Apple brings back old Safari tab design in latest macOS Monterey beta update

When Apple released the macOS Monterey beta, one of the things the company changed was removing the tabs bar in Safari. Engadget pointed out that it made sorting tabs messy and tedious, even if it allowed for more screen space to website content. Apple listened to users and brought back the standalone Tab bar with the latest macOS beta update. It will be enabled by default like it was on Big Sur.

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Apple releases software update to Safari on iOS and macOS to counter 'Spectre' flaws

Apple has followed through on its promise to release a security update to the Safari browser on iOS and macOS in order to mitigate the theat of the 'Spectre' flaw. Spectre and Meltdown are two vulnerabilities affecting billions of PCs, Macs and mobile devices. Tech companies are rushing to patch the exploits which affect generations of processors and devices.

Mac users should update to Safari 11.0.2 to ensure they're running the improved version of the browser. iOS users need to iOS 11.2.2 to ensure the countermeasures are active on their devices.

Exploit shows autofill makes it easy to expose your credit card info on Chrome and Safari

Autofill on browsers are convenient. You input things once and then you’re all set every time. But the price you pay for that convenience could be that you’re giving away important personal data—like your credit card information. Viljami Kuosmanen, a hacker at Futurice, shared on Github and Twitter a simple exploit that makes it easy for malicious websites to rip you off based on the information you allowed to be saved as autofill on both Chrome and Safari.

Browsers will determine what type of information the site is looking for and then it’ll keep the rest. But hackers have a way to obscure certain text boxes and users wouldn’t even notice they’re being autofilled, especially when what’s being filled out is sensitive personal data (e.g. credit card info). A quick way to avoid this is to disable autofill on both browsers, you can head to chrome://settings and find it under Show Advanced Settings tab on Chrome or heading to Preferences on Safari and unchecking the boxes in the Autofill tab.

This is why I don't like autofill in web forms. #phishing #security #infosec pic.twitter.com/mVIZD2RpJ3

— Viljami Kuosmanen ⭐ (@anttiviljami) January 4, 2017

Source: Gizmodo

Apple's Safari Technology Preview released for developers to test and tweak new functions

Apple announced the Safari Technology Preview for developers is available today which focuses on new functionalities to the Safari browser. Available today, Safari Technology Preview brings the latest layout technologies, visual effects, and developer tools that provide input on how they are implemented and deliver an even better user experience across Apple devices.

Apple says Safari beats Chrome and Firefox in benchmarks, performing 1.15x faster in Jetstream, 2.2x faster in Speedometer and 6.0x faster in JSBench. Safari can browse the web up to two hours longer than Chrome and Firefox, it can also watch Netflix videos up to four hours longer.

In Safari Technology Preview developers can get the latest web technologies, including HTML, JavaScript and CSS and WebKit. They can get access to the latest versions of Web Inspector and Responsive Design Mode to modify, debug, and optimize their websites. Apple is making this available so devs can integrate into their websites for improved compatibility. A Bug Reporter is also available to send feedback directly to Apple about issues and enhancement requests.