Apple releases web browser for Windows [BT broadband office]

Apple releases web browser for Windows

Posted 11 June 2007 at 9:33PM by Simon Dickson in Website development

A surprise announcement from Apple at its big annual developers' conference on Monday: a Windows version of its Safari web browser. As a web professional myself, this is good news: instead of crossing one's fingers and just hoping something is going to be Mac-compatible, we now have an official version of the software on which to run appropriate tests. But will it make an impact at consumer level? I doubt it.

There's certainly a novelty element in all this: it's quite a shock to the system to see a slice of Mac interface sitting in your Windows environment (although perhaps less so if you're a regular user of Apple's iTunes). Apple makes grand claims that it's 'the world's best browser', and it certainly seems pretty quick - but I'm personally a little disappointed at the lack of obvious innovation. Single-click returning to your search results? Resizable text fields? I don't see them sparking many people's imaginations.

Strictly it's only a beta version, so there may be bugs and other issues, but it's still worth the 8MB download, if only for the sake of curiosity. A definitive version for Windows is promised for October, coinciding with the release of Apple's news OS X Leopard operating system.

Tags: apple, browser, safari, windows

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Comments

1. At June 12, 2007 8:09 AM, Tim Watt wrote:

This move is probably best explained by the pending introduction of the iPhone.

Just as Apple 'allowed Windows users to use the iPod' by introducing iTunes for Windows after a year or so when it was for Mac users only - to broaden its user base, so (on another closed platform) Apple is preparing to let the iPhone also be able to have most of the same features that should be enjoyed by Apple Mac users on Windows.

For more see: http://www.tuaw.com/2007/06/11/apple-announces-3rd-parties-can-write-web-2-0-apps-for-iphone/

As Steve Jobs said 'like offering a glass of ice water to a man in hell'.

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