The second public beta of Apple's new browser Safari is now available. This is v.73 if you're keeping track. I'm not sure why they are still calling it a beta, but whatever. I'm very happy with it as my main browser (but I was happy with v.67, so this is to be expected.)
My very small gripes are as follows: spell checking (finally, yay!) has to be enabled in every new textarea (why not gloabally on? Boo!) and, of even less concern, but still, there is no way to force links from external programs to open in a new tab (rather than a new window.) Camino could do this.
Otherwise, perfect.
Jim - in Safari's general preferences window, check "Open links from applications in the current window." This will take care of your external program/tabs problem.
Hey, you're right. Thanks Chris!
What are tabs? I think I remember you saying that you used them in Mozilla. I'm intrigued.
I'm out right now. I'll post some screenshots tomorrow. What browser o you use now?
Explorer 5.2.1 I don't like it but I'm less happy with mozilla and Netscape is slow as molassas in winter.
You run OS X, right? You should definitely give Safari a try.
Tabbed browsing is sort of hard to explain in a way that makes it seem as great as it is, but here goes. It's basically another way to do 'open in a new window...' except that it doesn't open a new window. It's great if you tend to have lots of pages open at the same time.
Here's a shot of google news in my browser:
As I read, I command-click (or right click) on every story I want to read. When I do, Safari starts loading that page in the background - sort of underneath the page I am reading. At the top of the browser window I can see a tab indicating this page that is underneath. Here's a shot showing 4 pages loading in 4 different tabs while I'm still reading the google news page.
The spinning wheel indicates that they are in the process of loading.
Now if I click on any of the tabs, that page immediately pops to the top. Google news is still there, but it's now underneath. The google news tab is all the way on the left.
Command-w closes a tab. Command-t opens a new blank tab. Command-shift-right arrow moves focus one tab to the right, command-shift-left arrow moves focus one tab to the left.
Might not seem like much, but I found that once I started using tabs I couldn't do without them.
It looks like we'll soon be able to sync bookmarks via iSync:
http://www.looprumors.com/
Yeah, I saw that too. But what does it mean exactly? Between machines? Through .Mac? (Do you use that?)
I get it, very cool. I'll download Safari today.
Thanks.
My assumptions are that it would be like syncing anything else via .Mac (between workstations or portables). Because I am not paying for an ISP currently (read: have no ISP based email account), I purchased a .Mac account and have been very happy with it.
I see the main benefit of syncing bookmarks via .Mac is that iSync appends the file (addresses book, iCal and hopefully Safari) versus simply overwriting it. I've tried out several Applescript based means of syncing my bookmark files and the main disadvantage is that you're simply overwriting the old file. If you work on more than one computer through out the day, it becomes a huge hassle to update the file and you eventually loose bookmarks by forgetting to update them.
For me, this added functionality makes the money spent on .Mac totally worth it.
How are you online without an ISP?
I should look into .Mac more. I do use a couple different machines so it might be useful. Although that was one reason I started the weblog. Between the side links, and the ability to search for stuff I know I posted in the past, I have access to most of my links from anywhere in the world.
Still, I know iSync is going to be very important in the future. Now when is the iTunes rendezvous airport library streaming we saw demonstrated like a year ago going to hit?
OK, I over simplified my ISP situation. I have connectivity from my home but it is not my account and I don't use the email address for the account.
I also looked into posting my bookmark links via PHP but the effort involved overweighed it's usefullness. That and the fact that the signal to noise of all my bookmarks would greately reduce its usefulness.
Have you looked into iCommune(http://icommune.sourceforge.net) for sharing your iTunes library?
Yeah, I know about it but haven't played with it yet. I use OS X exclusively, but in the office (graphic designers) they all still run 9, so I haven't downloaded it. Not to useful with only one machine.
Not sure when I'll ever be able to move them to X. Lack of Quark and lack of font management is a problem. Do you have any experience with fonts on X?
I haven't had the time to play with iCommune either. The rumor mongers have been saying that the new version of iTunes will have rendezvous support. I think that I'll just wait it out.
As to font management apps, I have Font Reserve and another (the name escapes me and I'm not at home right now). I installed Font Reserve and the fonts on my system went completely ape shit. I didn't have the time to debug the situation and just uninstalled it. I haven't really played with it since (been codin', not designin', lately). Need an *evaluation* copy?
I understand your frustration with having to run 9 because of Quark. I have many friends in the same situation. What is the problem with running Quark under Classic? Is it just printing problems?
I guess it's more like they are resistent to changing because (understandably) that means learning a new system. I know it will drive them crazy. Little stuff like command-n making a new finder window instead of a new folder. So I don't want to switch them until it's actually a benefit to them (when they're not just running classic apps.)
Probably there would be printing problems but I haven't even looked that hard at it yet. They have an epson 3000 run through an epson stylus RIP. I know this wasn't supported at first, but I haven't looked recently. I guess we could just keep the print server on 9 if we had to.
But fonts are probably the biggest problem. They have thousands of fonts. And they expect auto activation of sets when they open documents (they use ATM now.) There is nothing that sophisticated for X. What's Apple's deal? This should be built into the OS. I guess they figure graphic designers aren't going to abandon the platform, so they can wait and make other people happy first.
For me it's a dream (apache, PHP, MySQL) so I'm not complaining. They like 9 fine (well, they'd like it to crash less) so they are actually in no hurry. Probably nothing will change until someone buys a new machine and is forced to switch.
What are you coding?
I've been learning C++ (you know, the gateway language to fiercer addictions like PHP and Objective C). I haven't created anything too spectacular, just countless window console apps.
Dave Hyatt reports that spell checking will be persistent in the next release (you have to turn it on for each textarea box now.) Thanks for the news Chris. I really need this.
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My very small gripes are as follows: spell checking (finally, yay!) has to be enabled in every new textarea (why not gloabally on? Boo!) and, of even less concern, but still, there is no way to force links from external programs to open in a new tab (rather than a new window.) Camino could do this.
Otherwise, perfect.
- jim 4-15-2003 7:54 pm
Jim - in Safari's general preferences window, check "Open links from applications in the current window." This will take care of your external program/tabs problem.
- Chris (guest) 4-16-2003 1:26 am
Hey, you're right. Thanks Chris!
- jim 4-16-2003 2:16 am
What are tabs? I think I remember you saying that you used them in Mozilla. I'm intrigued.
- steve 4-16-2003 2:48 am
I'm out right now. I'll post some screenshots tomorrow. What browser o you use now?
- jim 4-16-2003 2:51 am
Explorer 5.2.1 I don't like it but I'm less happy with mozilla and Netscape is slow as molassas in winter.
- steve 4-16-2003 6:13 am
You run OS X, right? You should definitely give Safari a try.
Tabbed browsing is sort of hard to explain in a way that makes it seem as great as it is, but here goes. It's basically another way to do 'open in a new window...' except that it doesn't open a new window. It's great if you tend to have lots of pages open at the same time.
Here's a shot of google news in my browser:
As I read, I command-click (or right click) on every story I want to read. When I do, Safari starts loading that page in the background - sort of underneath the page I am reading. At the top of the browser window I can see a tab indicating this page that is underneath. Here's a shot showing 4 pages loading in 4 different tabs while I'm still reading the google news page.
The spinning wheel indicates that they are in the process of loading.
Now if I click on any of the tabs, that page immediately pops to the top. Google news is still there, but it's now underneath. The google news tab is all the way on the left.
Command-w closes a tab. Command-t opens a new blank tab. Command-shift-right arrow moves focus one tab to the right, command-shift-left arrow moves focus one tab to the left.
Might not seem like much, but I found that once I started using tabs I couldn't do without them.
- jim 4-16-2003 9:51 pm
It looks like we'll soon be able to sync bookmarks via iSync:
http://www.looprumors.com/
- Chris 4-17-2003 5:59 pm
Yeah, I saw that too. But what does it mean exactly? Between machines? Through .Mac? (Do you use that?)
- jim 4-17-2003 6:02 pm
I get it, very cool. I'll download Safari today.
Thanks.
- steve 4-17-2003 6:16 pm
My assumptions are that it would be like syncing anything else via .Mac (between workstations or portables). Because I am not paying for an ISP currently (read: have no ISP based email account), I purchased a .Mac account and have been very happy with it.
I see the main benefit of syncing bookmarks via .Mac is that iSync appends the file (addresses book, iCal and hopefully Safari) versus simply overwriting it. I've tried out several Applescript based means of syncing my bookmark files and the main disadvantage is that you're simply overwriting the old file. If you work on more than one computer through out the day, it becomes a huge hassle to update the file and you eventually loose bookmarks by forgetting to update them.
For me, this added functionality makes the money spent on .Mac totally worth it.
- Chris 4-17-2003 6:36 pm
How are you online without an ISP?
I should look into .Mac more. I do use a couple different machines so it might be useful. Although that was one reason I started the weblog. Between the side links, and the ability to search for stuff I know I posted in the past, I have access to most of my links from anywhere in the world.
Still, I know iSync is going to be very important in the future. Now when is the iTunes rendezvous airport library streaming we saw demonstrated like a year ago going to hit?
- jim 4-17-2003 7:04 pm
OK, I over simplified my ISP situation. I have connectivity from my home but it is not my account and I don't use the email address for the account.
I also looked into posting my bookmark links via PHP but the effort involved overweighed it's usefullness. That and the fact that the signal to noise of all my bookmarks would greately reduce its usefulness.
Have you looked into iCommune(http://icommune.sourceforge.net) for sharing your iTunes library?
- chris (guest) 4-17-2003 7:31 pm
Yeah, I know about it but haven't played with it yet. I use OS X exclusively, but in the office (graphic designers) they all still run 9, so I haven't downloaded it. Not to useful with only one machine.
Not sure when I'll ever be able to move them to X. Lack of Quark and lack of font management is a problem. Do you have any experience with fonts on X?
- jim 4-17-2003 7:48 pm
I haven't had the time to play with iCommune either. The rumor mongers have been saying that the new version of iTunes will have rendezvous support. I think that I'll just wait it out.
As to font management apps, I have Font Reserve and another (the name escapes me and I'm not at home right now). I installed Font Reserve and the fonts on my system went completely ape shit. I didn't have the time to debug the situation and just uninstalled it. I haven't really played with it since (been codin', not designin', lately). Need an *evaluation* copy?
I understand your frustration with having to run 9 because of Quark. I have many friends in the same situation. What is the problem with running Quark under Classic? Is it just printing problems?
- chris (guest) 4-17-2003 10:25 pm
I guess it's more like they are resistent to changing because (understandably) that means learning a new system. I know it will drive them crazy. Little stuff like command-n making a new finder window instead of a new folder. So I don't want to switch them until it's actually a benefit to them (when they're not just running classic apps.)
Probably there would be printing problems but I haven't even looked that hard at it yet. They have an epson 3000 run through an epson stylus RIP. I know this wasn't supported at first, but I haven't looked recently. I guess we could just keep the print server on 9 if we had to.
But fonts are probably the biggest problem. They have thousands of fonts. And they expect auto activation of sets when they open documents (they use ATM now.) There is nothing that sophisticated for X. What's Apple's deal? This should be built into the OS. I guess they figure graphic designers aren't going to abandon the platform, so they can wait and make other people happy first.
For me it's a dream (apache, PHP, MySQL) so I'm not complaining. They like 9 fine (well, they'd like it to crash less) so they are actually in no hurry. Probably nothing will change until someone buys a new machine and is forced to switch.
What are you coding?
- jim 4-17-2003 10:35 pm
I've been learning C++ (you know, the gateway language to fiercer addictions like PHP and Objective C). I haven't created anything too spectacular, just countless window console apps.
- Chris (guest) 4-18-2003 8:28 pm
Dave Hyatt reports that spell checking will be persistent in the next release (you have to turn it on for each textarea box now.) Thanks for the news Chris. I really need this.
- jim 4-25-2003 6:07 pm