14 DAY TRIAL // Apple doesn't include a lot of programs with their operating system, which is quite fine really, because there is no need for it. Whatever software is there tends to be on the minimalist side, little more than a utility. Of course, there are the exceptions, those very good programs that Apple makes and everybody uses, such as Mail, iTunes and Safari. All these Apple applications are damn good, and a lot of people would never really think of using anything else, because they are that good. iTunes and Mail are ubiquitous, and Safari is by far the most popular browser out there. However, while I still use Mail and iTunes, as nothing else compares to them, I have not been using Safari for quite a long time now. Despite Safari being a good browser, Shiira is better, and has been for quite some time. Now, Shiira has officially reached the 2.0 mark, and I lovingly took it out for a spin.
What is new The biggest change you will notice in Shiira, especially if you have been using your previous version for quite some time, is the interface. The new Shiira interface is quite different, but at the same time, it manages to become familiar after just a few minutes.
Page Dock The page dock, which is visible at the bottom of the screen, is one of those new features that you either love or hate. It replaces the tabs bar in terms of functionality, showing you small previews of all the open pages that you have within that window. At a first glance, the preview is live, as you can see it building up as the page is being loaded, however this is not exactly true. While the preview does indeed reflect the page, it will not reflect any browsing you might do. Scroll as you might, the preview will always show the top of the page, which is rather sad. If you are visiting multiple pages on the same site, they will all look the same, and the benefits of such a preview will be greatly reduced. Now, despite how good this page dock looks, it does take up quite a bit of screen real estate. You can resize it within certain limits, but this does not help much, mainly because resizing it also resizes the area available for tab names.
New Shelf and RSS While I liked the concept of the Shelf in previous version of Shiira, I truly hated the implementation. I tend to keep my windows as big as they can get, and there was simply no room for the drawer. Of course, it could automatically resize the window to make itself fit, but that inevitably screwed up what was left of the window. The new shelf uses a new approach that gives you the best of both worlds. Instead of a drawer, the shelf is now accessed as a web page directly from within any browser window. This way, you can either make a new tab and access the shelf when you need it, or make the tab your home page and keep it open all the time in the same place.
In terms of functionality, the shelf has not changed much. It is still that one stop location for bookmarks, browsing and downloading history. The search engines setting window has also been moved into the Shelf now.
The RSS tab is gone from the shelf. Instead, now there is a little RSS button that appears at the bottom of any web site that supports RSS articles, which will replace the page you are looking at with the RSS article list. At the top of the RSS view are two buttons that you can use to change the display style, as well as the name of the site.
Info Window The info window is new to this version of Shiira. Much like the similar window that can be seen in the Finder, which contains all the information available about the file, this window shows all the information you could wish about a site. The window is structured around a vertical tab bar to make things easier to navigate because it simply holds so much information. For any given page, you can instantly see the source, CSS, links, images, cookies, Javascript and more.
While this is an invaluable tool for designers and developers, it can also be useful for the average user depending on what information they would like to dig out the site, beyond what meets the eye.
Not there yet Unfortunately, while this is actually version 2.0 of Shiira, it is not really up to par. The program feels more like a preview, with a lot of the features that were there in previous versions now gone. The developers seem aware of this, however, they claim that this version is only as something to tide us along until they get everything else in.
Exactly how much of a difference this makes is hard to say, and depends heavily on each person's needs. From what I've seen of it, the release is stable, and works the way it should. The only issue that I've noticed is that, when using the expose like function, you sometimes get messed up name overlays for some of the windows, but this happens rather randomly and is simply annoying.
If you need one of those options that has yet to materialize, then you might want to stick with your current version until 2.0 sees more work.
The Good
Lots of new improvements, especially in terms of interface and design.
The Bad
Lots of features present in previous versions have gone missing, not being implemented yet.
The Truth
If you like this version better, and don't miss any of the options that have yet to be implemented, then you will be quite happy with this version of Shiira. However, if not, you will be really let down and probably depressed when you go back to the old version and look at it. Unfortunately, 2.0 is not all it should have been; with a little bit of luck, maybe 2.1 will be.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
