Apple today announced a new browser, sort of. It’s called Safari Technology Preview and its meant for developers to be able to test and experiment with future web technologies and upcoming features. This is similar to Google Chrome Canary, which allows developers to play with in-development web technologies ahead of official releases. The app even comes complete with a new purple icon.
Apple will be updating Safari Technology Preview on a fortnightly basis, with each release signed for security. Download Apple’s new browser from the developer portal, with automatic updates through the Mac App Store.
Safari Technology Preview is a standalone application, so you can install it alongside a normal version of Safari. It also supports iCloud features, which the typical WebKit Nightly builds do not include. The debut release includes numerous new features for developers to make better web apps — there are no noticeable user-facing changes we can see. Developers can read up on the technical changes here.
The Safari Technology Preview is unlikely to be that useful for most OS X users, as it is tuned for use by web developers. For instance, the Develop menu is enabled by default. Moreover, stability is not guaranteed. Although the preview releases will be far more stable than nightly builds, not everything will have been as comprehensively tested as a normal version of Safari.
