page in Hotlist 
To file the page into the root of the Hotlist, click on the Root of the Hotlist button, otherwise select a folder from the folder list. 
Underline links The default is to underline links so that they can be easily recognized as links. Some web designers do not like this. They think that underlined links don’t fit to the design of their web page and therefore they try to disable the underline of links. Especially some non-experienced users may have problems recognizing the links in this case. With the new setting, the user has now a better control how the links should be displayed and if web pages are allowed to change the underlining. Configuring the list view of Hotlist, History, Download Manager and Cookie Manager iCab uses a list view to display the content of the Hotlist, History, Download Manager and Cookie Manager. The list view can be configured in many ways. You can reorder all the entries via Drag & Drop (with the exception of the History, which is always sorted chronological). Click (or Alt-Click, depending of the iCab preferences) on the list column headers to sort the entries alphabetically. Using the contextual menu (Control-Click on the list column headers) you can hide columns or you can switch them on again (see the image below). The exception is the very first column, which can’t be hidden (similar to the finder where the column with the file name is also visible all the time). You can change the widths of the columns by moving the edges of the column headers with the mouse. The order of the columns can be also changed by dragging a column header to the new position. The only exception is the very first column which will always remain on the first position (similar to the finder where the first column with the file name will also remain at the first position). iCab 2.8 System Requirements: The following components are also recommended: After the first final release, iCab will offer “iCab Pro” for $29. You will also be able to download a “lite” version for free. For more information, visit:
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