Apple announced a major update to its Web browser late Monday afternoon following the unveiling of the the iPhone 4. Safari 5 adds support for customizing the browser with extensions, and also includes the new Nitro JavaScript engine for better performance and page rendering.
Safari’s new extensions support lets users build add-ons with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, and Apple is also releasing and Extension Builder Kit designed to help with building Safari Extensions.
Version 5 improved HTML 5 support with features such as closed captioning and full screen playback for HTML5 videos, geolocation, HTML5 object dragging, HTML5Ruby and AJAX History, sectioning elements, and forms validation. The update also improved security, sandboxes extensions to help prevent crashes and hacks, and more.
Safari 5 will be available for download at Apple’s Web site, and through the Software Update application. The update isn’t, however, currently available for download.