A First Overview and Roundup of Safari Extensions

One of the most important features of Safari 5 is support for extensions: it’s what Safari users had been wanting for a very long time, and it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal for users who want to customize their browser the way they want, it’s a huge deal for developers who may start to charge for full-featured extensions in the future. Just think about Twitter clients or RSS apps living inside the browser.

Safari 5 has been available for 12 hours now, and some developers have already released their first extensions. Obviously these extensions are far from being “complete” and “full-featured”, but still it’s worth taking a look at them, as they’re giving us a glimpse at what devs might offer in a few weeks.

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Thoughts on Safari 5

Apple has rolled out Safari 5 and I have to say, it feels faster indeed. A lot of work has been put into making Javascript faster, and you can see the difference from Safari 4. Loading a rich web application such as Zootool takes a few seconds less than before, which is a great thing.

I haven’t noticed that 3% difference from Google Chrome, but thing is - Safari feels snappier overall, it’s not just about the Javascript engine. And it’s native. Tabs behave just like you’re used to, close buttons are there in the right place, inline dictionary is what is meant to be. If Chrome could have convinced many users like me to switch because of extensions (I did), I am proud to come back to Safari now that it’s got extensions as well. And they’re based on web standards, which once again proves how much Apple cares about promoting them, and not just about building a “walled garden”.

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iTunes 9.2 Beta, iOS GM Seed, Xcode 3.2.3 Available to Developers

Apple has updated the online developer portal and released a beta of iTunes 9.2 (which we spotted on Apple.com earlier today) and iOS GM Seed.

New features of iTunes 9.2 include support for iPhone 4 sync, iBooks 1.1 support (iPhone and PDFs), possibility to organize icons in folders using iTunes, faster backups and other performance improvements. Seems like a good update.

Available at developer.apple.com.

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Microsoft Webcam Works with iPad

Sweet mother of Ballmer, what do we have here? Someone has mated a Microsoft webcam to an iPad? But not just any someone – Engadget reports that PhotoFast took a Microsoft LifeCam and made the perfect match ever. For those with the webcam blues, your iPad can have one too. Photo after the break.

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iPhone 4 Pixel Density

Engadget has posted another hands-on video of the iPhone 4, this time trying to show the enhanced pixel density of the new device. While they say that you have to try it first-hand to really see the difference, the video embedded after the break gives you a glimpse at the incredibly improved quality of 4’s display. Read more

Cisco Licensing “iOS” Trademark to Apple

As Steve Jobs announced that “iPhone OS” was being renamed “iOS”, a lot of you wondered how exactly was Apple thinking of doing it considering that Cisco retained the name “IOS” for many years. Simple: they found an agreement and went for it. Cisco is licensing the “iOS” name to Apple, and that’s it.

On other hand, Apple has acquired the name “FaceTime” from a less known company which is now forced to change its name.

Ah, power of Cupertino lawyers.

Apple Releases Safari 5

Safari 5 is going live. The new (and somehow unexpected after no mention at the keynote) Safari update features an improved Javascript engine (30% faster), a Reader button in the Address Bar and improved HTML5 support.

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