I have a Mac, as well as Windows, and I wouldn't touch Safari with a ten foot pole. It's a dying browser that Apple needs to just let die. Tell her to install Firefox and she'll be 5X5.

Because obviously, if you've chosen to use a Mac, you are a second-class citizen who does not deserve to access their website.

"Feed back"?

The disk she got from them for her DSL, or somewhere in her phones manual (if she's paying a bill online), probably has requirements for the computer to access. I know mine does. Not a knock on her, but, AT&T can't be required to be available to any browser. Just support one very well (well, it's AT&T, they won't support it, but you know what I mean)

@AnitraSmith:

True.

Understandable, because who really wants to have to deal with customers who makes such basic mistakes as buying a Mac.

Download firefox, at least safari's good for that.

Considering over 1/3 of web users are using browsers other than IE (see [www.w3schools.com]) that's a pretty big snub against their customer base. They could use a lesson in how to support their customers.

@omerhi: So true. While it is fairly easy to get pages working fine with IE and Firefox, Safari is well known for having serious issues. And with less than 2% of people using it, it is generally not worth taking a considerable amount of time to get it working.

@Narb:

Macs are pretty cool if you want to set your mom up on a computer that you never have to work on again.

@Jaysyn: Except for trying to explain to said person how the hell to use everything.

That's what happens when Microsoft didn't stick to HTML standards. Companies code their webpages to work in IE, and now that people have realized that IE sucks and it's lost a lot of its market share, web users are screwed into pages that don't work for them.

@AnitraSmith: except, iPhone.

How can a company who is in cahoots, exclusive cahoots nonetheless, with Apple deny support for apple products. That's fucking dumb.

For everyone saying "Use firefox" - that's 'not supported' as well.

I use Safari to pay my AT&T bill fine though, granted - it's for an iPhone so not DSL.

I'm sorry - can somebody send this link to Steve Jobs? Because THIS is the company that he let have a death grip on the iphone, right? Nice job AT&T. Not only are you pissing on your customers, but also on apple in general. Who helped make you god only knows how much money this year.

@DemolitionMan: If they're the only ones in the US market partnered with Apple, then why the fuck shouldn't they support Apple's broke ass browser? Shouldn't I be able to go to my cell provider's website with my cell phone's browser?

This is funny only because of the Iphone, being a partnership with Apple & AT&T, is the browser (Safari) used on the Iphone.

For those who haven't heard, the EU's competition commission (the ones who kicked Microshaft's butt over the media player debate) has taken up Opera's complaint against Microshaft's "integration" of Infernal Exploder.

Given Microshaft's 0-for-whatever rate in fair trials in Europe, I would expect them to lose again. Microshaft was caught red handed, back in 2000, deliberately targeting Opera with bad code and then blaming the Opera browser.

Pure laziness on the part of AT&T.

I have been doing software quality assurance testing for over 13 years and if you have an outward facing application or website, then you need to perform some environmental testing for different O/S and browser combinations.

Obviously you can't test them all, but you can certify more than just MS products. If this were an internal, corporate application then there is no problem with dictating system requirements, but for the website that a company makes available for their customers this is inexcusable.

Use Opera. I have been for years and very rarely have problems.

@All: I apologize for the tangent, but is anyone else annoyed by the use of words like “Microshaft” or “Micro$oft”?

@ConnerC: Not only is it not supported - it actively doesn't work for their unified messaging service among other things.

I just went to the site with Safari - no problems.

I still hate AT&T.

@AstroPig7: You're one of those who gets all twisted up when people type "*$" instead of starbucks, aren't you?

Maybe you should check out a book on bridge building from the library.

So you can learn how to get over it.

So wait.

Explain to me why AT&T should support a browser that's only installed on 4% of all computers, and on those computers maybe half of those users are using it. So now, AT&T has to spend the money to support 2% of all users?

I don't support safari on my website either.

So are they going to provide support in accessing that website from an Iphone??? You can't even get IE for Mac (if, for some bizarre reason you wanted to). I have found, though, that Firefox is a good bet in many of these situations.

Safari really is a turd. I've even had issues with it on Apple's own site. Just switch to Firefox and be done with it.

@ConnerC: It may not be officially supported, but it works, at least on my Macs (and judging from the comments, on many others' as well). The same can't be said for Safari.

I signed up for ATT wireless when I got an iPhone two months ago. After using ATT service for 29 days, I was certain that the service and the edge network are just not up to todays standards.

I logged into my ATT account so that I could go online and cancel my service, but there was no way to do so. When I tried to send an email message to customer service, the email message portion did not work with either Safari or Firefox.

Why didn't I just call and cancel? Well damn why didn't i think of that! Actually I did call, but at 9pm PST, they close their customer service centers. That means that there is not way for you to cancel your service. That means that if you are on your 30 day trial (like me) you cannot cancel your service after 9pm PST.

Even if I wanted to send them a message through their website, I couldn't unless I was using a crap-tastic windows machine. Don't get me wrong, I have used a windows machine for years at work, but they are still crap. You may think a Mac is crap, but at least it looks good.

I agree the use of "cute" names to knock Micorsoft is stupid. Often these same poster types come across all libertarian and scream about the "market forces" and "freedom" then fail to notice that the market has made Microsoft #1, nothing else is to blame. If you hate them don't buy their efforts but shut up about how evil they are and all that bull. Think there would be an internet this expansive based only on Mac user numbers? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm? Think the vast number of services, USB toys, printer features would ever have evolved in a Mac only world, and this fast? Nope.

I've just accepted the fact that not every website is designed to work correctly with every browser and I use IE or Fatfox when I have to. I use Opera for everything else.

AT&T clearly sees that it is not worth time time/money for training staff to deal with issues that only effect 3% of their customers

@Freedomboy:

Give up the name "freedomboy" since you clearly don't believe in it.

You don't like accurate witticisms? Then stop reading them instead of whining.

"[T]he market has made Microsoft #1"? That's like saying the East German people put the Stasi in charge.

Safari's catching up...IE is catching up with other browsers as well.

Regardless, AT&T has no excuse not supporting as many browsers as customers they want to have.

@omerhi: Safari 2 sucks, Safari 3 works much better which I have been using for awhile with mostly no issues. If I come across a site that doesn't work well in Safari, I use Firefox.

@AnitraSmith: srsly? cus macs are so expensive?

@omerhi:
I'm sorry but are you entirely sure what you're talking about. Safari has been the only browser to pass the Acid test(the most commonly used browser test in the industry [en.wikipedia.org])... and it passed it twice I might add. It's also the only browser to come with necessary plugins from the start besides paid-for browsers such as Opera. I'm not being a Mac apologist here, you're just wrong. As for AT&T's lack of support, they should support Safari, regardless of marketshare, because 2% of the user market is still a lot of people.

I ordered tmobile the other night and Firefox couldn't handle a URL with a .do file (which tmobile used to give you your order status!). Pathetic. I still stand by Firefox as being a "safer" browser, than IE, but come on, Safari? It's garbage. Companies have no obligation to support all browsers. Go cry about something useful.

If only web developers would make their sites ONLY work with FireFox, the world would be a better place...
Well I might let Opera into this perfect world as well... might.

@AnitraSmith:

Get over yourself. As a Linux user, I'd barely qualify as third class...

The problem with Safari is that it uses a more advanced style sheet. Modern websites use a CSS that handles formatting. Certain classes and commands used in the CSS are not supported by Firefox and IE but are for Safari. As much as it pains us, they are designing to fit the lowest common denominator.

I was told the same thing by a Chase CSR a while back, that if I wanted reliable online access to my accounts, I had to buy a pc and use IE. This after I had been using Firefox on my mac for the year and a half over which I had held the account. Just stopped working one day. For a period of maybe 6 months I had to open Safari if I wanted to be able to login. Then, just as mysteriously as it had stopped working, I was once again able to login through Firefox.

Just another example of how little they care about their customers.

Now that Bellsouth is part of AT&T (again I think?) my problem is applicable. The issue was with making a payment on my home phone from either Firefox or Safari on a Mac. *It just didn't work!* Hit the submit button and you were greeted with a white page with a progress bar that just gave a speck of hope that your payment might be processed. Eventually it would time out. Switch to IE on a Windows box and the submission went instantly.

Safari still has its place, certain admin software written by the mighty Cisco looks like complete crap in Firefox but works great in Safari. Truly a terrible thing when no one has standards and the end user has to have a swiss army knife of web browsers for different situations.

Hey, it's AT&Ts choice which browsers to support.

It's your choice what companies to support.

Don't like it? Send your money somewhere else.

@omerhi: Uh, what color is the sky on your planet? Safari is the #1 browser on Macs and #2 browser on smartphones.

Given that it's the only browser on the iPhone - which is ATT exclusive, you might think their web services team would get a clue.

Doesn't AT&T sell the iPhone? Many people I know who bought the iPhone are mac users. If they are catering to apple products shouldn't you be able to pay your bill through Sarfari??

@DemolitionMan: "Not a knock on her, but, AT&T can't be required to be available to any browser."

So, if ATT decides to ignore a browser that is more standards compliant than IE in order to service the horribly broken "use what came with Windows" market, I should borrow a Windows machine to pay my bills?

IE is harder to test against than any other browser - writing to established web standards (i.e. Safari, Firefox, etc.) would result in less development and testing time than trying to code for every version of Microsoft's broken browser.

@wring: I think that post was a joke.

@emilymarion333: And that's why this is so stupid.

@omerhi: Echoing what others have said... Safari is great and at the moment Firefox on OS X can't touch it in terms of performance. It just feels unbearably slow and looks ugly to boot. Extensions are the only reason I use it (alongside Safari) on my Mac.