Apple Previews Big Update to Safari on Mac, Featuring New Privacy Tools, Built-in Translation, Improved Tabs, and More

Apple today during its WWDC keynote unveiled macOS Big Sur, which comes with a big update to Apple's native Safari browser.

apple macos bigsur customizedsafari startpage 06222020
Tabs have been redesigned to make navigating with Safari faster and more powerful by showing more tabs onscreen, displaying favicons by default to easily identify open tabs, and giving users a quick preview of a page by simply hovering over the tab.

A new Privacy Report button in the toolbar gives users insight into how sites are using their connection, and which trackers have been blocked. Users can choose when and which websites a Safari extension can work with, and tools like data breach password monitoring never reveal users' password information.

apple macos bigsur safari improvedtabs 06222020
Extensions support for Safari is adopting new standard, so users can bring over extensions from other browsers. Users can also give extensions access just for a day, on a certain website, or for every website. In addition, the Mac App Store has a new extensions category that includes editorial spotlights and top charts.

apple macos bigsur safari privacyreport 06222020
Meanwhile, native-translation capabilities are now built into Safari, and the browser can detect and translate entire webpages from seven languages. There's also a customizable Start Page with background image support that extends to Reading List and iCloud Tabs.

Aside from features, Safari is getting faster. Apple says it now loads frequently visited sites an average of 50 percent faster than Chrome.

Popular Stories

iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Launch Is Just One Month Out – Here's Everything We Know

Saturday August 10, 2024 5:00 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series in the fall, and a possible September 10 announcement date has been floated this year, which means we are just one month away from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design...
macbook pro bb cyber

Apple's M3 MacBook Pro Gets Up to $1,000 Off In Major New Sales, Starting at $1,299 [Updated]

Sunday August 11, 2024 1:54 pm PDT by
Apple's M3 MacBook Pro is seeing multiple high value discounts on Best Buy and Amazon today, with up to $1,000 off select models. This includes a new all-time low price on the entry-level M3 512GB 14-inch MacBook Pro at $1,299.00, down from $1,599.00, and a massive $1,000 discount on the high-end 16-inch model exclusively for Best Buy members. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best...
iPhone 16 Pro Right Side Feature

The iPhone 16 is Getting a New Button: Here's What It Can Do

Tuesday August 13, 2024 4:01 pm PDT by
Multiple rumors have suggested that the iPhone 16 models are going to have an all-new button that's designed to make it easier to capture photos when the devices are held in landscape mode. Apple calls the button the Capture Button internally, and it is going to be one of the most advanced buttons that's been introduced to date with support for multiple gestures and the ability to respond to ...
iOS 18 on iPhone Feature

Everything New in iOS 18.1 Beta 2 and iOS 18 Beta 6

Monday August 12, 2024 2:32 pm PDT by
Apple is beta testing iOS 18 and the first update to iOS 18 concurrently, and we got the second betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 today alongside the sixth betas of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia 15. Many of the changes in iOS 18.1 are focused on bringing the .1 betas in line with the standard betas, which recently received updates to Photos and Safari, while...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Blue Face ID Single Camera Hole

10 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 17

Thursday August 8, 2024 4:40 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we sometimes get rumored feature leaks so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different – already we have some idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you plan to skip...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature Single Camera 2

Next Year's Slim iPhone 17 Could Be an 'iPhone Air'

Monday August 12, 2024 8:43 am PDT by
Apple's rumored iPhone 17 "Slim" could be positioned as an iPhone "Air" to boost sales, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explained how the "fourth" model in the iPhone lineup since 2020 (the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 14 Plus, and iPhone 15 Plus) has largely been a commercial failure. In the case of the Plus model,...

Top Rated Comments

abrantes09 Avatar
54 months ago
Im switching... I was looking for a reason and I've been given a reason...this is epic
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MEJHarrison Avatar
54 months ago

The iMac hasn't been redesigned in twelve years and you're talking about updates to Rosetta? ?
One of the interesting things I picked up today watching the video is that Apple seems to have many different people working on many different projects. It doesn't appear, as some think, to be a single group of people working on 1 project at a time. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they have an entire department that handles artwork like emojis instead of it just being the developers doing that work. Who can say?

It's entirely possible those two things you mentioned are handled by completely different groups of people. And I would further guess that progress, or lack thereof, on one team probably doesn't affect the progress of the other team in this particular case.

You could literally have said "The iMac hasn't been redesigned in twelve years and you're talking about..." and stuck anything they said there today at the end and it would fit just as well. One has nothing to do with the other.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Airforcekid Avatar
54 months ago
Ill give it a try but I cant imagine it being faster than Brave plus I dont want to lose all my Chrome extensions.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dom_ Avatar
54 months ago
The only question is: will it do VP9? (Either natively or via the new extension functions.)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
velocityg4 Avatar
54 months ago
If it does indeed get better extension support I may try it out. Maybe this will pry me away from Firefox and Chrome.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
V-l-a-d-i-m-i-r Avatar
54 months ago

I wish they would bring back Safari for Windows. Apple has to realize that many of us loyal customers also use Windows devices.
Yes, I totally agree.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)