Apple launches a new version of its web browser "Safari" for Windows

[Al-khiyal]

June 12, 2007 -- Apple has launched a version of its web browser Safari for Windows, competing head to head with Microsoft's Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox.

Chief executive Steve Jobs said Apple "dream big" and wanted to expand the 4.9% market share Safari enjoys.

Mr Jobs was speaking at a conference of developers for Apple products in San Francisco, California.

He said Safari was "the fastest browser on Windows", saying it was twice as fast as Internet Explorer.

A test version of Safari 3 for Windows XP, Vista and Apple Macs running OSX, is available for download from the Apple website.

Apple is hoping to replicate the success of iTunes, which has proved enormously popular on both Macs and Windows machines.

"We think Windows users are going to be really impressed when they see how fast and intuitive web browsing can be with Safari," said Mr Jobs.

Mr Jobs used the conference to lift the lid on new features of its forthcoming operating system (OS) for Macs, called Leopard.

He also unveiled Quick Look, a feature which lets users preview files, such as movies, photos and documents, without having to open up a related application.

For example, users will be able to preview a movie file without having to open up QuickTime.

Leopard is due for release in October and will cost $129 (£89).

JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg said the new features would give developers "the tools to create the next generation of applications".

Mr Jobs also gave the greenlight to third-party development of new applications for its forthcoming iPhone mobile phone.

Instead of having to test each and every new application themselves, Apple will allow developers to build web applications for the phone which run inside the device's web browser Safari and which were built on existing web standards.

Apple launches a new version of its web browser "Safari" for Windows

[Al-khiyal]

12 June, 2007 -- Apple's Windows version of its Safari web browser is creating havoc on localised versions of Windows.

Several international users who have downloaded the beta version noticed problems with loading bookmarks. When opening or importing bookmarks, Safari crashes. It also shows error messages such as: "Safari is missing important resources and should be reinstalled."

Most of the problems seem to occur when users use English versions of Windows, but with settings in another language or region.

Most of these issues can be solved by copying and renaming all the files in the Safari folder that end with .lproj. For instance, if your system has a Spanish regional setting, changing en.lproj into es.lproj may help.

But there are other issues too. When the AutoFill function is activated, Safari crashes whenever one tries to type text into a text field.

A number of websites are also having trouble recognising Safari. One user said: "When I went to eBay after restarting, I got a warning that I was using Safari 1.0 and needed to upgrade. A bit odd."

Even on Apple's own home turf, Mac OS X, Safari doesn't always behave nicely. Some of Apple's Widgets are broken after installing Safari 3 Beta, and other users report problems with iTunes. However, Apple does provide an uninstaller, which replaces the original version of Safari.

"This is no beta, but a mislabeled pre-alpha," one frustrated user lamented. International users in particular are not pleased with the experience: "Wake up, Apple. There is a world beyond US-land and China, where you manufacture everything."

Apple's Safari 3: a crashing experience for non-U.S. users

[Al-khiyal]

June 12, 2007 -- The first bugs have already been found in the beta version of Safari for Windows, a port of Apple's web browser, less than a day after its release.

Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, announced the beta release during his keynote speech at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.

David Maynor — one of the researchers who controversially claimed to have found security flaws in Apple's AirPort Wi-Fi driver last year — wrote in his blog on Monday that "an afternoon of idle fuzzing [testing software by throwing random data at its inputs]" by him and other testers had thrown up six denial-of-service (DoS) bugs and two remote execution flaws.

Maynor, who works for consultancy Errata Security, added that, in line with his company's disclosure policy, he would not report the bugs to Apple. This stance prompted one reader of his blog to comment: "If you actually desire to be professional, then either shut your damned trap entirely or report the issues the way a professional security researcher would report them... for the betterment of all good folks and not just you." Maynor responded by questioning what he termed "the value in reporting vulnerabilities to an organisation that treats them as marketing fodder and requires press to fix anything serious in a timely fashion".

In August 2006, Maynor and his colleague Jon Ellch used a Black Hat security event in Las Vegas to demonstrate a successful hack on an Apple MacBook. Although Apple claimed that the research was no evidence of a MacBook vulnerability, the company released three security patches for AirPort just over a month later.

Apple could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.

Apple's Safari for Windows hit by bugs