Safari comes with a pop-up blocker and integrated Google search field. It lets you resize text fields by grabbing their corners and altering their dimensions.
"Bonjour technology" allows Safari to automatically find devices such as printers, routers, and webcams on local networks.
As the name implies, the Forms AutoFill feature fills in online forms with information from your address book or previously completed forms. With this, Safari quickly types in your name, street address, city, zip code, email, and more.
Built-in RSS features scan for the latest news, blog posts, and articles; alert you to new information; and let you view and filter articles by date, title, and source. When you visit a page that supports RSS, Safari displays an icon that may be clicked to view the RSS feed.
Because Safari is the new kid on the block, there are few browser add-ons currently available. To make Safari a viable player in the Windows Web scene, Apple will probably need to address this.
Security Specifics
A powerful Private Browsing feature configures Safari so it doesn't store searches, cookies, site history, download history, or information from online forms that you've filled out. Safari applies encryption and supports SSL versions 2 and 3, as well as Transport Layer Security (TLS). Safari is notable for what it doesn't support, ActiveX, which may reduce its exposure to the spyware that afflicts Internet Explorer.
Safari supports standards-based authentication such as Kerberos single sign-on and X.509 personal certificates, and protocols such as NTLMv2, Automatic Proxy configuration, FTP Proxy, Web Proxy (HTTP), Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS), Streaming Proxy (RTSP), SOCKS Proxy and Gopher Proxy.
While it sounds as if Apple has covered the security bases on paper, there's no way to estimate Safari's overall security until it hits the market and withstands the scrutiny of those who want to find and exploit its weaknesses. Of course, if the browser fails to attract a significant number of users, chances are it won't attract the attention of trouble-makers.
Mac in a Windows World
With its Windows version, Apple's Safari enters an arena that's entrenched by Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. And those who currently use these browsers will probably have little reason to switch. On the other hand, Mac users who reluctantly work on a Windows machine as a last resort may welcome the browser.
Though only now in beta release, one thing's a safe bet — Apple won't be content with simply introducing a Windows flavor of its browser. Look for more to come.
Pros: Attractive interface that maximizes screen space, good text search feature, excellent navigation features to bookmark sites and "snap back" to sites, "Bonjour technology" allows Safari to automatically find devices such as printers, routers, and webcams on local networks
Cons: No major features beyond what the competition has to offer; doesn't always follow Windows conventions, which can result in some minor quirks and annoyances for Windows users
