It’s official: Safari 5

The rumors were true. Apple announced the update to Safari 5 and Apple is ambitious about trumping Chrome and Firefox in the browser wars. Just as reported over the weekend, Safari will gain some major backend updates to add speed and functionality to Apple’s browser juice.

Here’s what’s new:

Safari Reader
Safari Reader removes annoying ads and other visual distractions from online articles. So you get the whole story and nothing but the story. It works like this: As you browse the web, Safari detects if you’re on a web page with an article. Click the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field, and the article appears instantly in one continuous, clutter-free view. You see every page of the article — whether two or twenty. Onscreen controls let you email, print, and zoom. Change the size of the text, and Safari remembers it the next time you view an article in Safari Reader.

HMTL5 Support – Speedier HTML 5 support

Bing support – Apple loves Bing!

Improved Web Inspector
The new Timeline pane in the Web Inspector lets you view how Safari interacts with your website. Loading, scripting, and rendering timelines show you how and when Safari parses HTML, executes JavaScript, and performs other operations with your web application. Additional improvements to the Web Inspector make it easy for you to pinpoint areas for optimization.

You can download it here

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