Cool Releases

A few cool releases this week, and one from a while back.

Windows Vista SP1 was released to Windows update yesterday. There are supposed to be lots of improvements and changes, including updating the Kernel to the one used in Windows Server 2008. I installed it last night. So far I haven't seen much difference. Instant Search is supposed to be cut back now, but I don't see any change there. Maybe there is some power mode I don't usually use or something.

The most drastic change is supposed to be with the speed of the normal File operations, such as Moving or copying files. Finally! I won't have to wait an eternity for a file to move! Another is that unzipping zip archives should be faster as well.

I think I can vouch for the zip file extraction being faster. I just unzipped an archive and it didn't seem as painfully slow as usual.

I also found out that Apple's Safari 3.1 has been updated. It's improvements are supposed to make it faster and more standards compliant.

It does seem faster. It actually seems to be usable now. But Safari it is still missing some power features which still makes IE, Opera and FireFox better for developers. Such as being able to save an entire website rather than just the html.

Right now I'm using Safari to write this post. The built in spell checker is a nice feature for blogging, as is the ability to resize the text box. But it is still such an ugly misfit to run in Windows. Skinned windows are for toy applications not serious ones. It also still looks horribly naked without the Windows borders.

A while back FireFox 3 Beta 4 was release. It is on it's final leg of Beta's so there shouldn't be many differences with it from Beta 3. I haven't spent much time on it so I haven't found many interesting points. However the user interface is kinda cool.