Apple releases its Safari 4 browser today

As of about 10:45 am PDT this morning, the "beta" label still appeared on the download page for Safari 4, though we expect the label to be dropped perhaps within the hour.

Betanews will certainly be testing Schiller's claim that Safari 4 is the fastest Web browser on all platforms, but throughout the beta period, it did run circles around Firefox and even bested Google Chrome. The last beta build to be distributed, however, encountered performance problems in the Windows 7 RC that it didn't face in Windows Vista SP2. We'll find out whether Apple corrected those deficiencies in time.

Schiller also promised that under the browser's new architecture, a plug-in may crash though the browser stays active and running.

4:55 pm EDT June 8, 2009 • The deed is done as Safari 4 is now publicly available. But the news is not good for Schiller or anyone else who expected the final build of Apple's next Web browser to claim serious bragging rights on the Windows platform for the first time: Its first time at bat out of the gate pulled up a little lame, with 20% slower performance in Vista over the final public beta.