4621 Cruz is a new social browser project for Mac OS 10.5 Leopard and up. While it looks very much like Safari, and is based on Apple's Webkit browser engine, Cruz has several interesting and unique features that set it apart from not only Safari but other browsers as well.

Cruz's marquee feature is a plug-in architecture a la Firefox's, called "BrowsaBrowsa" (keep working on that name, guys) which works within two sidebars, either of which can display a Web page, so it's possible to have three pages side-by-side in one window.

Another new wrinkle is a CoverFlow plug-in that, on Web sites that support it can display link thumbnails. Cruz also supports Greasemonkey scripts, of which at this point I must concede total ignorance.

Yet another innivation that I've never seen on any other browser is a menu link to a Website site Down for Everyone or Just Me? which documents network problems.

And my personal fave so far is another menu command that converts long URL strings to tiny URLs. Cool and convenient

I downloaded Cruz, gave it a try, and was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly it works despite being a 0.1 release.

Unfortunately, there is no bookmark import function yet, but I expect that will come in a later build, and hooray! - Session Restore is there already. Cruz proves as fast as Safari if not faster, which is to say gratifyingly fast indeed, and I cncountered no stability problems although it's early days yet.

While the question is certainly begged as to whether the Mac world needs another browser in an already cropwded field, this one brings some stuff to the table that you can't get anywhere else, and Cruz's smooth performance with such an early build bodes well for its future. One to watch, and one that I can see myself using.

Features:

• Open Plug-in Architecture


• Built-in Userscripting


• Userstyles


• ÜberView for Plug-in Split Views


• Global Keyboard Shortcut


• Single-Window Browsing Mode


• BrowsaBrowsa Plug-in for Sidebars


• TinyURL creation/expansion


• Full-Screen Mode


• Automatic Software Updates


• Customizable Shortcuts


• Hidden "Closed" Windows


• Thumbnail Plug-in for CoverFlow


• Session Restore


• Full WebInspector


• Custom User-Agent Strings


• Integrated Gears-loading (No InputManager)


• Custom Window Opacity/Level/Style

System Support:
PPC/Intel

Free

For more information, visit:
http://cruzapp.com/

Charles W. Moore

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