Apple wanted Opera to be the iPhone browser

Before the first iPhone was released, Apple wanted Opera to build the browser for the iPhone, says a source. Negotiations dragged on for six months, the sticking point being exclusivity — Apple wanted it, but Opera was unwilling to commit, seeing a larger market for licensing its proprietary software to multiple handset manufacturers. Eventually, Apple walked away armed with ideas from the negotiations and built a version of its own Safari browser for the popular mobile device. Meanwhile, Opera ended up as the browser of choice for the blockbuster Nintendo Wii, and Opera Mini did much to saturate the mobile handset market. But is the iPhone claim simply a proud boast made by an indiscreet senior manager at a company party? Maybe. More »

Google copied Apple Web browser's bug, too

Security researcher Aviv Raff says Google's new browser Chrome exposes users "malicious hacker attacks," because it allows users to launch executable files directly from the browser and without warning. Raff created a harmless demonstration to show how with successful bait, Google Chrome users could accidentally download and launch a Java archive file that goes on to execute without warning. Security experts call this trick "carpet-bombing." ZDNet's Ryan Narraine says the flaw exists because Google Chrome is actually built from the same software as Apple's Safari 3.1, which had the same vulnerability until Apple issued Safari version 3.1.2.

Why does Firefox use Google for search? Follow the money

A new version of Firefox, the popular alternative Web browser, is getting close to releasing a third version. That's prompting people to take a close look at the business practices of Mozilla Corp., the maker of Firefox. Danny Sullivan, the longtime search-engine observer, is calling on Mozilla to let Firefox users pick the search engine built into their browser; Firefox 3 defaults to Google in its new release, as it has in the past. Sullivan has a point: Google, which has called for openness, risks seeming hypocritical. But he gets the business side of things all wrong. More »

Safari for Windows illegal for use on Windows PCs

Want to install Safari on your Windows PC? Hope you don't mind violating Apple's Software License Agreement. Apple's lawyers messed up when they copied and pasted the license for using Safari for Windows. From the text of the SLA:"2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions. A. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time." Whoops! You could run Safari for Windows on an Apple, I suppose, using Boot Camp or virtualization software. But somehow I don't think that's why Steve Jobs had his programmers rewrite the browser software for PCs. More »

Opera's drama-queen antitrust lawsuit

Opera Software, maker of a feature-laden but forgotten Web browser, is complaining to the European Commission about Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It's an old gripe: Opera points out — duh — that IE is bundled with Windows. Opera claims this is illegal and that IE holds back the web with lousy support for standards. This smells like a publicity stunt meant to remind people Opera still exists. More »