Like many others, I downloaded a beta version of Safari for Windows yesterday. I installed it on my Toshiba M400 and a Samsung Q1. For the most part the install was fine. I was a bit tripped up on whether I should enable the Bonjour and Apple update services or not. I elected not too, because I don’t want to load my machines down with one more service that I don’t really need, but I’m not sure if I made the correct call.
The browser seems to run OK on both machines, but there are some things I don’t like right out of the box. First, the address field for entering URLs and the Google search box don’t accept handwriting input via the TIP. Note: You can still use the keyboard in the TIP to enter a URL or search term, but this isn’t the best experience. My suggestion is that the Safari team check out IE 7 under Vista on a Tablet PC to see how smooth the experience can be.
It’s not a surprise that the input fields don’t support the TIP properly. You see problems like this pop up quite often in apps written for cross-platform support. If the app had been written first on Windows, I doubt this would have happened. I bet TIP (and accessibility) support in Vista would have worked. What’ll be interesting to see is whether Safari on Windows catches on and if ultimately there might be more Windows versions of Safari running than OS X versions. If so, the question comes up whether the user experience for the majority of users–those running Vista, let’s say–should have the best experience. Or should the app designers keep their focus on Macs? For the longest time, Adobe struggled with this in PhotoShop. Eventually, they made the right choice and fixed up their Windows implementation. I wonder if Apple will follow suit.
(For those really curious, there are some input fields that work just fine with the TIP in Safari. Try submitting a bug. The edit fields in the bug submission dialog are standard Windows controls and support the TIP and I assume other accessibility methods just fine.)
In terms of using Safari on the Q1 UMPC, I was a bit concerned at first about the screen real estate. The Q1’s native resolution is 800×480 and I wasn’t sure how things were going to lay out. The scroll bars are a tad narrow, but I was able to grab them with the stylus as well as my fingernail. I was also concerned that the close/minimize buttons were going to be too small. They are, but because there’s plenty of spacing between them so I was able to use the stylus as well as my finger to select them.
In terms of real estate, I did hide the bookmark row that appears below the address bar. I don’t use it that much anyway, so I figured the extra vertical real estate was more important. Your mileage may vary.
What about app and page load times? They seemed fairly comparable to me, but I didn’t bring out the stop watch or anything. Most everything seemed readable, which to me is most important. And besides, when I’m on WiFi, 5 walls and 100 feet away from the access point, my Internet connection is the biggest drag on page load performance.
Also, like others have indicated, I couldn’t get Silverlight to work. It’s listed as a plugin, which I’m assuming it’s picking up from Firefox or IE, but nothing appears. I tried changing the version number per a suggestion for Tim Heuer and I tried modifying Silverlight.js, but nothing seemed to work. Word is that the Silverlight team is working on this. Don’t forget we’re dealing with multiple betas here. Nothing surprising.