As my regular readers know, I use both Windows and Macintosh systems on a regular basis.  In the past our Macs ran Safari, and our windows boxes utilized Firefox for internet browsing.  However Firefox 3 has a serious issue, in that about every 20 minutes it locks up and writes to the hard drive for about 30 seconds.  This is really annoying if typing out a blog post, but potentially deadly if playing a game.  So our windows boxes now run Firefox for general browsing, and Safari for games.

Yesterday we loaded the new Safari 4 Beta on my primary windows machine, a 17″ windows laptop with a 1920×1200 dpi screen.  By our very unscientific testing, gameplay of online Java games does seem noticeably smoother, so believe Java is running faster.  Speed is always welcomed.

Apple is advertising Safari 4 as the first browser to pass the Acid 3 test 100%.  This is great news to anyone that cares about web standards.

Safari 4 also has a plug in architecture.  You can view the standard plug ins from the help menu, and download additional ones from here.  The list is short, and limited to select third parties.  Hopefully apple will allow any third party to develop plug ins, and provide a convenient place to search and download them similar to Firefox.

Safari also features a zoom option, that zooms only text or the entire page including images.  One of my most used Firefox plugins zooms images on a page, very handy when shopping using a 133dpi screen.  Browsers have had a zoom feature for years, but they never seem to work right.  First testing on Amazon seems very promising.

The new “Top Sites” feature, triggered by the matrix icon next to the bookmarks icon displays your 6, 12, or 24 most visited sites for easy selection.  This is likely useful for general browsing, giving a quick way to select common sites.  Eye candy indeed.

The overall look of the browser in general is cleaner and less cluttered compared to Firefox 3.  I believe this is primarily do to the menu bar being hidden by default.  The menus are moved to a gear icon on the right side, similar to Internet Explorer 7.  I have tried operating with them hidden, but it did not last long.

The most visual change is the tabs now occupy the very top bar of Safari.  It does save screen real estate, but on modern computer screens I have plenty to spare.

The downside to the new tab location is the longer mouse reach for every tab open and close.  I personally use tabs constantly, often having 10-20 open at a time while doing research.

Visually finding a tab initially seems more difficult, as you are forced to look up past the bookmarks and address bar to find your tabs.  A friend countered that they are easier to find in the blue bar, than lost mixed in with the page and menus.  This is a change that will need revisited after using for an extended time to form a solid opinion.

the dedicated plus symbol to add a tab is very welcome indeed.  Right clicking in Firefox has become second nature, and the new tab button in IE seems monstrously huge.

Another friend pointed out that you can no long right click on a bookmark in a bookmarks drop down menu and open in a new tab, although using the command-click keyboard shortcut to right click the item still works.  This feels like Apple slapping my hand for trying to do something useful.

A spell checker has finally been added, bringing it up to date with other browsers.  This feature is very handy when replying to this blog post for example.

Many windows users will like the fact that the window is resizeable from all sides like normal, and does not take on the mac feature of only resizing from the bottom right corner.  As a user of both platforms this has never bothered me personally, but seems to outrage many users.

Overall it appears Apple has researched the competition well, and taken all the best features, and rolled them into one very fast browser, that is 100% acid 3 web standards compliant.   This may be the browser that displaces Firefox for my general web browsing in both Windows and OS X.

Apple has a full list of features here.

feedback [at] boldsunflower [dot] com

Marvell has introduced an Arm based computer in a wall adapter sized housing for $99 called a Sheevaplug.  The possibilities are endless.  Linuxdevices.com explains it well here.

Reading Sprint’s latest SEC filing covering Q4 and all of 2008, reveals several interesting facts about the company, their health, and perhaps some insight into their CEO Dan Hesse’s goals.  I believe it is worth reading the full report, but here are a few random exerts.

Perhaps the most telling sentence in the filing is “Customers are responding to our messages of value, simplicity and productivity”.   This is apparently current goals under Hesse, and explains the “simply everything” pricing plan, and perhaps the odd commercials.

The most telling number in the filing is simply the number of customers changed from 53.8 million at the end of 2007 to 49.3 million at the end of 2008, for  a net loss of 4.5 million customers last year.

The “prime” credit rating of their user base improved from 79% to 84%.  I read this as moving their base to clients better able to pay their bills is a goal of Sprints.  Curious what strategy besides showing commercials in black and white this entails?

While they lost 8.3% of their subscribers during the course of the year, wireless revenue fell 13% to 6.6 billion.  This is attributed primarily to the lower revenue per subscriber.  I believe the lower revenue per subscriber is simply the effect of competition in a saturated market.  The loss of subscribers clearly hurts Sprint.

Palm’s Pre is promoted as an opportunity later in 2009.  This may prove the best device from Sprint if the Pre lives up to the hype, early demos look promising.  Sprint is the exclusive carrier for the Pre through 2009.

Companies list possible threats to their business and Sprint includes the ability to attain compelling CDMA phones,  specifically Motorola.  Interesting since Motorola phone sales fell 27% last year and they are on pace go from first to last among the big five handset makers.

Also listed as a threat is the performance of their 4g  wimax partner, Clearwire Corp.  Clearly, Sprint’s future performance and market relevance are tied closely to Clearwire.

For full disclosure, I have always secretly rooted for Sprint, as they have one of the few corporate campuses in the state of Kansas.  Although my last family member gave up and canceled their service with them about four years ago.  The problem was not their phone service, but rather their inability to bill correctly, and their inept customer service agents.

The latest filing reveals that they have continued to improve customer service, which I believe should be their number one strategic goal.

Staci Kramer writing for Moconews.net explains why she was one of the millions who dropped sprint last year.   Dan Hesse still has many challenges ahead.

“We’re All Gonna Die – 100 meters of existence” is a 100 meter long photograph compiled of images taken over a 20 day period at a railroad bridge in Berlin by photographer Simon Hogsberg.  Amazing.