Product Reviews

Shiira's designers have set themselves a straightforward task: to create the best web browsing experience on Mac OS X. They've certainly created the best looking, but as for the best experience, that's a different matter.

Version 2 certainly has introduced some big changes in the way that Shiira presents itself and its information to the end user, but you definitely get the feeling that this release is two steps forward, one step back. The most obvious change is the way that tabs are managed with the new Tab Dock. Earlier versions displayed Tabs in the same way that Exposé in OS X Tiger displays windows. Now, however, the Tab Dock displays fully rendered thumbnails of each page across the bottom of the browser window. Page loading is indicated by a progress 'level' in the thumbnail and switching between tabs is a lot easier, as you can see what's on a page. It's all very slick.

Bookmark handling is also completely different. Gone is the 'tray', replaced with a more Safari-like page interface. Shiira

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still does a good job of faithfully importing your bookmarks from Safari or Firefox, although trying to set the Bookmark Toolbar to either of these browsers in Preferences caused a repeatable crash.

History and Downloads are now in a side Shelf, but Downloads seems to have taken a hit. Previously, Shiira would corral your downloads into folders according to the date. The dated folders option is no longer active: you can only download to the desktop and even if it's set to Manual, downloads are cleared automatically in the new head-up display (HUD), although they remain in the Downloads pane.

As well as appearing on the Shelf, Bookmarks, Downloads and History can also be displayed in floating, transparent windows - a very nice touch that makes good use of Apple's Core Image technology. Another nice touch is that any URLs in Address Book are accessible via the Shelf. Shiira still supports RSS, although this has changed from a dedicated tab to a toggle button on pages that have RSS feeds.

In many ways, Shiira gives you a glimpse of what all browsers could be like. It's also a throwback to a darker age when a lot of the browsing comforts we take for granted didn't exist, such as forms auto-fill, which still hasn't been added.

You get the impression Shiira's designers are really just doing their own thing - and having a lot of fun doing it. They haven't even updated their web page with a new features list. On the positive side, the most it will cost you to try out Shiira is a few hours of your time, and if you don't need the missing features, you may just fall in love with it.