The core feature that outshines the other top browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer right now is it’s Nitro Engine.  Still the world’s fastest web browser, Safari outraces Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. On even the most demanding Web 2.0 applications, Safari delivers blazingly fast performance thanks to the industry’s most advanced rendering technologies.

Using the new Nitro Engine, for example, Safari executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than 3 times faster than Firefox 3 based on performance in leading industry benchmark tests: iBench and SunSpider.

I am amazed with what Apple has accomplished with the iPhone and iPod Touch.  I was never interested in developing applications for mobile devices or iPods because of the limited screen size, but through recent discovery of internet based applications for my iPod Touch I have changed my outlook on this.  The screen transitions are amazing, and the interface controls are easy to use.  Easy enough that my own father would find it enjoyable as much as he’s not a fan of anything high tech.

AJAX based Web 2.0 applications run fine on these devices and are easy to install.  With the lack of plugin support (Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player) for the slimmed down version of Safari, I find it a bit limited especially for us PC based developers but has openned up my eyes to perhaps purchasing a Mac.   But this will change as I know I’m not the only one that feels this way and a lot of people must’ve already inquired about this.

Just recently, Apple released the new version of iLife with all of the new features for iPhoto, GarageBand and iMovie.  I love taking photos and the new face recognition features with geo-tagging in iPhoto along with the robust video-editing features in iMovie has got me sold.  I will be buying a Mac in the near future. Kudos to Apple, for you’ve enlightened a die hard PC user in wanting to buy more of your products.

     I’m currently work as a web developer programming in .NET, but from time to time I’ll develop something in Flash.  Lately, I’ve grown interested in Silverlight.  Some may label it as a flash killer, but it’s just another platform leveraging Microsoft Technology. Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plugin for delivering the next generation of Microsoft .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the web.  To view Silverlight technology, you’ll have to download it’s player which is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.  It’s fairly new and sites are constantly popping up utilizing this new technology.  It show promise and many .NET programmers have taken off with it.  To create many of the intricate animations, streaming demos, and rich applications, Microsoft created a suite of products called Expression.  It is now available for purchase and you can download a trial version to play around with.  Using XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) in conjunction with .NET framework 3.0, developers can create endless possibilities in animation, and application development.  XAML was initially created for Microsoft new OS, Windows Vista. It’s a vector based environment similar to Flash.  These two development/design platforms will conjure up competition which I feel will be healthy for the Internet Community.  I would love to see more Silverlight sites as there are tons of Flash sites already out on the Internet today.