Simply enter a page that includes a feed (either RSS or Atom) into your bookmarks, and Shiira will check that page (at an interval you set), for new entries. Shiira took a big leap forward with this release, in my view.Īnother new feature is a nice RSS reader. New icons, new tabs, a new way of looking at currently opened web pages. One of the most visual changes is an entire overhaul of Shiira’s theme. Version 2.0 of Shiira was released in April (although older versions are still available for users running OSX 10.3 and below best website builders), and the changes and features are certainly exciting.
![shiira for windows shiira for windows](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FJGx_yegiLA/Uz35wFcdGqI/AAAAAAAAAe4/Pb2d7FoQgN8/s1600/SlimBoat.png)
Shiira is written in Cocoa (enabling it to take advantage of tight system integration with dictionaries and services), and the same html rendering engine (Web Kit) used by Safari.
#Shiira for windows for mac
It is also the name of an exciting web browser, available for Mac users running OS X 10.2 – 10.4 (although users running anything less than 10.4 will lose out on certain features). Without a doubt, Shiira is definitely worth a look, but be prepared to spend a little time getting used to its interface.Shiira is a Japanese word meaning dolphin fish. In addition, the pane in the preferences dialog called Key Mappings, which should allow users to assign keyboard shortcuts to menu items, does not seem to be implemented yet (though I was able to open the pane itself).Įven so, the combination of good features, Apple-inspired interface and overall performance left me convinced that, with a little more development, Shiira could easily give other Mac browsers a run for their money.
#Shiira for windows full
For example, the RSS feed preferences pane refused to open at all (even so, the built-in RSS reader functioned fairly well - though being used to full featured stand-alone RSS readers, I'm not sure it would be my first choice). Some of Shiira's preference options seemed unfinished. Unfortunately, I did see some unfinished aspects of this open-source browser. Shiira feels more Mac-like than Apple's own Safari. All of this is important because, bells and whistles aside, the most important piece of a browser to me is that it can actually surf the Web painlessly and quickly. It loaded pages of all kinds, rendered Flash animation with no problems, and even beat out Safari and Firefox in terms of rendering speed on a couple of pages (albeit not by a particularly noteworthy margin). These include menu items for automatically e-mailing the URL or entire contents of a page with a single click, and a very effective full-screen-mode option that would be perfect for presentations or watching video.Īs far as performance, I found Shiira to be very solid. I also found a couple of unusual features that seemed so intuitive that I couldn't believe they weren't more common in other browsers. Pros: New approach to tabs, Apple-inspired interface, stable What I found particularly nice was that, much like the PageDock, these features all served useful functions rather than just being eye candy.
![shiira for windows shiira for windows](https://live.staticflickr.com/92/242036029_3fc304766d_b.jpg)
Even the bookmarking tool that Shiira refers to as the Shelf offers column and list views patterned after the Mac's Finder window (as is the customizable window toolbar).Īll of these made Shiira seem more Mac-like to me than Apple's own Safari browser. The preferences dialog borrows heavily from the look of the Mac's System Preferences application.
![shiira for windows shiira for windows](https://d22blwhp6neszm.cloudfront.net/22/217643/main.png)
Bookmarks, history and RSS feeds can also be browsed from floating translucent pallets reminiscent of Apple's iLife and iWork applications. There's a button that displays all open pages next to each other like Apple's Exposé feature, making it easy to pick one page to work with.
#Shiira for windows mac os x
For those who prefer traditional tabbed browsing, the PageDock can be turned off.Īs I explored Shiira, I noticed that many of its features and interfaces took cues from Apple's Mac OS X interface. The PageDock provides the same functionality as tabbed browsing, but with complete thumbnails of every page that is opened.Īt first, I saw this as something that took up valuable screen real estate, but after a little use, I found it to be an invaluable addition to the browser experience - making it easy to see not only what each "tab" was (beyond just a name), but also what was happening on each page, which proved particularly nice with any page that sported dynamic content (from Facebook chats to sites featuring animation elements).
![shiira for windows shiira for windows](https://www.lowendmac.com/macdan/05/art0803/shiira.gif)
One of the first unique interface elements that I noticed was Shiira's PageDock. Like Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome, Shiira is based on WebKit. Shiira is a relatively new entrant to the Mac Web browser market.