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Pre-expo rumors that Apple might adopt open source Chimera as its proprietary browser proved partly correct. Yesterday Steve Jobs did announce Apple's first browser product since the short-lived OpenDoc-based CyberDog, and it is a Cocoa-based open source application, but it's not Chimera, but rather a completely new product called Safari. Safari is based on the KHTML code -- the open source HTML parser/renderer used in the Linux Konqueror Desktop Environment (KDE) 3.0.2 browser module. Safari also uses the JavaScriptCore, which "takes the cross-platform KJS library (also from KDE 3.0.2), and combines it with the PCRE regular expression library to work with Mac OS X. Safari is currently available as a public beta, and I downloaded a copy last evening for a looksee -- a modest by browser standards 3 MB for the compressed disk image, and it occupies just 7.1MB of hard drive space. 
Safari has some interesting features. One that caught my eye immediately was that the URL field doubles as a page load progress bar, which is a cool idea, although I found it's relevance to the actual state of page-loadedness wildly innacurate.
Google search capabilities are built into the user interface for convenient and quick searches, an idea borrowed from the Opera browser.
Bookmark re-naming allows the user to easily rename cumbersome website names to shorter names more suitable for bookmarks, which will appeal to some, but I found the naming dialog popping up every time I added a bookmark annoying and cumbersome. Safari's bookmark library is a single-window interface similar to Apple’s popular iTunes and iPhoto application interfaces that makes organizing and managing bookmarks similar for folks who prefer that sort of interface environment. I didn't immediately warm to it. Optional pop-up blocking can be set to automatically block advertisements. Address Book integration will be convenient for users of the OS X Address Book, and automatically incorporates all websites listed in the user’s Address Book contact database, such as personal websites, into Safari’s bookmark library. Claimed extensive support of established industry standards to deliver proper rendering of web pages, such as HTML, XHTML 1.0, DOM, CSS, SSL, JavaScript and Netscape style plug-ins like QuickTime with MPEG-4, Flash, Shockwave and Real. There is an simplified download process with automatic handling of disk images, file decompression, MacBinary and BinHex conversion for easy download and installation of files and applications without extra files remaining on the desktop. However, Steve Jobs Expo Keynote calim that “Safari is the fastest browser on the Mac, and we predict that many will feel it is the best browser ever created,” is simply untrue in the first instance and unlikely in the second at this stage of Safari's development. I found the Safari beta to be significantly slower than the Chimera/Mozilla/Netscape troika, lacking in some key features like tabbed browsing and the ability to save Web pages as plain text, and more than a little buggy. Safari starts up quickly enough, but page load on some sites is excruciatingly slow, and I got a lot of erratic, unintended page reloads. I'm becoming addicted to tabbed browsing, and miss this feature when it's not available. Also, Safari is only able to import bookmarks from Internet Explorer, which I don't use, so that wasn't much help to me. 
To be fair, this build of Safari is a fairly early beta, and it will surely improve with subsequent development. The final version of Safari is projected to be available later in 2003. Since it's not terribly large, it's worth downloading to check out, but I wouldn't suggest making it your default browser for some time yet. Chimera and Mozilla remain my browsers of choice in OS X, with iCab for certain utilitarian tasks that it handles especially well.
System requirements:
The Safari public beta is available for free download at ViaVoice Microphone Problem Modem disconnect issues Reasons to upgrade Constantly waiting for the beach ball From William Du Bois Mac OS X (10.2.3) is just too slow. I am constantly waiting for the beach ball. I have a 400 MHz G4 with 960 MB of RAM on a 25 GB partition. My files are on another 40 GB hard drive. I should get better performance than this. I have tried ever trick anyone can suggest. Updating to Jaguar, I was hoping for only one new feature -- improved performance. There are no other features I find useful. I really want to encourage friends to swtich to Mac but I am embarrassed at how sluggish it is.
Hi William;
I have certainly done my share of complaining about OS X sluggishness, but what you describe sounds a lot worse than anything I'm experiencing on the 500 MHz G3 with 640 MB of RAM and a packed out 4 MB OS X partition.
I would encourage you to run a full slate of diagnostic and disk maintenance/repair procedures. Your rig should be faster than it sounds.
Charles From Kim Peacock Charles, I am hoping that you could resolve a problem I have with ViaVoice on Jaguar. ViaVoice works fine in 10.1.5 but, as you no doubt know, the microphone situation has changed slightly in 10.2.2. In the set-up procedure, the user will get a message :"The microphone appears not to be connected unless he/she has tweaked some System Preferences. The ViaVoice support site's FAQ explains that the user has to set both theSound and Speech Preferences (in System Preferences) so that they "recognize AK5370". Therein lies my problem. The only choices that I can see are "Sound in" and "External Mic". There is no list of microphones available ( as you would find a list of printers in Print Centre, for example). I sent an e-mail to ViaVoice support a few days ago without any answer. My next step is to phone unless you can enlighten me in the meantime.I hope that your experience with this great sofware will help. Kim Peacock
Hi Kim;
AK5370 shows up in my Jaguar Speech Preference pane Speech Recognition tab in the Microphone submenu at the bottom of the window.
I also find that I sometimes have to turn speech recognition on and dictate a few words before ViaVoice X will work. I hope that the recenlty released ViaVoice update patch will fix this. 
Charles
ViaVoice Microphone Problem From Kim Peacock Charles , Thank you for your reply about my problem. I am writing from home and I checked my System Preferences for Sound and Speech. I notice that my screenshots are slightly different. 
Thanks again, Kim
Hi Kim;
For some reason your system doesn't seem to be seeing your ViaVoice headset microphone. %@*(&$%$# USB audio! Not sure what to tell you. If the OS X Speech Recognition can't identify the microphone, it's hard to blame that on ViaVoice. Bring back PlainTalk!
Charles
From Anonymous Charles,
To Herbert Goodfriend on
There are two Apple kbase articles acknowledging the issue mentioned on that page. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106928 http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120157 and another here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106433 and yet another here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24803 To say Apple is not acknowledging the issue is wrong. Hope these help.
Sincerely,
I expect they will. Thanks. Charles From John Dennis Hopefully I will be getting a job soon so I can upgrade to Jaguar. It is hard to buy when you are not sure where the money will come from. It looks to be a pretty cool browser. You may want to do a review of this. It is a small download that even us on dial up can not complain about. http://www.apple.com/safari/ Here are some disk utilities that require OS 10.2 which I do not have. You may want to try these out and let us all know how they are. http://www.granitedigital.com/catalog/pg90_smartvueutilities.htm
Hi John;
See above on Safari.
Charles
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
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