Jun 10, 2012

Apple Releases Safari 6 Beta ahead of WWDC ’12

In anticipation of its World-Wide Developers Conference taking place tomorrow, Apple has released a public beta of Safari 6, the next big upgrade to the company's web browser.

Other confirmed product previews include iCloud, iOS 6, and OS X Mountain Lion, alongside rumors of new Ivy Bridge-based Macs and third-party apps for Apple TV. So far only Safari 6 has been generally released, however, with several new features.

Safari 6 features some immediately visible upgrades, first among which is the new “uni-bar,” which merges the bookmark, address and search bar item into one that users can type either internet addresses or text search strings into; Safari 6 will parse user input using Apple's data detectors and send the user to a site or their preferred search engine.

A similar feature is found in Google's Chrome web browser, where it is called the “omnibox.”

Another existing feature, the Do-Not-Track HTTP header option, has been moved to the Privacy preference tab in Safari 6. Enabling this feature will tell websites that support the standard not to track your web use outside of their domain. Heretofore, the option was only available in the Develop menu, which itself was disabled by default unless the user specifically enabled it under the Advanced preferences tab.

iCloud tab syncing is a new feature expected in OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6 and appears to be enabled in Safari 6, though the service itself doesn't appear to be live yet. A small iCloud button to the left of the tab bar can be clicked to sync open Safari tabs between all devices uses a single iCloud account.

Also of note is the larger 1024x1024 Safari app icon, contained in Safari's resources. Other files also include larger icons, an indication that Apple is moving toward Retina displays in their Mac line.

Official announcements about iCloud, iOS 6, OS X Mountain Lion, and Safari 6 are expected during tomorrow's WWDC ’12 keynote, set to start at 9:30am PDT.

The Safari 6 beta can be downloaded for Lion and Snow Leopard.

2 comments:

  1. I would appreciate a beta for Windows 7...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Apple has halted all development of Safari for any Windows platforms.

    ReplyDelete