OmniWeb Adds French & German Support, Fixes QuickTime Issue

The Omni Group has updated their popular Cocoa based Web browser, OmniWeb, to version 4.0.1. Although a minor increase in version number, the upgrade contains a host of bug fixes and improvements. Most notable among the changes include French and German language support, and updated code to re-enable QuickTime support that was broken by Internet Explorer 5.1.1. According to The Omni Group:

Today, The Omni Group released OmniWeb 4.0.1, a native Cocoa web browser for Mac OS X. Changes to OmniWeb 4.0.1 include increased stability and compatibility and support for German and French. A detailed list of updates and changes is provided below.

Why use a web browser in English when you can use one in your native language? The Omni Group wants itis users to have the best possible web browsing experience, and localization is a major part of that experience. Ken Case, OmniWebis lead developer states, "We are committed to providing the best user experience possible with OmniWeb, and one of the best ways to do that is to provide a single, globalized web browser that interacts with each user in their own preferred language. Many thanks to Norbert Rittel and Gabriel Rousseau for getting the ball rolling in this update with their German and French localizations."

It just goes to show that everything is better in Mac OS X. Cocoa application are not only easier to develop, theyire multilingual: a globalized application can interact with users in many languages at once. Talk about bringing the world together. Thanks Apple. Simultaneous support of English, German, and French is just the beginning: volunteers around the world are currently working on adding support for Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Hebrew, and Canadian eh. :)

Updates to OmniWeb 4.0.1

  • German and French localizations are included, courtesy of Norbert Rittel and Gabriel Rousseau. The German Help has been partly translated; full French and German translations of the documentation will follow in a later release. More localizations will follow in later releases. If youid like to volunteer to help translate OmniWeb into a language you see listed or would like to help out with another language supported by Mac OS X, please contact [email protected] to be listed on our localization mailing list.
  • If you updated to Internet Explorer 5.1.1 using the Software Update utility, you also got a new QuickTime plugin that didnit load in OmniWeb 4.0. This release recognizes the new plugin type.
  • We now report ourselves to be a version of Netscape by default; weire trying to closely emulate IEis behavior as we go forward, but it turns out that our DOM is currently much more like Netscapeis. So, more websites that have conditional behaviors based on what the browser reports itself as should work now.

OmniWeb is available as shareware for US$29.95. There are not limitations for not registering, but as with all shareware, registering software allows for companies to continue to develop great Macintosh products. You can find more information at The Omni Group Web site.