Lottery Post Journal

New Faster, Better Version of Safari Available (3.1)

Today Apple released version 3.1 of their Safari Web browser, and I like what I see so far!

I'll give you the highlights and some insight, followed by download/install instructions. 

  •  The new version appears to have fixed some minor nagging display issues that were in the last version.
  • The whole browser seems to have gotten a nice performance boost, particularly the performance of JavaScripts and dynamic, moving objects on a page.  For example, dragging one of the Lottery Post popup windows around the page is pretty zippy, and the drop-down menus are really quick.  Both are heavy users of JavaScript and dynamic objects (DHTML).
  • The old Lottery Post text editor, which is still used to post a blog entry and change your signature, is a little glitchy in Safari, but that's a known issue with the old editor, and I am working on replacing all  the text editors used throughout Lottery Post with the latest and greatest version (3.0.5).  The versions used right now are 2.1.3 (used in the forums and private messages) and 2.0 (used in blogs and signatures).  In perhaps as little as a week or two, all of them will be moved to version 3.0.5, which involves more work than it might seem.  It is a big step.
  • Apple continues to push Safari to the latest web standards, even before they are officially ratified.  To this end, Safari 3.1 is compatible with HTML 5, which is a very big leap.  Granted, there are no HTML 5 sites out there, but it's comforting to use a web browser in which the developer is so concerned with meeting Web standards.  Safari also incorporates all the CSS 2.1 standards (which IE7 does not even do, and which IE8 will finally meet once its released), and if memory serves, it also meets the CSS 3.0 standards and passes the ACID 2 test.  (I'm not sure if it passes ACID 3, but then again I'm not sure any web browser does that yet.)

To download and install the new version of Safari, let me start by saying that I recommend downloading and installing it from a different(non-Safari) brand of Web browser.  That's because if you try to install Safari from within a Safari browser, the installer cannot update the browser while it is running, and you will be forced to reboot afterwards.

To download/install Safari 3.1:

  1. Go to http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
  2. Unless you really want the QuickTime movie player, stick with the version that does not include QuickTime.
  3. You do not need to enter an e-mail address.  Leave it blank.
  4. Click the download button, then click the button to run/open the executable when prompted.
  5. When installing, un-check the option for the Google toolbar.  No reason to install more unnecessary junk.
  6. Un-check the option for the Bonjour service.  Useless waste of your computer's resources.
  7. Everything else is self-explanatory.

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