Apple updates Safari 5, adds Safari Extensions Gallery

Apple has updated its browser Safari 5, turning on Safari Extensions and introducing the Safari Extensions Gallery, something which competing browsers Firefox and Chrome have offered for some time. Extensions allow developers to bring new features and functionality to Apple's browser, and the company has teamed with some big name institutions including Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, Twitter, The New York Times and Major League Baseball.

"Safari 5 has been a big hit, and user response to the innovative new Safari Reader has been fantastic," said Brian Croll, Apple's vice president of OS X Product Marketing.

"We're thrilled to see so many leading developers creating great extensions and think our users are going to love being able to customise Safari."

According to Apple's release notes, the free 5.0.1 update includes:

Safari ExtensionsCustomise Safari with features created by third-party developersFind extensions in the Safari Extensions Gallery, accessible from the Safari menu and extensions.apple.com

This update also contains improvements to stability, accessibility and security, including the following:More accurate Top Hit results in the Address FieldMore accurate timing for CSS animationsBetter stability when using the Safari Reader keyboard shortcutBetter stability when scrolling through MobileMe MailFixes display of multipage articles from www.rollingstone.com in Safari ReaderFixes an issue that prevented Google Wave and other websites using JavaScript encryption libraries from working correctly on 32-bit systemsFixes an issue that prevented Safari from launching on Leopard systems with network home directoriesFixes an issue that could cause borders on YouTube thumbnails to disappear when hovering over the thumbnail imageFixes an issue that could cause Flash content to overlap with other content on www.facebook.com, www.crateandbarrel.com, and other sites when using Flash 10.1Fixes an issue that prevented boarding passes from www.aa.com from printing correctlyFixes an issue that could cause DNS prefetching requests to overburden certain routersFixes an issue that could cause VoiceOver to misidentify elements of webpages

For detailed information on the security content of the 5.0.1 update can be found here.

Apple notes that Safari Extensions are built with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards. Every Safari Extension is signed with a digital certificate from Apple to prevent tampering and to verify that updates to the extension are from the original developer.

Safari Extensions are sandboxed insists Apple, so they can't access information on a user's system or communicate with websites aside from those specified by the developer. For increased stability, Safari Extensions run solely in the browser.

Safari 5 also features Safari Reader, which presents single and multipage articles on the web in a new, scrollable view without distracting content or clutter.

The latest version of Safari 5 can be downloaded from apple.com/uk/safari or via Apple's built-in Software Update.

Safari 5.0.1 requires Mac OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.2, or 10.6.3, while Windows uers need Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.