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After an initial trial, I haven't been using Safari much. I found the first two public releases buggier than I could happily tolerate, and their performance, at least on my dial up connection, erratic -- satisfyingly speedy on some Websites, but frustratingly slow on others. There was considerable debate here on teh Odyssey about that latter point a couple of months ago, and it appeared that Safari is particularly "tuned" for broadband performance, where it reportedly excels, but that is of academic interest to the majority of Internet users on dial up hookups. The original Safari builds also did not support tabbed browsing, which I have become addicted to and find an indispensible convenience and time-saver. Consequently I went back to using iCab for utilitarian work tasks, where it does a great job, and either Mozilla or Camino for general surfing. I'm particularly smitten with Camino 0.7 these days, finding it fast, stable, and nice to use with no notable bad habits. I've been less enamored with the more recent builds of Mozilla, especially their handling of text downloads or copy/pastes, which for some reason have become cluttered with formatting characters. Camino does a likewise messy job of saving Web pages as plain text (iCab is superb at that), but at least copied and pasted text is clean. I have been hearing good reports about the more recent builds of Safari from friends using bootleg copies, so I was eager to get my hands on the latest Beta 2 public release, which was posted yestarday, and which now incorporates tabbed browsing and AutoFill forms. I'm not a heavy user of the latter, but as noted above, tabbed browsing is much appreciated. Apple says that there have been more then two million downloads of Safari since its first free public beta release on January 7, and is still claiming that Safari is the fastest web browser ever created for the Mac, and "Safari loads pages more quickly than any other Mac Web browser." Well, again, for dial-up users, I would say that claim needs some qualification. In test driving the April 14 release so far, I agree that its speed is impressive on certain sites. It downloads Applelinks pages faster than any other browser I've tried. However, on the http://www.nationalpost.com/home/ National Post site, which I visit daily, Safari Beta 2 is excruciatingly slow -- definitely much slower than Camino and Mozilla. 
On the other hand, I just love the new tabbed browsing feature. It works pretty much the same as in Mozilla/Netscape/Camino, which is to say very well, but the little Close buttons on each tab are a nice enhancement (Command W works as well). This build of Safari seems so far to have squashed the buggy instability that plagued the first two Safari versions I tried, and while its early days yet, I've not had any unexpected quits or other erratic behavior. I'm getting more accustomed to the Safari Bookmark motif, although I still have to say that I prefer the conventional Bookmark menu implementation. I'm also still unenamored with Safari's appearance, a disaffection that applies in general to all Apple applications that use the "Brushed Metal" theme. While there are several third party hacks that apply an "Aquafied" appearance theme to Safari, I wish Apple would include an alternative in the browser itself, as Mozilla, Netscape, and even IE do.
New in Safari Beta 2
With Safari, you can
Safari Beta 2 also introduces the “Reset Safari” option that erases browsing history, empties the cache, clears the Downloads window, removes cookies, clears Google search entries and removes any saved names and passwords or other AutoFill text. Additional Safari Beta 2 features and enhancements include: easy import of Netscape and Mozilla bookmarks, increased support for AppleScript, enhanced standards compatibility for improved web browsing and expanded language support for Japanese, French and German. Safari is based on the Linux-developed KHTML rendering engine, from KDE’s Konqueror open source project. Apple says it continues to contribute to and work closely with the open source community, and Safari related sessions planned for the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, June 23-27, in San Francisco will help developers learn how to factor Safari technology in to their applications. For more information on conference tracks, exhibits and registration visit http://www.apple.com/wwdc. The Safari Beta 2 release is available now for free download at http://www.apple.com/safari, It requires Mac OS X version 10.2 “Jaguar” and is optimized for Mac OS X v10.2.3 or later. Safari Beta 2 is a compact 3.9MB download and is localized for English, Japanese, French and German. The final version of Safari will be made available later in 2003. I'm going to try using Safari Beta 2 for a while as my main browser to see if I warm up to it more than I have in the past.
For more information, visit:
File swapping and crossover cables Right Again Latest Safari Hacks, Enhancers, and Add-Ons From Jack Russell Charles, As always a thoughtful article. I can report that the 10.2.5 does indeed, fix the date/time issue that 10.2.4 brought us. My Dual 867 MDD is no longer, forever, trapped on New Years Eve, 1969. FWIW we installed the 10.2.5 update (using the combo updater) on everything here (Dual MDD, G3/350 iMac, 600 iBook, and old unsupported PTP now G3/400) without a glitch of any kind. All had been running 10.2.4 prior to the installation. I had also read the kernel panic reports, but, fortunately saw none of it with our machines. 10.2.5 worked as advertised. Jack Russell
Thanks for the report, Jack.
Charles File swapping and crossover cables From Jeremy Scott-Joynt "How do I connect two OS 10.2 macs together to share files. I know that I need to use a crossover cable which I have. I also know that I need to turn on sharing. I am just not sure what to do next." Doesn't need a crossover cable, as far as I know. I'm pretty certain two Jaguar macs can use a regular ethernet cable or a crossover cable, whichever happens to be handy. All the best, Jeremy
Hi Jeremy;
John is running a WallStreet PowerBook and an iMac (not sure what model.)
According to Apple's Knowledge base article on the topic,
"Most later Macintosh computers are able to use either a straight-through Ethernet cable or a crossover Ethernet cable automatically through the use of Auto-Medium Dependent Interface Crossover (Auto-MDIX). Other Macintosh computers require the use of an Ethernet crossover cable because they only work with the Medium Dependent Interface (MDI) . "
The WallStreet isn't mentioned (too old?), but I'm sure it wants a crossover cable, regardless of the OS.
Charles From David Stein 10.2.5 UPGRADE Spent so far on OS X - and it's not a mature system yet by any means.
Beta - $30
May be cheaper to buy a new Mac-but I wouldn't be surprised if one day soon the system software that comes with a new computer can only be installed on that computer. I think that is where we are heading>
Regards,
Latest Safari Hacks, Enhancers, and Add-Ons
Safari Enhancer 1.5.4 Activates Hidden Safari Features Safari Enhancer is a programme for enabling several hidden features of the Safari web browser beta. Among the things enabled are a debugging menu that allows you to do such things as enabling keyboard and mouse shortcuts, changing what browser Safari identifies itself as, and changing how Safari handles Security. Safari also lets you specifiy a minimum font size, as well as allowing you to turn off underlines on links and handling direct bookmark importing from Netscape, Internet Explorer, Chimera, Mozilla, OmniWeb, and iCab, and much more.
New in this version:
Safari Beta II AppleScript Collection Safari Beta II adds a new do JavaScript command that enables AppleScript to communicate with the browser via JavaScript. Apple has posted a selection of sample AppleScripts to use with Safari The Safari Beta II Script Collection includes:
1. Import Image Into iPhoto
Safari Menu 1.3 Open Safari Bookmarks From The Menu Bar Safari Menu lets you view and go to any links from you Safari bookmarks. You can go to any URL or search the Google search engine. Enjoy! Safari Menu let's you view all your bookmarks from the Safari web browser system wide. This means that you can go to any site you've got in your bookmarks with just one click.
Additionally, you can directly go to any URL or search in the Google search engine.
System requirements:
Safari Aquafier 2.0 Changes The Brushed Metal Interface In Safari To Aqua Safari Aquafier allows you to change the interface of Apple's new Safari web browser from brushed metal to Aqua. The process is completly reversible. It is important to note that this application is NOT compatible with versions of Safari below Public Beta 2.
New in this version:
Safari Toolkit Platinum 2.0 Enables Extra Features Safari Toolkit Platinum is the ultimate toolbox for Apple's Safari browser. Why download multiple peices of software when you can do everything with one easy-to-use application? Unlike the free version, no use of complicated shell scripts is required. Simply run the application, confirm the task you want to perform, and follow the easy graphical prompts. To apply ALL of the tweaks included in Safari Toolkit Platinum takes under one minute. When you purchase Safari Toolkit Platinum, you will also receive a license for unlimited technical support. Whenever you need help, just send us an e-mail including the technical support ID number you receive in your purchase confirmation e-mail. Free upgrades to all future versions of Safari Toolkit Platinum are included.
Safari Toolkit Platinum includes all these features: • Safari Aquafier Plus - easily change from brushed metal to Aqua and back again • SafariTheme Plus - replace the icon set in Safari with a custom one • Safari Debugger Plus - fix problems with online banking and other "IE Only" sites • Link Underline Remover Plus - remove ugly blue underlines from hyperlinks • Great Documentation - find out exactly how to use the debug menu and each component of Safari Toolkit Platinum
Speed Download Is Now Fully Compatible With Safari A freshly engineered version of Speed Download 1.9.8 has been released that is fully compatible with the latest Safari browser.
Here is what’s new:
Download:
SafariNoBrush 1.21 Removes Brushed Metal Style From Safari
SafariNoBrush is a simple application that will patch Apple's Safari browser to remove the brushed appe
SafariMasks 1.2 Safari Theme Editor
Simply choose a new theme from the list and click install. Within seconds you can have a brand new theme to use when surfing the web. It's that simple.
New in this version:
System requirements:
PithHelmet 0.5 Adds Content Filtering & Ad Blocking To Safari
The PithHelmet adds some some basic but powerful content filtering to Apple's Safari browser. The basic purpose is to filter advertisements, but there are other potential uses as well (blocking Flash, Shockwave or horrible midi loops).
System requirements:
For more information, visit:
Safari Debugger 2.2 Fixes Errors With Online Banking And Other Websites
Safari Debugger allows you to enable many hidden features in Safari by activating the debug menu. Using this menu, you can enable tabbed browsing in v62 and higher, fix problems with banking sites, and troubleshoot your own webpages.
Chinese Safari 1.2.3 Safari Chinese Localization Safari Traditional Chinese Language Package 1.2.3 for Safari 1.0(v60)
System requirements:
Chinese Safari is freeware
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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