Apple Releases Safari 5.1 for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows

As part of OS X Lion released today, Apple includes Safari 5.1, an updated version of the company's Internet browser that supports a number of improvements, some of which are tied into Lion's new capabilities. But Apple has also pushed out Safari 5.1 for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows, bringing some of the enhancements that don't rely on Lion to those platforms.

This update contains new features including:

- Reading List: Easily add webpages and links to your Reading List to browse when you have time.
- New Process Architecture: Safari has been re-engineered for improved stability and responsiveness.
- Resume: In the General pane of Safari preferences, you can now choose to launch Safari with the windows from your last browsing session.
- Better Privacy: A new Privacy pane in Safari preferences makes it easy to remove data that websites can leave on your system.

Other improvements include:

- Private AutoFill: Safari lets you fill out forms quickly while keeping your personal information private.
- Find Option: When you use Find, you can choose whether you want to search for text that contains or starts with the text that you type in the search field.
- Drag-and-drop Downloads: You can drag items out of the Downloads window in Safari, so you can easily place downloaded files on the Desktop.
- Advanced Web Technologies: Safari introduces support for full-screen webpages, media caching with the HTML5 application cache, MathML, Web Open Font Format, CSS3 Auto-hyphenation, CSS3 Vertical Text, CSS3 Text Emphasis, Window.onError, and Formatted XML files.
- New Extension APIs: Developers can take advantage of new Safari Extension support for popovers, menus, new event classes, and interaction with Reader.

Safari 5.1 for Snow Leopard requires Mac OS X 10.6.5 or later.

Apple has also released a minor Safari 5.0.6 update for Mac OS X Leopard, bringing several improvements related to WebSocket web applications, HTML5 annotations, and display of content within frames on sites such as pandora.com.