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iCab released an upgrade of their browser to version 4.5 on Sunday, adding more refinements and elements to iCab's already deep feature set, as well as the usual slate of bugfixes and compatibility tweaks such as Javascript tuning added to the Multi-touch trackpad gesture harmonization for the MacBook Air and the new MacBook/MacBook Pro, a YouTube Download filter, and very welcome improvements to the download manager -- especially a start/stop (ie: Pause) feature.I've become accustomed to expecting stability from iCab - final or beta - and version 4.5 seems typically solid and unbuggy. Because of some limitations of the Apple WebKit browser engine, which iCab is based on, the setting "JavaScript may open new windows without user interaction" didn't always work as expected. Now iCab tries to compensate this by some additional checks.
Other changes in Version 4.5 include:
New Features:
- In the bookmarks window you can now create "Smart Folders". You can't manually add bookmarks to Smart Folders -- instead you have to define some rules for these folders. iCab will then automatically populate these folders with all the bookmarks which match these rules. So, for example, you can create a folder where all the bookmarks are listed which were created in the last week, and where the main topic is "Mac".
- In the Bookmarks window there are two additional columns available (can be enabled/disabled through the contextual menu)
+ Show the creation date of a bookmark (available for all newly created bookmarks)
+ Tags. Tags can be used to categorizes the bookmarks and set keywords.
Both new properties are especially useful for the new smart folder feature.
- When filing news bookmarks it's now possible to create new folders directly in the "File Bookmark" dialog box.
- Multitouch trackpad gestures implemented (for the MacBook Air and the new MacBook/MacBook Pro models):
+ 3 finger swipe gestures left/right: go back/forward
+ 3 finger swipe gestures up/down: switch tabs left/right
+ rotate gestures: reload page
+ Pinch gestures: Make the text larger/smaller
- Added a "list view" in the build-in RSS reader.
- iCab will now use different colors for different parts of the URL in the URL field.
- In the Download Manager window there are now new shortcuts available: Cmd-I (Information), Space (start/stop the selected downloads) and Control-N (new download).
- In the Download Manager it's now possible to tell iCab to load URLs with a different search part only once when downloading whole web sites. This can be useful, if a certain web site does not return different content for different search parts in the URLs.
- If iCab is configured to ask what to do when loading a session file, it's now also possible to load the session file without closing the windows of the current session.
- When holding down the ALT key while launching iCab the autsave-session is not loaded.
- The YouTube Download filter was updated and now also supports downloading the new HD video quality. But please note, that only few videos currently are available in HD quality. So if the download in HD quality does not work, you have to download the SD quality. (An example video which is available in HD quality:
- In the experimental settings it is now possible to configure iCab so that it will decode "%nn"-encoded character in URLs when displaying the URLs in the status bar. Note that the "experimental settings" can be opened by entering "settings:" (including the colon) in the URL field and then hitting the return key.
Bugfixes:
- Added code to correct broken feed URLs (like "feed:http://domain/path/file" with multiple URL schemes).
- Fixes a problem of the Cache Browser. The preview didn't always work.
- In Kiosk mode the menus of the favorites folders in the toolbar were all disabled.
- In Kiosk mode it was possible to use Cmd-2 to switch on/off the navigation toolbar, which should not be possible.
- In the "Enter Kiosk" dialog box the close button in the window title bar was active, which shouldn't be the case.
- Workaround added for printing web pages with Frames.
- Added a workaround for a bug of the WebKit under MacOSX 10.5.5/6. When a web page with Flash content was opend in a background Tab so the pages is loaded while it is still hidden, a few pages did not show the flash content. This workaround can be enabled in the "experimental settings" if you visit pages where this issue shows up. This workaround should be switched off whenever possible, because it has a side effect: This workaound doesn't hide hidden Tabs anymore, it will move them out of the visible area of the window instead. And so input fields can still get the focus when using the Tab key to switch the focus. Most web pages with Flash content are not affected by this bug, also only MacOSX 10.5.5/6 has this problem, so the workaround usually doesn't need to be enabled.
- Added a workaround for MacOSX 10.4.x and Apple's "me.com" image gallery. Because of a bug in MacOSX 10.4.x the image gallery didn't work when iCab was configured in the cache settings to load files from the "best source" (which means cached files are loaded only from the web, if the file in the web is newer that the file in the cache).
- If JavaScript was disabled in general but for a certain IFRAME JavaScript was enabled, WebKit did enable JavaScript for the main frame again.
- Cookies for the TLD "name" were not accepted if the full domain name had only 2 levels.
- The Javascript call "prompt()" did return the default value when the user clicked "cancel" instead of "null".
The Download Manager tweaks are appreciated, but unfortunately iCab's Download Manager still doesn't come close to matching Opera's for slickness, convenience, speed, or reliability. I found that while the iCab DLM will resume a paused download (the control labeling could be clearer on these functions, it seemed to have great difficulty in restoring download speeds above a crawl (relatively speaking - I'm on dialup and all download speeds are slow, but iCab's resumed speeds were measured in days for a 25 MB file. By contrast I initiated a download of the same file at the same time in Opera, and was getting a 2 1/2 hours-ish DL time, which is excellent for that size file on my setup. Still plenty of room for improvement of this feature.
But of course there's all the returning iCab good stuff. One thing I love about iCab 4.x builds is that it's lightning starting up - maybe not quite as fast as Safari 4 but pretty speedy. Another is that while I've always liked iCab, going back to experimenting with a German-language version back in the late '90s, it's never been more likeable than it is with these Version Apple WebKit-based 4.2.5 versions.
iCab is a niche player in the browser world, with less than one percent of the market, but it deserves a wider clientele on merit, and reminds me of long-running ad campaign for a brand of beer here in Atlantic Canada, which claims that "people who like it like it a lot." The same goes for iCab's fiercely loyal cohort of fans, and they have a point. There is an awful lot to like about iCab, which I consider the Mercedes Benz of browsers. It may not be the most potent powerhouse on the Information Highway, but it's a tour-de-force of solid and innovative engineering with a quiality feel.
One new feature in recent builds of iCab is the Cache Browser that is now available in the Tools menu if you're runnign MacOSX 10.5 and later. Under Mac OS X 10.3/10.4 the Cache browser is not available because the format of the cache files is unknown under these MacOS versions. The Cache Browser window displays a list of all files that are stored in the web cache, and it's possible to filter out certain items by activating/deactivating the file type buttons or by entering some text. There's also a preview available for all files. Through the contextual menu it's also possible to save the files to disk. Very cool, especially for folks like me who spend a lot of time working offline and are stuck with a slow dialup connection..
Another very cool and handy new feature recently added to iCab is the ability to save Web pages as PDF files.
If you've never checked out iCab, or it's been a while since you did, give this little browser a look. You may get hooked. The only caveat is that while iCab has pledged from the outset that a free version would always be available, Now that Omni Group has made their OmniWeb browser freeware, iCab is the last OS X browser that requires a software license fee for full support. A single user license of "iCab Pro" costs $25 / 25 EUR. Entering this code in iCab will switch off the "shareware reminder" box. At the moment, the only restriction of the free version is that pesky little "shareware reminder" box popping up from time to time, but I assure you it is annoying. Also users who have paid for a license are able to get newer (beta) releases of iCab like this one earlier than other users who have to wait for final releases.
System requirements for iCab 4:
MacOSX 10.3.9 and newer,
MacOSX 10.4.x or 10.5.x is recommended.
System Support:
PPC/Intel
$25 Shareware/Freeware (NagWare)
For more information, visit:
http://www.icab.de/
Charles W. Moore
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