Guess Who’s Back!
Apple recently has started to update what appeared to be a stagnant spell in their defualt browser, Safari. As a developer and even a Mac use I have never been a huge fan of Safari. Not only am I a fan of Chrome but Safari had been neglected for quite a while. Meanwhile support for Windows is gone. From what I remember they had decided to use Chrome’s engine as well, which gave the sign that Apple cared very little about pushing the envelope of the web.
Well that is over and a lot of feature’s are quickly being added. Not only for developers but also standard users. I’m super happy about this support and hope they continue to push their features even further.
Overall it’s a great sign to see Apple actively working on Safari during a time when it could appear that they have left desktops behind.
What’s New
Some of the more interesting additions:
[icon name=”random”] Extensions
[icon name=”database”] Web API: IndexedDB 2.0
[icon name=”gamepad”] Web API: Gamepad
[icon name=”code”] ECMAScript 2016 and ECMAScript 2017
[icon name=”download”] HTML5 Download Attribute
[icon name=”paint-brush”] “Deep Colors” as they call CSS Color Module’s new features
[icon name=”cubes”] Reduced Motion Media Query (Apple exclusive, no docs anywhere)
State of Browsers
Overall it’s a great sign to see Apple actively working on Safari during a time when it could appear that they have left desktops behind. As a user of their computers I know a lot of people who still faithfully use this browser. Now those users should be pleasantly rewarded for staying on board.
Of course if you’re a developer you probably have every browser you can get downloaded, which is OK. Never forget though, users will be the real winners here. Isn’t that what it is about? Great experiences, smooth performance and useful functions? Oh and a cat video every now and then. 😄
Want to take a look at all the details? Check out Apple’s official documentation pages. for more information on this new version or check out Safari’s main documentation page.
