Safari can be defined as a web browser that was created by Apple and comes with Mac OS X, as well as iOS. The application was first introduced to the world on January 7, 2003, and is currently the default program on Apple devices (since the release of Mac OS X v10.3). Also, the Safari browser is native to iOS.
Until 1997, Macintosh computers used Netscape Navigator or Cyberdog. Later, Internet Explorer for Mac appeared, which became the default browser for the eighth version of Mac OS under the terms of the agreement concluded between Microsoft and Apple for five years. During this time, Microsoft released three versions of Internet Explorer for the Mac OS, which came bundled with versions 8 and 9. Despite this, Apple still used Netscape Navigator as an alternative.
As mentioned above, Steve Jobs in January 2003 announced that the company has developed its own browser, released under the name Safari. It was based on an engine called WebKit. After that, the application has undergone several upgrades and additions and today offers many useful features. The main ones that make the Safari browser very convenient are:
- Ability to save web pages with video files for viewing on Apple Dashboard (for Mac OS X).
- Resizable search bar in the toolbar, which allows you to choose between Google, Yahoo! or bing.
- Automatic completion of web forms ("autofill").
- Integration of bookmarks with address book.
- Built-in password management (for Mac OS X).
- History of search and bookmarking.
- Extensible text fields.
- Bookmark management.
- Support for ICC color profile (from version 4).
- Built-in PDF viewer.
- Integration of iPhoto.
- Block pop-up ads.
- Mail integration.
- Support for tabs.
- Search by text.
- HTML5 support.
In addition, the most famous Safari plugin is Cocoa. It uses the Apple engine to render web pages and works with JavaScript. WebKit, in turn, consists of WebCore (based on Konqueror HTML) and JavaScriptCore (originally based on JavaScript in KDE, later using KJS).
Prior to version 6.0, the Safari browser did not have a built-in feed that supports RSS and Atom standards. The current features of the program are such that they allow you to perform private browsing (a mode in which information about the user's web activity is not recorded, this data is not stored in the session history).
In addition, the Safari browser offers to use a protective function that allows you to block the transfer of user data when visiting sites. In new versions of the application, the search for bookmarks and the ability to integrate between all the tabs of Mac and iOS devices through the Icloud account are added.
Starting with version 4, the Safari browser for Windows XP has become available, offering users of this OS almost the same capabilities as for the native “shell”. However, subsequently support for this application for Microsoft products was discontinued due to its small popularity and the presence of a large number of competitors.
Currently, the program is used exclusively for devices manufactured by Apple: both on computers and smartphones. Thanks to constant updates, today it will not be difficult to find and install the Safari browser in the latest Russian version. The latter, by the way, contains much more features than the previous ones, and the developers do not intend to stop there.