Actually, Safari for someone living inside the Apple Ecosystem is pretty great.
"Handoff"- you're reading something on your iPhone, you approach your Mac and an icon on the bottom of the screen allowing you to pickup on your much larger screen exactly where you were at.
Full integration of the keychain allowing safe login/password saving across all devices
Shared History, you don't have to remember which device you were on when you saw that thing on some site, you can search all history across devices
Apple Pay integration - pure magic when you can complete a 2-factor payment on your Apple Watch or iPhone that you are doing on your browser on your Mac
When a website forces you to do SMS as a second factor, and Safari automatically fills it in for you. (Chef's Kiss)
Same experience across Mac, iPhone, iPad
Native means it's generally the fastest browser on the platform
I'm sure there are other advantages, but the first 5 are the ones that make me smile every time.
Yes, the Apple Cult is a cult, but it's a very nice cult. To be honest, it was much better years ago and quality has slipped, but it's still a good value proposition. And Mac hardware, while expensive, lasts and lasts.
I only use apple for phone and watch. Have a mac in the corner that hasn't been turned on in 2 years.... As to shared history and passwords, all browsers do that (firefox, chrome, edge), same with passing off from phone to pc. I only use apple pay on phone and watch. Not needed on a pc. SMS for 2nd factor? Ick... (even with apple messenger) use an authenticator. Much safer.. Options for the PC are just as smooth as the mac, that said, safari is just so weak compared to chrome and firefox. I've used Safari and on every new system installed we suppress it in favor of other stuff.
Hey, I'm a retired CIO with a CISSP. Yes, I know the problems with sms authentication. There are a lot of websites that do not give you a choice. And when THEY use SMS, Safari seamlessly snags it from the Messages app and pastes it into the webpage for you. It's pretty darn convenient. Isn't it great that we live in a time when people can make their own value and risk decisions?
I'm just saying as someone who is a network engineering and does a lot network security, they need to abolish SMS as a form of 2 factor authentication. It should never even have been thought of in the first place. Gives me the ick...
I gotta say I never even thought of this, but it would be a very useful option. Particularly if you use multiple hubs. I can’t say how many times I have been working on something only to figure out I was not in the hub I thought I was. Being able to subtly change the background colors would be a good way to differentiate between them.
I am already a Dark Reader fan, I even have it on my computers at work (our main screens are black, but our secondary screens have was to many white and bright windows.
As for Apple vs Mac, I was very anti-Apple for a long time primarily because of the old I’m a PC I’m a MAC commercials. I’ve been switching over to Apple for a while now, but I will likely always keep a Windows machine available. Too many things just work better or easier on Windows. As for browsers, Brave is my browser of choice, but I tend to use Safari on my phone and iPad. Even then there are sites it doesn’t work well with, so I still have Brave as a backup, and no Apple tax on it.
