Filed under: Internet, Macintosh, Apple, Freeware, Open Source, Browser Tips
Shiira 2.0 makes a good Safari replacement
by Jason Clarke Jun 4th 2007
We last mentioned the Shiira web browser for Macs in August of last year, when the first beta iteration of Shiira 2.0 was released. Since then,Shiira 2.0 has hit full release status, and is succeeding at fulfilling its mission statement: "Shiira is a web browser based on Web Kit and written in Cocoa. The goal of the Shiira Project is to create a browser that is better and more useful than Safari. All source code used in this software is publicly available." (Emphasis added.)So, what's to like about Shiira? Firstly, it looks fantastic, and seems to belong on the Mac desktop. Firefox has come a long way in terms of looking more like an actual Mac app when running on a Mac, but it doesn't approach the seamless Mac look and feel provided by Safari, whereas Shiira does.
Probably one of the best things about using Safari on a Mac is how speedy it is at rendering pages compared to most other browsers, and most notably the pokey Firefox. Shiira may not be quite as quick as Safari, but it's definitely in Safari's class; you won't notice much of a difference between the two.
Shiira's claim to fame is the natural way it handles tabs, whether you choose the new Page Dock interface or the more traditional tabs. Shiira was clearly designed from the ground up as a tabbed browser, and it shows. In addition to elegant handling of tabs, Shiira throws in a bit of bling: you can hit F8 to show an Expose-style view of your open tabs. Our favorite feature of Shiira is the full-screen mode. You can hit Option-Command-F and switch to a kiosk-like full screen mode, showing absolutely no browser chrome at all. Great stuff.
Shiira is a free Mac download.
Got a Mac but Safari doesn't "do it" for you? All those Firefox extensions weighing you down? Does even Camino seem anemic? Give 
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
