Categories
Archive

Apple Kills Safari Seed Program


CNET News.com reports that Apple has terminated its beta seed program for Safari. The seed program gives developers access to builds of the company’s web browser before they’re avaliable as public beta. Apple made the decision to cut off the program after developers broke their Non-Disclosure Agreement and posted Build 67 on the Internet, following leaks of builds 62 and 64. (Public beta users are on build 60.) In an e-mail to developers, Apple said “We know that the majority of you are not responsible for the leaks to the Internet, and we sincerely appreciate your feedback, time and effort with this project.” Apple’s decision is understandable, if disappointing, but the popularity of build 67 suggests a lot of pent-up down for a tabbed-browsing version of Safari, so our money is on widely increased usage of the program when these changes do go public.

One note on CNET’s article: it calls Safari “Apple’s first Web browser.” Cyberdog, anyone?

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.