Now available from Apple Software Update
If you prefer your web browsing experience to be of the Safari type, you'll be happy to hear that Apple has made available version 3.1 of its Safari browser via Apple Software Update or as a standalone installer.
Users of Apple's MacBook Air or newly revised MacBook Pro notebooks will welcome the addition of trackpad gesture support for back, forward, and magnify functions.
Then of course there's performance, and Apple isn't shying away from claiming supremacy as it claims Safari to be "the fastest web browser on any platform".
According to Apple, Safari loads pages up to 1.9 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2 as shown on Apple's website with the following Firefox and IE-beating illustration:
Version 3.1 of Safari brings with it the following improvements:
Performance
- Improves JavaScript performance
Standards
- Adds support for CSS 3 web fonts
- Adds support for CSS transforms and transitions
- Adds support for HTML 5
Microsoft Windows
- Improves Back/Forward performance
- Supports signed Java applets
- Shows Caps Lock icon in password fields
- Adds support for showModalDialog
- Localised in 16 languages
- Adds support for International Domain Names
- Improves handling of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean text
- Contextual menu now allows opening a link in a window or tab
- Improves pop-up blocking to work with plug-ins
Compatibility
- Increases site compatibility
Stability
- Improves application stability
Developer
- Adds option in Safari preferences to turn on the new Develop menu which contains various web development features
- Allows access to Web Inspector
- Allows access to Network Timeline
- Allows editing CSS in the Web Inspector
- Allows custom user agent string
- Improves snippet editor
Other
- Double clicking on the Tab Bar opens new tab
- Includes URL metadata when images are dragged or saved from browser
- Opens Download and Activity window in current Space
- Supports trackpad gestures for back, forward, and magnify on MacBook Air and compatible MacBook Pro computers
- Shows Caps Lock icon in password fields
Source: Apple.com
