New Mac OS X Seed (9C31). Safari Gets the New Webkit Features

Leopard 10.5.2 isn't here yet, but Apple has recently seeded build 9C30. Two days ago, to be precise. Currently at 9C31, the build fixes networking connectivity issues, and, according to sources on the web, has no known issues. Apple has also released a new build of Safari 3.1 for developers to have a look at. According to macrumors.com, it seemingly incorporates most of what Webkit builds were stuffed with, since the last major release.

So without further ado, new features brought by build 9C31 include:

- HTML5 audio and video tags" "The new HTML5 and elements add native support for embedding video and audio content in web pages. They also provide a rich scripting API for controlling playback."

- HTML5 SQL storage API: "The client-side database storage API allows web applications to store structured data locally using a medium many web developers are already familiar with - SQL."

- getElementsByClassName: "getElementsByClassName is one of the more common functions requested by JavaScript programmers (and added by JavaScript libraries); it works along the same lines as getElementsByTagName and getElementById in looking up elements of a web page by their properties."

- Downloadable fonts: "With font face rules you can specify downloadable custom fonts on your Web pages or alias one font to another." More details.

- CSS Transforms and CSS Animations
(Descriptions available courtesy of Webkit.org)

Two weeks ago, Apple released seed 9C16 accompanied by notes containing a quite lengthy list of fixes. 9C16 told developers to focus on areas such as Active Directory/Directory Services, AirPort, AppKit, Application, Firewall, Audio, Rosetta, Safari, SMB, Spotlight, SQLite, Terminal, Time Machine... and the list could go on. With the arrival of this update, Apple will finally have fixed issues with Time Machine, Preferences and Preview Image, while scrolling horizontally will now be possible using keys, NTFS Volume and System UIServer will also be fixed, along with DVDPlayback, second display hookup, Japanese localization and CUPS.

According to the same source, the latest builds (beta) of Safari (3.0.4) address a series of significant fixes as well.