Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.
Safari Technology Preview release 39a is a followup to Safari Technology Preview 39, which was released earlier this week but suffered from a crashing issue on launch on macOS High Sierra. The new update includes the same features with fixes and improvements for Beacon API, Directory Upload, Fetch API, Input Events, JavaScript, WebAssembly, WebRTC, Web Inspector, and Media.
With Safari 11 now available to developers through the macOS High Sierra beta, Apple is providing two versions of Safari Technology Preview, one for macOS Sierra users and one for those using macOS High Sierra.
The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.
Apple's aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.
Top Rated Comments
10 years ago, the newest Mac OS X running flawlessly on a 7-year-old Mac (or even older, as technically unsupported Macs from 2008/2009 can run MacOS Sierra today) was almost unheard of. The dual-processor G4 towers could just barely do ok on Leopard, and without official support from Apple (733 MHz+ was required).
I'm sure it was tested before release, and it didn't crash for them either - but it's simply not possible to take into account all possible issues and testing environments. I also wonder if somehow the app got corrupted during distribution, and some users downloaded the corrupted version while others did not. Only Apple knows for sure what happened.
But this is kind of the point of beta software, to find and fix issues that might be missed during Apple's own testing. Crash reports are sent and that helps Apple locate and fix an issue that otherwise may not be easy to discover or reproduce.