Not content with speeding up the AirPort Express, Apple this week released Safari 3.1 - a new and faster version of its web browser for Mac OS X and Windows.

Safari 3.1 is, according to the company, the fastest web browser "on any platform" in terms of page loading and JavaScript execution. (I'll ignore the possibility that legacy text-only browsers such as Lynx are faster as graphics-free browsing is impractical.)

With Internet Explorer 8 (for Windows) and Firefox 3 in beta, that could change in the coming months, but even if Apple loses the gold medal position by the time the Olympic Games come around, users will still benefit from the increase in speed over the previous version.

I've not had time to test the new version yet, but I'm hoping that the improvement in speed is accompanied by improved compatibility, especially with Google Apps and CMSes such as Joomla.

New features include support for HTML 5's video and audio tags, and for CSS Animations. Apple claims Safari is the first browser to do so.

Also new is support for CSS Web Fonts, a technology that can improve page rendering when fonts requested by the designer are not installed on the computer. CSS Web Fonts can be mapped onto an equivalent font from a different foundry, the closest installed font (using a database of font characteristics), a synthetic font created on the fly by adjusting the metrics of a reasonable match, or by downloading the font from the web as if it was an image or audio file.

It's not just Safari itself that's changed - functionality and security improvements to WebKit are inherited by other applications that use that framework. In particular, CSS Animations support is being welcomed by the creators of Dashboard widgets, as it brings a new dimension to what they can achieve.