Good news for Mac OS X users, OmniWeb 5.6 was just released (requires Mac OS X 10.4.8 and later) which now supports OS X 10.5 “Leopard” and ads some new features. By the way, in case you didn’t knew… OmniWeb is not a free web browser; you will have to buy a license if you really like it. “OmniWeb runs in demonstration mode when unlicensed. The demo period is 30 launch days.”
Changelog
WebKit
The version of WebKit that OmniWeb is based off of has been updated.
We now use the WebKit icon database. This means that favicons saved to the disk should no longer grow infinitely and decrease performance.
This includes the new Web Inspector as seen on Surfin’ Safari
Addresses many site compatibility issues, improves performance and addresses various other bugs found in 5.5.4.
The Drosera JavaScript debugger now works in OmniWeb. (It is packaged with WebKit nightlies)
Improved JavaScript and plug-in performance.
Flash and other plug-in performance has been improved.
Interface
By default, OmniWeb will now display PDFs inside the browser. Right clicking on a PDF will give you display options including a way to open in preview.
The zoomed text editor button has moved out of text areas’ scroll bars. To access the zoomed text editor for a text area…
Select “Show Zoomed Editor” from the Edit menu (keyboard shortcut Option-Command-E)
Select “Zoom…” from the context menu (Control-Click or Right-Click on the text area)
There is also now a status bar icon for the zoomed text editor that appears when you click in a text area.
The Favorites menu now consistently appears in the Bookmarks menu.
Added the iPhone to the list of browsers available for spoofing.
Added a new automatic Software Update interface. Next time OmniWeb is updated you will automatically be notified like normal along with release notes and the option to download and install.
Localization
Added a simplified Chinese localization.
Updated French, German and Japanese localizations.
Performance and Stability
Fixed a long-standing issue with bookmark synchronization where changes made on another computer would show up on the next launch, but then disappear again on the subsequent launch if you hadn’t made any further changes on the local machine.
When asked to Quit, OmniWeb will immediately stop optional tasks like checking RSS feeds and bookmark changes.
Fixed a long-standing bug which could cause OmniWeb to hang while updating its history index.
Other
Added a hidden preference to enable resizable text areas (like those found in Safari 3). To enable just open a terminal window and enter “defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniWeb5
ShowResizableTextAreas -bool true” at the prompt without the quotes. Restart OmniWeb for the change to take effect.
Download OmniWeb 5.6
Download OmniWeb 5.6 (English only)
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Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism career back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.
OmniWeb is another great user-centered browser, after Opera of course. ;)
BTW, Opera should learn from OmniWeb how to create polished UI.