Lots of stories making the rounds that the JavaScript speed of the new iPhone 3GS is even faster than Apple had claimed. Most of the stories originate from this one from Medialets, but it’s simply not true the performance is faster than Apple claimed.
JavaScript speed is very impressive. However, if you compare Medialets’ results with those Apple presented during the WWDC keynote, you’ll see they’re essentially the same. Let’s take a look: Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been running the release version of Safari 4 on Mac OS and Windows XP for a few days. There are a lot of good features with Safari 4 — and I have no desire to go back to version 3 — but I do miss the beta sometimes…
There’s some browser news floating around today worth talking about. And none of it has anything to do with Internet Explorer.
First up, Mozilla puts Safari 4’s 11M downloads in perspective:
I just read that Apple is reporting 11 million Safari 4 downloads in just three days. That’s pretty amazing.
I’d like to follow up that report with one of my own.
Firefox 3.0.11 was downloaded about 150 million times in the last 24 hours.
While there may be a touch of snark in the comment, the truth is the truth. There’s also no denying its accuracy, nor can it be doubted that it does indeed put Safari 4’s download numbers in an entirely different context. In fact, Mozilla had previously pointed out that 27% of Mac users alone have swapped from the default browser to Firefox:
Having chosen Mac, Safari users, about 27% of them, have opted out of the bundled and default browser and instead chosen Firefox. That’s an even higher conversion to Firefox rate than we’re seeing on Windows.
In short, Safari has a long way to go.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the browser world, staunch Internet Explorer fans are requesting a boycott on the Opera browser. From the article:
Opera is simply upset because their browser is dead last in market share, and has already been surpassed by the recently released Google Chrome browser and Apple’s Safari browser for Windows.
True enough. I think Opera is asking for a seat at the table they haven’t earned. As for the boycott itself, given Opera’s share of the browser market I though it was already on.
Apple put out a press release that Safari 4 has been downloaded 11 million times since it was released last Monday.
Naturally, eagle-eyed cub scout reporter Jimmy Ols–, er, Paul Thurrott is there to give us the real story by quoting PC World’s Robert Strohmeyer:
As someone with three Macs at home, I couldn’t help but notice that Apple pushed Safari 4 out as an automatic update to all of its users this week. Yesterday, all three of the Macs in my household received the update, and we don’t even use Safari.
Let’s set aside that — unlike Microsoft’s default settings — Apple’s software gets your permission before installing upgrades. What I find more comical are the following:
Perhaps they’re just shocked because Microsoft would certainly never push their browser via software upgrade… er, wait, yes, they do. Well, I’m sure that Microsoft at least carefully filters out any data about IE users by subtracting the number downloaded from their automated updates. Um, no.
And so, in the end we wind up where we began: with the fact that Safari 4 has been downloaded 11 million times since it was released last Monday.
The Safari 4 beta was released a mere two weeks ago, and I sometimes feel as if the battle over title-bar tabs may already be over. The heavy hitters have weighed in, and it’s not looking good…
Paul Thurrott has weighed in with his opinion of the new Safari 4 update, and he’s not impressed. While no surprise, it’s the manner in which he blasts the product (and, of course, Apple’s users) that was especially interesting.
I was wondering how Thurrott was going to counter the incredible speed of the browser engine. Apple’s own marketing aside, others have tested it and confirmed it to be the fastest web browser available. I assumed he’d blast the test methodology, or claim that IE 8 would be better (though IE 8 was in the tests), etc. But no, he took a different tack altogether. He simply acknowledged the browser engine is good, and then blasted the UI because he’s apparently a manly man who doesn’t need no steenking graphics.
Om Malik and John Gruber appear interested in what Apple’s pulling down from Google search referrals from Safari.
I’m not sure why this is; it’s not a lot of money for Apple’s bottom line, and I believe their primary goal with Safari is to help establish more web sites on open standards (e.g., not IE-specific).
Anyway, the reason I’m writing about this is I take exception to one thing Gruber mentions:
Starting tomorrow I’m off for a week of vacation.
It’s a family thing, and I’ll be doing my part to keep Walt Disney’s ghost rich (after all, the man built an empire, somebody has to feed it).
Will probably not post anything new until at least 4/13.
But wait! As I write this small post, a funny thing happens…
Yesterday I stated my position on Apple’s use of their Windows Software Updater to “update” Safari on systems that don’t run it. Many other bloggers, analysts, etc. posted their positions as well.
There’s been a lot of debate about it, so today I thought I’d take a second look by reviewing some of the recent commentary on this topic…
The mid- to late-90s seemed to be the heyday of software vendors deciding that if you ran one of their products, you’d want a bunch more as well. In my opinion, it was not Microsoft, but Real, that typified this behavior and annoyed me greatly.
Even when all I wanted was their media player, it seemed I was stuck with their little message center and other crap. Turning it all OFF was a pain in the rectum, and in my opinion should never have been necessary. It made me hate Real, and I’ve yet to install any more than the minimum software of theirs needed.
I’ve been running the betas of Safari on Windows ever since they came out. Overall I like Safari on Windows though it’s bit sluggish, which I attributed partially to being a beta.
Today Apple released Safari 3.1 on Mac and Windows. My primary interest was on Windows, where I still use Firefox most of the time.
In my first review I listed the good and bad of my experiences running the Safari beta on Windows XP. Following are some updated or new comments and findings.
[UPDATE:] I have posted part II of this review, with further good points, bad points, and Firefox comparisons.
I’ve been using Safari since the public beta became available on Monday. In that time I’ve had enough experiences to comment on.
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