Apple Safari 3 Beta..

Apple has released its web browser, Safari 3 as a beta download for Windows. Jazzy as Apple is, I was really interested to to get the look and feel of this browser and I must say that it is a mixed bag of goodies and some lousy stuff as well. This 28.2 Mb download is available here. I haven't really checked out on statistics myself, but Apple folks say this about Safari -

The iPod users will relate the look and feel to the iTunes software. It gives a simple grey panel look without over cluttering it with too many things in the toolbar. The notable features -
- Tabbed Browsing; though I couldn't find a shortcut to switch between the tabs while browsing
- Snapback: which lets you instantly snap back to your original search results or to the top level of any website, even after you’ve browsed down a few levels.
- Autofill forms
- Google Search at almost every possible text; I didn't know that Apple folks have developed this kind of affinity for the former!

- Neat Interface: Yeah, with the decreased width of the browser panel, it indeed gives more screen space for the web page to the user.

- Incredible Inline Search: I say its incredible, try out for yourself. A subtle change from what other browsers provide, but then it really is helpful.
But then there are certain other issues, which eclipses its features pretty badly-
- Font, font..font; just can't believe that Apple has screwed up with this. Not adopting the ClearType used by Windows, the jagged edges are so visible when web pages are viewed with this browser, that it really hits it pretty hard. Nopes, they have to completel revamp this ASAP. Jeff Atwood has also mentioned this in his post here.
- Memory Usage; whoa.. unbelievable again - while minimized Safari behaves fine. Maximize it and you'll come to know. Check out this snap I managed to capture from my task manager, its unacceptable..

I'll still go with Opera, probably coz I still love the font they use and probably coz when I hit the back button, I don't want the latency associated with fetching the page again from the server. Cache it folks! Apple could have really done better with Safari, its smooth, no doubt, but with the font factor it really doesn't suit my eyes too well.