Apple has updated Safari to version 5.0.1, activating new extension capabilities and launching the external Safari Extensions Gallery (see "Apple Extends Safari 5 with Reader, HTML5, Performance," 9 June 2010). The Web-based gallery enables users to search for particular extensions, browse extension categories, and install extensions with a single click and no restart.
While Safari has always supported plug-ins such as Flash Player and has been extensible in unsupported ways, Safari Extensions are different. Most importantly they're more secure due to requiring signed digital certificates from Apple that ensure any updates are coming from the original developer and that no one is tampering with them. The extensions are also "sandboxed," meaning they can't communicate with a user's system beyond Safari, and can't provide information to Web sites not specified by the developer. Safari Extensions are also arguably easier for developers to build as they rely on open HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript Web standards and Apple has provided developers with an Extension Builder application. Finally, they're better supported by Apple in their management and installation (hence the easy one-click installation).
Though Safari 5.0 supported Safari Extensions, the feature was deactivated by default and users were on their own to find extensions on the Web. With Safari 5.0.1 and the Safari Extensions Gallery, extensions are on by default and there's a Safari Extensions Gallery menu item in the Safari application menu. Users can continue to search out and download extensions not listed in the gallery, but Apple's site makes it easy to find those that will likely prove, for most people, to be the most useful or interesting.
Apple's recent press release announcing the Safari Extensions Gallery highlighted a few of the new extensions. Among them is an Amazon wish-list extension that enables users to add items from any Web site to an Amazon wish list; a Bing search engine extension that can provide potentially relevant information when any given text is selected, such as a map appearing when an address is highlighted; and a Twitter extension that enables users to tweet directly from Safari when stumbling across content on the Web.
More interesting to us are some of the productivity extensions, such as SafariRestore, which automatically restores your previous browsing session when launching Safari; Sessions, which goes one step further to provide a browsing history manager; and AutoPagerize, which turns lengthy multiple-page Web articles on sites like Ars Technica and the New York Times into a single scrollable Web page.
Safari 5.0.1 also adds a number of smaller features and addresses a handful of stability issues. Improvements include more precise Top Hit results in the address field, more accurate timing for CSS animations, enhanced stability when triggering the keyboard shortcut for Safari Reader, and better stability when scrolling in MobileMe Mail. Problems that have been addressed include a number of site-specific issues, such as displaying multi-page articles from Rolling Stone Magazine's Web site in Safari Reader and printing boarding passes from American Airline's site. Also, Google Wave compatibility with 32-bit systems has been repaired, a bug preventing Safari from launching on Leopard systems with network home directories has been fixed, and a bug causing DNS prefetching of results to overwhelm certain routers has been addressed. A full list of changes is available on Apple's Web site.
The update also fixes several critical security vulnerabilities. These security issues are mainly related to WebKit's handling of various Web elements, malicious RSS feeds, and AutoFill's implementation and could lead to arbitrary code execution, files being sent to remote systems, and, in the case of Autofill, information being disclosed to Web sites without any user interaction. This final fix addresses the vulnerability identified recently by Jeremiah Grossman, so it's once again safe to turn AutoFill on. Safari 5.0.1 is a 37.57 MB download via Software Update and the Apple Support Downloads page.
Finally, Apple has also released Safari 4.1.1 for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger users, including many of the same feature updates, stability improvements, and security fixes - though it does not include support for Safari Extensions. It's also available via Software Update and the Apple Support Downloads page as a 29.53 MB download.
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THE MISSING SYNC: Take it with you! The Missing Sync makes
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Fetch Softworks: Do your FTP or SFTP transfers quit on you?
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WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social NetworksBare Bones Software has released a minor update to its powerful text editor BBEdit. The update doesn't pack in any new features, but it does offer a host of fixes covering a wide range of issues. For those irked by BBEdit 9.5's changed approach with Capitalize Sentences and Capitalize Lines, one of the two dozen fixes reinstates the behavior from pre-9.5 versions of BBEdit, so that the software now once again lowercases your text before applying the selected capitalization. Beyond that fix, the release corrects an issue with updating HTML markup preferences, addresses a bug with prefixed Emacs commands, and attempts to better preserve file permissions when saving documents. Several other fixes to script attachability enable scripts that run when documents are closed to work properly. ($125 new, free update, 16.4 MB)
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Fetch Softworks: Do your FTP or SFTP transfers quit on you?Ever since I wrote about Extensis's Suitcase 10 font management software (see "A Quick Trip with Suitcase 10", 22 April 2002), I've been on the company's physical mailing list. Usually this means receiving an occasional press packet in the mail, but recently Extensis has started a truly strange ad campaign directed at members of the press.
First, a large cube-shaped FedEx package arrived at my door. I opened it to find a life-size featureless styrofoam head. It clearly came from Extensis, but apart from that there was no clue as to its meaning. It was useless and ugly and there was no reason to keep it, so I put it in the recycle bin (I wasn't sure it was recyclable, but I didn't want it clogging the landfill) and dismissed it from my mind.
Then, a week or two later, Extensis sent me another FedEx package, this time rather flat. I opened it and reached inside, and to my surprise (and horror) I found myself touching a mass of wiry hair. Luckily, it was only a wig, and not an actual scalp or piece of roadkill. So now the clues were in place: the first package was a wig stand, and here was the wig. But there was still no explanation of what Extensis was leading up to.
Nor did I wait to find out; I'd had enough. I phoned Extensis's public relations office and asked them to take me off the mailing list. My objections to this ad campaign were five-fold:
It's annoying. I don't like mysteries and I don't find the supposed question of what new product some software company is about to announce to be particularly intriguing in the grand scheme of things.
It's unnecessary. If Extensis wants to tell me something, why can't they just tell me? And if it's a new product they want me to consider for review, why can't they just send me a license, like everyone else?
It's expensive. Someone has to pay for all this FedEx shipment, the purchase of these objects, the labor required to pack them and send them out, and so on. Presumably that someone will in the end be the purchasers of the software. I wouldn't want to buy software from a company that was spending my money in this way, especially in this modern age of email press releases.
It's wasteful. This is really the part that gets me. These objects arriving at my house are all going right back out of it. That's not good for the landfill and the planet. And what about the resource costs of packing and shipping these things via FedEx to some unknown number of members of the press? Such behavior shows a callous lack of consideration and consciousness.
It's assaulting. When I described these mailings to Adam, he immediately put his finger on the horror factor I was having trouble expressing: the whole thing is rather like that creepy scene in The Godfather where the Hollywood producer wakes up with a horse's head in his bed.
The really odd part is that this whole campaign seems to me to be utterly misbegotten. Does Extensis imagine that the press is going to give some software a positive review just because it has been sent some pointless objects? Especially pointless objects that are downright disturbing? One has to wonder what they're smoking over at Extensis, or at Extensis's parent company, Celartem. If I were in charge over there, some heads would roll, and they wouldn't be styrofoam.
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Fetch Softworks: Do your FTP or SFTP transfers quit on you?