Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) released Safari 5 on Monday, saying that its optimized Nitro JavaScript engine is "up to 30 percent faster than Safari 4." And performance is indeed better, according to comprehensive tests run by Ars Technica. Safari 5 does not necessarily beat all the other mainstream browsers across different operating system and JavaScript benchmarks, though.

Performance enhancements aside, Safari comes with some big features such as a new reader option for reading long articles and better support for HTML5. In a nutshell, Safari 5 comes with HTML-based, full-screen video playback, drag and drop, forms validation and WebSocket, among others.

The most anticipated feature--Extensions support, will not officially arrive until later this summer. However, this is not stopping developers from distributing dozens of their plug-ins online. Apple says it will adopt a system where developers will submit their creation to the company's Extension Gallery for distribution, which will be cryptographically signed much like how the App Store works.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article and this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at InformationWeek 

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