Safari For windows

Are you passionate about your browser? Do you think your browser is the best? Then, this is what you have to read. Having a fascination for your favourite sports team, actor, actress and arguing about their greatness is an age old phenomenon, but today’s world of late have been arguing about their browsers with their friends and colleagues. From the famous Internet Explorer to the new Opera browsers there seems to be people arguing which is the best.

This argument arises because of the difference in their feature, security, etc. so let us discuss in detail about them. Internet explorer is the widely used explorer in this world comprising nearly 80-85% of the browsing market. Mozilla Firefox stands in the second place with 8-12% of the browsing market. The third, forth and fifth places are occupied by safari, opera and AOL respectively. Nevertheless, all signs point to Internet Explorer losing ground, which is even more worrying for Microsoft considering that more people are getting online than ever before. With more and more people getting online due to the availability of netbooks, cheap laptops like the Asus Eee PC 701 4G designed for going online, in addition to accessing the internet with smartphones, it is not a good time for Microsoft to be losing market share. When it comes to the question of quality there’s a tough competition among all the browsers. Once upon of time, internet explorer was criticized for its poor safety measure but the new version has equaled its competitors in every sense and so does their counterparts.

Experts were put in a very great confusion when they were asked to judge who is the best and in the end gave a conclusion that each one is best in different aspects. Though a few argued that Internet Explorer is the best since it is the widely used browser, many disagreed. Like this there had been a lot of argument over this title. Only time can say which is the best browser because a poor browser will have no place in the market.

Just like any other web browser, Safari for Windows also supports Auto-Fill options to assist the users in filling out web forms. Safari uses information from different sources to complete the forms. The personal information such as name, e-mail ID, address, contact etc. is picked from the Address Book card. The browser can also retrieve the username and passwords that are saved in the keychain and uses its cache to retrieve any other information.

You can configure the information that Safari can use to fill the web forms. Just go to the Edit in the menu bar and select preferences. A new window will pop out. Select the Auto Fill tab and there you will find three options that can be used to retrieve the information via address book card, keychain and cache while filling up the form. All of the options have an Edit button besides them which can be used to configure the information that the Safari uses for Auto-fill. The feature can be especially useful if you are online with something like the Apple iPod touch, and don’t feel like constantly retyping all your information with the cumbersome touch screen.

Using the Auto-fill is very simple. Just go to any web form and select the auto-fill form option under the Edit menu. Safari will fill all the information it matches with the saved information for the fields in the form. If no information is found then it will intimate about this in a new window. All the items that are filled by the auto-fill appear in yellow in the form. If Safari does not recognise the fields it leaves it blank and you have to fill it up manually.

RSS feeds are one of the most needed functions of a web browser. As it keeps the users updated about the new content automatically the RSS are widely used by many Internet users nowadays. Thus it’s important to have a proper RSS management system as at a large scale it becomes very tangled and messy to deal with multiple RSS feeds.

Just like the other web browsers such as Firefox and IE, Safari also offers an excellent way to deal with RSS or XML feeds. It offers both the RSS shortcuts as well as a detailed panel to manage and search for RSS. If a web site offer RSS feeds then the Safari shows the RSS button on the extreme right of the address bar. You can simply click on it to view that particular feed. Wanna go back to the web site, then simply click on the RSS button once again. The one and only issue with the RSS button is that it only shows any one feed at a time. If a website hosts multiple feeds then the RSS button is not suitable for use.

To have a more detailed view of the XML feeds just go to the ‘Bookmark Bar’ under the Bookmarks menu and select ‘View all RSS Articles’ option. You will be redirected to a page where Safari will list all RSS feeds from your Bookmarks menu, Bookmarks bar and Bookmarks library. On the right side there are RSS filters which can be used to sort, find and manage the feeds. This can be tremendously helpful if you want to find a specific topic among your feeds, such as Apple related news, or recent information on Appe products like the Apple MacBook Pro. All you have to do is to simple search for a particular feed in the search bar provided and press enter.

E-commerce is an inseparable part of the World Wide Web. Many Internet users do online trading and purchasing every day. However, to complete the online transactions they need to furnish some important details regarding their name, address, contact, institution, credit card number and so on. These details are very sensitive by nature and nobody wants it to get them stolen as it can lead to huge losses.

Thus, it’s very important to assure that the web sites you are using are secure and no unauthorised party can view the details. If you are using Apple Safari then you can easily identify whether a particular web site is secure or not. If it’s secure then you will see a small icon resembling a ‘Lock’ at the right side on the title bar. You will also notice that the site’s URL begins with ‘https’, instead of http. Whenever Safari encounters a non-secured web site then it asks the user whether to use a secure connection or an insecure connection while logging in. As always it is important to never complete online transactions with a website, such as online banking, or ordering electronics like the Samsung LE-40A856 with your credit card, unless the website is secure. It is therefore always recommended that you use secure logging to encrypt your information.

On the secure websites Safari verifies its ownership via digital certificate and starts encrypting all the information the user enters. Safari can work perfectly with those portals that use 40-bit or 128-bit encryption. If you wish to view the contents of the web site’s security certificate then simply click on the lock icon. Once the information is encrypted it cannot be viewed by any unauthorised entity online.

Digital certificates are often used by the web browsers to transfer information in a safer way over the Internet. Apple Safari also makes use of digital certificates, if issued. A digital certificate represents your digital entity and the information associated with that entity. The associated information may include your name, address, contact number, business details or anything else.

A digital certificate is made up of three components. The first one is the public key that is used to decrypt the information. The second component is the identity of the organisation that signs the digital certificate and validates its authenticity. Such organisational identity is technically known as Certificate Authority or CA. The last component of the digital certificate is the actual information that the CA associates with your digital entity.

Usually a digital certificate is restricted for particular use such as digital signatures, encryption, use with web servers etc. The process of restricting the certificates for a specific purpose is called ‘key use restriction’. This is done so that a particular type of certificate cannot be used for any other task. If someone attempts to use a restricted certificate for any unassigned task then the attempt will simply fail. However, it is possible to use a single certificate for different purposes but it is not recommended as this liquidates the security. Obviously these type of security measures are especially helpful for ecommerce sites selling things like furniture, TVs, game consoles, washings machines etc., since valuable credit card information will be exchanged to purchase items from the site. Time constraints are also imposed on the digital certificates. A certificate remains active only for a limited time period and beyond that it gets expired and needs to be replaced with a new one.

Font smoothing is a technology which is used by most web browsers (including Apple Safari for Windows and Mac) to enhance the legibility of the text appearing inside the web page. Font smoothing actually makes the fonts look crisper and smoother on the screen. It basically removes any crippling effects or discontinuous/broken text. Blurriness is also removed via font smoothing. Most of the Web browsers automatically handle the font smoothing, but Apple Safari takes it one step ahead by allowing its users to customise the font smoothing settings according to their needs and preferences.

Depending on your monitor type, you can select among four font smoothing options, standard, light, medium and strong. By default the Safari sets the font smoothing to standard if you are using a CRT monitor. If you have a flat panel monitor then Safari chooses medium font smoothing settings. However, if you still find it too difficult to read the text then you can choose strong font smoothing. Just go to the Edit menu and select preferences. In the pop-up window select the Appearance tab and there you can find the font smoothing options.

Since Apple launched the Safari web browser for Windows it has earned loads of fans, but there are many Internet users who still don’t like it for various reasons. Now the latest buzz that is spreading online is regarding the font rendering technology which this browser uses. The main reason why the buzz took place is the difference between the font rendering technology of Safari and technology of other browsers including Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.

Apple Safari displays the font on the screen in the same way it appears on the paper. So one can easily make out how a particular print out will look. This however makes the fonts appear a little blurred which the Window users are not able to accept. As Microsoft Windows Home Premium uses a whole different font rendering technology, the users of this OS are used to see the fonts using Clear type technology which makes the fonts much sharper on the screen as compared to what actually appears on the paper. So they find it very difficult to read the fonts generated by Safari’s font engine.

Both the font rendering technologies have their own virtues and vices. I personally don’t find any problems in reading Safari fonts. In fact it’s good to see the fonts that way because it’s the true picture, and the blurriness is not too high. However some Windows addicts still justify the Clear type technology and wants Safari to support that.

Apple Safari for Windows is a versatile web browser that offers many useful functions for its users. One of the most exciting features of Safari is its Text Inside search function. Have you ever wanted to search for a text that is posted on a web page you have come across while surfing the web? Well most of us need to search for the text posted inside a web page many times. Whether it’s a company name, address, a scientific term or anything else, we often require getting some definition of the particular text, its details or information related to it.

Naturally, one common method to dig for the information is to select the particular text, open the desired search engine web site, paste the text in the search bar and hit enter. However, there is an alternate search method offered by Apple safari, which not only saves time but also makes it easy to search the desired text via search engines. I always employ this method whilst surfing on my Apple MacBook Pro and would be powerless without it. Simply select the text you wish to search with any search engine and press the right mouse button. In the context menu you will see an option named ‘Search with Google’. Just select that option with the left mouse key and you will get the Google SERP (Search Engine Result Page) containing the search results.

There is no need to open up a new tab, then open Google.com and type the text for searching. However, this technique doesn’t work on the hyperlinks. To apply it on hyperlinks try selecting some space either before or after the hyperlinked text.

One unique thing that Apple Safari for Windows has to offer is the Private Browsing feature. This is one of the browser’s special features that make it an outstanding resource to trust while surfing on the web. For many web surfers the internet is the main source for carrying on their business and they need an easy solution to bolster secured online transactions.

If your web browsing is your business then you can bank upon Safari. Once its private browsing option is enabled it totally makes all your web activities private. Your web surfing is completely hidden in that mode. While working in private browsing mode the Safari doesn’t store the Google searches, history, cookies, download history and the online forms. So there are no traces left behind. The private browsing option can also be used to empty the cache and clear all the previously stored records of web browsing, downloads, forms, search bars etc.

This way you can always prevent the online identity theft. Many laptops, such as the IBM ThinkPad R52, contain numerous security precautions, like a fingerprint scanner, to prevent unauthorised access. However, these measures do nothing to secure you will whilst onlin. That’s why using Safari’s private browsing feature is a great saviour, especially when using public PCs. It really clears all the private information which shouldn’t be known to anyone else. For example; credit card number or any other personal details such as contact number, address etc. So always remember to enable the private browsing option. It can be found under the Edit option pinned on the menu bar of Safari.

Apple’s Safari browser has made quite a name for itself among many Internet users by being the fastest browser. This chart from Web Performance Inc shows a comparison of average initial web page load times between the internet and the cached version of the page. As you can see, the overall relationship between browser performance is maintained for the initial web page load, with the Safari 3.0 beta the fastest, followed by IE7 close behind, and Firefox 2 the slowest.

The performance from the cache has changed, with Firefox 2 and IE7 in a virtual tie, but both being beaten slightly by the Safari 3 beta. In all the cases the Safari 3 Windows beta was the fastest browser in terms of web page load time. Safari has come out with flying colors in terms of speed. It has gained much attention and popularity and is slowly clawing its way up the market share, taking percentage points from other web browsers like internet explorer and firefox.

Safari has been reviewed by the web users on various grounds. It has been criticized as well as appreciated, for instance the speed of page load times remained its prime positive factor. In this test above the overall relationship between the browsers has been maintained, but the average load times has increased, reflecting the increased hit of restricted bandwidth on performance. In a nutshell Safari remained on top as compared with the other two browsers. We wait with baited breath for the new benchmark of IE8, Firefox 3 and Safari 3. Go Apple!

Image Source: Safari Benchmarks