Safari

H.264 ascendant: why Apple's no-Flash, no-Theora gamble is playing off

By Rene Ritchie, Saturday, May 1, 2010 a 5:02 pm

H.264, the video codec Apple supports for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad playback, and for the HTML5 video tag in Safari, and now Microsoft is supporting it as well, which means its 66% share will likely go up. Add to that Steve Jobs think the competing, Firefox-supported license-free alternative, OGG Theora, will face patent infringement claims, and it's looking like we have a web video standards winner.

WebKit2 with speed and crash-proofing -- Apple's other big announcement

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Apr 9, 2010 a 9:33 am

Well, technically not Apple the entity, but an employee of Apple named Anders Carlsson announced WebKit 2 yesterday and for geeks it could easily have been a Jobsian "One more thing..."

This is a heads-up that we will shortly start landing patches for a new WebKit framework that we at Apple have been working on for a while. We currently call this new framework "WebKit2".

WebKit2 is designed from the ground up to support a split process model, where the web content (JavaScript, HTML, layout, etc) lives in a separate process. This model is similar to what Google Chrome offers, with the major difference being that we have built the process split model directly into the framework, allowing other clients to use it.

iPad Safari on iPhone 3.2 SDK Simulator Walkthrough

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Feb 17, 2010 a 5:19 pm

9to5Mac has posted up a walkthrough of the iPad's version of the Safari web browser, running on the iPhone 3.2 SDK's simulator. Instead of sliding in new screens, iPad Safari uses Apple's new popover menus to handle bookmarks, search, and other UI tasks.

We have to admit, it's looking great to us and we can't wait to get our geeky, multi-touchy hand on it.

Video after the break!

Apple Updates Mac OS X Safari to 4.0.4 -- Raises Stakes in JavaScript Wars

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009 a 10:17 pm

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

WebGL and TuneKit, Not Flash, the Future for iPhone?

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Sep 14, 2009 a 8:09 am

More than 2 years post-iPhone launch, no news on Flash ever coming to the iPhone, yet Apple is pressing ahead with technologies like H.264 video (YouTube App's been using it since day one), HTML 5 and CSS animation (iPhone Safari supported them first), HTTP Live Streaming, and now WebGL for hardware accelerated 3D-graphics, and TuneKit, the framework behind the new iTunes LP rich media content.

Read on to find out what they are, how they work, and why they might make plugins like Flash increasingly unnecessary...

Apple Updates Mac and Windows Safari Web Browser to 4.0.3

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Aug 11, 2009 a 10:39 pm

Desktop Safari, predecessor and big brother to the iPhone's Mobile Safari web browser, has just received an update chock a block full of the usual security and compatibility fixed, and stability improvements. Mac users (and Windows users?!) can get it via Apple's Software Update or directly from the web via Apple.com/safari.

iPhone Pro Tips: Find Text in Safari with Javascript Bookmarklet

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Jul 22, 2009 a 8:35 am

If you're browsing the web on a PC, you can just hit CTRL-F or CMD-F and quickly find any text on a webpage. It's great for finding things fast, especially on long reams of text, and Safari does a nice job of it -- just not Mobile Safari on the iPhone, not yet.

iPhone 3.0: Location Aware Google Search via Safari

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Jul 16, 2009 a 2:09 pm

Google Blogs (via Gizmodo) has announced that the long-rumored Geo-Location based services in Mobile Safari are indeed included in iPhone 3.0 and being put to use in "My Location" searches by Google.com on the iPhone.

TiPb Video: iPhone 3G S vs Palm Pre: Browser Speed Test

By Dieter Bohn, Friday, Jun 19, 2009 a 5:27 pm

TiPb iPhone 3G S vs. iPhone 3G Browser Speed Smackdown

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Jun 19, 2009 a 2:19 pm

Two iPhones enter, only one can be left standing. Which one will it be? Well, both devices got the Nitro JavaScript rendering engine boost courtesy of iPhone 3.0, but the iPhone 3G S brought a little gun to this knife-fight in the form of double the RAM, a faster GPU, and a super souped up processor with higher clock speed and phat'er pipes. (Think 486 vs. Pentium on the desktop).