haniblog

I’m not one for complacency so I sometimes throw out what I’m used to and start again. I bought a MacBook Pro recently and started fresh with only my MobileMe sync to get me going. Actually I’m typing this on my second-new MacBook Pro since the first one had wobbly feet which Apple replaced with, again, no quibbles.

Like any long-time Mac user, Safari was always my main browser but there have been times where I’ve had Firefox, Camino and even Opera as my default. I almost always go back to Safari after a while and shake my head at my folly. This is the browser, I’d say to myself.

And here we go again with Google’s Chrome. But after two days I’m encouraged and I really like what I see. The tabs are brilliantly organised and much better than the short-lived Safari beta implementation. My favourite feature so far is the Omnibox. Most other browsers have an address box along with a separate search box on the side. Chrome combines the two into a “How could I have lived without this?!?” feature. Type in any search term into the address field and Google Suggest finds relevant sites for you. Or go for an URL you know and it’s there. Brilliant.

Chrome is also snappy to launch and quite a fast browser. I’ll forcibly use this for this week and then switch back to Safari to see if I miss anything Chrome-wise.

Updates to follow.

UPDATE 15th Jan: What? No auto-RSS detection? Am I missing something? And no Mac Extensions yet. Crap.

UPDATE 18th Jan: Right it’s back to Safari for this week to compare.

UPDATE 30th Jan: Safari it is I’m afraid. Chrome was snappy and responsive, as I stated previously, but there’s a feeling of gimmicky-ness that I just couldn’t shake.

Ever since I installed Snow Leopard, I’ve been battling with a strange bug in Safari. If I go to a website with several embedded videos, they all start playing simultaneously. I’d been in the head of the page with no video present in the current view when suddenly all the audio streams start playing and overlapping each other. Cue heart attack. Here’s what happens:

I’ve been searching Google, combing the Apple discussion boards with no clue or direction on how to fix this bug. Then this morning I had an idea. I thought it must be a Safari plugin… and it was. I’ve been using a flash blocker called ClickToFlash and it was the culprit. When it intercepts YouTube videos it sets them all to Autoplay and they all start playing. Thankfully, it’s been reported as a bug in the ClickToFlash support board.

Once I removed the plugin from the ~/Library/Internet Plugins folder, Safari behaves normally as seen here:

UPDATE: As I mentioned before, there is a support ticket to fix the autoplay bug in ClickToFlash 1.5fc2 and there is now a workaround as well. In the ClickToFlash Settings window, make sure Load H.264 Videos from YouTube is unchecked.

Apple just released a public beta of Safari 4. First impression: it’s fast! Second impression: What happened to the Tabs bar?

Finally! A delicious plugin for Safari. DeliciousSafari even puts an icon on the toolbar to add a bookmark, including all the popular tags a particular entry has. To add icing to the cake, there’s a free iPhone App!

UPDATE: Ignore the iPhone App. On a uselessness scale of 1 to 10 it’s 9.99995. Delete.