The final build of Safari 4 was announced during the WWDC keynote today. I have been running Safari 4 beta since it was announced awhile back, and wanted to jump to the final release. So far I am pleased to find everything pretty much the same, if anything, even faster. However, there is one big change – the tab bar. One of the biggest complaints about the Safari 4 beta was the Google Chrome-style above the address-bar tab bar. The idea was to save space, but many argued that it was poorly implemented. It was in the title bar of the app and unlike Google Chrome, there was no space left to grab just to move the window. Additionally, the selected tab was larger than the other tabs around it. As far as I can tell, the final Safari 4 implementation is identical to the Safari 3 tabs. There doesn’t even appear to be an option in preferences to go to the above the address-bar style.
I personally appreciated the space it saved, my biggest problem was the fact that it could click through. There were countless times that I clicked on the window to switch focus to Safari, and accidentally closed a tab. I think Google Chrome nails this style of tabs, and wish Safari had the same system, but I expect Google’s legal department wouldn’t like that too much.
Apple has a history of not listening to users. They like to tell their customers what they want, instead of listening to their customers. But today with the change in this tab system, and the announcement of the tiny MacBook Pro (with the (re-)addition of a FireWire port no less) Apple is doing a little to please the masses.
Safari 4 should be in software update soon, but if you want it sooner, hit up this link.
