Right off the bat I realized that Safari 4 looks much nicer than it’s predecessor. It seems more refined, cleaner. There are some swanky new features that make it really stand out, namely the Top Sites and search suggestion features. It’s eye candy, but it’s also functional. The Top Sites is an especially nice feature when you open a new tab.

One thing that seems to be causing a significant amount of debate, at least on Twitter, is the new location of Safari’s tabs. Instead of under the address bar, like they are on every web browser, Safari 4 has moved them to the top of the browser. I actually really like this. It’s practical, it utilizes some screen space that would otherwise be wasted and in turn allows for more of the page to be shown at one time.

There are a few things I don’t like, however. The first and foremost is that 1Password, a tool that I can’t live without, currently doesn’t work with Safari 4. I’m sure the Agile team will fix this in the coming days, but I’m literally dead in the water without 1Password. Another thing that I absolutely can’t stand is that the website progress bar, which was a nice blue bar going through the site bar while the page is loading, is gone. Now there is no real way to tell the sites loading progress. Luckily, someone already figured out how to get it back.

There is one thing that’s not currently supported that I’d like to see added in a future update, and that’s handling the domains in much the same way that MobileSafari does: dropping the http:// and www for the address. They’re useless anyway, why should I have to see them? twitter.com/justincox is the same as http://twitter.com/justincox, it just looks a lot nicer.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve got to say about Safari 4. (Can you tell I’m running out of ideas for the February Blog-O-Rama?)

Update: Thanks to 1Password’s awesome Twitter presence I have found out just how to update 1Password so that it works with Safari 4: have it check for beta updates as well. My life is once again complete. See, I told you the Agile guys would figure it out.

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The Dashboard has been a staple of OS X since 10.4 Tiger was released. It’s concept — that you can have different widgets that do different things — has been repeated all over the internet and now in Windows Vista. With the influx of Web 2.0 website offering basically the same functionality, the Dashboard has become outdated and, dare I say, useless. I can’t remember the last time I actually opened the Dashboard willingly — the occasional accidental F12 key strike does the trick — nor actually used a widget. 10.5 Leopard brought a new feature to the Dashboard, the ability to create your own widgets from any website you wanted using a button on Safari. I can safely say, I’ve never used this feature. It’s a good idea, but again, basically useless.

The problem is not the concept, that in and of itself is okay, the problem is usage. It’s a screen that runs in the background and, when pulled up, is ready to go. The problem here is that it sucks up memory causing the entire system to slow. The other problem — and here’s the kicker — is that why would I launch the Dashboard to see what time it is, look at my calendar, check a contact’s email address or see what the weather is when I can simply do that without launching the Dashboard. So maybe part of the problem is the concept after all.

So here’s what I propose: Apple cancel the Dashboard. 10.6 Snow Leopard is set to debut sometime next year and is not actually offering any new features, but rather a promise to slim down the operating system and make it run much more efficiently. Could there be a more perfect time to get rid of something that causes bloat and inefficiency? While people will miss MacWorld, and probably Christmas too, I’m not sure if I know many people who would miss the Dashboard.

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In a mild/medium/hot scale, where mild is a lame keynote that’s mostly a “state of the Apple Union” address and hot is a major new product along the lines of the iPhone, my gut feeling is that we’re looking at a medium — spicy enough to be enjoyable, but not one for the ages.

From Daring Fireball

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Dear Steve:

I know you have a lot of stuff coming up Apple wise with the Developer’s Conference in two weeks and the Mac Expo in September.  I also know that you saw huge sales and profits last quarter and that’s pretty great and all, but Steve, I have a request.  Please release a Conroe powered iMac this week when the chips come out.  Don’t wait until WWDC or, more likely, the Mac Expo.  People are ready to buy now and don’t want to wait.  And if you’re worried about maintaining your huge quarters, don’t be.  If you come out with the new Mac Pro’s, MacBook Pro’s and iMac here this quarter then just release the G6 iPod in time for Christmas and you’ll make a killing.  Just do this one thing for me, and all those like me, who want to buy a Conroe powered iMac and not have to wait another month or two.

Thanks for the consideration,

Justin Cox

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