Aether 0.6.1

0.6.1

• Aether now appears in System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Default web browser. It declared web links but not web pages, and macOS lists a browser only if it claims both. Drag Aether into Applications, open it from there, then choose it in System Settings (or Aether → Settings → Default Web Browser). It claims web pages at the lowest priority, so it does not take over opening .html files.

Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. If you are on 0.5.0 or later, Aether can update itself: Aether → Check for Updates…

Aether 0.6.0

0.6.0

• Ad and tracker blocking. Aether now blocks ads and trackers with the public EasyList and EasyPrivacy lists, converted to WebKit's native rules, on top of the existing tracker rules. Sign-in, payment and CAPTCHA pages are never blocked. About once a week (or with Settings → Update Now) it downloads fresh lists from easylist.to; nothing about your browsing is sent, and the weekly download can be turned off. The first launch after installing takes a few seconds longer while the lists are prepared, and the app uses more memory than before. It does not block everything: some first-party and video ads (YouTube) still get through, and there is no "blocks all ads" claim.
• Site shields. A shield button in the address bar (and in the collapsed rail) turns blocking off or on for one site, per profile, and reloads the page.
• Floating video. When a playing video leaves view because you switched tab or space, it can float in a small player so it keeps playing (Settings → turn off "Float playing video when I switch tabs or spaces"). The picture-in-picture button falls back to this player when WebKit does not enter picture in picture.
• A real 3D logo on the start page that you can drag to turn, a softer start-page glow, a tidier address bar (long addresses no longer run under the shield), and the window buttons live inside the sidebar again.
• Fixes: YouTube and other videos go fullscreen without a blank page; a warning appears if Aether is run from a disk image or a temporary download folder, where it can crash when the disk image goes away; light-mode glow and halo polish; swiping anywhere over the sidebar switches space.

Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. If you are on 0.5.0 or later, Aether can update itself: Aether → Check for Updates…

Aether 0.5.3

0.5.3

• A real 3D logo. The start-page logo is now a glowing ball that turns in 3D: the ribbon slides around the curve of the sphere, the surface flows like liquid, and a rim of light and a drifting highlight play across the glass. It is drawn on the GPU by a tiny shader and costs almost nothing. The pointer tilt and the orbit rings are gone; the colour blobs stay.
• The profile and space read as "Personal • Media" under the greeting, with the dot in the space's colour.
• Address suggestions are centred and a single suggestion no longer clips or shows a scroller.

Motion respects Reduce Motion (the ball is then a still image). Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. If you are on 0.5.0 or later, Aether can update itself: Aether → Check for Updates…

Aether 0.5.2 (developer preview, notarized)

0.5.2

• A livelier new-tab page. The logo is centred and animated: it pops in, turns, floats, glows and leans toward your pointer. The page has a slowly drifting background coloured by your current space (or its wallpaper), faint stars, and two orbits with small satellites around the logo.
• Rotating greetings, including a time-of-day one ("Good morning, ."), a fresh one each time you open a tab and a new one every few seconds.
• Quick-action chips (Private, Split view, History, Downloads, Settings) and a Jump back in row of your most recent pages.
• Shortcut tiles lift and glow when you hover them.
• Tabs animate open: a new tab grows into the sidebar with a soft spring, and a new tile pops into the collapsed rail.

Motion respects Reduce Motion. Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. If you are on 0.5.0 or later, Aether can update itself: Aether → Check for Updates…

Aether 0.5.1 (developer preview, notarized)

0.5.1

• Sidebar padding now matches the page margin (20 pt on each side and at the bottom), so the sidebar and the page share one outer padding.

Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. If you are on 0.5.0, Aether can update itself: Aether → Check for Updates…

Aether 0.5.0: security release (developer preview, notarized)

0.5.0: security release

• Updates: Aether can now check GitHub once a day and update itself (Settings → General → Updates, or Aether → Check for Updates…). It installs only a build that is signed by the same developer as your copy, notarized by Apple, has the same bundle identifier and a higher version. You can turn the daily check off. This version has to be installed by hand once; later versions can update themselves.
• HTTPS first: web addresses typed as http:// are tried as https:// first, and Aether asks before using a site that has no secure version. Plain-HTTP pages show a warning in the address bar. Localhost and private-network addresses are left alone (Settings → Privacy & Security).
• Real tracker blocking: about 150 rules for analytics, session recording, ad networks and social pixels, applied only when another site loads them. Sign-in, payments and CAPTCHAs are not touched.
• Private data on disk: Aether's data folder and its files are now readable only by your account; downloads get a proper macOS quarantine tag; remembered page text is deleted after 7, 30 or 90 days (30 by default).
• Extensions are off by default (Settings → Extensions → Enable experimental extensions).
• Security policy: report vulnerabilities privately at https://github.com/alvinyeboah/aether/security/advisories/new. Details at https://aether.alvinyeboah.com/security.
• Fixes: "Frame load interrupted" is no longer shown as an error over a working page or a download.

Not changed: Aether's own app process is not App Sandboxed (web pages are, through WebKit), there is no built-in password manager, and there has been no independent audit. Passkeys are still waiting on Apple.

Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

Aether 0.4.3 (developer preview, notarized)

0.4.3

• Fixes "Sign in with Google" and "Sign in with Apple" on X, Pinterest and other sites. Aether's tracker rules were blocking every window a page opened, so the sign-in window never appeared. Pop-ups opened by a click now work, and they close themselves and hand control back to the page that opened them.
• Pop-ups that nobody asked for are still blocked by WebKit, which only lets a page open a window from a click or other user action.

Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Passkeys are still unavailable until Apple approves the browser passkey capability (requested).

Aether 0.4.2 (developer preview, notarized)

0.4.2

• Developer tools redesigned in Chrome's style. Elements is now editable (edit as HTML, attributes and text, duplicate, delete) with a Styles pane (editable, toggleable declarations and colour swatches), Computed and a box-model Layout view. Network has record, clear, preserve log, type filters, a waterfall, and Headers / Preview / Response / Timing for each request. Application has a storage tree with a filter, value preview and editing.
• Right-click menu for pages in Aether's own design, including Inspect Element.
• Websites now see Aether as Safari, so Google and other sites serve their full modern pages (including AI Mode) instead of a stripped-down layout.
• Safari's Web Inspector can no longer attach to your tabs unless you turn it on in Settings, since that lets other programs read open pages.
• Fixes: a crash when a page opened a pop-up (sign-in windows), and the Downloads popover and Cancel button text.

Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Passkeys are still unavailable until Apple approves the browser passkey capability (requested).

Aether 0.4.1 (developer preview, notarized)

Same features as 0.4.0, now signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens without the right-click workaround.

Known limits

• Passkeys and iCloud password filling are still unavailable until Apple approves the browser passkey capability (requested).
• Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later. Page translation needs macOS 15 or later; glass surfaces use macOS 26 or later.
• Developer preview: link peek, translation, picture in picture and trackpad swipes have had little real-world use.

Aether 0.4.0 (developer preview)

0.4.0

A large update. New: a space dock with custom icons, colours and backgrounds for spaces and profiles; split view with resizable panes, a picker and drag and drop; private browsing; inline URL completion; page zoom, print, save and media pause; a Settings search box, Spaces editor and live shortcuts list; import from Safari, Chrome, Arc and Dia; built-in developer tools (Elements with a pick tool, Network, Application); link peek (⇧-click); search inside pages you have read; on-device page translation and picture in picture.

Changes: sideways swipes switch spaces only in the collapsed rail; the expanded dock scrolls when there are many spaces.

Fixes include a crash when a page opened a pop-up (sign-in windows), invisible Cancel button text in prompts, and the Downloads popover opening away from its button.

Known limits

• Ad-hoc signed and not notarized: right-click Aether and choose Open the first time.
• Browser passkeys and iCloud password filling are not available yet (they need an Apple-approved entitlement and a signed build).
• Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later. Page translation needs macOS 15 or later; glass surfaces use macOS 26 or later.
• Tested with automated tests and hands-on checks, not on a wide range of Macs; link peek, translation, picture in picture and trackpad swipes have had little real-world use.