Safari 5.0.1 Review

I have not had time to download Safari 5.0.1 yet but here is what CNET said about it.

“Apple has released an update to Safari 5, which addresses a number of issues with the initial release, including the problem with black backgrounds appearing when generating mail attachments with scripts, and the potential security vulnerability with autofill that was recently uncovered. In addition, the program has a built-in link to Apple’s new extensions gallery for people to download and install extensions.

The update is a 47MB download and is available through Software Update or as a standalone installer from the following web page:

Safari 5.0.1

In addition to the black background bug (which Apple mentions again in this knowledgebase article), Apple has fixed the recent autofill bug that posed a security threat for websites that could automatically get personal information from the user’s address book, so if you have turned off autofill because of previous reports, you can turn it back on after applying the 5.0.1 update. Other security fixes in this update are listed in this security bulletinregarding the update.

In addition to the security fixes, Apple addressed compatibility issues with various websites including RollingStone.com, Facebook.com, and Crateandbarrel.com when using Safari Reader, Flash, and when performing other functions like printing.

The Extensions gallery is quite intuitive, and installing extensions is as easy as browsing for them and then clicking the “Install” button. Once clicked, the extension will appear in the Safari toolbar immediately and be ready for use. While extensions can easily be installed through the gallery, the only way to manage and remove them is through the Safari preferences section for the extensions.

A full list of the changes in this update are the following:

New Features:

  1. Customize Safari with features created by third-party developers Find extensions in the Safari Extensions Gallery, accessible from the Safari menu and extensions.apple.com

Fixes:

  1. More accurate Top Hit results in the Address Field
  2. More accurate timing for CSS animations
  3. Better stability when using the Safari Reader keyboard shortcut
  4. Better stability when scrolling through MobileMe Mail
  5. Fixes display of multipage articles from www.rollingstone.com in Safari Reader
  6. Fixes an issue that prevented Google Wave and other websites using JavaScript encryption libraries from working correctly on 32-bit systems
  7. Fixes an issue that prevented Safari from launching on Leopard systems with network home directories
  8. Fixes an issue that could cause borders on YouTube thumbnails to disappear when hovering over the thumbnail image
  9. Fixes an issue that could cause Flash content to overlap with other content on www.facebook.com, www.crateandbarrel.com, and other sites when using Flash 10.1
  10. Fixes an issue that prevented boarding passes from www.aa.com from printing correctly
  11. Fixes an issue that could cause DNS prefetching requests to overburden certain routers
  12. Fixes an issue that could cause VoiceOver to misidentify elements of webpages
  13. For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this site:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Apple has also released Safari 4.1.1 for Tiger users, which fixes similar problems and can be downloaded via Software Update or from this web page.”

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