In a low-key late Monday evening update following its big unveiling of the new iPhone 4, Apple released Safari 5 as its first major update to the browser in a year.
Expected to rival the upcoming new release of Firefox and the recent Mac release of the speedy Google Chrome browser, Safari 5 is said to be a major speed boost and set to run JavaScript 30% faster than Safari 4 and 3% faster than the just-finished Chrome 5.0. It will also use better caching and DNS prefetching to save more data and load pages faster.
Enclosed within Safari 5 are a handful of important new features, including support for extensions to work on CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript, and new Developer access to Extensions Builder, a tool that helps create and package add-ons. Safari Reader is also new and will help optimize content for viewing pages without distractions, and several HTML5 features have been added, including geolocation, draggable items, Ruby and WebSocket. And in a surprise move, Bing has been added as a third search option, reviving an old Apple/Microsoft partnership, and further alienating Google from the Apple family in their ongoing feud.
Apple is launching Safari 5 as a free download for Mac and Windows. Visit Apple.com for more details.
