Desktop platforms Toolkit

Apple releases Safari update

Ina Fried CNET News.com

Published: 04 Feb 2004 12:05 GMT

Apple this week released an updated version of its Safari Web browser. Safari 1.2 adds several features, including support for navigating the Web without the mouse by using keyboard commands and a download feature that allows people to resume interrupted file downloads without having to start again from scratch.

The browser remains available as a free download from Apple's Web site.

The Mac maker first introduced its new browser, Safari, last January. The software was a significant step in boosting Apple's Mac-only software offering, and reflected a shift in Apple's relationship with Microsoft, maker of the dominant Internet Explorer browser.

Six years ago, a deal with Microsoft made Internet Explorer the default browser on the Macintosh. This deal has now expired, so Apple is free to expand its own browser offerings, and is planning to build browser technology into the operating system in much the same way that Microsoft did with Windows.

Apple's browser engineers based Safari on the KHTML rendering engine and KJS JavaScript engine, both part of the Konqueror open-source browser project.

The most prominent other open-source browser project is Mozilla, which was launched by Netscape Communications, and is now the basis for the Netscape 7 browser.

ZDNet UK's Matt Broersma contributed to this report.