Google has launched a beta version of its Chrome browser for Mac OS X. The browser will run on Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard and will only run on Intel Macs. Google claims the browser is fast, stable and secure and has been previewing the software to developers for several months. Chrome for Mac OS X can be downloaded here and a series of fun videos explaining the new browser’s features can be viewed here. A full report on Google’s Chrome browser will be posted soon.

Gamers who fancy creating their own iPhone titles will be able to do so very soon thanks to the imminent launch of a new publishing system.

Targeted at amateur and professional game developers, GameSalad Creator has been operating as an open beta application for a few months but the official release is due in the next few weeks.It comes as a relief for hundreds of developers who have been creating games using the system and have so far been in the dark about the intentions of Gendai Games, the firm behind the service.

Although Gendai is remaining tight lipped about the specifics until the official launch, it is expected that developers will have to pay to see their games available on Apple’s App Store. But GameSalad allows people to create games without any programming knowledge, providing a user-friendly interface and templates for various game genres.

Game making programmes are nothing new but this is the first time one has been made available for the iPhone and it paves the way for independent games production.The open platform program can also be used to produce games for the web and social networks such as Facebook and it is free to download from gamesalad.com

“We’re at an extremely exciting point in our company”, says Gendai Games CEO, Michael Agustin.

“The number one feature that everyone has been clamoring for is an easy, more intuitive way to create a game for the iPhone. With GameSalad’s visual based logic system along with it’s drag-and-drop interface – we are poised to make that a reality.”

By David Crookes

After a quiet period since January’s Expo, Apple has once again ignited the web with news of a new beta release. Safari 4 for Mac and PC introduces new features including Cover Flow and a Top Sites screen and is said to be Apple’s fastest browser yet. The reason behind the improved speed is down to Safari’s Nitro Engine rendering pages faster than Firefox, IE and Chrome, according to Apple.

Top Sites
Top Sites provides a handy way to check out your favourite spots online by showing a preview of the sites you visit most often in a slick grid that changes over time. When a site in the grid is updated as star is displayed in the upper right hand corner of the screen to notify you. The Top Sites page can hold up to 24 thumbnails at a time that can be displayed small, medium or large as well dragged and dropped and locked to position. When loaded for the first time, the beta took a little while to scan and add thumbnails on an iMac G5 running Leopard, but once loaded worked beautifully.

Bookmarks and History
Searching bookmarks and your browsing history is made more attractive with the implementation of Cover Flow which, like Top Sites, takes a little while to update itself but, once it has, makes skimming across pages a pleasure and far faster through its visual cues rather than scrolling through a list of links.

Tabs
Tabs have seen a shift in both performance and position, now moved to the top of the Safari window, they allow more room on the currently open page and can be dragged around as before to reposition them or create whole new windows.

Overall the beta adds some attractive new features to Safari and does appear to load pages faster than before. Searching and autocompletion also feel snappier and the new position for browser tabs will be very useful once you get used to it. Versions are available for download for Leopard and Tiger users from www.apple.com/safari/download

Full coverage of the Safari 4 Beta will be available in issue 67 of iCreate magazine on sale April 4th at www.imagineshop.com