OS X 10.5.2 (9C31) Seeded, Safari 3.1 Beta Incorporates Latest Webkit Features

The wait for Leopard 10.5.2 continues, with a 1 digit build increment (9C31) seeded today. The latest developer build offers fixes to a networking connectivity issue, and reportedly has no known issues. Apple seeded build 9C30 just two days ago.

Meanwhile, in non-10.5.2 news, Apple has seeded a new build of Safari 3.1 to developers today. The new release seems to incorporate much of what has been implemented in the Webkit builds since the last major release.

New features include (links to Webkit.org descriptions):

- HTML5 audio and video tags: "The new HTML5 'video' and 'audio' elements add native support for embedding video and audio content in web pages. They also provide a rich scripting API for controlling playback."
- HTML5 SQL storage API: "The client-side database storage API allows web applications to store structured data locally using a medium many web developers are already familiar with - SQL."

- getElementsByClassName: "getElementsByClassName is one of the more common functions requested by JavaScript programmers (and added by JavaScript libraries); it works along the same lines as getElementsByTagName and getElementById in looking up elements of a web page by their properties."
- Downloadable fonts: "With font face rules you can specify downloadable custom fonts on your Web pages or alias one font to another." More details.
- CSS Transforms and CSS Animations

The latest beta builds of Safari also address a number of significant fixes. Safari is currently at version 3.0.4. For those interested in the cutting edge Webkit releases, you can download nightly builds -- though these may not be entirely stable.