Apple on Wednesday updated its recently introduced Safari Web Browser. The update addresses issues reported from users and delivers overall performance improvements.
With the help of user feedback, Apple improved compatibility with the top 50 Web sites that users contacted them about. The new Safari beta also improves the overall performance of the Web browser, delivering a 30 percent performance increase, according to Apple.
The Safari beta update also improves the ability to interact with Flash content, one of the most ubiquitous multimedia formats on the Internet. Flash content is now five times faster, according to Apple.
The Safari update extends compatibility by adding support for the XML standard and enhanced support of CSS1 for the web sites that use cascading style sheets.
The update also enables access to web sites that offer self-signed security certificates.
Safari is Apple’s own implementation of a standards-compliant Web browser, built around KHTML. The Safari update incorporates over 3,000 lines of code enhancements from the Konqueror project; Apple said they have given back over 15,000 lines of code related to standards conformance, compatibility and performance.
Safari 1.0 beta v60 is available for download from Apple’s Web site or via the Software Update control panel in Mac OS X.
Update: Added more detailed information on the changes included in the Safari update