The browser battle is heating up – The Safari 5.1 developer beta is pretty impressive, but one of the less-obvious notable features of Safari 5.1 beta is a new iOS-inspired download manager.
In prior versions of Safari, starting a download results in a disembodied pop-up downloads video that easily gets lost behind your browser windows. No more. In Safari 5.1 beta, our source reports, as soon as a download starts, a nice little icon pops up next to the search bar. Clicking on it reveals a beautiful iPad-like drop down window detailing your past and current downloads.
I am loving the looks of the new download manager, but really, it’s only one of many improvements in Safari 5.1 beta, with performance enhancements, specifically in the HTML 5 area, taking the lead in the improvements.
