DISQUS

Inelegant Solutions: Safari’s New Interface: A Shiny Mess

  • Jeremy Steele · 10 months ago
    To be honest I've pretty much given up on Apple. They constantly tell developers to "follow the aqua guidelines" yet they break the rules themselves all the time. Not a good way to set an example IMO.

    Plus their software is getting too bloaty. Hope the next OS X fixes that. If not I'm done with them.
  • Jonathan Bailey · 10 months ago
    Since I don't develop for them I can't comment on that much, but I don't feel that their software has been getting too bloaty, certainly they're still better than Vista. Though I, like you, hope the next version brings both sexy and speedy back....
  • Jeremy Steele · 9 months ago
    Better than vista heck no - I agree - but if the next OS X is anything like Win 7 I'll be one happy geek. If not, hello Win 7.
  • Jonathan Bailey · 9 months ago
    It looks like the next gen OSes for both will be more about speed and fixing bloat than anything. I think that's good for everyone. Apple and Microsoft fans.
  • Spamboy · 10 months ago
    The Reload Button was placed there likely to keep Safari seamless across platforms. The iPhone required it to be in the address bar, as space considerations precluded it from being anywhere else.

    As for firing off multiple windows, there should be an option to force it go to tabs regardless of the coder's intention. However, there is a very legitimate need for multiple windows -- being able to display one or more web applications at the same time. On dual-screen setups, this is invaluable.

    Most of your issues can be mitigated by use of hot keys to switch windows, reload pages, etc. Therefore, the GUI changes aren't nearly as grating to me.
  • Jonathan Bailey · 10 months ago
    The reload button is a good point, but the question there is why not include it in the "Customize Toolbar" feature so I can add it back if I don't use the iPhone? I know iPhones are huge but there are still plenty of Safari users that don't routinely mess with the iPhone version.

    I have to disagree with the multiple window issue there. Though some might have a use for it, A) Fluid solves much of that issue on its own and B) There are far more popups that I don't want opening in a new window than those that I do. The default should be a new tab with the user choosing what to break out.

    Though i do make heavy use of the hotkeys, especially when I am typing, when I am in "mouse mode" I still like the visual GUI to be where I want it. It really depends on the task at hand.
  • Sarah Lam · 3 months ago
    I am using Safari 4.0.3 and there is no 'tab on top'. Instead the tabs remain at the red box you highlighted in the first image. The one thing that I hate about Safari is the difficulty to find the reload button. Apart from that, everything else works fine for me but I would stick to Firefox, if I were to choose only one browser to use for life. Safari is like a reserve for me, just like Opera but I definitely won't use IE (no matter what versions). I am experimenting with Flock but although Flock is based on Firefox, something is not right, yet.