Apple's latest version of Safari is out (in beta), with some evolutionary interface changes, and a dramatically faster javascript processing engine. The release of Safari 4 was not anticipated by any of the typical rumour sites, so it came as a surprise to just about everyone. As always, though, it was no surprise to see Apple's bright and simple marketing pages selling the browser as the best thing since sliced bread.

The Mac maker's marketing team appear to have had a field day promoting all 150 of the fantastic new features of their latest browser. But is everything they say completely true? Have they pushed the boundaries of honesty with their sensationalist slogans? Taking a look at the list of new features, I started to get a little suspicious. Just about none of the new features listed on Apple's website are original - most are already out there in other browsers, having already been invented by the likes of Google, Mozilla, and the open source community. Or they've actually been features in Safari already, but Apple are drawing more attention to them in this release.

The main new features list promoted by Apple:

• Top sites: suspiciously like Chrome's "most visited" section on opening a new tab. But of course it's all shiny and in 3D, which makes meel feel like I'm in the Matrix - so I like that bit.
• CoverFlow: OK, this isn't currently in any browser, but we got there first!
• Full History Search: this has been around in Opera for a rather long time (since the betas of version 9.5 back in September 2007), and was actually available to some extent in the previous version of Safari - they promoted it as a "new" feature back then.
• Tabs on top: Chrome - did we even need to say? But that said, Opera again had the idea of putting the tabs above the addressbar waaay back in the day. They could at least put the little favicons in the top corner to help easily identify different sites on different tabs - isn't that the point of a favicon?
• Nitro Engine (Squirrel Fish wasn't up to scratch for Apple's Marketing Department): notice how in the performance graphs they've subtlely left off Firefox 3.2 and Chrome 2.0 betas, both of which have amazingly fast javascript engines.
• Windows native look and feel: I could go on and on about this for ages, but I won't. The transparent tabs are really quite ugly (Chrome definitely had the better idea there) and the whole thing with darkening the inactive areas of the title bar really doesn't do it for me. Plus it's all misaligned in the Windows 7 beta. But all the same, even in vista, where it does work - I still much prefer chrome for simple native interface feel.


Good one Apple. However, both Safari 4 and Windows 7 are still in beta, so I'll let Apple off for this one.



Seriously, what's going on there? Which would you choose?

• Developer Tools: Is it just me, or hasn't this been in Safari for a while now? I use the developer tools in Safari 3 all the time (all the time I actually even use Safari that is - Firefox FTW!) I can see they've changed the icons from Safari 3 in the web inspector, but other than that can anyone point out to me what they've added?

Ok, I won't go into a huge wealth of detail about all the other features, but here's a couple more from the 150 features page that were tagged as new which really caught my attention:

• Full page zoom: Unbelievably, the first time I came across this was in IE. I don't know if it was around before then though.
• Phishing and malware protection: IE again unbelievably.
• Smart address field: Firefox Awesome Bar, and then the Chrome Omnibox.
• Inline Progress Indicator: Firstly, this isn't new, even for Safari, and more importantly, it looks to me suspiciously like this has been taken out rather than introduced.

Acid 3

And then there's Acid3. I don't like being too pedantic about this matter, but the Acid3 test isn't just about getting a pixel-perfect rendering. To pass the test, the animation has to be smooth as well. I've tested the beta on a couple of different platforms and while it produces an absolutely infallable rendering, the animation is by no means smooth. Test 69 continually takes more than 50 attempts to succeed. So when Apple are professing to be the "first browser to pass Acid3", they are actually wrong in that they're not the first (Opera betas have passed before this one), and they don't actually pass the test! What really puzzles me about this matter is that all the WebKit nightly builds for quite a long time now have passed perfectly with a perfectly smooth animation. So have Apple put a 6 month old version of WebKit into "the World's most innovative browser"? It would appear so.

Toolbar Troubles

The toolbar is only a gripe for the Windows version - it's slightly different in OS X because the menu bar is separated so a few buttons are differently arranged, but the issue can be summed up very well with a simple screenshot:

Spot the difference anyone?

See what I mean? Just for those of you who don't recognise it, the top one's the toolbar from Google Chrome, and the bottom one's the latest Safari. There's just the tiniest bit of a similarity there methinks.

The idea of compressing the main menu bar into a couple of dropdown buttons is quite established (first seen in IE7 I believe), but the simple fact that the two toolbars are so alike is what bothers me. Back and forward buttons at the beginning: a standard UI convention that makes perfect sense. Add bookmark button attached to the left side of the address bar: getting a little bit suspicious. Then the address bar is a bit different (as an aside, I think the refresh button is in the wrong place, but maybe that's aimed at users who have only just got used to the fact that IE decided to put it there too for no reason). The refresh button's new location is also a result of its placement within Mobile Safari on iPhone. But then there are the two dropdown buttons. Now I know these aren't there on the mac, but that's because the menu bar's already at the top of the screen so there's no need for them. Still - they're EXACTLY the same buttons effectively. Come on - they've even nicked one of the icons! OK so the actual content of the two dropdowns is slightly different, but the sheer fact that they are both essentially for the same purpose in both browsers shows unquestionable similarity to Chrome.

On the plus side, the installer for the latest beta FINALLY no longer insists on adding an icon to my quick launch, as per the latest Windows 7 guidelines. Many's the time I've got inordinately annoyed by icons appearing after every time I run an Apple Software Update. I appreciate that one Apple.

And of course I love the fact that the wording of their info pages implies that Safari has only 150 features. That's all. No more. Wouldn't be much of a browser if that were true.

I think that's just about enough ranting for now. The point is, these features may not all be entirely original, but I'll admit bringing them together in one browser makes a pretty good package overall (apart from the Windows interface I don't really like). Let us know what you think on the matter, especially those of you who, like me, aren't complete Macheads (like James.)

Update: June 9th 2009
Following yesterday's launch of the final version of Safari 4, some of my gripes have been fixed.

• Apple have obviously seen the light and put tabs back where they belong. Which is good, because I personally couldn't see the visual appeal of having them at the top. They basically just looked awful on both the mac and windows versions.
• Along with that, the Windows Native Look and Feel, as they call it, is therefore greatly improved. No more of those silly shadow effects along the title bar.
• The refresh button has now taken on its own special little "Loading" message in a blue box while the page is loading, much better than the pathetic little spinner they had in the beta.
• And a few other things that I can't quite put my finger on, but which do make the general experience better than it was in beta

However (and sorry for this), there are still a few things that really get up my nose...

• The toolbar's still the same, a Chrome ripoff. OK, I wasn't expecting Apple to go and drastically change it from the beta, so I won't go on. I did enough ranting about that earlier.
• Acid3. Aaahh, good old Acid3. Come on Apple, you've been going on about 100% compliance for a while now and you're just about getting there. But still, although the rendering's great, the speed still falls down in test 69. Now I know the speed is somewhat hardware-dependent, but I've run it on a couple of machines with pretty decent specs, and it still isn't up to scratch. I'll just take this opportunity to reiterate that old WebKit nightly builds were coping fine, ages ago. But there you go...
• And maybe I spoke too soon about the installer not putting icons everywhere. Apple Software Update still insists on shoving shortcuts in my desktop and quick launch. I don't need them! They just clutter everything up! If I wanted shortcuts there, I'd have put them there in the first place on the original install!

And I know this is advertised as a bit of a rant, and well I suppose it is. But in all honesty it is a bit harsh. Safari's a pretty damn decent browser, truth be told. But I'll stick with Firefox for now - FireBug just has the edge over Safari's developer tools for me, at the moment anyway.

280 North, the guys that brought you 280 Slides (the slickest web app yet for building Keynote style presentations) and the next generation web app development framework Cappuccino, have just announced their latest creation - 280 Atlas.

280 Atlas is a web app, built with Cappuccino, designed to make it easy for others to build advanced, beautiful web apps with unrivalled ease. Check out the video to get an idea of just how simple they have made the UI design process. It in some ways makes me think of Interface Builder in the development tools that come with OS X, but I have to remind myself that these are online. It's not this easy to build web app interfaces in any desktop apps I can think of.

When you think of what Adobe is doing, attempting to make it easier for design professionals to get building applications on the web and the desktop (via AIR), this puts them to shame. The web will be a better place with more web apps built on open source technologies like Cappuccino. If the next round of web apps are anything like 280 Slides, then things are going to get very exciting around here.

Keep your eyes on 280 Atlas, and the 280 North team. They are moving the industry forward at a staggering pace, and it's up to us, the developers and designers, to start building web apps that not only compete, but outperform what's on the desktop.

There's a lot going on in the UK and Europe. So much of the news we read online right now is focussed on the USA, and what's happening in the Valley, but a bunch of cool guys (and girl) recently started a video podcast to change that.

Techfluff TV is a great way to find out about what's happening on the UK and European tech scene. Essentially they cover the same kind of news as sites like TechCrunch, but focus on Europe, in a friendly, quirky video every week. Presented by Hermione Way, it makes for an amusing, light hearted way to catch up on the week's industry news in a few minutes.

Check it out, we're fans already!

I'm not too sure how long this has been available, but it would appear that Google are now putting a search field inside the embedded YouTube video player that you see everywhere. I tried it again just now and the search bar didn't show up, so I would give an educated guess and say Google is still playing with the idea and testing it out on a selection of videos.

I found thus just as I was browsing around after checking my thousands of RSS Feeds, I decided to pop over to MacRumors and read up some more on the upcoming Classics app. It's gonna be fantastic - plus it's had the influence of awesome designer Sebastiaan de With which can only be good thing.

Read the Top 100 Requests on Dear Adobe and see if you agree.

Adobe has a lot of work to do to please their customers. This is a site that has been set up for us poor developers, designers, animators, and general creatives to vent our anger at Adobe - the company, the products, and their pricing. If Adobe ignores this site, and sees it as a small number of angered individuals determined to destroy Adobe's reputation they will be much mistaken. This site has comments from some of the most loyal users of Adobe products, from the people that genuinely care about their business, and these are also the most vocal - they are the core users that matter most to Adobe.

They are telling Adobe, directly, and in crystal clear English, exactly what is wrong with their current business. They're even telling them how to put it right.

Dear Adobe, Ignore this site at your peril.

Still exchanging business cards on a daily basis? Surely there's a better way in this modern age of web communications. There is, in fact there are many better ways than exchanging small pieces of card, but the latest (and possibly greatest) development in this area is a new service called Hello My Name is e.

What is E?

There's no better description of the service than on their own site:

"E is a service that integrates all your existing social services into an E•ID, which you can share with anyone in the real world. To exchange E•ID's, you just need an internet-enabled mobile phone like an iPhone or Blackberry. When you exchange your E•ID's, E makes sure your contacts get added to your other social services like Netlog, Twitter, Last.fm, Soocial, automatically."

So, essentially, you sign up for E, get an E•ID (a simple 5 digit code), and when you meet someone you want to get to know better, you exchange E•IDs by typing each other's into your web enabled phones.

Very simple, very convenient. At this point, you may be thinking - WAIT! I can already do this with existing services such as Dropcard. The cool thing about E is that it automatically adds the contact's details to all available services, so will instantly be following them on Twitter, and checking how compatible their music taste is with Last.fm.

E Connector

There is also a hardware component, to make things even easier, called E Connector.

"Connector is a device designed specifically for the E service. Connector allows you to add somebody to E, and all integrated services, in one simple gesture: Press two Connectors together and you’ve exchanged E•ID's. It’s that simple."

Very Apple-esque in it's simplicity (and design). Nonetheless, I like it, and if enough people start joining the service, this could really take off. However, that is the crux of this concept - unless it gains mainstream appeal, they are going to struggle to survive.

I really hope this concept does well - it would be great to see it develop with more services (Facebook, are you listening?) and gain mainstream use. If I were working at E right now, though, I would be worried. What if Apple were to simply put this feature into a firmware update for the iPhone? Same with Blackberry. Touch two iPhones together, exchange vCards, add to all services on there. Sure there wouldn't be this level of cross compatibility, but if it ended up in the iPhone, it could turn out that other companies would follow to support the standard that Apple would set.

All together, it looks like a great service. I've signed up for the beta and can't wait to try it out.

Last.fm is a fantastic online service that monitors (scrobbles) the music you play through iTunes, and updates your profile with the latest song information. It then builds on this data by notifying you of trends - who you listen to most, what your favourite genres are etc. and goes a step further to suggest other artists you may like.

Last.fm itself, the website, has just been redesigned and lives up to a very high standard that could draw many similarities to Facebook. The desktop app is also very well designed, keeping the interface simple, only showing what is needed and nothing more. The desktop app also ensures that what is important - the song information - is clearly and prominently displayed.

That's why when the original Last.fm iPhone App was released, it had a lot to live up to. The original was good, but not amazing, with quite a few features missing, and a less than smooth interface.

However, almost all of the faults of the original have now been eliminated with the latest release of Last.fm for iPhone:

• Major improvements to the user interface all around (tap to zoom album art)
• Ability to tag songs
• Personal tag radio
• Calendar based events view
• Common artists when viewing a user profile
• Lots of other usability and back-end updates

Tag Songs

Probably the most requested feature of the original app was the ability to tag songs. You can now tag any song with as many tags as you wish, and are greeted with an instant search that autofills with suggestions for tags. You can also start a new "station" based on any tag you wish. This is brilliant - they have taken user requests seriously, and not just delivered on them, but have exceeded expectations.

Cover Art Zoom

A nice little UI feature has been added on the "Now Playing" screen - the ability to double tap and zoom in or out of the album art. Simple but sweet.

Beautiful Startup Screen

Normally, waiting for an app to start is an arduous task. However, with Last.fm, the start screen is truly attractive - black to dark grey gradient, with Last.fm prominently displayed in the centre in crisp white. There is also a subtle loading animation - the "as" of Last.fm (and AudioScrobbler) winds around to indicate the app is working. First impressions count, and this is probably the most understated attractive loading screen of any app I have used.

Calendar View

A new view for the Events screen is Calendar View. Essentially this is the same as month view in iCal, and it makes perfect sense to put it here. You can now easily see any upcoming events of the selected artist by simply browsing over a calendar view.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and highly recommend you try out Last.fm for iPhone. Best of all, it's free, so what excuse could you possibly have!

You could also read Last.fm's official release post here.

Download Last.fm from the App Store.

The Future of Web Apps (FOWA) Expo is back in London for October 8th-10th at the London ExCel Center and boy, it's going to be one hell of a show!

Speakers include Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Kevin Rose (Digg), Blane Cook (Twitter) plus many more from the likes of Google, Salesforce, AOL, and Mahalo. Also attending (and speaking) are the guys from 280North, creators of 280Slides and Cappuccino that we wrote about a while ago.

We are very excited as we were unable to attend last year's FOWA and will be there on October 10th ready to chat, share, learn, and party!

Kevin and Alex are also going to be there shooting a live diggnation from the main stage at 7:30pm on October 10th where Google will be providing the (alcoholic) refreshments. After which, the wrap party will get started with Facebook and Digg kicking things off. (I've heard that Facebook are going to be sponsoring an open bar.)

The celebrations are going to be epic. We hope to see you all there and look forward to meeting a wealth of interesting people that are changing the web as we know it. There will ofcourse be free wifi for all (probably provided by the Cloud) so you can keep those posts coming even while you're having lunch.

Get your passes for all 3 days of the event over at Carsonified's FOWA site.

See you there!

Do you remember earlier this year a web application called 280Slides?

Let's refresh our memory a little bit - 280Slides was a stunning piece of work both on the beautiful UI that felt like a native OS X app, right through to the core that was an entirely new framework that promised to make developing web applications just the same as building desktop ones. Well today that framework has been launched to the public (with a suitably beautiful icon) as open source, and it's called Cappuccino.

There's not much I can say about Cappuccino right now that isn't on their site, other than give my full support for this truly advanced framework. What sets it apart from other javascript frameworks such as MooTools (which we love and use extensively by the way), script.aculo.us, and jquery is that Cappuccino is built specifically for developing full blow web applications, not just sprucing up existing web pages and adding a little dynamism. Cappuccino, in fact, is so far removed from existing ways* of building web applications that they claim you won't need to know very much about web development at all:

"With Cappuccino, you don't need to know HTML. You'll never write a line of CSS. You don't ever have to interact with DOM. We only ask developers to learn one technology, Objective-J, and one set of APIs."

This is a massive step in the right direction for existing desktop application developers (especially those already developing for OS X) as they can relatively easily start building similar applications "for the cloud" and harness the power of the web to push the boundaries of their application design.

We are really looking forward to having a play around with Cappuccino, and we highly recommend you popping over to their site simply to check it out and learn more.

* Sprout Core also takes a similar view to building web applications (rather than adding AJAX to HTML pages), but it's a different framework that still requires you to learn web based languages. Sprout Core was covered extensively (around the same time as 280Slides) when Apple released MobileMe which is built using Sprout Core.

Only a small post, but I just signed in to Google Mail and received a loading bar progress indicator.

No need to stop the press, but it's a whole lot more useful than the old "Loading..." message.

I hope they do the same with file attachment uploads as well. Progress indicators are a much more user friendly display of loading times than just a spinning icon, or as previously on Google Mail, writing "Loading...".

Hint: Always aim to explain to your users the progress of whatever operation they are waiting for. Progress bars are a simple and efficient way of doing so.