Apple to be sued over iPhone web browser because it makes pages smaller

iphone-safari-browser.jpg

Hey look, it’s another lawsuit! This time, EMG Technology LLC (a company of one) is suing the iPhone manufacturer because it allegedly infringes a patent for the way that it displays web sites on the mobile’s screen.

It’s not entirely clear what Apple is supposed to have infringed, because the iPhone’s web browser is based on Safari (which has been available on the Mac for years), and effectively displays a scaled-down version of each web page (sans Flash and Java, of course) which can then be manipulated by the user using the multi-touch interface.

If anything, the mobile version of Safari appears to do very little to the original web page — that’s the whole point and it’s what Apple has been banging on about since the iPhone was launched. It’s other mobile phone manufacturers that are more likely to have browsers that manipulate the page in order to make it more readable on their tiny screens…

Apple releases iPhone firmware 2.2: better maps, Mail, Safari, podcasts, call quality

iphone-2-2-firnware-update.jpg

I realise that this is fairly irrelevant news if you don’t own an iPhone, but for die-hard Apple handset fans, the big news of the day is that firmware version 2.2 is finally here and ready to download.

As usual, it’s a fairly hefty download, so beef up your broadband connection for the 246MB ride.

Once done, you’ll get some nifty new features. How useful they are depends on how you use the iPhone, of course…

Google launching Chrome web browser beta for Windows

google_chrome.png

Thanks to some over-exuberant staff at Google, the cat’s out of the bag a bit earlier than planned on its new project: Chrome.

From tomorrow, Google will launch a beta version of its new web browser, which it no doubts hope will challenge the dominance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and take chunks out of Firefox’s increasing popularity.

A Windows version will be available in 100 countries (presumably the UK will be one of them), and should be “streamlined and simple”. Features include separating each tab into its own “sandbox” to minimise the risk of web applications crashing the whole browser and provide better protection from malicious code, and a powerful “V8” JavaScript engine to “power the next generation of web applications that aren’t even possible in today’s browsers”…

Firefox 3 launching tomorrow, but does it beat Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera?

browser-wars.jpg

With the official release of Firefox 3 tomorrow, everyone’s attentions have been turned onto what you’re looking at right now – browsers. Lifehacker has reviewed the four major browsers – Firefox 3 release candidate 3, Internet Explorer 7, Opera 9.5,and Safari for Windows 3.1.1, and discovered that Firefox, Safari and Opera all fared better than, um, Internet Explorer. We could’ve told them that…

Samsung backtracks over L870 "Safari" claim – it uses a standard Series 60 browser after all

samsung-l870-no-safari.jpg

Quite a few Apple fans got rather tecthy and a little bit over-protective a few days ago, when it was revealed that their beloved – and occasionally adequate – Safari browser would be appearing on the Samsung L870.

Well, it’s OK, Apple kids – you still have the exclusive. Samsung “clarified” the situation today, pointing out that the L870 – due in August – will come with your standard S60 OSS browser. Not Safari…

Samsung L870 with Apple's Safari browser

samsung-l870.jpg

I find it hard to leap with excitement when people talk about the Safari browser but I suppose when it’s on a mobile phone I should show some appreciation. Hurray. Was that enough?

It seems that Samsung has struck a deal with them at Apple to launch phones with Safari for easier surfing on the infoblob and this has been heralded by the announcement of the Samsung L870…

OPINION: Forget Vista, XP and Linux – Firefox is now my #1 operating system

gary%20and%20sonic%20200.JPGI had some sort of religious dawn last week. Some kind of personal discovery, a moment of clarity, if you will. I used a Mac – and it was fine!

Now, I pretty much hate Macs. I’ve only ever used old Macs, rubbish ones from the distant past that are unable to cope with newer operating systems. So I associate Macs with PAIN.

But I just used one and it was fine. Because the only thing I use is Firefox…