Apple has just released desktop Safari for Mac and Windows to 4.0.4, which improves full history search performance, has the mandatory stability improvements, and security fixes, but the big news as far as we're concerned is the number one item on the list -- Improved JavaScript performance

Desktop Safari is the big brother of the iPhone's Mobile OS X Safari, and they share a rendering engine (WebKit), and a JavaScript engine (Nitro), and improvements in desktop Safari and Nitro have traditionally filtered down to Mobile Safari with the subsequent iPhone OS update. That's right, we're looking at you iPhone 3.2 (where ever you are!)

Since the current iPhone 3.1 Safari is still outperforming even brand-new devices like the Droid, that may seem a little greedy, but we know Google's Android and Palm's webOS aren't sitting still in the rendering race, and have updates of their own in the pipeline, so once again, competition benefits the end users. Bring. It..

Apple has just released the first public beta of their new Safari 4 web browser for both the Mac and Windows (the Windows version now looking like an actual XP or Vista app). New features include an iTunes/Finder-like CoverFlow visualization for exploring browser history, and Apple TV commercial-esque visual wall of Top Sites (which should cause the same potential pr0nbarassment for some as Chrome and Opera's "favorite" visualizers in the past), the ability to search, spotlight-like through past sites, Chrome-style top-mounted tabs, robust developer tools... and most important for the iPhone and iPod touch's future -- the new Nitro Engine for screaming fast JavaScript rendering.

Yes, JavaScript engines are the new speeds and feeds. Bottom line, the more script, the slower and heavier the site. Hey, BlackBerry still turns JavaScript off by default on the Bold and Storm to get anything approaching decent rendering speeds. But with Google's V8 and Firefox's TraceMonkey helping push the technology -- not to mention every Web 2.0 site ladling on the AJAX -- we're going to need all the power we can get, especially on the iPhone.

As for the rest: CoverFlow already works well on the iPhone, though I'm not sure we need it in Mobile Safari, and the smaller screen might make Top Sites a little too tiny to be useful. And the search? Heh. We still need Spotlight on the entire iPhone, so how about we get that rolled up together?

Anything else you want to see in Mobile Safari 3.0?

What is it? The latest build of Apple's next generation desktop browser, based on their Open Source WebKit framework. Why do we care? Because the very same framework powers the desktop version's baby brother, MobileSafari on the iPhone, and while the 2.0 firmware brought some improvements to the latter, we ain't seen nothing like 4.0 yet.

Quoth Apple Insider:

Safari 4.0's implementation of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) includes support for masks, gradients, reflections, and specifying a named canvas. Also being carried over from the latest WebKit builds is rudimentary support for the WAI-ARIA (Rich Internet Application) and cross-site XMLHttpRequest specifications. Among the technologies supported from HTML 5 are the ability to send messages between documents, storage of data either locally or just for the user's session, the option of running web applications outside of a browser or when disconnected from the network, and canvas pixel manipulation.

I'm guessing WebKit's ultra-new, ultra-fast SquirelFish Javascript engine is also revving up in this preview, hopefully getting set to speed up our already class-leading iPhone browsing experience, especially considering the TraceMonkey competition Firefox is pointing its way...

This is some serious tech, and personally we can't wait for it to filter down into our multi-touching little hands!

Hot on the heels of the just released Safari 3.1, some of whose features are reportedly trickling down to baby brother MobileSafari on the iPhone 2.0 firmware, Apple has reportedly begun seeding early builds of Safari 4 (5526.11.2) to developers.

The big news? WebKit's screaming fast SquirelFish Javascript engine is a go, and 53% faster, which will be huge for Web 2.0 apps like Google's... and the newly announced MobileMe service from Apple, of course!

Other new features include the ability to spin off "Site Specific Browsers" (or SSBs), which are basically thin browser clients for your favorite Web 2.0 apps -- imagine a dedicate window on your desktop just for MobileMe. Continued CSS attribute additions like gradients, masks, and reflections are also on spec (Gee, gradients and reflections? From Apple? What a surprise...)

Combined with the CSS and HTML 5.0 features already added in 3.1, such as animation, video, and audio tags, Apple seems to be retaining its focus on open, web standard interactivity, in conjunction with old nemesis Flash and similar -- sometimes buggy -- technologies like Silverlight on the desktop (for now), and in lieu of them on the iPhone. Add in QuickTime X, and Apple is definitely trying to leverage some space away from the current, pseudo-proprietary web video giants.

While OS 10.6 Snow Leopard isn't expected until mid-2009, Safari 4 seems on the fast track for a much sooner release.

Can another MobileSafari bump for the iPhone be far behind?

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